As a high school special educator, I have had the opportunity to work with English and math teachers using ClassDojo to teach and reinforce the common core standards.  ClassDojo has been gaining popularity as a classroom management tool, but its uses go beyond simple tracking of behaviors for the sake of classroom management.  As we implement the common core standards, it has been a useful tool.  There are several common core standards that, when unpacked, can be connected with specific behaviors.  By describing what the standards “look” and “sound” like, it is easy to identify concrete behaviors that are connected to them.  These behaviors can then be tracked using ClassDojo allowing for efficient collection of classroom data.

ClassDojo and ELA Standards

In the English Language Arts standards, the speaking and listening standards focus on group discussion behaviors such as coming “to discussions prepared” and “referring to evidence from texts”.  These are specific behaviors that can be taught, practiced, observed and reinforced using ClassDojo.  Our 11th grade students have become accustomed to ClassDojo as a way to assess their progress toward standards.  We introduce the standard being assessed and break down what it looks and sounds like.  We illustrate how those behaviors look in ClassDojo and how that information will impact their grades.  Because students know specifically what behaviors are associated with the standard, it is much easier for them to experience success.

ClassDojo and Mathematics Standards

The Math standards focus not only on procedures but math practices.  When these math practices are unpacked, behaviors such as “explaining reasoning” and “check answers”, become easily measurable.  Our Algebra 2 teacher has identified behaviors associated with productive mathematical discussion, taught the behaviors, and used ClassDojo to reinforce the learned behaviors.  She regularly uses groups in her classroom and consistently uses ClassDojo to assess whether the behaviors are being exhibited.  Even though the intent of connecting the behaviors to the standards is to teach the standards, it clearly leads to more productive groupwork and solid classroom management.

Grading

While I would love to simply get rid of grading altogether, it is still a requirement for most of us.  We are suing ClassDojo to grade individual participation within a group.  While I have some mixed feelings about this, I feel better that it is connected to standards, it is based on many observations and it is a measure of an individual’s contribution to the group rather than a group grade. Many teachers and districts are experimenting with standards based grading and classDojo can be used to track standards when used as I have described above.  We have not done this yet but I can see how it would work quite seamlessly.  ClassDojo creates reports that illustrate how frequently certain behaviors are being exhibited.  A percentage of time a behavior has been exhibited could be associated with mastery or proficiency, whatever your system requires.  Similarly, a behavior could be considered consistently exhibited after a certain amount of times.  It would be necessary to determine a criteria but it definitely has options.  The reports can be generated for a whole class or an individual student and used as an instructional tool as well.

Isn’t It Behavioristic?

While many might argue that ClassDojo is behavioristic, when used in the way I have described, it is more of a teaching tool than a behavior modification tool.  We are using it to reinforce behaviors but the ultimate goal is for students to gain intrinsic motivation through experiencing success.  Eventually, those behaviors will be internalized and students will enjoy exhibiting them.  And, if the behaviors are associated with specific standards then it is more closely related to learning than behavior. It is kind of like smiling even when maybe you don’t really feel like it.  It doesn’t hurt you and sometimes it makes you feel better, so why not?  Be specific and deliberate when choosing the behaviors you want to reinforce.  Don’t choose violence as a behavior that you are going to track if that isn’t an issue in your classroom.  Identify what it is you want students to learn and then translate that into specific behaviors.  This way, the tracking of behaviors is directly connected to a long term learning goal and not a short-term behavior intervention.