Kaitlyn Johnston

Token Economy Assignment

SPLED 401
Overview:
The following token economy was created specifically for Mr. Friendlys seventh-grade,
mild disabilities classroom. The goal is to eliminate the numerous inappropriate
behaviors that Mr. Friendly has identified as being a problem in his classroom. We will
create a rewards system with students acquiring tickets that can be later traded in for
better prizes. The following information is step-by-step instructions to set up the token
economy and ensure its success.
The major classroom problems in Mr. Friendlys seventh grade classroom include
talking about the impending football game or new video on Youtube, interrupting each
other, calling to each other across the room, tickling each other, not finishing
independent seat work in the allotted time, and getting up to get drinks or borrow paper.
We will define the classroom rules to be more strictly so the students know exactly what
is expected of them. The new rules would include students will work when they are
supposed to, students will keep their hands to themselves, students will raise their hand
to participate in class discussions, and students will ask permission to leave their seat.
The behaviors that we will reward in the token economy include only leaving seat when
have permission, completing all independent seat work with at least 80% accuracy, only
talking when called on by the teacher, keeping hands to him or herself, and keeping
conversation about classwork.
The token that will be used is raffle tickets. It is important that the token is given
with praise and a statement about what behavior the student engaged in. Each student
will get a plastic bag with their name on it to hold all of their tickets when they receive
them. To keep the cost down but ensure that students are not trading or stealing each
others tickets, the teacher will buy one color ticket but have the students sign their
name in ink to claim their ticket. You could use different colored tickets for each student
but that gets expensive and becomes difficult to find so many different colors. Mr.
Friendly can keep the roll of tickets on his desk to easily access them to reward a
student for engaging in appropriate behaviors. Below is an example of a raffle ticket that
could be distributed.

The value of each behavior in tokens will be different depending on the priority in
the classroom. The lowest value behaviors include keeping hands to him or herself and
keeping conversation about classwork, worth one ticket for each occurrence. Only
leaving seat with permission and only talking when called on by the teacher are both
worth two tickets for each occurrence. Finally, completing all independent seat work with
80% accuracy is valued the most at three tickets. Students will not be expected to
complete these behaviors 100% of the time though; the criterion would be different for
each behavior and will be modified per student as needed. However, no more than
twenty-five tickets can be earned in one day.
Each of the behaviors has a different criterion to be rewarded. Only leaving seat
with permission and only talking when called on by teacher are reward each time it
happens. The student does not have to hit a certain number of times in order to get the
reward. As the students behaviors improve, the teacher can then raise the number of
times that each student has to talk with permission or ask to leave their seat before they
earn the tickets. Completing all independent seat work with 80% accuracy will be
rewarded for each assignment that meets this standard. For example, if the students
are given two seat work assignments and the student completes one assignment at
80% accuracy and the other at 60% accuracy, then the student would receive only three
total tickets. Eventually, this can be increased to all seat work needs to be 80% correct.
The last two behaviors are based on time increments for reinforcement. Keeping
conversation about classwork will be rewarded for every five minutes it occurs while
keeping hands to him or herself will be rewarded every ten minutes that the student
goes with hands to self. So if a student keeps his hands to himself for only four minutes,
he will not earn any tickets and the five minutes will start over the second after he stops
touching another student.
The schedule of reinforcement depends on the behavior and will change over
time. Most of the behaviors will be reinforced on a continuous reinforcement schedule,
including only leaving seat with permission, completing all independent seat work with
80% accuracy, and only talking when called on by teacher. Eventually, the reinforcement
schedule would become more variable-ratio so reinforcement would occur after the
behavior occurs four times and then maybe after two times and so on. The amount of
times the behavior occurs before reinforcement would vary so that the student never
knows how many times he has to engage in the appropriate behavior to earn tickets.
Both keeping hands to him or herself and keeping conversation about classwork would
be on a fixed interval schedule; the student will earn tickets every five or ten minutes he
engages in the behavior. This can be changed to a variable-interval schedule in the
future by randomizing the amount of time needed to engage in the behavior to make it
harder for students to earn tickets. Both the current and future reinforcement schedules
are feasible for the teacher to give out tickets because it is easy for him or her to walk
around and check on student work and engagement it the behaviors. While Mr. Friendly
is teaching a lesson, Ms. Nyce can be watching the students behavior and also handing
out tickets.
The recording keeping system is very easy for both the student and the teacher.
The student will have their own recording sheet and plastic bag to hold on to the tickets
while the teacher has a master sheet to keep track of all the students earned tickets. By

having the students keep track of how many tickets they are earning for what behaviors
allows them to self-manage and see what they need to work on. By the teacher having
a master sheet, he or she can visually see when the criterion for each behavior needs to
be increased. Both the student and the teacher recording sheets are attached at the
end of this document.
There will be backup rewards for the students to trade in their tickets for. To find
out the kinds of rewards the students would like, I would take a survey of what they find
reinforcing and what they would like to earn for engaging in appropriate behaviors. Then
based on what they write down, the teacher could look at the local dollar store, Target,
or other place to find cheap school supplies, make up, music, and other little items. All
of the back-up rewards would be stored in a teacher locked supply closet and kept all
together in a plastic storage bin. I would also include a passes for free time to play
basketball or chat, no homework, and one less seat work assignment. Instead of just
providing the free time to the students, I would make them earn tokens that they can
then trade in for free time. The rewards will change as the year goes on as the students
interests changes.
Each of the backup rewards would have a different value of tickets depending on
the value held by the students. I would make the free time passes contingent on overall
class behavior and not tickets so if the students overall appropriate behavior is
increased by 50%, the students will earn free time. This can be tracked by using the
teachers master record sheet. Eventually, as the students behavior gets better, the
criterion for free time can be increased. For the rest of the backup rewards, the value
will be based on tickets. The homework pass will be worth ten tickets and depending on
the other prizes that the students want to earn and how much the students want to earn
them, those ticket prices will range from one to twenty tickets. As the students
appropriate behavior increases, so will the ticket prices of the rewards.
The spending time will be during homework start (2:15-2:30) on Fridays. This
removes the possibility of time being taken away from instruction and allows the
students to continue to start their homework when they are not visiting the store. The
store will be open once a week in the beginning and if it is noted that the students need
reinforcement more frequently, then the store will open twice a week. Once the students
are improving their behavior and earning more tickets, the store will then be opened
once every two weeks, once a month, and so on as the teacher sees fit. The students
also do not need to spend all their tickets in one week; they can save up their points for
something bigger and it gives them an opportunity to buy multiple prizes if wanted. As it
gets harder to earn tokens and the prizes are worth more, it will be necessary for the
students to carry over their tickets.
To wean the students off the system, I will begin to make it harder to earn tickets
as the students behavior gets better. Knowing when to do this depends on the students.
When the students behavior in one of the five categories increases by 50%, that
behavior will then be reinforced on a variable-ratio schedule, like discussed above. This
applies to all of the behaviors; as the appropriate behavior increases, the reinforcement
gets more random. Once a behavior reaches a 75% increase, reinforcement can
become less and at 90% increase, the teacher can start removing that behavior from
the reinforcement schedule. Positive praise will be given out without tokens so the
reinforcement is still there just not with a physical token. Students will still record how

many times they engage in the behavior for self-management purposes but they will no
longer be reinforced. Theoretically, this should take a few months to happen but it is all
based on the teachers opinion and the individual students. The store will also be
opened less as noted above once the students start earning more tickets. It will go from
being open once a week to twice a week, once a month, and so on until it can be taken
away completely.
The last part of the token economy is actually introducing and implementing the
system. To introduce, I would first discuss with the students the inappropriate behaviors
I did not like and the appropriate behaviors I was looking for in my classroom. Next, I
would explain that if they engage in the appropriate behaviors I was looking for, they
could earn tickets that they could eventually trade in for prizes. I would show them the
sample record sheet and explain that in the beginning, I would remind them to keep
track of what they were receiving tickets for but eventually they will be doing it all on
their own. I will show them my master record sheet as well and then explain how they
can earn prizes and what each behavior is worth in tickets. We would try this system out
for at least two weeks with a lot of prompts and reminders until the students understand
how the system works. As problems come up with the system, we will adjust to fit the
student and classroom needs.

Student Self-Management Record Sheet

Use tally marks to keep track of how many tickets you receive for each behavior. At the
end of the day, add up the total number tickets you received and write in the total row. At
the end of the week, write your total number of tickets for the week at the bottom and
circle. Sign your name at the bottom of the page when complete. These will be collected
at the end of the week so please make it neat!
Behavior

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Keep hands to
self

Only leave
seat with
permission

Keep
conversation
about
classwork

Raise hand to
participate in
class
discussion

Complete
independent
seat work with
80% accuracy

TOTAL:

Total Tickets for week: _________________

Student Signature: _________________________________________________
Date: _____________

Teacher Master Student Record Sheet

Student: _________________________
Behavior

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Keep hands to
self
Only leave
seat with
permission
Keep
conversation
about
classwork
Raise hand to
participate in
class
discussion
Complete
independent
seat work with
80% accuracy
TOTAL:

Class Totals
Behavior
Keep hands
to self
Only leave
seat with
permission
Keep
conversation
about
classwork
Raise hand
to participate
in class
discussion
Complete
independent
seat work
with 80%
accuracy

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

% Increase
for Week