1. Flipped Instruction Description

99. Negative Reinforcement
Definition
Negative reinforcement involves the removal of a privilege, points or tokens when a student gets an answer wrong.
This is often confused with punishments. For me, negative reinforcements should not punish but be used in limited learning scenarios as part of the learning ‘game’.
An example might be losing points in a gamified lesson so the student is less likely to win against their opponents. Students know it is part of the game and not a punishment designed to distress the student.
Benefits

• 
  Provides very clear messages to students about what is correct and incorrect, helping them to learn quickly.
  

Challenges

• 
  Parents often do not like any negative reinforces, so be very careful to set clear guidelines and use this strategy in limited circumstances.
  
• 
  Be careful not to embarrass students in front of their classmates.
  

Theoretical Link
Behaviorism: Watson brought negative reinforcements into education, arguing that repeated use of them can change students’ behaviors.
Examples

1. 
   Losing points in a class contest.
   
2. 
   Failing a level in an educational computer game.
   

100. Drop Everything And Read
Definition
Drop everything and read (DEAR) involves getting students to stop what they are doing and read for 10 minutes.
It is a strategy that helps build students’ literacy skills (especially when students can choose their own book). However, it is also useful for helping students get more depth of knowledge on a topic being taught when you give them all an article or book to read to help them have more knowledge for subsequent parts of the lesson.
Benefits

• 
  An effective way of getting students to spend intense time learning about a topic.
  
• 
  Helps integrate literacy into your daily activities.
  

Challenges

• 
  There will always be a small group of students who squirm and struggle when asked to read. Consider alternatives like the Read Aloud strategy or using videos instead if DEAR doesn’t work for your class.
  
• 
  Make sure to follow up DEAR time with discussion and comprehension tasks.
  

Example

1. 
   Introduce a topic with initial information to engage the class.
   
2. 
   Set a 10 minute silent reading task based on the topic.
   
3. 
   Discuss what was read with comprehension prompts.