I have been DYING to share this with you all. We started a kick butt token economy in my class a few weeks ago and I’m not going to lie – it rocks my freaken world. I wanted to wait until I solidified its undeniable success with my kiddos and get it posted on TpT so you can all take part in the wonderfulness.
Let me give you a small glimpse into a before and after shot of my morning group. Before: the room is already loud (I have 13 students & 5 adults in my class at all times), I am trying to teach a difficult, new skill to my group of active little preteens, and I spend half the time redirecting my group (sit down, pay attention, get started, participate…). Ugh – I am sick of my own voice. Plus I’m sick of hearing all my paras do the same in their groups. Fast forward a few weeks and one flipping awesome token economy later – After: we get started on our new lesson, the room is significantly quieter, when students’ attention start to drift, I quietly pass a small green paper to one student and the other heads literally whip to attention. One student offers to fill my water bottle for me. Another compliments my great choice in noun vs. verb activity. My one student who used to be the sloooowest worker ever – I know barely have enough work to keep busy. Seriously – this is no exaggeration. I wouldn’t do that to you. My students are obsessed. They are little point mongers and it is quite literally like magic wand. The points are like cronuts and my kids cannot get enough. And I love it.
Check out some snapshots –
We store our points in this system:
Our reinforcer store is a dry erase menu – so it can be easily changed:
The key to the success of the token economy are correct initial setup and implementation. Token economies are so often used incorrectly. Things like taking baseline data, specifically outlining how to earn/lose points, and visuals will MAKE your token economy the bomb. No lies.
My new product on TpT – Token Economy Setup Kit:
This resource will guide you through setting up a classroom token economy in an easy to implement step by step way. This product includes editable labels for storing tokens or points, baseline data sheet, direct rules for earning/losing points, visual token economy rules, and display for reinforcers available for purchase. All resources are included in both PDF & powerpoint versions. So all pages are editable and can be easily adapted to add your students’ names or specific behaviors your classroom is working on This packet includes detailed instructions including photos on how to set this up effectively.
Check out the video product preview:
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This is an excellent system! I do something similar in my class, but typically the students all save their money for our class store on Friday. You have me thinking of incorporating other rewards to purchase throughout the week. I have a couple of questions:
How often are you giving out your dollars?
How do students store them immediately when received? Mine is set up like yours, with a “bank” in the front of the room, and often when I give money to students they want to bring their money right up to the bank, which sometimes can be distracting.
Can they redeem their reward points whenever or is it a set time? How do you determine how long?
Also, for my student on a work/break schedule, a lot of their break choices would be items that would work for the token economy…but should I stay away from those because they are already getting them for breaks?
Sorry, so many questions, but I would love to make this work better in my class and you have such great ideas!! 🙂 THANKS!
Awesome! Do you incorporated this for your lower functioning students or have you kept them on the 5 star token board you have? I’m trying to decide if my kids are at the level where this will work. Thanks!
Hi Brie!
– It depends on the kid for how often we give out the dollars. For my students who have more behaviors they lose points for – we try to give more points for appropriate responses. Also we are working on fading the system to go for longer so now they are getting less points. When we started they would get 10-20 per day and now some students are getting more like 5-10 per day.
– Yes I totally know what you mean about the distracting getting and down to put points away! We have a policy that when they transition between stations is when they put their points in the bank. So whatever points they get during a center just stays in a pile in front of them until we switch. This helped ALOT!
– There is not a set time on redeeming points – because I am trying to teach delayed reinforcement and the whole less/now versus more/later concept. I try to encourage them to “save” their points for bigger items instead of immediately going for the small item right away. Sometimes they do want the small item right away – but then they usually get upset/jealous when others get the bigger reinoforcers later – which is good! I want them to realize this concept in a meaningful way.
– For the work/break guy – I would use the token board for super high powered reinforcer that aren’t offered during break or maybe edibles? Yea – I agree – if he is getting the items for “free” during break – he will have no motivation to work for them with the token economy!
Hope this helps 🙂
Yep – exactly! My high guys are on the token system and lower ones use the 5 star board 🙂
Thanks Sasha! That was helpful 🙂
What is the five star board?
Here is a post to learn more: https://theautismhelper.com/working-for/. You can buy this here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Positive-Reinforcement-Visual-System-for-Children-with-Autism-or-Special-Needs-305887