If you are looking for an incentive to make your students want to come to school, here is an idea. After your students fill up their card with punches they will earn a special prize.
I sometimes like to teach my math lessons in small groups because it gives you a better idea of who understands and who does not understand. When I teach my lessons in small group I like to use these sheets. I keep them in a binder so that I can get access to them when needed. You could probably use them for small groups during ELA as well.
I print out several of these pages for each student and keep them in a tabbed binder near my classroom phone. Every time I speak to a parent I record when and what we spoke about.