Evaluate the strengths and weakness of the Super Improvers Team as applied to weak, intermediate, and academically advanced students. Include a note evaluating the Super Improvers Team’s possible effectiveness with extremely challenging students.
Having used the Super Improvers Team for a year now, I can see how each student in my classroom reacted to the incredible, motivational, gesture of a single star. With each student working their hardest to earn the next level on the Super Improvers Wall, I was able to find the perfect motivational tool to meet students at their academic and behavioral level and raise them to their personal best. It was incredible to see the lower achieving students reach to beat their goals in academics and behaviors. Man did they move fast. In my opinion so many of my challenging students were rarely told they can accomplish greatness. I witnessed my intermediate students who could get by with just their bare minimum, strive to be better because they were only competing against themselves. My high achieving students were celebrated for their greatness, but the SIT kept them reaching for the stars because it was no longer about being on top and outdoing others, it was about beating themselves.
We used the SIT for rewards in so many areas. We charted growth in multiplication and division timed tests, books read per week for Accelerated Reader, homework excellence, test improvement, rock star behavior, behaviors with partners, and so much more. The great thing about the SIT was that students were rewarded for some of the smallest things, yet this made a huge improvement in their overall confidence in themselves and their behaviors in class.
Each week my students filled out a SIT half sheet of paper. They wrote down if they had met their prior week’s goal, what their new goal was, and what they think the teacher thinks their goal should be. This helped me see what they want to work on and helps them reflect on what they know I want them to work on. They keep this on their desk to remind them of their goals.
At the end of the year, my students received recognition from our principal for reaching personal goals and accomplishing the coveted top tier to the SIT! To see the look on some of my most challenging students when their name was called (and the look on their past teachers faces) I knew I had found a gold mine! It was such a motivation key in my classroom this past year and I wouldn’t go without it in years to come!! Talk about TEACHER HEAVEN!!
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