Flashlight Friday
The students in this classroom work all week long to earn the privilege of participating in Flashlight Friday. They bring flashlights from home, read a book that interests them, and sit anywhere in the room they chose. (Some sat under their desks with their flashlight attached magnetically to the bottom of their desks. An arrangement they themselves had thought of and rigged.)
To earn this reward, students were required to accomplish their nightly at-home reading assignment as well as complete any reading task assigned to them during whole class and small group reading instruction. The goals for Flashlight Friday were determined by the class themselves, and they decided that the entire class must earn the privilege together. The teacher reported that only once did the class lose the privilege of Flashlight Friday. After that, they never lost it again. Notice the fireplace burning in the background, projected from the internet onto the Smart Board screen.