Incentives for Middle School Students - 10 Fun Ideas Sure to Motivate

They compose engaging lessons but are able to pivot and change their facilitation as needed to ensure success. They wear many hats as their students have many needs. 

I once had a schedule that had me split days between high school and middle school. I’m a planner. I take a curriculum map and make a copy for myself. I then break it down into units. 

Then I break the units down into months. Then the months into weeks. Then the weeks into daily lessons. Then I add hyperlinks to the daily lessons. 

So I have a very over-the-top planning calendar for my classes. I’m not alone in this. Some of you go way deeper than I do! 

My background is in high school, and my lesson planning method has served me well in that role. The reason I mention this is that when I got this assignment for middle school I did the same process for that class as I did my others. 

What I found was that I had a lot of preconceptions about pacing that needed to be adjusted for that course. This may seem obvious, but your grade level matters! 

I had lessons that took too much time. Not enough time. Lessons that didn’t engage at the level I expected. Lessons that engaged so well they created classroom management issues! 

The point I’m making here is that I learned a great deal about teaching from this group of middle schoolers. They probably taught me as much as I taught them! That is what made it so much fun! 

Aside from the mechanics of planning and teaching I also found that the incentives I had been using with my high schoolers weren’t the same motivators for these students. 

I had to come up with a different incentive plan that met their wants and interests. 

Why are Incentives Important For Middle School?

An incentive is anything that motivates or encourages one to do something. It can be for products and services that a company needs to sell at a higher volume. Maybe they impact our health.

Incentives are extremely useful and successful at accelerating programs that need a boost. Educators would like to teach rooms full of self-motivated, eagerness to learn, ready to succeed students. 

But if you have ever stood in front of a group of 7th graders on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, you know that isn’t always the case! Sometimes you need a little something extra to get your lesson over the finish line.

Considering how many advertisements you see with “deals”, “discounts”, or “coupons” it would appear that businesses feel like incentive programs don’t just work, they are necessary for business. 

The government offers tax breaks on things they want us to buy more of. They offer cash for programs they want to see succeed like my district offering a small cash bonus for teachers to get their covid vaccine. 

It would seem that the government values incentives just as much as business. 

Educators should value incentives as well. We need to reach the unreachable. We need to stimulate the unmotivated. We need to push those who do barely enough. We need to provide a carrot for the high achievers to go above and beyond what they thought they could do. 

If you're a middle school teacher you know that motivation and morale matter a great deal. Not just for student engagement and success, but for your sanity as well! 

We need to utilize incentives with our students. Keep reading for some ideas on how to engage your middle schoolers in the learning process with incentives.

Incentives Guaranteed to Improve Behavior

1. Fidgets

Keep a class set of fidgets for students to access and play with if they meet goals. Fidget spinners, mini skateboards, stress balls, finger traps, etc.

2. Drinks

Have a mini-fridge in your room? Stock it with kids' drinks like Capri-Suns or Kool-Aid Jammers. Offer those as rewards for meeting classroom expectations.

3. Stickers

We have mentioned this one before, everyone likes stickers! 

4. Dress Code Exemptions

Theme days that emphasize wearing fun or silly things that are normally out of the dress code are always a fun way to incentivize students or just to break up the monotony of the school year.

5. Homework Passes

Print out passes and laminate them. Allow students to earn them for academic goals.

‍

6. Movement Breaks

Build-in movement breaks for your classes. Announce them ahead of time and with the caveat that your students meet a short-term goal to get there.

7. The Great Outdoors 

This one isn’t age-specific. We all need a little sunshine sometimes. In fact, if I finish this article before lunch I will be eating outside today. See, works for adults as well!

8. Preferential Seating

This could be within your seating chart or you may provide some alternative seating options like different chairs, beanbags, or carpets.‍

9. Extension Choices

Allow students to choose from a variety of extension activities if they meet your daily goals. These can be cheaply created and re-used all year long.

10. Keep Score

When in doubt, I like to appeal to students' competitive instincts. No better way than to start keeping score. 

Make your big exam review into a game. Split them up into teams. Elect captains. Name a scorekeeper. Keep it fun.

Go all out. Wear a referee jersey if you got it.

Keeping it Positive

Teaching middle school is certainly challenging. But that doesn’t mean it can’t be fun! There is no better incentive than injecting a little fun into your daily routine. 

If you utilize the ideas above or use your own, the key to any of these is keeping it positive. Be careful not to incentivize with the threat of punishment. 

Sure you can intimidate your way to short-term success, but your short-term gains will hamper your long-term progress as you will be sacrificing morale and relationships for immediate motivation. 

Have fun with it and you’ll create a “get to” mindset instead of a “have to” one. Don't teach middle school? We also have some great ideas for elementary school incentives and high school incentives as well! Need more help motivating middle school student students? Dive into our Behavior Rubric examples or check out our guide to using student voice to create prizes for middle school students.