The article talked about a lot of things that every teacher should be aware of when managing a classroom.
When dealing with a student that consistently neglects the classroom rules, the article talked about designing two strategies: one that decreases the likelihood of the behavior continuing, and one that encourages the acceptable behavior. It discussed doing this in several ways. One was to remove any environmental triggers that may cause the behavior to occur such as removing them from a social situation like their seating assignment. It is important that teachers use cues to encourage the student to get on task or to perform a certain behavior so that it becomes familiar. One of the student teachers in my section uses a set of cards she wears around her neck that she uses throughout the day to remind a student about behavior expectations. Instead of asking her to follow directions or sit criss cross apple sauce, she holds up the card. That student knows what each card means and the teacher does no have to interrupt her instruction time to reinforce the behavior.
Also it is important to be fair and consistent on the teacher’s part so that the students see a clear correlation between their behavior and the reward/consequences. So when working on specific behaviors, it is usually helpful to work with one issue at a time in order to isolate the issues.
One thing that is important to think about when giving a behavioral direction is to use an unemotional tone. Students can sense when their behavior is affecting your mood and they play off of it. Using their name, a specific description of the misbehavior, and a specific description of the desired behavior, followed by a wait time of about 5 seconds can prove to be effective. This is one area I would like to improve. Certain students push my buttons easier than others and I need to focus on keeping an unemotional tone and being specific when I give the directions so there is no in between, back and forth, or uncertainty.
Nagging is hardly ever useful. It is more likely that the student will engage in defiant behavior. Nagging doesn’t really create a positive environment because the student feels like they are always being picked on or reprimanded. Just like when parents nag their children about their rooms.
Planned ignoring was another option the article discussed. My team uses this strategy with several of our students. These students seek the attention of both their peers and their teachers, so they are often calling out and otherwise interrupting instructional time. I have noticed that constantly addressing their behavior doesn’t really solve the problem. If anything, it reinforces it and they call out or misbehave and are defiant even more. By using planned ignoring, the student does not get the attention from the teacher they are seeking and usually gets the hint. However, the students sometimes get the response from their peers. We have discussed this several times and we have even conferenced with several students about the way their behavior impacts other students. Sometimes this works and sometimes it doesn’t. Again, it goes back to the amount of time I have been their full time teacher as well. I am looking forward to using these strategies in my own classroom next year and will hopefully receive positive results. I am confident that the behavior strategies I have learned will be very useful when I have my own classroom from the very beginning.
