McKayla Jacobs

EDU 473
Task 3
Token Economy (Inclusion)

In my inclusion setting, I am placed with fifteen seventh-grade students in a small group

setting. During the first two periods of the day, these students are in this small group setting to

receive help on assignments, catch up on missed work, take tests or quizzes, and assess their IEP

goals and objectives. After the first two periods of the day, those students go to their core classes

where I push in to assist when needed. I chose to use the entire small group setting of fifteen

students because every student has a distraction issue in the room in their own way. Some are the

more obvious distractions like calling out, getting out of their seat, arguing, and talking to their

neighbor. However, there are some other less obvious distractions that happen in the classroom

like drawing in class, playing games on their iPads, or asking to use the restroom every day.

Upon talking to my cooperating teacher, we decided that targeting the behavior of

distractions would be the most beneficial for all my students because they all have some type of

distraction they use. For example, I have a student who always calls out any answers which is an

obvious distraction made in the classroom. On the flip side, I have another student who asks to

go to the bathroom during every period and is out for about ten minutes each time, which is more

of a hidden distraction unless you are truly observing. Due to this, I decided to target distractions

in the classroom as my behavior.

I started my token economy with the reinforcement sampler to brainstorm with my

students what they would like to earn for the token economy. A few days after brainstorming, I

introduced the token system to my students by showing them the tokens they can earn. The

tokens are small foam shapes they will keep in their plastic envelopes under their desks. The
students can earn tokens when they do not have a large distraction in the classroom during

periods one and two. During these classes, I mainly observe so I can write down any distractions

to keep track of the students who do have a distraction in the classroom. When there are a few

minutes left in the period, I had out a token to each student who did not have a distraction.

Therefore, each student can only earn up to two tokens a day to add up to six tokens a week

because I am only at this setting three days a week. Every Friday, I create a raffle with all the

students’ names who have at least three tokens. If a student has five or more tokens, their name is

placed in the raffle twice to have a greater chance to choose the prize. An accommodation for

one student, I have in place a separate rule of two tokens. In the beginning of my token system, I

knew this could be an option but decided to try to let this student not have an accommodation.

However, after the first week, the student only received one token, so I added this

accommodation at this point. Since adding this accommodation, this student has earned two

tokens each time and one week earned three.

As far as my other students, the results have varied week to week. I have only had four

students who have been in the raffle all three Fridays. I do feel that this token economy is

successful for my class because the disruptions have gone down, especially after seeing the

prizes they can earn. The students also look forward to the raffle and often ask me when we are

going to do it and if they have a chance to win. My cooperating teacher has also expressed that

she has seen a difference in the students’ disruptions as a class. Although the requirement is only

three weeks for this assignment, I have decided to carry this system out until I am finished in this

placement. My cooperating teacher likes the idea of this system in her classroom and has sparked

interest in carrying this after I leave.