Recently I’ve had several cases in which students engage in challenging behaviors to gain attention and would benefit from the opportunity to be a helper in the classroom. For some, scheduling times for them to be a helper, or giving them helper roles on the fly, can be helpful in keeping them engaged and out of trouble while getting them positive attention for positive behavior. This of course helps to reinforce those positive behaviors. For some of the students it is difficult to find motivators for appropriate behaviors. Their teachers indicate that nothing is reinforcing for them and sometimes even praise backfires and produces negative behavior. Often these are just the students who need opportunities to shine and gain attention for appropriate acts, like helping others. And sometimes you can use the helper role as something the student can earn. Whether they earn it or are given it proactively, helper roles are a great way to foster good behavior and help gain attention in a good way. Another way to keep reinforcers fresh for students is to use surprise in who gets it and in what they get. This can be done in a number of ways from random number generators, to putting students’ names in a hat each time they are caught being good and drawing one out at random and so on. Another way I thought of adds the appeal of technology by using QR codes.
So, if you have students who would benefit from having a helper role in the classroom, I’ve made this freebie. These are cards that can be drawn or assigned and the student scans the code with an iPod or iPad or other smart device with a QR Reader and finds out what their helper job will be. You can use them as a reinforcer or to assign random helper roles. You can give them out to students or have them pick a card, any card 🙂 . You will need a smart phone or tablet with a QR reader. You can get a QR reader for free in your app store. I used the QR Reader for iPhone and the QR Reader for iPad but there are lots of free apps to choose from. Then you or the students just scan the code with the reader and it will tell them what their role is. In this set there are:
- Get the teacher’s mail
- Sharpen the pencils
- Homework helper
- Pass Out Papers
- Be the scout for specials
- Class Photographer—take pictures of the class for the teacher
- Read a story to the class
- Water the plants
