Scott's+Pagame+Adaptation

This is GREAT!

It just about sums up all classroom-management books and you get it for free!

No truer words were ever said. Thanks, Blaine!

"Every teacher has a line of behavior he will allow. Whenever a student crosses that line, the students find out what happens. If nothing happens, it turns out there wasn't a line there at all. It was imaginary. If something does happen (the class stops until the behavior stops), then the students find out that the teacher wasn't just kidding about the rules. As teachers get better, their line (and expectations) become imovable. Students know where the line is and they follow along because they know what will happen when they don't. It must be followed 100% though for it to work. Otherwise students have to guess when the teacher will follow through and when he will not. "

My system of pagames is a little different and totally managed by my students and it works for me.

I give them 70 pts to start of with each quarter. These are only in the book and it's basically a C in participation. The expectation is that the students earn at least one point a week making their total 80pts which is a B. If they can earn at least 20pts, they will get an A. I hand out little points that I make with the currency for various countries. Each quarter we have a different currency and I teach some culture from that country that quarter. I hand them out for ANYTHING that promotes language acquisition--so basically I hand them out like candy. I always have a stack in my pocket and I hand them out all of the time.

NOW, students earn them one at a time, but lose them 5 at a time for bathroom/hall passes, being late, being absent (excused or unexcused), behavior issues, and basically anything that inhibits language acquisition.

Students can make up lost points, but not as easily as in Blaine's system. For me, to make up lost points the student has to write me a Spanish story of at least 100 words using current vocabulary at least twice in the story. For each one, they get 5 pts back.

At the end of the quarter, the students count their pts, staple them together and write their names and totals on the back. I warn them that if they miscount, I SUBTRACT the number they write on the back instead of add it. That goes for over AND under counting. I only recount ones that look suspicious and enter the numbers in the grade book.

I tell the students that I'm not responsible for lost, stolen, left-in-pants-and-momma-washed-them, or forgotten points. They're due on the due date period, no exceptions.

This system has worked for me pretty well for nearly 10 years.