An article by Richard James Rogers (Bestselling author of The Quick Guide to Classroom Management and The Power of Praise: Empowering Students Through Positive Feedback).
I’ve been an advocate for the use of praise as a student empowerment tool for a very long time. After drafting the The Four Rules of Praise back in 2018, I wrote my second book, The Power of Praise: Empowering Students Through Positive Feedback, with the aim being to provide the teaching profession with a concise, practical manual on how to create long-lasting student-drive and motivation through meaningful praise.
As a reminder, and for those who are new to my work, The Four Rules of Praise are as follows:
- Praise must be sincere.
- Praise must be specific.
- Praise must be recorded and remembered by the teacher.
- Praise must be reinforced at significant points in the future.
…….and, as an optional (but powerful) extra:
- Praise must be collective in order to be effective (ask colleagues and parents to reinforce the praise you’ve given to a student).
The Four Rules can be remembered using the acronym S.S.R.R. – Sincere, Specific, Remembered and Reinforced.
To conclude today’s blog post, I’ve made a YouTube video that summarizes my thoughts on what meaningful praise means. In essence, I make the point that all of our praise must connect with our students on a deep, emotional level.
You can watch today’s video here:
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