Chicken at Last!

I teach one class that consists of 4th and 5th graders, but they are way behind in their English skills.

They are studying Let's Go 2 when they should be on book 4 or 5.

For whatever reason their parents got them started late.

Last semester, in the fall, when I was teaching the students and when I discovered their shortcomings, I added a phonics book for them and instituted daily tests (they attend our English academy 2 days a week, so 2 tests a week).

The students' scores on the phonics tests were very poor at first.  Granted, the tests were not easy, since they had to listen to me say a word and then write the English spelling of that word.

However, in the phonics books the words are grouped into categories such as double-letter combinations (sh, ch, ea, etc.), and the tests consist of 6-12 words.

At the time--about 7 months ago--I thought they could be doing much better.  They are all bright, but some of them are lazy and weren't studying for the tests.

I started approaching the students in the hallway before our class and told them to study for the test.

I told them that if all of the students in the class got 100% on the daily test, then I would buy them chicken (that's usually a real motivator).

The students got excited at first, then kind of shrugged off the reward, maybe because there were a few students in the class who were below level and who were not capable of getting a 100% score.

Recently, however, the class has evened out skillwise (the low-level students have left), and the goal has been within their reach.

In the last week they have twice come breathlessly close to the goal; only one student out of the 7 has failed to achieve the 100% mark, and then by only 1 word.

On the last test, all of the students spelled words correctly, but one student spelled a wrong word correctly ("food" instead of "foot").  (I was tempted to give it to them.)

Finally, today--after 7months of students coming and leaving and growing their skills and everything--they all scored 100% on their phonics test.

It was an easy test (I think), but for them it was a huge mile marker.

When I handed back the tests, casually saying "100, excellent" and giving out a piece of candy (the only time I give candy is for 100% scores), I acted as though I didn't know what was happening, as the 100% scores piled up:

"William, 100%, excellent!"

"Chelsea, 100%, excellent!"

"Yoon-jae, 100 %, excellent!"

Classroom gasp . . .

"Hyeon-ji, 100%, excellent!"

Gasp . . .

"Bella, 100 %, excellent!"

And so on, until all 7 students had received 100% scores.

I calmly walked back to my desk in the classroom.

One timid yet excited voice spoke up:  "Teacher, next time chicken?"

"Yes," I replied, "I am very proud of you! All students got 100%!"

Cheers.

They deserve it:)