Secret Word

Two days in a row?!?!?! My 4th grade writing group is large, considering they all should be getting specially designed instruction. Ten students in a resource room group is a pretty good size group- believe it or not! For the second day in a row this group has been on task and excited about writing! Today they spent about 15 minutes of writing their middle paragraph, where they are introducing the conflict of the story. During this 15 minutes I did not have to redirect one student. On a typical day I redirect students as little as 10 times in a 15 minute span but it is usually more like 15 to 20 times. What am I doing differently?

As I sit here reflecting on the success of this group I am drawn towards my Secret Word of the week. Last year, as I was in my Friday morning book study I was reading about how to motivate your students. I took the information in that chapter and morphed it to meet my needs and thus Secret Word of the week was born! Every Monday, I put a series of lines on the top of my white board. Each line represents a place for a letter (much like hangman). I usually choose words that correspond with the week, month, or season. I have even used the challenge spelling word of the week as my secret word. I will start by filling in one letter on Monday. Tuesday brings clue one. Wednesday is another letter or two (depending on the length of the word). Thursday is the second clue and Friday I put up another letter. Students earn a Secret Word card when they are caught doing something good such as extra effort on an assignment or saying something nice to another student. When a student earns a card they get to take a guess at what the word might be. If they do not have a guess they can keep the card and try later. The caveat is that they can't get a new card until they have filled in the one they have. After school on Friday, I draw one pink card (4th grade) and one blue card (3rd grade). If the word is spelled right they get to choose two friends to come have lunch with my assistant and I the following week. And thus the cycle continues to repeat itself.

This school year, I did not start the Secret Word until last week. Looking back, I see a gradual increase of positive behavior and a decrease in the negative behavior. Both yesterday and today every student in this particular writing group earned a Secret Word Card. Could this extrinsic reward system be the reason they are working so hard? I think that is part of part. I would also like to think that part of the credit should be given to my superior behavior management (can you hear the sarcasm?) and the intrinsic reward for each student knowing they have given the writing their best effort! In reality I think it is a little bit of everything but I do know that the Secret Word of the week is here to stay!