What does a classroom economy for self-contained classes look like?
The cool thing about this class economy is it can be adjusted for various needs, requirements and rewards. It’s the perfect economy for a self-contained classroom with low-incidence disabilities.
How can low-incidence students earn money in a self-contained class?
With this classroom economy for low incidence disabilities, your students can earn money by:
- completing work/activities/communicating wants & needs, etc.
- following directions
- showing initiative, kindness, being a leader, etc.
- completing classroom jobs (cleaning up,
How much do the students earn during the school day?
I will pass out $1s when we’re doing group work and students are answering.
If students use a ‘$5’ word or share higher thinking skills/connections I’ll give them $5. They can also get $5 or a coin (more about that in part 2) if they are being helpful, go above and beyond what they are asked, or show initiative for a problem they can help solve.
Students typically get $20 a class period (which puts them at $80 a day. They get the $20 when they’ve completed the 3 tasks in each period and were well behaved, following most of the requests and demands.
I also pay students extra ($50-$100) for unexpected schedule changes or when we require them to be extra flexible. For instance, fire drills, early release schedules, rainy day schedules (recess inside), canceled special/elective classes, or changed therapy times.
What do the students do with their money?
At the end of the day, the students check out (if they didn’t engage in negative behaviors – varying per student) to get a toy, snack/candy/treat, or coupon. This is perfect for a self-contained classroom for low incidence disabilities as it’s flexible to meet a variety of needs.
If you’re not sure what your students like or don’t like, start by completing a positive reinforcement survey.
The Positive Reinforcement Survey
- The toys vary from $20 to $300 and include anything from party city, dollar tree, target dollar spot, amazon, etc. I usually try to stock things my students want to buy (which may change each year).
- Treats are typical $20 to $50 and can also change yearly. It can be cookies, M&Ms, starbursts, gummies, juice, etc.
- The coupons are great for students who like to save. They are more expensive and can only use 1 coupon a day. They can be: using the teacher's computer for a break, sitting in the teacher's chair, skipping a class period, using the beanbag for a day, no shoes for a day, etc.
- Lastly, students can donate their money to a class fund for a class party. Once we’ve reached $1,500 we can vote on a class party and we will host it on a Friday. We’ve had pizza parties, boneless wing parties, ice parties, and movie days.
The students store their money in these poly-zipper envelopes. They aren’t as durable as I’d like, (the zipper pull falls off, the plastic rips), so in the future, I’d like to find something more durable. But, until I use up this big pack, I won’t look for a replacement. If you have something that could work well, let me know in a comment below!
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| poly-zip envelopes *aff* |
Do you incorporate response cost (‘paying bills’)?
Yes.
Students may lose/be required to pay if staff have to clean up their materials, or if they have an increase in misbehavior, they can lose coins (again more about that in part 2) or money they’ve already earned. They can also not receive ‘pay’ for the work/activity/class period if they didn’t complete what was requested of them. Sometimes that’s as simple as sitting for a few minutes to build compliance.
They can also lose the ‘checkout’ at the end of the day if they haven’t earned enough money during the school day (even if they have enough saved up from previous days).
Who can pay the students?
All staff that works with students! It should be a group effort. If a student goes out to specials with your support staff, they can pay them upon returning to class if they were behaving and following expectations. Or they can relay their behaviors if there were or weren’t issues with the students’ behaviors.
Coins?
The coins are discussed in part 2 of this series (February 2022), but they are ‘extra’ rewards for doing good deeds / going over the top without teachers asking. Once they fill up their coin board (they have a strip of 6 spots for coins on their desk) they exchange each coin for $5 apiece, receiving $30 in cash.
These are the coins I use. I put a piece of velcro on one side. The kids LOVE working for the smiley coins.
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| smiley coins *aff* |
Students in class not working for money and coins?
I do have a student who is not on this classroom system and I’ve had years past where I couldn’t use a classroom economy system because the students didn’t buy into it. They worked better for first-then and immediate rewards and breaks during the day. That’s totally fine! Remember, this classroom economy is for low incidence disabilities and that means, we may actually be running 2 or 3 different ‘economies’ depending on student levels.
Yep, our job is NOT easy enough to have just 1 system.
Do what works for you, keep this idea in your tool belt for the year you will need it. If my students aren’t on the money system, they almost always work for tokens of some kind. They have a 5 or 6 token board that fills up as they complete each round of work/task, then they get a break at the end of it.
I hope you got some inspiration from my classroom economy! I’ve definitely noticed an increase in positive, kind behaviors when we choose to focus on and pay the students for those attributes. I also find it interesting how some learn to save their money and others live ‘payday’ to ‘payday.’ Not much different than adults, huh?!
They also learn how to total dollar amounts and feel the value of $1 vs. $50 or $100. There are so many functional skills built into this system that can be adjusted, tweaked, and modified to fit a variety of students and staff!
If you’re ready to try this with your staff and students (you can also tie the money to dojo points), grab this freebie below!
Thanks for reading,
Mrs. Kolo
P.S. On another note, we’ve been talking about things the kids like….what about your staff? Do you know what they like? Check out this holiday exchange questionnaire to find out your co-worker’s favorite things!
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Secret Gift Exchange Questions
Check out this holiday exchange questionnaire to find out your co-worker’s favorite things!
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