Undesirable Behavior:
Students are not being kind to each other. Students have a tendency to call other students opinions stupid or to say that
they do not care about the other persons opinion. This makes students in the class uncomfortable and makes the
classroom environment difficult to learn in. When students do not feel comfortable, they do not participate in class
discussions due to the fear of being reprimanded or made fun of by their peers.
Desirable Outcome:
Students will be respectful when they disagree with each other. Students avoid terms such as stupid, idiot, dumb, etc.
Students will raise their hand when they have a point to make and not interrupt their classmates. We want students to be
good listeners and let other students finish their comments before being interrupted. We only want to make positive
comments if it is a personal comment.
Types of Positive Reinforcement:
Immediate R+: When compliments are paid in class or when a student respectfully disagrees with another student,
a tally mark will be added next to the state that will be put in. 10 tally marks must be obtained for each of the
original 13 colonies. Essentially there will have to be a total of 130 tally marks to fill in the first thirteen colonies.
This is the first stopping point and goal. After this, states will be filled in by order of statehood until we reach the
Civil War. Tally marks can be obtained throughout the day, not just Social Studies.
Ongoing R+: As students earn tally marks for each state, the states will be filled in at first by the order of the 13
colonies. They will see how close they are getting by how many states have been filled in. As we fill in the states,
we will go over details about the colony/state in greater detail.
Overall R+: Once students have filled in the first 13 colonies, they will have a Day of Democracy: Our
Constitutional Republic.
Provide Options:
We can expand this map to have a new goal of filling in the states at the time of the Civil War. This makes a new goal of
28 states to fill in as opposed to 13. We can also increase the tally marks needed to obtain each state to 15 instead of the
original ten. Once they obtain this, the students will be allowed again, to have a debate and research the positions of the
North and South. They will have to write a letter from the position of a Northern or Southern soldier on the Battle Field.
They will then be able to have a Civil War battle in which the North has more resources and soldier. They will then
simulate reconstruction by having the North re-invite the South into the Union and having one student from the grade
level give the Gettysburg Address in front of both sides.