Ticket to Ride: Mrs. R provides incentives for participation

My name used to be Ms. Weber but since then, I have gotten married and now many students can't pronounce my name.  Many of my students just call me Mrs. R or Mrs. Raj.  In my ELA class at KTC, my class is the one that students tend to like the least.  They would rather be in their classes learning what they came to KTC for and don't understand why they have to learn English.

My class is not your typical English class.  While at their home schools may be reading books and doing reports, in my class they are speaking out loud, phrasing responses for interviews, reading through job postings, and other career oriented activities.

Headphones, candy, and multi-port USBs are some of the prizes raffled off so far.

I know that it is hard to keep their enthusiasm and focus for the hour they have my class so I offer incentives for participating in my class.  For every time a student responds, provides input/feedback, or asks a question related to the topic we are learning about, I give them a ticket which is then put into a raffle for something desirable.  This way, I hope to keep their focus on classwork and the subject area as opposed to something else.