How Can We Help?

(K) Award Certificates

You are here:
< All Topics

Online Game has three kinds of Award Certificates, available to print out.

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. Particularly recognize students who practice as homework as well as in 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:

  1. Having two adults to award the certificates
  2. Calling each student up to the room individually
  3. Handing them the certificate and shake their hand
  4. Having the awarded student stand in a line at the front to form a receiving line.
  5. Calling the next student and repeated the first three steps, but adding that they shake hands with their fellow award recipients 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. Students 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.

We also have sets of these Award certificates on card stock and glossy print available on our Rocket Math store site.

1. General Award certificates to recognize less than star effort  

Star Effort awards (below) are earned by completing 8, 12, 16 or 20 sessions in the last 14 days.   When students are net yet earning Star Effort awards, these six general award certificates can be used to recognize and reward effort.  Here is a link to the General Awards page with these available to print out.  Here is a link to the same General Awards in Grayscale-if you don’t have a color printer.

Screenshot of Rocket Math's reward cards.

2. Star Effort Awards for 8, 12, 16, and 20 sessions in the last 14 days.

These Star Effort awards can be used to recognize the upper levels of effort in the Online Game. Students earn stars for how many sessions they have done in the last 14 days. This level of effort is your goal for all students because playing the game daily is needed to really make progress on learning math facts.

The stars they have earned show on the effort rating screen when students login, but you can also print out a certificate and award it when students reach these upper levels of effort.

8 sessions in 14 days for a 2 star effort award,

12 sessions in 14 days for a 3 star effort award,

16 sessions in 14 days for a 4 star effort award, and

20 sessions in 14 days for a 5 star effort award. That’s one session each day in school and one for homework.

 

 

3. Learning Track Certificates to recognize Accomplishment.

Note, recognizing accomplishment is still not raising up only the smart students.  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 same ceremony you’ve been using for the general awards can include awards for students who have completed a Learning Tracks. There is a specific rocket for each of the 16 Learning Tracks.  (Collect ’em all!)

Here’s the link to print from:  Learning Track Certificates in color.

For those without color printers here’s the link to Learning Track Certifcates in grayscale.

 

 

Powerful process that leads to learning.

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 these 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.

Table of Contents
Rocket Math