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Spark Student Motivation: Classroom Tests

It’s Saturday! You know what that means!!! My BBB Joanne from Head Over Heels For Teaching has a fun Saturday linky!

I know a lot of us have state tests on the brain, but I wanted to share something I do in my classroom with my unit classroom tests! I got the idea from Pinterest, but that person pinned it from an idea from Ron Clark. If you have been living under a rock (*wink*) and don’t know who Ron Clark is, you MUST read a book or an article by him at some point. My favorite article is What Teachers Really Want To Tell Parents.

Aaaaaanyway, so the idea is, when students get 100% on a test, they get to wear a button all day like this:

Students and teachers see the button, and they ask what the student made- it gives the student a chance to brag about themselves and get high fives and recognition from others!!

Well, I’m a printer label girl (if you can’t tell by now… and a post-it girl… and a marker pen girl…. 😛 ) so instead of buying the buttons that they would have to take off at the end of the day, I made printer labels that the kids could wear as stickers- and could wear home to show off to their parents! A lot of mine like to stick them on their binders, too, so they can “keep them forever.” I adjusted the criteria for getting a sticker, though- if you make an A (not just 100%) on the test, you get to wear one. The kids are so excited to get a sticker!! First of all, if they had a test in the morning, they ask me that afternoon if I’ve graded them (which 9 times out of 10 gets a big fat NO haha!) because they want to know if they got a sticker. When it is time to give the stickers, I do it first thing in the morning (so they’ll have their sticker all day), and I make a big production of it. “I have some A Teeeeeeeeeeests!!”

Yesssssssss!!!! They all get super quiet, and you can see them waiting on the edge of their seat. I announce each A-Test one-by-one, and the students cheer for each other! I hand them their test so they know what grade they have, and then they announce their grade. :o) Teachers and other students ask them all day about their test because of the sticker, and you can just see them beam!!

Want my stickers? Here ya go!! Click here or the image below! 🙂 I use 2″x4″ labels (Avery 18163).

Go link up with Joanne’s awesome linky, or just go read everyone’s amazing ideas!! 🙂

Also, don’t forget to go enter my 300 Follower Giveaway!! 🙂 There’s one for every grade!!