I started the Super Improvers Wall today with my 6th graders and it went amazingly well! I think that I need to hand out a few more in the beginning to keep up the motivation. I found myself forgetting about it a few times, but I'll just do better with that tomorrow. My two worst behaved students (one of which is diagnosed ODD, so he intentionally does the opposite of whatever you say) were the most excited about it. I think the idea of not being compared to other students really appealed to them.

Congrats, I agree remembering those stars are hard but the benifit will outweigh your hit and misses. I find my slackers even in first grade go for the improvers wall. My guess is they are very me centered and team spirit isn't their choice although they are joiners. I give them the pep talk with rhyme, every little bit you do could mean a star for me or you, can you catch a star today. I found a picture on clip art of a little guy with a net catching stars 6th graders might even like the visual reminder.
Annette.

There are so many great tools in WBT for classroom management, and the Super Improvers Wall is an amazing way to reach ALL students. I remind them that the only person they are competing with is him/herself, and I will be watching to see how each is growing and improving. This week we had two students move to Level 2! What an exciting moment! We all stopped at the end of the day to gather round as the two white cards were exchanged for red! Each student received a Ten Finger Woooo with a Sizzle and cheers! Levels are labeled as dinosaur names, so the Brachiosaurus just became an Ankylosaur! The T-rex is the ultimate level, of course! When the white cards were pulled out, I wrote a note of congratulations on the back and sent the card home to be displayed proudly! Oh, yeah!!

Nancy Stoltenberg WBT Intern 2011/2012
Blog: nstoltenbergwbt.blogspot.com

Nancy, this is so good to hear we just yesterday had 4 kids land on level one on our improvers wall. The minute I changed it to two sides of the room it clicked. Their star cards are on one side and the levels on on the other. I just changed the levels to planets they are stoked. So the 4 get to name the first planet and decorate it, then wait for more 10 star friends to arrive. I'll take new pictures and post. Here is the real proof this works I have one boy I had all last year who was a real downer and disteacted attitude and all he just made it to planet one for class attentiveness and participation, his classmates did know this-but gave him the biggest 10 finger woooo of his day. Should have seen the smile!
Annette.

I've found one really powerful strategy is letting the kids put up stars for themselves as well. I don't always remember to put a star up, although I've been pretty good about it. But the best success is for the students to recognize their OWN improvements. My highest level improver is my most challenging student: he has a 76 IQ, is an English Language Learner, and a psychotic disorder. He experiences so little success, that he loves recognizing his smallest advances. He is higher than everyone else, and is so happy about it. Other students ask me why he's improved more than them, and I say, "He hasn't! He just recognizes himself more! Put your stars up!"

WBT Intern
2011-2012

Dsudia, I read your post and thought what a good idea, but I have first graders. Well I tried it any way. Since I moved the star cards for me, I made the choice NO I made it for them. I gave the marker to two of my super improvers and wow the whole class really got the idea! Then I was free to put up smilies. I love it when we share cross age groups - 10 finger woooooo
Annette.

Glad to hear you had that success Annette! My biggest success this year has been increasing the amount of time I spend talking with colleagues about everything. It's amazing how much we can help each other.

Since I am doing action research on WBT I can only use the Super Improvers wall with one of my classes (the other class is my control group) so I have to take the wall up and put it out each day. Well, today I forgot and before class even started my students were asking where it was because they wanted to see who had the most stickers. They are really into it. My worst student (he has ADHD and ODD)is in the lead so far and today he said, "I don't think I've ever improved at anything in my life before this". That one comment made it all worth it!