Fray and Kirby
2015 UTeach Conference
3 Principlesof classroom management
to promotemotivationand cooperation
- Use “I” statements
- Focus on how you will run your lifeand avoid telling students how to run their lives. Avoids telling students “what to do”.
- Ex: I do this when that happens. I grade papers that are turned in on time. I take off points when students don’t participate. I take cell phones when I see them in class, etc. (vs. turn in your work, if you don’t participate I’m giving you a zero, and put your cell phones away).
- Avoids the “or what” response. Ex: “do your work!” or “Be quiet” leads students to thoughts/responses such as “or what”, “how are you going to make me”, and “but you don’t understand...”
- Empower students through choice (but not a free for all…)
- Shares control with the students, gives them control over their own lives.
- Can build up a “savings account” that you can withdraw from periodically when you do not give choices.
- Ex: Teacher: today we are going to write essays.
- Students: “Awwwww! Do we have to?”
- Teacher: Didn’t I let you decide for yourselves the last 3 days? I give you guys as much choice as I can, but today I need to make this decision.
- Compassionate consequences
- Punishments often come from a place of anger.
- Anger begets anger and students don’t learn the lesson. Instead they focus their anger and blame the “teacher”.
- Compassion helps us highlight the relationship between behaviors and their natural consequences.
- Compassionis more likely to help students focus on the mistake, and learning! Often they are so used to being “yelled at” that acompassionate response confuses them and they end up wondering what happened. Which is good, because they are thinking about what happened.
- Ex: Teacher: What happens when you don’t do your work, disrupt class, and argue with me?
- Student: I get sent to the office.
- Teacher: I guess when you interfere with other students’ right to learn that’s the natural outcome. That really sucks but I’ll look forward to seeing you again tomorrow. How can I help you stay in class tomorrow? Do you want to take a book with you so you don’t fall further behind?
- Student ends up thinking about what just happened, which is exactly what you want.
5-Point grading system
Students can earn 5 points each day, even if they are working on different assignments of their own choosing.
- 1 point: readiness for class student in seat, ready to learn, with all class materials present (pencil, paper, binder, work, etc). Also includes behavior that reflects willingness to learn.
- 1 point: “bell work” (short assignment to begin class)
- 1 point: On-task behavior and participation
- 2 points: Daily assignments this includes almost all of our assignments and activities: reading, taking notes, labs, questions, journal writing, etc. Can award 2, 1, or 0 points depending on the students performance.
Can be worth any percentage of a grading policy. For example:
- Daily points 60%
- Tests and quizzes 30%
- Binder 10%
When used in conjunction with the 3 principles of Classroom Management for Motivation and Cooperation, benefits include:
- Puts responsibility for learning on the student
- Students develop intrinsic motivation and learn to challenge themselves (ex: stop choosing the easiest assignment)
- Meets the needs of all learners by promoting differentiation
- Helps students to learn how they learn best (metacognition)
- Highlights personal responsibility & the link between actions and their consequences
- Promotes critical thinking
- Promotes positive interactions; no arguments over work, seating arrangements, etc. due to choices given to students
- Increases student readiness for class
- Increases academic learning (on-task) time
- Reduces turnover time for grade reporting
- Increases contact time with students and provides instant feedback
- Easy to reflect on how you could have handled a situation differently by focusing on the three main principles.
- Improves behavior and cooperation!