Sunday, August 30, 2009

A Class Reward: Art Bucks

The class earns an Art Buck if all 3 A.R.T. letters are up on the board when their teacher arrives. I look for a student who has consistently set a great example of making good choices throughout the art class to hand the Art Buck to hold. (I remind students of this and that I probably won't give you the Art Buck to hold if you ask for it.)

The Art Bucks go back to their classroom. Most teachers display these in their classroom. Students know it is up to them to keep track of how many Art Bucks they receive. Each Art Buck is worth 5 minutes of time towards a Super Art Day at the end of the semester. As a class, we figure out the math on my white board. How many Art Bucks do we need to have a full 45 minutes of Super Art Day time? They need 9.  I let them know I usually see their class 11-12 times a semester. So, if they don't earn an Art Buck every time they come to art, even if they don't earn an Art Buck 2 or 3 times, they still have a very good shot at earning an entire 45 minutes of Super Art Class time. We also discuss that 40 minutes is still great but, the goal is 45 minutes. Going over 45 minutes? Perhaps there will be a bonus surprise during their Super Art Class time. (Thanks my former team mate, Ms. S, for giving me the idea to make each Art Buck worth something so it's not an all or nothing incentive.)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

What does your "Super Art Day" look like? Is it a free choice art day or how do you make it more exciting than a typical art day?

Anonymous said...

I agree! What is Super Art Day?