In her article, "Class Dojo: A Tale of Two Classrooms," Natasha Singer, a writer for The New York Times writes about her experience visiting two different classrooms at Hunter Elementary School, in Hunter, New York, that are using a behavior tracking app called Class Dojo. In case you are unfamiliar with Class Dojo, here is a quick understanding of how it works. A teacher is able to set up a virtual classroom on the app and assign each student a cartoon-like avatar. The teacher is then able to award points to students or deduct points from students for specific behaviors. They are able to keep a running list of what behaviors the student is showing and what behaviors they are not. They are shown a percentage and a pie chart to show a specific child's behavior for the day. This data is then able to be emailed to parents to show them how their child is behaving in class. In the article, Singer compares two different teachers who are using the same app in different ways. One teacher, Mr. Fletcher, uses the app publicly and posts the virtual classroom up in his classroom so that students can see when they are rewarded points or points are deducted. Another teacher, Ms. Sofranko uses the app privately because students were distracted. She walks around the classroom and awards points or deducts points using her phone. She handles a particular student by talking to them privately. Throughout the article, Singer seems to debate which method of using Class Dojo is more effective or whether the app is even effective in general. She states that "while some educators praise Class Dojo's game-like set-up, others say its carrot-and-stick method of classroom management is outmoded and detrimental to the self-esteem of certain students. She then goes on to interview certain students to see what they think. Some liked the video-game like structure and most liked being able to see their scores publicly. Singer's main issue about the app is that it "offers students external rewards in exchange for obedience." However, the administrator from Hunter Elementary believed that "sometimes you have to start with the extrinsic motivation [and] hopefully by the time we send them off middle school, it becomes intrinsic."
I have used Class Dojo in my classroom and I actually have used it both ways - publicly and privately. I more used it privately when I heard students bragging about their points or making fun of other students points. I felt like it was very useful in promoting positive behavior in my classroom. Students were very interested in doing the right thing to earn points rather than doing the wrong thing or being off-task. I even saw it carry over at home because I heard a lot of great feedback from parents. They started to hear more about their child's day at school and they liked being able to get updates through their email on how their child was doing. It made for great conversation at home. I can't wait to continue using Class Dojo in my classroom this upcoming school year!
No comments:
Post a Comment