Module 4 - Managing Student Behavior

Activity 1 - Researching Strategies (Grades 6-8)

NORMS

 Classroom Norms:

Class-Specific Rules:

• Complete morning work as soon as you come in.

• Always be helpful to others.

• Give eye contact when someone is talking.

• Ask questions when you don't understand.

• Never make a classmate feel like you don't want to work with them. 

When introducing the class norms to students, I do it as early as possible within the first few days of school. I start with an open discussion with the class to set the rules together. First, I raise questions such as: How do you want me to treat you? How do you want to treat one another? How do you think I want to be treated? How should we work together to learn? Then students share their thoughts about those questions in small groups, and then with the entire class. Responses are posted on a large sheet of chart paper. As an idea is repeated, a checkmark or star is placed beside it. After the rules are agreed upon, we make posters and post in the classroom where everyone can see it.

Limitations: would need to be adjusted for very young grades. 

Advantages: students are engaged in the norm defining process and have ownership of the decisions.

 PROCEDURES

• Greeting students by the door

• Asking questions during a lesson.  

1. Students raise their hands when they have a PUBLIC QUESTION, one for which the answer will be useful to all students. 

2. Students put their hands on their hearts when they have a PRIVATE question (Can I go to the restroom? Can I sharpen my pencil?)

• Closing Circle: A 5-10 minute gathering at the end of the day that promotes reflection and celebration through participation in a brief activity or two.

TRANSITION PLAN 

• Nonverbal Transition Cues: Kids can become so immersed in an activity that they might not notice your attempts to shift them into the next learning event. Ringing a bellor turning lights on and offare unmistakable signals that shift attention to the teacher or a new task. Asking a class to collectively decide what signal to use can be a community builder.

• Energizers: Short, playful, whole-group activities that are used as breaks in lessons.

Energizer example: Buzz Game

Ask the group to stand up and to form a circle. Everyone takes turns saying a number starting with 1, 2, 3 and so on. Of course, there is a catch. At every number with a 4 in it or a multiple of 4, that person needs to say BUZZ instead of the number. The next person just continues the series as normal.

For example: 1 - 2 - 3 - buzz - 5 - 6 - 7 - buzz - 9 - 10 - 11 - buzz - 13 - buzz - 15 - buzz - 17 - …

You can choose any number that might be relevant and replace the buzz with another word. 

This game is great when teaching the time tables, or teaching how hard it is to do two things at the same time (thinking while listening for your turn).

EXPECTATIONS 

To ensure the expectations could be achieved, it is essential to set an Incentive System or Discipline Hierarchy for the students to not only know what to strive for but also consequences for wrong actions. A consistent Incentive/discipline system answers the question students are always asking in their heads, "what's in it for me?"

Some examples of consequences in this incentive system include:

• Verbal warning/redirect

• 2-5 minute timeout

• Change of venue and completion of a reflection sheet

• Loss of a privilege and call home

• Sent to administrator

Activity 2 - Modifing Classroom Strategies

My Annotation

00:12

This is the first period, so I would have expected the teacher to be the first one to arrive. It's a good practice to prepare for class well in advance, and use the final minutes before the students arrive to go over it once more. Before the students are in, I would have turned on all the devices, and prepared all the materials for that lesson.

00:18

I like that Mr. T is professionally dressed. I didn't appreciate the fact that he walked in and barely even looked at the students, let alone wish them a good morning, or ask how they were doing? It's harmful for the classroom climate to not acknowledge your students, like he does when the student addresses him, and he just walks past her.

00:25

The student has a question, and comes to Mr. T. I can't quite make out what the conversation is about, but the body language speaks volumes. He fires back with a No, and she lowers her arms in confusion and disappointment. It seems that he made her look stupid in front of the class, because some hooting can be heard from the back of the class. Mr. T just ignores it all. It seems to me that he's there to plow through it all and move on with the rest of his day as soon as possible. What could have been done differently: - Wish everyone a good morning. Some questions about everyone's wellbeing... - Have a plan of the lesson written on the board, and some materials ready for the students to work on while waiting for everyone to arrive. - The students already sit in a limited area of the classroom, so they might as well be facing each other. The desks could be rearranged. - There should be a procedure for coming up to the teacher with a question - if the lesson must begin on time, then maybe after the class. - When the student approaches the teacher, he should have paid attention to her, because the other students might also have the same question. Any explanation should have been given to the entire class. It's a learning opportunity for everyone, and now it's wasted. - Plenty of opportunities to correct the students' behavior as well, I'd mainly be concerned with making fun of the girl who was up. (Had the others been preoccupied with a sponge activity, they might not have had the chance to comment on her and the teacher's exchange) Some stuff about modelling procedures: https://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/columnists/charney/charney003b.shtml

00:48

Mr. T seems to talk about some kind of reward system, where the reward is a lunch? I tried physical incentives, and saw very little progress in the desired behavior change. I would advise the teacher to use privileges instead, and make it all about learning. If a student performs consistently according to the expectations, then s/he could be given a symbolic privilege. If a student performs well on the academic side, then they earn the privilege of working on higher order tasks. I would not make "helping other students with their work" a privilege. Talented students do better when teamed with other talented students.

01:00

The reward system Mr. T is trying to put in place has just devolved into bargaining about what the reward should be. Not focused on the learning at all.

01:06

"OK, let's go! Get ready! 5, 4, 3, 2, 1! Good morning, ladies and gentlemen!" Mr.T is oblivious to the fact that his class started a lot earlier. He's just wasted time in his class, and his students are not noticeably more prepared to learn than they were at the beginning of the video. The countdown transition he is using is not very effective - maybe because he didn't follow through with it (there are still students not ready when he starts talking). I would have communicated what didn't happen in accordance to the expectation, and challenged the students to do better next time. I would have set my transition from the moment the students enter the door. One good practice I've seen is to meet the students at the door, welcome them, address them by name, point them to their seat, and give them something to work on while the rest of the class is coming in. This is a great time to remind them of the expectation - sit there quietly, get your pencil and work on this until the timer beeps. Instead of a set of sentences Mr.T used, for an effective transition I would use a brief verbal cue, like "30 seconds". Of course, this needs to be practiced from day 1. Here's more about transitions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2KOnHRPd5g&feature=youtu.be

02:16

Mr.T gives a non-verbal cue to one of the students who is seemingly not working on the right worksheet. This was OK, but it can also be a part of a progression of warnings. Some consequences start with general reminders, and continue with individual reminders, lunch detention, letter to parents... One of the students picks up the box of pencils and goes around to hand them out. It may be a standard procedure in this class, but it could probably be done in a more effective way, as that student is doing a task that's unrelated to learning.

03:06

I see more signs that the classroom climate is not built around respect - students who are late walk in and offer no apology. One other thing I noticed is that Mr.T gives little to no feedback to his students. More about feedback and managing a classroom: https://www.edutopia.org/article/key-effective-classroom-management

04:23

Mr.T informs that this activity will last for another 2 minutes. With a timer visible to the students, this transition would be working better.

05:05

Mr.T should probe for deeper understanding and more meaningful answers, instead he is using "Can anyone..." questions, which are mainly about giving everyone an opportunity to say something. With more challenging types of questions starting with "why" and "how", and asking for opinions, Mr.T could start a discussion among the students, instead of being the one who has to prompt the students to participate with low level input. Here are some sample questions: http://www.lamission.edu/devcom/ProbingQuestions.htm More about different kinds of questions: https://teaching.uchicago.edu/resources/teaching-strategies/asking-effective-questions/

05:43

Mr. T talks too much. With a sentence or two that the students are supposed to discuss in groups, he could have had a livelier class, and more opportunities for the students to express their views.

06:12

I'm not clear on why that one student is sitting in a separate seat at the very front of the class. Therefore, I can't really comment on it, but surely there are better classroom set ups.

07:24

The best interactions Mr.T had were when he related to the students' prior experiences and their anticipation of things to happen in their lives. He could have used this more, maybe even by giving the students some agency or choices to choose from.

08:20

Mr.T is mostly moving around, which is a good thing. However, the students are seated in one area, so I would rearrange the desks to group 4 students around one desk island, and created a central space for the teacher to move in. Some of the students sitting in the back are very far from the board.