Classroom Management (K-5)
Transforming classroom chaos into student achievement.
What is classroom management?
Classroom management is about organization and consistency. It is a collection of procedures carefully planned out and orchestrated to help bring order to your classroom allowing for student success. It is a proactive approach used to promote responsibility which leads to desirable behavior and increased time on task. to dealing with potential problems that could distract from the learning process.
Although people often think of discipline when they hear the term, classroom management is NOT about discipline. Discipline is a reactive approach with negative consequences as a result of behavior that distracts from the learning process.
Classroom management is not something you decide on in the moment. It is carefully planned out in advance. Remember: if you fail to plan then you plan to fail! Most problems in the classroom are not discipline related; they are policy related. Do you have a classroom management plan? No, let's start creating one NOW!
Good classroom management is based on the behavior of the teachers- not the behavior of students.
The First Day of School
Douglas Brooks, Miami University of Ohio, discovered that students want to know seven things right away on the first day of school.
- Am I in the right room?
- Where am I supposed to sit?
- What are the rules in this class?
High achieving students are concerned with the following two questions.
- What will I be doing?
- How will I be graded?
At-risk students are concerned with the following two questions.
- Who is the teacher as a person?
- Will my teacher treat me fairly?
Let's create your classroom management plan!
Vision
Example: " I want my students to experience playful creative exploration and have independent freedom to create and reflect on their work and themselves."
Mission
What will you do every day to make sure that your vision is achieved?
Example: "I will strive to make everyday a new and positive experience for my students."
Daily Affirmation
I am because WE are.
I must make sure that you succeed if I am to be successful. If you fail- then we all fail- and we were created to be great. Great beyond measure! We cannot consider ourselves great if even one of us fails. If we leave even ONE behind we are ALL behind.
I want you to be all you can be, because that's the only way I can be all I can be.
Ubuntu! Ubuntu! Ubuntu!
Procedures
The following are all areas you need to have procedures for in your classroom. The asterisk denotes that this is something you will need to manage versus students following a procedure. For example, taking test will not only require a routine for the students but it is also something you will need to prepare for. You might require students to use privacy shields when they test. Which means privacy shields would need to be purchased or made in order for students to be able to follow that procedure.
The following procedures should help get you started with you management plan. Your class may not require all of these and likewise you may feel the need to add other procedures that will help your class run more efficiently. The purpose of this is to customize this to fit your unique needs.
START OF CLASS (p. 60)
DAILY AGENDA (p. 64)
OPENING ASSIGNMENT (p. 70)
TAKING ATTENDANCE (p. 76)
DISMISSING CLASS (p. 82)
COLLECTING NOTES AND FORMS (p. 88)
CLASSROOM TARDINESS (p. 92)
ABSENT FOLDER (p. 96)
ORGANIZING HOMEWORK (p.100)
PAPER HEADINGS (p. 104)
UNFINISHED CLASS ASSIGNMENTS (p. 108)
EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS* (p. 112)
GETTING STUDENTS ATTENTION (p. 118)
CLASSROOM JOBS (p. 122)
CLASSROOM PHONE (p. 126)
BATHROOM BREAKS (p. 130)
PENCIL SHARPENER & ALL THINGS PENCILS (p. 134)
DESKS (p. 138)
COLLECTING AND RETURNING PAPERS (p. 142)
CLASSROOM TRANSITIONS (p. 146)
KEEPING STUDENTS ON TASK (p. 150)
FINISHING WORK EARLY* (p. 154)
MISSING ASSIGNMENTS* (p. 158)
DAILY CLOSING MESSAGE (p. 162)
INFRACTION NOTICE (p. 166)
MORNING MEETINGS (p. 170)
CLASS DISCUSSIONS (p. 174)
WORKING IN GROUPS* (p. 180)
NOTE TAKING (p. 184)
READING A TEXTBOOK (p. 188)
D.E.A.R. (R.A.P.) TIME* (p. 192)
TAKING A TEST* (p. 196)
STUDENTS CORRECTING WORK (p. 200)
CULTIVATING SOCIAL SKILLS (p. 204)
WALKING TO ANOTHER LOCATION (p. 220)
SUBSTITUTE TEACHER HANDBOOK* (p. 242)
PARENT VOLUNTEERS* (p. 250)
CLASSROOM VISITORS (p. 254)
PARENT TEACHER CONFERENCES* (p. 256)
BACK TO SCHOOL NIGHT* (p. 260)
TECHNOLOGY IN THE CLASSROOM (p. 268)
Classroom Discipline Plan
Keep these rules short, simple, and to the point. Display them so that they are easily visible and can be referred to often. Start tough! You can always lighten up but you can never go in reverse.
POSITIVE CONSEQUENCES
Build in opportunities for students to earn individual and class rewards to encourage positive behavior. Incentivize good behavior with things like preferred activity time.
NEGATIVE CONSEQUENCES
Penalties for breaking rules should be clear and understood by all. You should also make sure that they can be enforced and doesn't conflict with any school or district policies. Be certain to enforce negative consequences consistently.
EXPECT THE BEST
Always expect the best out of students and more times than not you will get it. Likewise, teachers who expect very little of their students will often get very little from their students in return.
Feel free to get creative when introducing them to students. Many, if not all of our students use social media so they are quite familiar with memes. You could create a presentation using current and popular images used in memes. Take a look at the one I've used in the past.
After expectations are explained to students you should have a written version for parents to view as well. You should also consider creating a student/parent behavior contract as well. Take a look at a sample of a Student/Parent Behavior Contract.
The Infraction Book
Each student has a page with the infraction information on the front and a communication log on the back. The infraction book can follow your class throughout the school or simply remain in your class. Parent communication should come at predetermined intervals specified by your discipline plan.
Organize the Classroom
Classroom seating arrangements should support your teaching style and objectives and not sabotage them.
Rows/ Columns
Teacher- Centered Instruction
Independent Learning Format
Suitable for All Class Sizes
Pros
- Encourages individual work and productivity
- Minimizes disruptions and cheating
- Effective for demonstrations, test taking, and presentations
- Easier to supervise
Cons
- Discourages student- centered discussion and group work
- Easier to students to lose focus
- Uneven distribution of interaction amongst class
- Difficult for teachers to move easily from student to student
Horseshoe/ U-Shape
Teacher and Learner Centered Instruction
Large Group Format
Best for Small and Medium Sized Classes
Pros
- Easier to interact with entire class
- Encourages discussion and participation
- Fosters connection between students and educator
- Large area for presentations and demonstrations
Cons
- Not suitable for work in small groups
- May overwhelm shy students
- May be difficult to control behavior
- Larger classes may have difficulty engaging in discussions
Clusters
Predominantly Learner Centered Instruction
Small Group Format
Suitable for All Class Sizes
Pros
- Encourages interaction of all students
- Creates a more personal and safe environment for students to convey their ideas
- Promotes cooperation and teamwork
- Develops reflection, problem solving, and communication skills
- Flexibility to strategically form groups
- Suitable for small spaces
Cons
- Increased noise level, distractions, and off-task behavior
- Decreased productivity
- Less individual accountability (ex. strongest student may do the bulk of the work)
- Harder to assess students' abilities and level of understanding
Runway
Stadium
Combination
Scripting the First Day of School
To help learn routines you could introduce your procedures to your students through station rotations. See a sample of a first day activity of station rotations.
Common Behavior Problems and How to Fix Them
The Talker
This student is disrupting others around them with consistent talking.
- Give a positive redirection followed with a "thank you." It communicates that this is the expectation and not a request.
- Try a strategic pause to communicate the expectation that students look toward you, listen, and subsequently respond. Even if you call a misbehaving student's name, try a pause before giving a positive direction or reminder so the student has time to focus.
- Stay focused on the primary issue. Do not get drawn into secondary issues. For example, "But we were only talking about the work," argues the student. "Maybe you were, but I want you to face the front and listen, thanks. You'll need to know this stuff," responds the teacher, redirecting the focus to continuing the lesson.
The Boycotter
This student simply refuses to do their work often pulling teachers into a power struggle.
- Give students a choice — with consequences attached. For example, "If you choose not to do the work now, you will need to do it during free time." Using the word "choose" or "choice" is important because students need to understand that they have control over how they behave. Their behavior is their responsibility.
- Provide take-up time. This refers to the time students have to respond to corrective discipline. If you turn briefly to respond to another student or survey the room, this gives the student a chance to save face while complying, and it eliminates a prolonged confrontation.
- Reestablish the relationship. After a student has complied, a simple smile or positive comment reassures the student that you aren't holding a grudge and his or her relationship with you is still secure.
The Debater (or The Sulker)
This student challenges everything a teacher says or does.
- Distinguish between primary and secondary behavior. A student's words, tone of voice, body language, and "attitude" often distract us from the original, often minor infraction. For example, "Oscar, I notice that you haven't started. Any problems?" the teacher asks politely. "Yeah, well, I haven't got a pen, have I?" Oscar snarls in reply. Try to ignore this secondary behavior in the heat of the moment.
- Avoid unnecessary power struggles. It's tough not to overreact and get defensive when a student's attitude and body language are hostile. But overreaction only extends the conflict. Instead, remain assertive, but civil, and redirect the student to the primary issue.
- Plan a follow-up. While it usually works better to ignore secondary behavior in the heat of the moment, plan an after-class discussion with students who habitually exhibit such behavior. Explain what their secondary behavior sounds and looks like, and how it affects your working relationship.
For the Sulker schedule an after-class chat. A private discussion helps the student to understand that the habitual secondary behavior is unacceptable.
- Time your invitation effectively. Inform the student of an after-class chat just before the recess bell, or just before class ends. That avoids any prolonged discussion of "What have I done?"
- Keep your presentation positive. Teachers must correct and guide students in a positive and friendly manner.
- Offer to mirror the problem behavior. Many students don't see their behavior as teachers do. Their poor social skills and bad habits come across as rudeness, even if they don't mean to be rude. In a friendly, unthreatening manner, demonstrate the postures, gestures, and tone of voice the student uses, then explain: "I don't speak like that to you. When you speak like that, it shows disrespect because of the tone and the way you say it." Explain how such behavior affects working relationships.
The Clinger
This student rarely does anything without demanding the teacher's immediate help and attention.
- Start with tactical ignoring. Keep the focus on the lesson, or on acknowledging and reinforcing students who follow the rules and ask for help at appropriate times. For example, while you are conferring with one student, ignore the student who is interrupting and asking you to look at his paper right now. When he sits down and waits quietly (maybe after a reminder), go to him enthusiastically, reinforcing his improved behavior.
- Combine simple directions and reminders with hand signals. "Hands up without calling out, thanks," or "Please wait your turn." Well-established hand signals are effective, too, such as blocking hand to signal that a student should wait.
- Give students alternatives. An established routines such as, "Ask three before you ask me," works in many situations. In other words, students should ask three peers before seeking your help. Encourage students to help each other, turning to you for help only as a last resort.
Rogers, Bill. Behaviour Management: A Whole-school Approach. London: Paul Chapman, 2007. Print.
Choices vs. Consequences
Let’s say a student named Jason is up and walking about your room while the rest of the class is working independently. He’s tapping his pencil on various objects. He’s shuffling his feet. And although capable, he’s grumbling under his breath that he doesn’t want to do his work anymore. But instead of simply following your discipline plan for breaking a class rule, you negotiate with him. You try to coax him away from disturbing others by giving him options to choose from.
“Hey Jase, do you want to do just a few problems instead of all of them?”
“How ’bout if you did your work on the rug? Would you like that?”
“Would you prefer to draw a picture instead of writing it out?”
“Why don’t you take a little break and work on your iPad?”
“What about taking a walk down the hall, and getting away for a few minutes?”
“Do you want to be my helper, and do your work another time?”
NO-OOOOOOOOO!!!
1. When you appease difficult students by lowering academic or behavioral standards, you send an unmistakable message that they can complain, disrupt, and misbehave their way out of anything they deem unpleasant.
2. Offering choices rewards bad behavior, defiance, selfishness and the like, thus encouraging more frequent and more severe misbehavior. Unless, that is, you continue lowering the bar and sweetening the choices.
3. By giving in so readily, even voluntarily, you’re essentially telling them that you believe they’re incapable of changing their behavior. This is a form of labeling, and it is devastating to difficult students.
4. It’s confirmation from an authoritative source that misbehavior isn’t just something they do, but it’s who they are, like eye color or shoe size, and something they have little control over. Unless this label is reversed, they will continue to misbehave year after year.
5. It’s a philosophy that believes that an upset or uncomfortable child is to be avoided at all costs, which not only doesn’t reflect the world we live in, but it makes a mockery of the critical role of perseverance and hard work in academic as well as personal success.
6. Offering choices assuages misbehavior in the moment, but does nothing to curb it going forward. In other words, it’s a band-aid that sacrifices the child’s future for the here and now.
7. When you excuse, enable, and offer escape routes, you set limits on students and their capacity to rise above challenges and overcome difficulties. You lead them away from success, not toward it.
8. Letting students off the hook is akin to telling them they’re not good enough or worthy enough to be held to a higher standard, which strips away dignity and self-confidence faster and more effectively than yelling, sarcasm, or any other harmful method.
9. Going back on your word by failing to follow the rules of your classroom causes resentment and distrust from all students and severely limits your ability to lead and build meaningful, influential relationships.
10. Baiting students with more attractive choices creates an environment of entitlement and causes them to react to firm direction and accountability with aggressive push-back.
In other words, instead of offering choices and telling them they can’t, give them consequences...
And tell them they can.
Experience Has Taught Me...
- Sometimes it's better to ignore a situation that you don't like. If you must take action use hand signals. Take a look at some common ASL sign language used in the classroom.
- Proximity control works wonders. It's better to move closer to the student than to move the student closer to you.
- Avoid confrontations- you automatically LOSE!
- To combat attention- seeking behaviors move around the classroom and acknowledge acceptable behavior.
- Tell a misbehaving child exactly what you want and expect. Also let them know the consequences for misbehaving.
- Reduce time limits. Students tend to operate better with short-range goals.
- DON'T THREATEN or be sure you can carry it out.
- Know your personnel! A trip to the office might be exactly what they want.
- Reprimand privately to avoid humiliation.
- Pick your battles wisely. Is the behavior destructive and harmful? Or is it a matter of personal preference?
Dana Fitzpatrick, M.Ed.
Email: dana.fitzpatrick@manorisd.net
Website: http://www.manorisd.net/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=476705&type=u&pREC_ID=682146
Location: 10335 U.S. 290, Manor, TX, United States
Phone: (512) 278-4395
Twitter: @DFitzClass