The Rocket Math Online Game app is a demonstrably effective intervention–meaning if students engage and participate, they will learn and improve achievement. However, assigning an effective intervention will improve achievement only if students are engaged and participate in the intervention. The key is by motivating students to reach higher goals.
In today’s world, many students do not habitually give you their best effort. When you praise and recognize only excellent outcomes, many students are not motivated. They doubt their own abilities and think they are out of the running for achievement awards. Motivating students, ALL students, including low performers to participate is essential. But how to motivate students to learn math? You need to begin by praising and recognizing participation and effort instead of success. A good intervention helps you do that.
Motivate Students by Recognizing Effort Instead of Achievement
Instead of reporting and recognizing on benchmarks of academic achievement, why not report on benchmarks of effort? The Rocket Math Online Game, gives you data on effort and participation. The Engagement Chart (see above) how many of your students completed how many sessions in the last 14 days. Sessions can be set at five, ten, or fifteen minutes in length.
Who is working the hardest–recognize them!
The Engagement chart shows how many students are getting up to the higher levels of engagement.
To find the individuals who are working the hardest look further down in the Review Progress page. Down below the engagement chart there is a “Total” column which shows the number of sessions over the last two weeks. It is adjustable as to which dates to be covered. This selection shows from 10/01 to 10/21. This column will tell you exactly who is working the hardest. Click at the top of the column to sort it going downward to see which students is logging in the most sessions. The first student shows 22 sessions started and 9 completed (all the way to the end of the session). The second student started 14 sessions, but completed 9. The third student also started 6 sessions, but completed 6. This total data tells us the level of effort students have been putting forth to learn their math facts. If you monitor this number and recognize students putting forth the most effort, you’ll get more students engagement. School managers can do this for the whole school. Teacher managers can do it for their class. This is key to motivating their learning.
What is a Good Effort and Participation?
You should expect, at a minimum that students do a complete session each day at school–which is 10 sessions in the last 14 days. Therefore, 8 to 11 sessions in the last two weeks indicates a good “C” effort. A good “B” effort would be completing 12 to 15 sessions in two weeks. That many sessions translate into a session every school day and more than one session a day, half the time. Any student with 16 or more sessions in the last two weeks is putting forth a great “A” effort. Be sure to praise and recognize them and hold them up as an example, no matter what they have accomplished.
Motivating Students with the Award Certificates to Recognize & Reward Effort
The Rocket Math Online Game has Award Certificates, available to print out. You can find these right from your dashboard. “Award Certificates” are on the blue tab on the left-hand “rainbow” navigation.
Give out some Award Certificates once every two to four weeks. Give them to the students who are putting forth the most effort in your class. For it to be effective, you have to make it kind of a big deal to get one of these. Sign the awards and then give them out in a little ceremony.
To have a successful ceremony, we recommend these steps:
- Having two adults to award the certificates
- Calling each student up to the room individually
- Handing them the certificate and shake their hand
- Having the awarded student stand in a line at the front
- Calling the next student and repeated the first three steps, but adding that they shake hands with their fellow classmates before joining the line beside them
Motivation is most effective for students who don’t get it!
When you reward students for their effort, students who are watching, realize they can do it. They know they can get an award if they try. The benefit of the motivation is for the ones sitting in their seats watching. If you reward everyone, the ceremony will have no effect. The students watching the ceremony will feel motivated to win the next one. Rocket Math can guarantee you’ll get improved fluency because it is an effective intervention.
Note, you are not rewarding achievement. You aren’t measuring them on how fast they are. You are noting that they did accomplish the goal of finishing the Learning Track. Rocket Math guarantees they will have improved their fluency. The Learning Track certificates are also available on the Award Certificates tab in the main rainbow navigation bar. The same ceremony you’ve been using for the general awards can include awards for completing Learning Tracks.
We also have sets of these Award certificates on card stock and glossy print available on our supplements store site.
After Effort Improves Accomplishment, Begin Rewarding Accomplishment also
Soon after starting regular awards ceremonies for effort, you’ll see students beginning to complete Learning Tracks. As they work through a Learning Track they develop fluency with the math facts in that Learning Track. So you can start awarding Learning Track certificates for the accomplishment of completing a Learning Track.
This is a powerful process. Rewarding effort first, then rewarding accomplishment, leads to learning. Once you see how well this process works, you can apply this elsewhere. It works in any area of your curriculum where effort will pay off in improved accomplishments. Motivating students only works if they believe they can succeed. That is why it is so important to begin by recognizing “effort,” something that everyone can do.
Rocket Math Knows How to Motivate Students to Excel in Math
Rocket Math Online Game and Worksheet programs will help students reach each grade level math benchmark while motivating students to reach higher goals with the award certificates. Systematically teaching students to develop math fact fluency will pay off. Students will not only succeed at but learn to enjoy math.