Classroom Management Plan Sp 03

CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT PLAN SP 03

Effective teachers are shrewd classroom managers who develop strategies and systems that allow them to handle a variety of practical, pedagogical, curricular, and administrative tasks with tranquility and efficiency. But ineffective teachers, without detailed classroom management plans in place, can find themselves constantly fighting losing classroom battles and becoming increasingly discouraged. These teachers demonstrate chronic difficulties sustaining student attention, often struggle through lessons, and waste a great deal of instructional time trying to control disruptive student behavior.

Since research shows that many new teachers with poor classroom management skills burn out and leave the teaching profession within five years, we want to be sure you develop a clear, comprehensive classroom management plan now. By thoughtful planning you can begin your teaching with an organized, supportive, productive environment that promotes the learning of all students and prevents the most common behavior problems.

Assignment

Your assignment is to prepare a detailed, well-written, thoughtful classroom management plan that can become a permanent part of your professional portfolio. Your plan will consist of written responses to the prompts outlined below. The information you need to respond to most of the prompts can be obtained from assigned readings for the class. You may utilize all resources available to you including class notes, previous observation and teaching experiences, our textbooks, library resources, online resources, school districts, and school site documents. To respond to some prompts you may need to visit a school or interview a teacher. If a response you write contradicts a practice recommended in your readings or by the professor, explain why the practice in your plan is better. Near the end of the semester your plan will be graded by applying the scoring guide given at the end of this assignment.

Documentation

To be adequate, responses to the prompts do not have to be long nor do they have to be particularly distinguished in style, but they must demonstrate an ability to adhere to conventions of standard written English—the written language common to professions. To be minimally acceptable the writing in your management plan must be clear and well organized; show accurate word usage in diction, vocabulary, and spelling; and meet conventions for grammar, spelling, punctuation, and mechanics.
For the most part your written plan will consist of descriptions of activities you will perform. Your descriptions of activities will be detailed enough for another teacher to follow. Your plan should not be written as a general set of principles without describing specific activities.
Personalize your report. Please write in the first person, rather than the third person. For example, use phrases like I intend to . . . . or I will . . . . rather than, Teachers should . . . .
It is recommended that you write in paragraph form and in complete sentences, avoiding the extensive use of sentence fragments and bullets (unless requested).
Present your responses in the same order as the prompts, using the same section headings and the same letters and numbers as given for the prompts.
Your plan must be typed or word-processed. Please double space the document and use a regular (easy-to-read) serif font, such as Times or New York.

7. Please do not turn in assignments in report covers; a staple or paper clip in the upper left corner is preferred.

8. If you directly use language from source material, you must document each reference appropriately, of course.

9. So I will not know whose plan I am reading until I have assigned a grade, please write your name only once on the plan and write it on the back of the last page.

10. When you submit your plan also submit the scoring guide at the end of this assignment.

Hint: You should begin working on this project early in the semester, writing responses to prompts as relevant material is covered in your assigned readings.

PROMPTS

I.Introduction Specify a grade level and briefly describe your students and the school where you teach (or hope to teach). For our purposes, you need to have at least seven students who are English language learners and two students with special education needs in your class.

Before the First Day of School Create a bulleted list entitled, “10 Things to Do Before the First Day of School.”

III.Rules, Procedures, and Arrangements

A.Rules

1. Provide a list of the classroom rules you will have. (Phrase them carefully, as if you were writing them on a classroom chart. It is recommended that you have only four to six brief rules.)

Describe the rewards or “positives” your students will earn or experience for following the rules.
Describe the consequences your students will encounter for breaking the rules.
How will the rewards and consequences be determined and communicated? Will you make charts? When and how will you communicate the rules to students and parents?
Describe any special incentive systems you plan to implement in your classroom. Is this a group incentive system or an individual incentive system? What do the students do? What does the teacher do? What materials are needed? Provide a sketch of the chart or materials or procedure, if possible. Or, if you will not use any incentive systems, explain why you object to the use of incentive systems.

B.Starting the Day

Explain how your students will transition into your classroom at the beginning of each school day. Do all students enter at once, or a few at a time? Discuss where students will put their coats, backpacks, lunches, lunch tickets, show-and-tell items, homework, and notes from home.
Do your students have a regular first task or sequence of tasks?
How will you efficiently handle attendance and lunch count?
Do you have a method for motivating students to arrive promptly on time to school? If so, describe it. Do you have a method for motivating students to come to school everyday they are well? If so, describe it.
If you plan to conduct a traditional “morning business” or calendar routine, describe it. What happens first, second, third, and so on? What do you do and what do the students do? What materials do you need on hand? (Some teachers do selection of activities from the following array: attendance, lunch count, flag salute, a morning song, silent reading, journal writing, current events, weather, recitation, sharing, a morning poem or famous quote, a Daily News activity, and/or a review of daily objectives or standards.)

C.During the Day

1.Prepare a sample daily class schedule, set up in 20-minute or 30-minute chunks. (See Charles & Senter, pp 21-23.) Be sure to allocate enough instructional time for reading and language arts (for your designated grade level). (You should consult the Reading-Language Arts Content Standards for California Public Schools, Kindergarten Through Grade Twelve. (1999). California Department of Education. Viewableonline at:

Will you have classroom helpers or monitors? If so, list the different types of monitors you will have. How often will you change monitors?

3. How will special education students and English language learners fit into your plan for using classroom helpers or monitors?

Distribution of materials. How will students receive worksheets and writing paper? How will books, crayons, glue, scissors, manipulatives, and P.E. equipment be distributed?
Where are pencils kept? What happens when students need pencils or when they need pencils sharpened? Where are erasers kept?
When students complete a class assignment, how and/or where do they turn in completed work papers to you? Do they pass papers back one-at-a-time or as a group?
What are your expectations or standards for your students when walking in line, or moving from place to place on campus as a class? How will you teach your students about this procedure?
What are your expectations or standards for the behavior of your students during an assembly on the yard or in the auditorium? How will you teach your students about these standards?

9. What are your expectations or standards for the behavior of your students during a trip to the library? How will you teach your students about these standards?

10.What are your expectations or standards for the behavior of your students on a bus ride and on a field trip? How will you teach your students about these standards?

11.Explain your procedure for sending students to a resource class (special education), to the nurse, and to the school office.

12.Describe your bathroom policy. How will students communicate their
requests to you?

13.What procedures are you going to follow during a fire drill? During an earthquake drill? During a lock-down alert? How will you properly prepare your students for these drills? (Research public school policies; don’t make this part up.)

D. At the End of the Day

1.Describe the sequence of closing activities you will follow at the end of
the day or class session.

2.How will you prepare your students to be successful on their homework assignments? How will you motivate students to return their homework to school?

3.How will school flyers, homework sheets, and graded papers be distributed?

How will you dismiss your students? How will students transition out of your classroom at the end of the day?

IV. Planning for Effective Instruction:

A.Describe the signal or signals will you use to gain the attention of students. Describe the signal or signals you will teach students to use to gain your attention.

Describe five strategies you will use to keep students engaged in learning activities. (see Slavin pp 372-377)
Describe how you will determine what accommodations your special education students will require.
Describe three ways to adapt instruction to the needs of special education students, including very bright students.
Describe three ways to adapt instruction to the needs of English language learners.
List and explain three questioning or probing strategies you will employ. (see p 231-235 in Slavin)
You will probably have students work together in groups from time to time. What are two different types of groups you might employ and how will membership in these groups be determined?
Identify at least five social skills you will teach your students so they can effectively participate in groups.
How will special education students and English language learners participate in groups, including working in pairs?
What steps will you take to insure smooth transitions as you move from one activity to another? (See Slavin p 374)
How and where will you post daily assignments, daily objectives, and state standards?
What are your standards for the type of paper students should use, headings, erasures, writing implement, etc.?
Will absent students be required to make up work? How will they find out what work has been missed?
What will the consequences be, if students fail to complete their in-class work?
Homework. Will you review homework with students together as a class each day or will students turn their homework in for you to check later? Will you actually grade all homework or will you merely check it in as ‘returned’? Will you return homework to students, or keep it? If a student fails to return a homework assignment or does a poor job, what will you do? Will you require the student to make-up the work? When would this happen?
How will you record student work?
List five ways that the students in your class will be acknowledged individually, and honored for their accomplishments, strengths, and growth. Include special education and ELL students.
Will you use portfolios? If so, what kinds of documents will be kept in the student portfolios? Who will select items for the portfolios?
Describe how you will display different kinds of student work.
How will you determine grading policies for the school to which you are assigned?
How will you handle grading disputes?

V. Communicating with Parents

Provide a copy of the letter you will send to parents at the beginning of the school year. Staple the copy as the last page of your report and write your name on the back of the letter.
Describe at least three things you will do to prepare for a parent/teacher conference.
Identify at least two ethical guidelines to follow when conferencing with parents.
What procedures will you follow when conducting parent/teacher conferences?
What could you do to motivate parents to meet you for a parent/teacher conference?
Create a bulleted list itemizing ten topics you might want to discuss at a parent/teacher conference.
Describe five strategies you will use to get parents involved (with homework/with the classroom/with special projects/with literacy/at the school level).
Identify and describe three actions you can take to accommodate the parents of ELL students.

VI.Substitutes

A.Present a bulleted list of documents or items that you will place in your substitute folder.

B.How will you prepare your students for a substitute teacher?

VII. Paraprofessionals

What steps will you take to orient a new paraprofessional to your classroom, your students, and your teaching methods?
Briefly, what instructions will you give paraprofessionals concerning who has responsibility for instruction, how you want them to handle discipline (or not), professional behavior, and legal requirements?

VIII. Classroom Arrangement You are to arrange a classroom (your own, an imaginary one, or one you’ve visited). Through drawings and explanations tell why you have made the arrangement. Your arrangement and explanation should address at least the following topics:

A.Wall and Floor Space: bulletin boards, student desks or tables, teacher’s desk and equipment, a small-group area, computer workstations, bookcases, centers, pets and plants, traffic patterns, pencil sharpener, black or white board/s, and a classroom library.

Storage Space and Supplies: text and trade books, student work, portfolio files, frequently used instructional materials, teacher’s supplies, classroom supplies, student belongings, equipment, seasonal or infrequently used items. (Do you intend to buy or build cubbies or mailboxes to hold student possessions?)

(Staple your drawing and your letter to the parents to the end of your plan.)

Scoring Guide for the Name ______

Classroom Management Plan EPC 500

Writing: Meets minimal professional standard? Yes ______No ______

Note: Numbers in parenthesis indicate possible points.POINTS SCORED

I. Introduction (2)______

II. Before the First Day of School

List of Things to Do Before the First Day of School (5 )______

III. Rules, Procedures, and Arrangements

A. Rules

1. List of rules (3 points)

2. Rewards? (1)

3. Consequences? (1)

4. How determined? (1)

5. Special incentive systems or rationale? (3)______

B. Starting the Day

1. Transitioning into the classroom/storage of belongings (3)

2. First task (1)

3. Attendance and lunch count (1)

4. Motivating punctuality and attendance (1)

5. Morning business/calendar sequence/materials (3)______

C. During the Day

1. Daily schedule/enough reading time? (3)

2. Classroom helpers/changing monitors/chart? (3)

3. Special Education and ELL helpers (2)

4. Distribution of materials (2)

5. Pencils and erasers (1)

6. Turning in completed work papers (1)

7. Walking in line (1)

8. Assemblies (1)

9. Library behavior (1)

10. Bus/field trip behavior (1)

11. Sending students out of the room to resource/nurse/office (1)

12. Bathroom policy and method of communication (1)

13. Fire drill/earthquake drill/lock-down alert procedures and preparation (3)______

D. At the End of the Day

1. Closing activities (1)

2. Homework preparation/motivation? (1)

3. Distribution of papers before dismissal (1)

4. Dismissal (1)______

IV. Planning for Effective Instruction

A. Signals for teacher/signals for students? (1)

B. Five strategies to keep students engaged. (5)

How determine accommodations for special ed. students (1)
Three ways to adapt instruction to special ed. students (1)
Three ways to adapt instruction to ELL students (1)
Three questioning or probing strategies (3)

G. Two types of groups/membership determination (4)

H.Five social skills will teach (2)

How special ed. and ELL participate in groups? (1)
Steps for smooth transitions (2)

K.Posting assignments/objectives/standards (3)

L.Standards for paper, headings, etc. (1)

M.Making up work for absentees? Finding out about assignments? (1)

N.Consequences for failure to complete in-class work? (1)

Checking homework, grading policy, returning it, making up missed work (3)

P.Recording work (1)

Q.Five ways to acknowledge individuals, including Spec. Ed. and ELL (5)

Portfolios (1)

S.Displaying student work (2)

Determining grading policies (1)
Handling grading disputes (1)______

V. Communicating with Parents

A. Your beginning-of-the-year letter to parents (3)

B. Three things to prepare for conference (3)

C.Two ethical guidelines (2)

D. What procedures follow during conference (1)

E.What do to motivate parents to meet with you? (2)

F.List of 10 topics to discuss at the parent/teacher conference (3)

Five parent involvement strategies (5)
Five ways to accommodate parents of ELL students (2)______

VI. Substitutes

A. List of documents for your sub folder (2)

B. Preparing students for a substitute teacher (1)______

VII. Paraprofessionals

Steps to orient paraprofessionals to room, students, teaching methods (3)
Instructions about responsibility, discipline, professional behavior,

legal requirements (4)______

VIII. Classroom Arrangement (Drawings and Explanations)

A.Wall and Floor Space: bulletin boards, student desks/tables, teacher’s desk and equipment,

small-group area, computer workstations, bookcases, centers, pets and plants, traffic patterns,

pencil sharpener, black/white boards, and classroom library (5 points)

B.Storage Space and Supplies: text and trade books, student work, portfolio files,

frequently used instructional materials, teacher’s supplies, classroom supplies,

student belongings, equipment, seasonal or infrequently used items (5 points)______

IX. Effort, Thoughtfulness, and Thoroughness (5)______

(150 Possible) TOTAL ______