Food is a good incentive for students of all ages, including seventh graders. At the beginning of the day, or week, or any other period for which the incentive is in place, show the students the food they can win, for example, a candy bar, then the behaviors for which the incentive will be awarded, for example, perfect attendance. At the end of the day or week, award the incentives to the students who have met the behavioral standards you laid out. Since seventh-grade students change classes, you may have to ask other teachers how the students behaved in their classes as well.
Activity tickets are general awards you can give students in exchange for accomplishing an objective or meeting a behavioral goal. The student can cash in the activity ticket in exchange for the right to do a certain activity that is not normally allowed, such as eating in class during a lecture. Activity tickets are used the same way that food incentives are used; namely, they are given to students after they complete the stated objective. The only difference is that an activity can be traded in for a variety of food and non-food rewards, giving the student a sense of choice.
Auction-based incentives are more complex than food or activity ticket incentives. In an auction incentive, each seventh-grade student is given a certain number of points each time he completes a task. Then, at the end of the week, you auction off a number of items, such as books, CDs or lunch tickets, and the students with the higest number of points will be able to win more auctions than their peers.
According to psychologist Jean Piaget, because adolescents are highly curious and independent-minded, they like to spend time on independent projects and activities. If you have a student in your class who loves independent learning but has a hard time staying focused on schoolwork, give them an incentive. For every assignment on which the student gets an A, she gets 15 minutes of in-class time where she can pursue her independent interests on her computer. You can give the student an option of "banking" this time and using it later; however, he may not use it when you are giving a test.