Teach English in Italy: Five Ways to Reward Your Elementary School Students

Many students work hard for achievement, but almost all will work hard for recognition. Italian elementary school students particularly love their “moment of glory.“ If you give students a chance to stand out in the crowd they will most likely put forth their best effort. In an Italian ESL classroom, there are many ways to reward students for their English usage and classroom performance.

Here are five tried-and-true ways to acknowledge the stars in your ESL class.

1) Create a certificate reward and give one to the most outstanding student every time the class meets. For example, you might create a reward entitled “Star Student”, or “Super Student”. Draw up the certificate, or create it on your computer and print it out. You can leave it black and white for the student to color, or you can do it yourself.

2) Start a blog for your class and add an outstanding student’s profile to the content each week. If you teach English in Italy, you will need to be acquainted with the privacy laws; so don’t include last names or photographs of the students’ faces. You can, however, post drawings or projects they’ve created in class, and leave a comments section below each post for other who visit the page to leave their opinions.

3) Invest in some inexpensive “gadgets” to reward students, such as pencil toppers, temporary tattoos, erasers or mini-notebooks. You can usually find these items in bulk and they are big hits! If you want to give candy or gum, be sure to ask if any students are diabetic or have food allergies first.

4) There are many free templates online that allow you to create a magazine or newspaper cover. Add the student’s name and the reward title to the headlines and print it out. Announce to the class that there is a new celebrity on the circuit and that he/she is in the classroom. Invite the class to ask questions about the student celebrity’s identity to reveal the winner.

5) Stage a mini-Oscar ceremony every month and give rewards for best student and best supporting student. Mimic the suspense before the names are revealed inside the envelope, and encourage the students to give an acceptance speech at the podium (you may want to have each student write one in their notebooks at the beginning of the month so they aren’t at a “loss for words”). You can purchase mini trophies in bulk at convenient prices.

Teaching the English language to students in Italy should be fun for everyone on the elementary level. If you take the time to praise good efforts and outstanding students, language learning will become more rewarding.