I’ve been working on a framework with my son’s tuition teacher. We are figuring out how we reward him with a structured process.

Summary from the Game Book

Method : Game Exercise Book
Theme : One Piece
Game Currency : Berries
Key Focus & Goal: Reward grunt work and milestones
Tactic : Daily Work and Monthly Review

Core Drives applied:

1. CD2 – Development & Accomplishment – Completing Missions, collecting berries and loot
2. CD7 – Unpredictability & Curiosity- A random sticker will be given upon completing a special boss fight. and some grunt work when done well, will have sticker rewards.
3. CD4 – Ownership & Possession – After Big Boss Fights, usually in the Monthly Review, a milestone award is given. It’s a miniature figurine of his favorite characters as a collector’s item. He doesn’t need to beg for money to pay for the figurine. He can now earn them through the reward mechanisms built. (collectors items are much more valuable when they came from effort)

Instructions (Parents and Teachers’ Guidance)

Missions:   For work completed, put the date and how many berries earned.  And if deserving, a sticker is awarded.   *Not all tasks should get a sticker (eg: reading practice no sticker.  Test has sticker.  Completed homework without mistakes has sticker.  Etc, but everything could get come berries.   Write the mission task in the box (3 words) – this helps remember the achievement that the points was awarded for.

Monthly Review:   On the end of Month (Last session of month), Teacher to review the points awarded and decide on a reward for student.

Rewards Guidance

Mission Reward : should be based on the complexity of task.  Eg: homework’s could get about 5 to 10 berries per day completed.  Study Session, Teacher can decide that a complicated task can deserve higher rewards.  This allows student to feel achievements in grunt(home) work, and the rewards in class are higher, hence paying more attention.

Monthly Review : This is a performance review. The conversation can be, “oh, this month all home works got you 10 points. You did well.” Alternatively, you might say, “you didn’t do much study at home. See, no points in these few days.” (referring to daily report on summary page). You can do better next month! Focus on positive conversation.

Examples:

Area	Example (using One Piece)
Levels (sticker awards)	Wanted Poster Value (0 is insulting, the bigger the value the more exciting) Can be given for Milestones like completing a chapter learning. Or ability to perform certain task verified by teacher.
Points	Give points for every tasks and it can be given in game currency. In my case, for homework, my son gets a maximum of 10 berries daily. his behavior and attentiveness determines the amount he gets. At tuition, he gets whatever number teacher (teacher has unlimited berries – but general rule of thumb is to not be over 10 times what parents give, and the frequency of the higher rewards must be less than the lower rewards) *This will encourage grunt work. the boring, simple tasks that forces hours towards excellence.
Grunt Work	Boring Tasks (in games, its like hitting low level monsters, in reality, it’s like daily reading practice)
Boss Fight	Exciting Challenges (in games, its a boss you need to fight to go up to the next level, in reality it’s like a college entrance exam)

Big Rules

1. While Game Currency should be used as an exchange, it should NEVER be associated to Money. Extrinsic Motivation Kills Intrinsic Motivation
2. Focus on Positives. Our Attention span is limited. If not, then our time is limited. So if you focus on the positive motivation, you will run out of attention span or time for the negative reinforcements.
3. Encourage daily reward – find reason to reward grunt work everyday. keep the game in sight, in mind, and reward often (but never huge)

Reach out in the comments if you’d like the WorkBook i used in docx format. It can be easily converted to ANY theme (Lord of the Rings, Final Fantasy, Pokemon, Star Wars)