1 Be in charge.
As
the teacher, and the adult, you are ‘in charge’. It is your classroom and you
must actively and consciously make the rules and decisions, rather than letting
them happen out of habit, poor organisation or at the whim of the pupils.
Demonstrate
your ‘in-chargeness’ by the position you take in the room; keep on your feet as
much as possible and be where you can watch everything that is going on. Pupils
should be convinced you have eyes in the back of your head! Pick up the good
things they are doing (see number 3 below). Keep moving around the classroom to
establish yourself as the focal point of interest and authority.
Remember
that the pupils need to feel safe; they can only do this if you are in charge.
Do not justify or apologise for your rules, your standards or your insistence
on compliance.
2 Use positive classroom rules.
Pupils
need to know what is expected of them in your classroom. Establish a set of
rules, no more than 4 or 5, which make desired behaviour explicit; display them
prominently in the room and refer to them frequently so that they don’t
disappear into the wallpaper!
The
rules should tell the pupils what to do, rather than what not to do, eg
O Don’t call out.
P Put up your hand and wait
to speak.
O Don’t walk around the classroom.
P Stay in your seat.
O Don’t break things.
P Look after classroom
equipment.
Praise
good behaviour and refer to the rule being followed. Use the rules to point out
inappropriate behaviour, “Remember our rule about …”
Have
a ‘feature’ rule now and again, written on the board and tied to a special
individual or class reward to be given to pupils who follow the rule.
3 Make rewards work
for you.
Give
pupils relevant rewards for desirable behaviours, starting tasks, completing
tasks, following class rules, etc. The goal is to establish the HABIT of
co-operation. Standards can be subtly raised once the habit has been
established. The easiest, quickest and most appreciated reward is descriptive
praise.
Other
possible rewards, besides those used as a school-wide system are:
- a note home to parents
- name on a special chart which earns a later tangible reward
- being given special responsibilities
- being allowed to go first
- having extra choices
4 Catch them being
good.
Praise
is the most powerful motivator there is. Praise the tiniest steps in the right
direction. Praise often, using descriptive praise, for example, ‘It can be
annoying having to look up words in the dictionary. I can see you are getting
impatient but the dictionary is still open in front of you. You haven’t given
up.’ Or, ‘I can see you don’t want to come in from break, but you are facing
the right direction for coming in.’ Be willing to appreciate the smallest of
effort and explain why it pleases you.
Pupils
will not think you are being too strict and will not resent your firm decision
making if you remember to smile, to criticise less and to praise more. Tell the
pupils there will be positive consequences for positive behaviour, then follow
through and show them.
Stick
to your guns and don’t be ‘bullied’ into giving rewards that haven’t been
earned.
Some positive behaviours are easily overlooked.
Try to remember to praise pupils for:
- homework in on time
- homework in late but at least it’s in
- working quietly
- good attendance
- neat desk
- not swinging on chair
- smiling
- contributing to class discussion
- helping another pupil
- not laughing at another pupil’s mistakes
- promptly following your instructions
- wearing glasses
- using common sense
Use
the reward systems of the school consistently and fairly.
5 Be specific and
clear in your instructions
Get
a pupil’s full attention before giving instructions. Make sure everyone is
looking at you and not fiddling with a pencil, turning around, looking at a
book, etc. Only give instructions once; repeating can unwittingly train a pupil
to not bother to listen properly the first time. Smile as you give
instructions.
Don’t
be too wordy and don’t imply choice when there actually isn’t a choice by
tacking ‘Okay?’ on the end, or sound as though you are merely suggesting,
‘Would you like to …?’ ‘How about …?’
‘Don’t you think you should …?’
Be
very clear in all your instructions and expectations. Have a pupil repeat them
back to you.
6 Deal with low level
behaviours before they get big
Low
level, or minor, behaviour infringements will escalate if they are
not
dealt with quickly and consistently. A pupil’s behaviour is reinforced
when
he gets attention for it, but don’t be tempted to ignore it. Find a
calm
and quiet way to let the child know that you see exactly what he is
doing
and that there is a consequence, without making a fuss, getting
upset
or sounding annoyed.
Give
your instructions once only. If the pupil continues to misbehave, instead of
repeating your original instruction, try one or more of these actions:
- point to a place (eg on the board, on a post-it in the pupil’s book, a note on your desk) where you wrote down the original instruction at the time you first gave it
- use a description of reality, ‘Alfie, you are tapping your ruler.’
- stop everything and look at the pupil pointedly and wait for them to figure out why
- descriptively praise those who are behaving appropriately, praise the target pupil as soon as he complies
- ask other pupils what is needed (the squirm factor)
Always
follow through, even on minor infractions, so that pupils know there is no
point in testing. They should know what will happen. Only give second chances
after a period of good behavior.
7 The consequences of
non-compliance.
Help
the pupil to do whatever you’ve asked him to do. If he has thrown pencils on
the floor, help him to pick them up.
If
a pupil does not obey instructions straight away, do not give up. Keep waiting.
Praise every little step in the right direction, even the absence of the wrong
thing. For example, if you’ve just asked a pupil to stand up and he’s not doing
it, you could say, ‘You’re not swearing now, thank you.’
Do
not protect the pupil from the consequences of his action or lack of action.
The pupil is making a choice and you will have told him this, and given a clear
warning of the consequence.
A
consequence should be uncomfortable and not upsetting enough to breed more
resentment. The purpose of the consequence is to prompt the pupil to think, ‘I
wish I hadn’t done that.’
Have
a ready repertoire of easy to implement and monitor consequences. These might
include:
- loss of choices (eg where to sit)
- loss of break time
- loss of a privilege
- sitting in silence for a set amount of time
8 Find a ‘best for
both outcome’.
Avoid
confrontational situations where you or the pupil has to back down. Talk to the
pupil in terms of his choices and the consequences of the choices, and then
give them ‘take up’ time.
‘Fred,
I want you to leave the room. If you do it now we can deal with it quickly. If
you choose not to then we will use your break time to talk about it. It’s your
choice. I’ll meet you outside the door in two minutes.’ Then walk away and
wait.
‘Joe,
put your mobile phone in your bag or on my desk. If you choose not to do that
it will be confiscated,’ then walk away and wait.
9 Establish ‘start of
lesson’ routines.
Never
attempt to start teaching a lesson until the pupils are ready. It’s a waste of
everyone’s energy, giving the impression it’s the teacher’s job to force pupils
to work and their job to resist, delay, distract, wind up, etc. Often this task
avoidance is a ‘smoke screen’ hiding worries about what you are going to ask
them to do.
Have
a routine way of starting a lesson; a quiet activity that pupils can get right
down to, without needing any explanation. Handwriting, copying the lesson objectives from the board, spelling practice (familiar key language from the current
topic), mental arithmetic are good activities to set a quiet tone. Do not allow
discussion or be drawn into discussion yourself – say there will be time for
that later and make sure you follow this through.
If
you take the time to establish this, lessons will start themselves! You won’t
have that battle at the beginning of every lesson to get yourself heard.
10 Manage the end of
the lesson.
Do
not run your lesson right up to the last minute and then have to rush because
the next class is waiting. Allow time to wind down, answer questions, put
equipment away, refer to WILT and how this has been met, outline plans for next
lesson, etc.
Have
a short, educational game up your sleeve if there is time to spare.
Manage
the pupils’ exit of the room, have them stand behind their chairs and wait to
be asked to leave. Address each pupil by name and have them tell you some good
news about the lesson, or you tell them something they did well today. Send
them out one-by-one.
