Specific Praise entails acknowledging and reinforcing a particular behavior or skill. You make certain to identify the behavior by naming the specific action or skill you want to reinforce. I always recommend using your students’ names. Everyone orients to the sound of their name
and enjoys being addressed by name. Always remember to model your Social Emotional Learning Skills. By using your students name, making eye contact, using appropriate facial expressions, and using a friendly tone you model your SEL-Skills. While the pace of a teacher’s day can make General Praise almost a reflexive behavior, don’t let it become your go to. “Good job,” only goes so far.
Examples of Specific Praise
- John, I appreciate how you remembered to check your work before turning it in.
- Sara, thank you for giving your classmate a turn.
- Jatod, I was so happy to see you, including Peter, he was without a work group.
- Tommy, you showed me a lot of control working through that conflict. It looked like you were using our Conflict Resolution SEL-Skill. Am I right?
Benefits of Specific Praise
- Both you and your student know the behavior that is being singled out. You do not want the student to think you are reinforcing a different behavior. This can happen when you use General Praise, Roman ”I see you and I like what I see.” Roman is walking, not running in the hall. Roman is wearing a new shirt. Roman thinks you are singling out his new shirt, not walking instead of running.
- Rather than using a tangible reward you use a social reward. Using a social reward tends to build intrinsic motivation.
- It allows you to keep the focus on effort rather than outcomes.
- The student experiences the praise as special, genuine, and personal.