You Earn a Gold Star!

Ever since I started working in Independent Studies, I have wanted to implement a spirit of competition for my students. Every student needs to be a little competitive. Competition is what keeps kids on their toes, motivated and goal-oriented.

One way I've wanted to do this is to have students see how they relate to their fellow peers when it comes to credit completion. Unfortunately, I was often told it wasn't a good idea to--essentially--keep a scoreboard. I was told students might end up feeling bad about themselves, they might have major medical or psychological issues that keep them from coming in and therefore keeps them from turning in credits. Lastly, I was told that I can't really have a lot of stuff on or around my desk.

But, I think times are a' changin' at my school because I've implemented a Credit Tracker scoreboard!

I've displayed it for all my students to see. I even got some gold stars for them to use! Here's how it works and how it has worked for my students so far:

• When a student completes a credit, I let them know their grade and then keep all gold stars visible. They put the gold star by their names themselves. 
• It doesn't have to be gold stars, it could be My Little Pony stickers, too.
• Students ask: "where's my gold star?" and have even set goals to beat other students' credits, too.

The Credit Tracker scoreboard

 What do you think? Would you want to try this with your students? 

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