Kids love to play and have fun all the time. But not everything can be entertainment. Sometimes, they need to do work. And homework is especially hard for them. That requires effort. They have to stop playing and sit down to do homework. Intrinsic motivation does not work with kids for this. We need their parents’ assistance to put them to work at home. However, sometimes, it is not so easy.
In this particular example, many of the parents didn’t care much or didn’t know how to get their kids to do homework. A motivation plan was urgent and I devised one with stickers.
Why stickers?
Well, we all know that stickers are a favorite among young children. While praise, social attention and privileges are excellent to motivate and reinforce behaviors, stickers are perfect to add that feeling of enjoyment that we all love in our students.
I wanted kids to feel that their effort was worth it. I wanted them to be motivated to do homework. That’s why, besides designing the most appealing activities I could think of, I started using stickers to motivate them. Each assignment the students completed got a cool sticker for their sticker book together with the grade for their homework. It boosted their motivation since the very first day. Some kids started, gradually, to complete their homework. The others saw how students who did homework got stickers for their sticker book. After a short time, all the kids were doing homework with enthusiasm.
Stickers are fun
The treasured stickers, kept in a sticker book, helped the kids’ parents to track their progress; and at the same time, gave the children an immediate (or nearly immediate) reward for their effort and the possibility to refer to their earned stickers throughout the year.
My goal for those kids was achieved; they were now used to doing homework. Besides the habit they had acquired, their proud smiles when they were going through their sticker books and enjoying their stickers were amazing.
Analia Rossello
I’m an English teacher with many, many years enjoying classroom time with first-graders, as well as with high school students. I really love teaching; I love planning and creating the best content and activities for my students, those that will give them enjoyment and learning at the same time. However, what I love the most is watching them while that magic happens and after that, when they’re praised or rewarded for their achievements. That completely fills my heart!
