Positive Reinforcement in the Inner City

To any teachers who decide to take a job teaching in the inner city, I have one piece of advice for you: take everything you have been taught about behavior management and throw it right into the trash.

Teaching in an alternative program has taught me that there are kids in the world who just need more. More of everything. I have 3 different students born in 3 different countries, 3 different nationalities, and 3 different styles of parenting. 

Below is a rough replica of the chart our program uses, designed by the whole team, to combat behaviors:

My daily personal goal: “To control my temper” (example)

	Respect Others?	Respect Self?	Respect School?	Did you work toward meeting your daily goal? Y/N	How were you feeling?	Total
Period 1	* * *	* * *	* * *			9
Period 2
Period 3
LUNCH
Period 4
Period 5
Period 6
Period 7

*            Rising Star

**            Shining Star

***            Shooting Star

Students can earn between 1 and 3 STARS for each of the 3 goals in the chart. So on any given day a student can earn up to 90 stars, but no less than 30. No matter their behavior, they will always earn 1 star just for showing up to school. 

The key here is to make sure I use the correct language when addressing these goals. Students do not “lose” stars. They only “earn” stars. So I might say to a student, “Make good behavior choice so you can earn all 90 stars today.” OR “Are you working on earning stars right now?” OR “Is this behavior going to help you earn stars?

This language is IMPERATIVE if this system is going to work. They need to understand that they cannot lose stars. This is an extremely important teaching tool. Once a student earns something, under no circumstances should it be taken away. An adult can never understand the feeling a child has when watching himself being stripped of all he worked to earn.

To draw a comparison – imagine you are building a house. You work really hard for weeks. Then one day you make a mistake during building, like putting a window in crookedly. Would your boss then come and tear the whole house down? No, he would just ask you to fix that window. It has to be the same for students.

Check back for a more comprehensive chart in downloadable PDF format soon!