Find effective methods for discouraging undesirable behaviour and rewarding good behaviour.
Written by: Sharmee Prabhu
The “Solution” that out smarted any other form of Behaviour Management.
In each and every class there might be a child or two who is considered as the problem creator. This particular year in my class there was this boy who literally changed the dynamic of the class when he is present.
He managed to distract half of the class and will not concentrate and let others concentrate in their work. I was warned that this will happen with that child. I tried everything from reminders, logical consequence to class meetings, but nothing created an inch of change until that magical moment lighted upon me. When that light bulb moment occurred I decided to use a combination of tools for this child, starting with my perspective change, followed by a class meeting to pool help from the class to help him focus. We decided to spend 2 minutes at the beginning of each day together to set up goals for the day: teachers goal and student goal. This way the child was able to learn something every day and take pride on achieving his/her “Island of Competence".
His positive efforts were rein- forced and before I knew he started to work towards achieving his goal, he also had a good grasp of class rules and started to help his friends by reminding the rules if they forget to follow the class rules. Changing one’s perspective not only changes the whole ball game but also throws the responsibility on to the child’s court. It makes the student responsible for the choice that they make, soon the student will realise “if I make a good choice it affects me and people around me positively and if I make a bad choice it affects me and people around me negatively.” The following are list of Behaviour Management strategies that works:
Perspective:
I am sure many teachers should be nod- ding your head at this point. The magic of getting my class to the place where it should be was achieved not by altering my environment or the child but by changing my perspective of viewing that child as “the problem child”. When we enter the class with the preconceived idea about a child it prevents us from reaching out to the child to help solve their problems. One of the teacher shared her experience about a child who was considered as problem child in her school. That boy was a well behaved merit student till first grade, after the summer break when he came back to school he was completely different.
He became unapproachable and problematic. This child was transferred to this teacher who was warned to be very strict from the beginning with that child, within a week she called the boy and warned that she is going to call his mother for conference then she found out that the boy lost his mother during first grade summer break and is living with his father whom he hardly sees spending rest of the day after school in daycare.
This completely changed the teacher’s perspective from seeing that child as a problematic boy to a child in need of love and positive attention. The next time the teacher saw him she was filled with compassion for the boy and had a talk with him asking why he was doing what he was doing. She also reinforced his positive behaviour and be- fore she knew the boy who was considered as the problematic boy became a well behaved student in her classroom.
Class meeting and Problem solving:
Conducting class meeting to solve the problem helps to isolate the child from his problem behaviour, by doing this instead of complaining about a child with problematic behaviour children will find a solution to help the child. This not only promote sense of community but also empathy for the child.
Books and stories:
While talking about the emotions involved in disciplining, using books and moral stories are a must for developing self-discipline in the long run. Teaching with stories does reap long term benefits. The book that is most effective is “Have You Filled A Bucket Today” by Carol McCloud. This heartwarming book encourages positive behaviour as children see how rewarding it is to express kindness, appreciation and love. This book also explains about how our actions and words affects others and ourselves. Aesop’s fables, Panchatantra stories and moral stories from around the world can also be used to promote good choices and positive behaviour. Setting up precise expectations and clear communication of routines: Setting up clear cut expectations and communicating effectively about the routine beforehand helps to control deviations from the expected behaviour.
The rules has to be reminded again and again to make it second nature for the children. Visual, oral, Sign language and signals can be used to remind the rules. When there is expected rules and routines the children could follow them much easily rather than bombarding them with changes each and every day.
Logical consequences and logical rewards:
Logical consequence is one of the way to promote self-discipline. The underlying principle behind this technique is each behaviour does has consequence, a good behaviour is followed by rewards and a bad behaviour is followed by logical con- sequence. For example, a child who scribbles in the bathroom wall has to clean the wall as a consequence, but suspending the same child will be punishment.“ Logical consequences help children to look at their behaviour and consider the results of their choices” says the responsive classroom coaches. It sees behaviour as a problem and not the child, in this way this system leaves the child’s dignity intact. The child also learns to change their behaviour to a more responsible one.
2*10 strategy:
It is a simple strategy shared by cornerstone for teachers blogger, education consultant and instructional coach Angela Watson. She read about a teacher’s experience from “Encouraging Teachers Face book Group”, where a teacher spent 2 minutes per day with a at- risk student who had been very disruptive in the classroom for 10 consecutive days talking about anything he or she wanted to talk about. This strategy builds rapport and relationship between the student and the teacher, letting the child know that the teacher genuinely care about them.
The teacher shared her experience stating this had changed a child who does not want anybody to help her to a more friendly and acceptable person. If none of the above strategies help, definitely 2*10 will work.
Reference: The cornerstone for teachers blog Positive Discipline by Jane Nelson Responsive classroom website
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