Student Rewards: Good or Bad?

Rewarding a student with verbal praise, a gold star or a simple pat on the back is quite common practice. I think it is good to reward students for doing a good job as long as it does not demotivate other students in the classroom or become a habit with certain students. I think that all students need to be given personal attention from the teacher and that teacher needs to focus on their individual accomplishments.

I personally feel that progress charts should not be allowed in the classroom. I think it has a negative effect on the students that may not be making as good of progress as others or learning as fast. I think that notes can be written on students tests or they can be talked to after class. Hanging up graphs is just not a good way to give a reward.

One of my experiences with verbal praise is from when i studied abroad. My teachers in Germany would tell the entire classroom how a student did on projects or homeworks which is a completely different teaching style than here. Here teachers would not dare share information about how a student did on a test or homework assignment.