(c)1996. All rights reserved. Fair use by teachers and students is authorized. Commercial use is prohibited except by prior written permission by the authorIf you are to teach successfully, you must have the circumstances that make it possible for you to teach and for your pupils to learn. Those circumstances do not happen by accident. You need to develop a plan to ensure that reasonable circumstances for teaching and learning do occur.
Each teacher, class, subject,and situation is different. No plan will fit every situation.
The purpose of this text (and the Classroom Management Workshop it was designed to supplement) is to help you develop a discipline plan for your class, to know how to diagnose problems, and to know how to change the plan to fit changed situations.
Prior to 1970 there were no systematic classroom control models. Schools of education gave random good advice...much of which was useful. In the early 1960's, our societies' conventions and the schools started to come unglued. Teachers had previously been able to maintain order by asserting their authority. Pupils generally were reasonably well behaved and rarely required much disciplinary attention from the teacher. The old methods began to fail.
Teachers typically do the best that they know how to do. Some have discipline problems. Many of the teachers currently in the schools have not received systematic help to this day. Unless their school has brought in a workshop presenter, it is unlikely that they have had systematic instruction in developing a discipline plan for their classes.
In the decade from 1969 to 1979, a number of models were developed to deal with the fact that teachers all over the country were complaining that they could no longer teach effectively because of classroom disruption and student inattention.
A number of researchers observed the teaching of many instructors. They noted what worked and what didn't work. They developed systematic ways to deal with the problems of class control. Several of these systematic models are given in brief form here.
The descriptions of the following models have been digested by Tom Allen and modified to fit his own experience, other sources and workshops with such presenters as Lee Canter and Fred Jones. The models are summarized from Building Classroom Discipline: From Models to Practice, by C.M. Charles, Longman:New York, 1985. Charles has summarized seven systematic models of classroom management. Each of these has elements that you may find appropriate now or in the future. The models are based on extensive observation of pupil and teacher behavior and on research into various psychological aspects of human nature and behavior. They incorporate what is deemed to work in the hands of successful teachers.
The plan of this class is to work through the available options and develop a plan that will make it possible for you to teach and the pupils to learn...and for you to feel comfortable with what you do to make it possible.
Annual polls of beliefs about the schools consistently rate the lack of discipline at the top of the list of problems. Teachers and the general public agree on this. Even pupils agree that the lack of classroom discipline is the main problem. One poll found that 9 out of 10 teachers complained that student misbehavior interfered with their teaching.
Although fear of physical attack is common, serious injury of teachers is very rare. Verbal encounters with hostile students are more common. Violence among pupils and vandalism are common. But what is disrupting classes is relatively innocuous. Fred Jones researched the problem and found that about 99% of the typically encountered discipline problems are made up of such behaviors as pupils talking without permission, daydreaming, wandering around the room, or otherwise not doing what they have been asked to do.
If Jones is correct that nearly all of what bugs teachers is no more significant than goofing off, why all the concern? This low level misbehavior interferes with teaching and learning. It is a heavy contributor to stress and "burn-out." The need to deal constantly with noisy, disorderly, and discourteous behavior...and the occasionally serious confrontation with defiant behavior...wears teachers down. It is to deal with these routine distractions and to reduce the likelihood for confrontations that systematic classroom control models have been developed.
Although significant elements of various models have been presented here, the rationales and examples have been generally omitted due to space limitations. The selections were made to give an idea of the range of options open to the teacher...if you want to know more about one or more of the models, consult Building Classroom Discipline: From Models to Practice, by C.M. Charles, Longman:New York, several editions, or look up works by the authors of the individual models. When funding permits, the TPSS Program offers TPSS 701 Assertive Discipline and TPSS 701 Classroom management Techniques. These workshops, taught by local public school educators who have been trained by Lee Canter or Fred Jones, are highly recommended.
Underlying all discipline problems and efforts to cope with misbehavior are four basic realities of human nature: We tend to resist doing what others try to make us do; we like to denigrate and "question authority"; every person is different in interests, abilities and learning styles as well as different needs, wants and values; and, as children grow older, they need to be weaned psychologically in order to develop their potential. The ultimate goal should be to develop self-discipline in pupils and to move away from external, authority-imposed control; in the meanwhile, a systematic control system makes it possible for teachers to teach and pupils to learn. This teacher-imposed plan should provide for a transition to self-control and should wither away as it is no longer needed.
In preparing a discipline plan, consider what your objectives are and what needs to happen for those objectives to come about. Avoid jumping directly to a solution. If you say, "I have this tool [for example, detention], that ought to work." You have locked into a single option. To a person with a new hammer, everything looks like a nail.Return to top of this pageIt is more productive to ask yourself, "I need to get John to stop talking and get to work. What options do I have?"
My workshop participants have brainstormed a number of options for each of the elements of a discipline plan: rules, positive and negative reinforcers, limit-setting acts, etc. I list many of them here--with my comments for some in brackets. I don't necessarily recommend all of them and you should only use those appropriate to your situation and that you will feel comfortable using in practice.
State rules positively when possible, use as few rules as you can and still reach your objectives, let one rule cover a number of related ideas, and explain the rules with examples to your class.
What (few) rules do you really need to set the environment for learning?
Eye contact--composed face
Proximity
Calming gesture
Place hand on the pupil's desk or book
Open student's book and point at work to be started
Tap on teacher's desk
Flash lights off and on
Personal contact [see "touching" in GESA materials for explanation--touching is powerful and potentially dangerous]
Peer pressure [may assist but not something teacher can direct]
Model expected behavior
Point to posted rule
Circle child who is asleep/off-task while continuing lecture
The Stare
Silence [then follow up with gesture when the student looks up]
Blow a whistle, click a clicker, tinkle a bell, etc.
Ignore intentionally [note: by the time the teacher realizes that a child is off task, [there has usually been enough time for extinction to work if it is going to work.]
Start over
Talk with student after class
Nod or point with eye contact
Moving in [it is suggested that you not attempt the Fred Jones sequence unless you have been trained/practiced.]
Point at student
Hand gestures, e.g., palm down or out, thumbs down
Incorporate student who is off-task into the demonstration [not a put down: "Joe, please hold the end of this for me"]
Raise your hand [cooperative learning signal]
If a general problem, have class reenter the room
Verbal acts short of consequences:
Call student by name
I need you to....
Quietly, calmly [one-to-one] state what you want, e.g., "I need you to...."
Compliment someone who is on task [Lee Canter says to compliment several acts before applying negative consequences]
Peer counseling [e.g., send a pair out so the rules can be explained before consequences affecting preferred activity time would be imposed
Broken record [in lieu of arguing about what happened] "I need you to...." "But Louie started it." "I need you to ...."
Limit setting acts are the preferred thing for the teacher to do to stop misbehavior...only use the negative consequences when limit setting isn't working or when the act is deliberate/persistent
Positive consequences, as used here are typically attached to specific, individual behaviors, e.g., when an individual gives a correct response, you praise the answer. Preferred Activity Time [PAT] is given as a result of accumulated positive class behavior over a period of time. Some of the following could be utilized as positive consequences for individual or class acts as well as being on the list of preferred activities to be chosen by the class when "Preferred Activity Time Friday" comes.
Recognition
Happy Gram to Parent/Student
Recognition in daily bulletin
Smile
Pat on back
Display work
Standing ovation
Round of applause
Encouraging words
Privileges
Library pass
Free time
Choice of where to sit
Use of lab equipment
Allow to do special experiment
Computer time
No weekend homework
Choice of music
Early to lunch
Tangible Rewards
Snacks/soft drinks in room
Free pass to event
Video treat
Bonus points
Video game tokens
Extra credit
Return to the top of this page
Send to room 12 [you and another teacher have agreed to park the other's problems...a visiting "non person" may return when assignment is completed.]
Parent attends class with miscreant by mutual agreement
Tape recorder "so I can play it when your mother asks what you've been up to."
Contract [between teacher and pupil]
Ten laps/essay [do you want to equate school work with punishment?]
Isolation [be careful about parking child in the hallway...it gets to be great fun when several are there from different classes; your supervision responsibility is in jeopardy; check to see if there is a school rule aboutthis. May be o.k. if, "John, I want you to wait for me outside the door, I'll be there as soon as I get the class started...."]
Restrict activity
Name on the board, check marks [lunch-time/after school detention]
Phone parents
Send letter home [see sample following this section]
Give minus points/demerits [this only works if you have a way to earn points/merits]
Cease activity students want
Take time away from PAT [not usually advisable unless you typically give liberally as well as take away]
Lose lab points
Lose a privilege
Time out
Stop the lesson [Lee Canter says you should always stop and deal with interruptions; however, limit-setting acts may be used without interruption of the lesson.]
Solitary time
Restrict student to chair
Extra work [do you wish to equate school work with punishment?]
Have student apologize to teacher and class [only if student has agreed to do so privately beforehand and if there is reason to believe that the student intends to follow through.]
Clean room
Charge a fee [may not be legal; check this out before announcing it.]
Referral to office
Detention [school-wide plan]
Student-Parent-Teacher-Administrator/counselor conference [usually terminates with a contract]
Deliver student to parent
In-school suspension
Suspension in office
Suspend from class [teacher can do this for one day...check school policy on notification...administrator can suspend for longer period.]
Suspend from school [only administrator can]
Expulsion [only school board can]
Note: Police and court actions may be used if indicated by the crime. A school attendance review board [SARB] may be used if appropriate.
October xx, 199x
Dear Mr. and Mrs. Smith:
Your son, Bill, talks to the people sitting near him in his U.S. History class so much that it interferes with his learning and with their learning.
I have talked with him about it, but the problem persists.
I have attached a copy of the class discipline plan to this letter for your convenience. As you can see, the next step is for me to notify you.
If Bill continues to disrupt the class, the next step is suspension from this class for one period and referral to the office.
From our earlier conversation, I know you have high hopes for Bill. I need your help now. Please discuss this with Bill. I am sure that we can bring about a change if we work together. If you have any questions, please call me at 000-0000 between 11:00 am and 12:00 noon, my preparation period, or call me at home between 7:00 and 9:00 p.m. at 111-1111.
Please sign below and ask Bill to return this to me so that I will know that you received the message.
Sincerely,
Eric Q. Teacher
cc: Bill Smith
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