We all have them... Those kids who seem like they're motivated by nothing. The teacher has tried everything under the sun that works to motivate other students, but it seems to make no difference. It rarely occurs to us that there are some kids who could not care less about earning more time on the computer or an extra snack. Enter one of my colleagues, "PM".
I started working with PM last year, and I cease to be amazed at everything she does and knows as a school counselor. She's seriously the coolest... :)
OK, you didn't come here to read about how amazing my colleague is. One day last year, PM and I were discussing kids, and she happened to mention the Dunn-Rankin Reward Preference Indicator. I had no idea what the heck that was, so she gave me a copy. Best. Day. Ever. The Dunn-Rankin is an ingenious tool that poses "Would you rather have..." scenarios to kids to identify what type of reward they would like to receive and categorizes their responses in to five ares: Adult Approval, Peer Approval, Tangibles, Competition, and Independence. Depending on how the student responds, you can create rewards that the student actually wants to work for. Yes, it's lengthy and something you will need to do with the student, but it takes far less time than trying all sorts of different things that don't work!
I started working with PM last year, and I cease to be amazed at everything she does and knows as a school counselor. She's seriously the coolest... :)
OK, you didn't come here to read about how amazing my colleague is. One day last year, PM and I were discussing kids, and she happened to mention the Dunn-Rankin Reward Preference Indicator. I had no idea what the heck that was, so she gave me a copy. Best. Day. Ever. The Dunn-Rankin is an ingenious tool that poses "Would you rather have..." scenarios to kids to identify what type of reward they would like to receive and categorizes their responses in to five ares: Adult Approval, Peer Approval, Tangibles, Competition, and Independence. Depending on how the student responds, you can create rewards that the student actually wants to work for. Yes, it's lengthy and something you will need to do with the student, but it takes far less time than trying all sorts of different things that don't work!