Education for Positive Peace

Behaviour Management - Rewards and Consequences

Task #1

Create a House Point wall chart for your class. By doing so, you will be able to reward what learners do well. To do this you will need the list of names of everyone in your class. Split them into equal size groups which we call ‘Houses’. In the example given, there are 35 children in the class so the teacher split the class into 5 groups of 6 learners and 1 group of 5 learners. If you have a class of 60 learners you might split the class into 10 groups of 6 learners. Here is a reminder of how to organise the House points system in your class: 

1. You could give each group a different name e.g. a colour or a Rwandan hero or a geographical feature or a famous landmark. 

2. Write each learner’s name in their House group. 

3. Include a 10x10 number grid so you can record every time the ‘House’ is awarded a house point. Alternatively stick a blank piece of paper next to each group so you can record the house points as a tally.  

4. At the beginning of the lesson, remind the learners what the House point system is for and how it will work. Be sure to explain what reward the group with the most House points will get e.g. extra 10 minutes play time, extra time to spend with a special material or resource.

5. Only reward one House point at a time.

6. Reward the behaviour as soon as you see it. Then they know what they are being rewarded for, and others see that and do the same!

7. Use House points consistently and often.

8. A child who is not behaving well may receive a consequence as per the behaviour triangle process above but the whole House should not be penalised. The aim over time is to encourage good team work so this can also improve the behaviour of individual children because everyone wants to succeed.