E4Effort

With E4Effort, students learn what it feels like to put forth consistent effort and take more responsibility for their own learning. Emphasizing effort facilitates positive classroom management, higher student confidence, and improved learning outcomes. (Go to E4Effort.com for more information.)

E4Effort has three main parts and an optional paperless Rewards Program:
 
1) The EFFORT SCORING APP
That provides four different categories to measure effort:
• READY: arriving on time, with supplies
• PARTICIPATION: paying attention in class
• ON TASK: staying focused on assignments or activities
• BEHAVIOR: proper conduct based on class and school expectations 
(For greater specificity, teachers may create “Subcategories.” For example, “Respectful” as a subcategory of BEHAVIOR)
The Effort Scoring App also has a RECOGNITION category that allows teachers to select students for Effort Awards and badges. Each Effort Award includes 6, 8, or 10 Effort Shares (explained below).
 
2) Individual STUDENT PORTALS 
That allows: 
• Easy access to eight types of effort data
• Tracking of Effort Shares and Achievement Badges
• Students to assign “Guardian” portals to family members
• Students to redeem their Effort Shares 

3) The TEACHER DASHBOARD
That provides:
• Monitoring of individual and whole-class trends
• Editing of student scores
• Formation of Course, Student, and Term features
• Adjustable Category Weights
• Communication via “Behavior Comments” sent to individual or multiple student portals
• Creation of “Buyback” offerings to allow students to redeem their Effort Shares
• Organization and fulfillment of student Buyback redemption requests
 
REWARDS PROGRAM
Students are awarded effort points known as “Effort Shares” in two ways: 1) with badges when students earn Effort Awards and 2) automatically when students meet or exceed 5-day category milestones. Effort Shares may be thought of as:
• Bonus points having no real value,
• Bonus points that may be used to replace assignments, 
• A school or class currency. Teachers set up “Buyback” offerings (often privileges or school supply items) that students may redeem from their student portal. Student redemption orders are electronically sent to Teacher Dashboards to allow reward record keeping to be easier and paperless. Go to E4Effort.com/Buybacks to see examples. 
 
The E4Effort System was designed by a teacher with help from other teachers and developers. The beta version was tested over several academic years. If you have any questions or comments, contact [email protected].