SSJup81

I was wondering about something recently. When coming up with games for Japanese classes, is it okay to give prizes to the person or the team that wins the game? I just always felt that it's nice to give an incentive when playing a game and seems they'd get into it more if they knew they were going to get something as an award for their hard work.

I have another interview coming up and was asked about coming up with games, but no specific age group.

FiercestCalm

I teach elementary school and I often give out stamps or stickers as prizes. Even 5th graders love the stickers, so it works pretty well as motivation. Some people don't like doing this (not only are you bribing the kids, but you have to use your own money to buy stickers...). Other methods of reward can be letting them watch a video or giving them some free time, if it's okay with the other teacher.

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SSJup81

Thanks a lot for that. That helped out quite a bit. At least now I know that a "prize" doesn't have to consist of something bought.

JackAttack

I've given students candy. In one class, the kids are split into the same 3 teams everytime so they get scores for each game they play in class and at the end of the term they get something... or the points get added to their grade. (Not too sure, it's the JTE's thing.)

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word

2nd the stickers.

I've done candy, too, but nothing seems to get the kids as interested as stickers. I probably spend more money than I ought to on stickers, but it's a small expense, and the kids love 'em. Like... go fucking nuts over them. I always give some away at the end of class, too, 'cause if every kid doesn't get at least one sticker, there will be tears.

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Miss_igirisu

We7re not allowed candy in my school so I give stickers.

There are two kinds of motivation for students; the motivation that comes from themselves because they want to study and become good at English, and the motivation that comes from the teacher bribing them with small rewards. Games with prizes are an excellent way to make sure even the ones who don't like English are kept in the tasks and are workign hard.

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Sorccy

I use stickers at most of my schools, and it's helped the motivation quite a bit. I was a little against "bribing" them at first, but most of the students here aren't really motivated to learn English for the sake of knowing it, so bribery really helps. I teach mostly at high school, and even the oldest students love the damn things. Seems to be the weirder/cuter the stickers, the better. I think the biggest favorites were Nightmare Before Christmas stickers, and pig stickers.

Miss_igirisu

I have stickers that say "Shine" on them in really gay lettering. She kids were like "OMG IT SAYS shi-ne! （死ね！！）" so it was laughes all round.

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muddog

i picked up some scratch and sniff stickers and they seemed to have gone over well.

stufflikethat

I definitely have no problem with "bribing" the kids. Stickers are the best way to go. When friends/family offer to send me things from home, I always ask for stickers.

You'll win over all the kids if you bring in stickers from your home country. The most popular ones for me have been Spongebob and Spiderman.

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SSJup81

I like the sticker thing. I'm going to keep that in mind. It's funny how even the older students like them. I never would've guessed. I just couldn't imagine high-school students here accepting stickers as a prize. I could see them giving you dirty looks for it or openly complaining. lol

Crab

With the younger kids, a "high touch" or a "sign" tends to be a good incentive.


Then again a "low touch" would probably also be a good deterrent.

Lilac and Lilies

My JTE's do the sticker thing. Each student has a chart or map and they have a goal of the number of stickers they want. I have no idea what happens when the chart fills up or if there are mini-goals (to get one hundred or fifty or whatever). I use fake money as an incentive for the games. They kids also can earn fake money if they answer or ask me two on-grade-level questions in between classes.

After a semester of the fake money distribution, I set up a store where I sold cheap little things for the fake money (went to Daiso and spent about $30 on erasers and got stickers from my parents). The kids went crazy. I will definitely keep this up. And because of the popularity, I can now demand more difficult questions and answers.

p.s. this works in the JHS- in ES my husband swears by stitch stickers