Written by: Murugalakshmi Thirumalai, USA
Is there one simple classroom management technique that could change a difficult student into a more cooperative student? Yes, there is one such tool and it is “(Assigning) Responsibility“. It is unbelievable to see a student who is always having trouble complying with the classroom rules is ready to be more responsible when he is entrusted with responsibility.
In each and every classroom there will be at least one “difficult to handle” student who finds it difficult to see that he is part of the classroom community and his participation in the classroom in a positive manner is important to have a whole rounded class. Such a student’s self esteem will be way below average and might not even respect themselves. Giving responsibility to such a student surprises them knowing the fact that teacher believes in his/her abilities. This gives the child an opportunity to work hard and take pride in their positive actions. When used consistently and fairly it helps students to become self responsible contributors in the classroom. But it should not be used as disciplining tool to reward or punish a child.
One of the core character education that has to be done during the beginning of the year is “respect” respect your own self, others( people around you), classroom and community at large. How could a person be respectful? A responsible student who under-stand his value as a positive contributor in the classroom will start to respect himself and others. As a bonus assigning jobs to the children helps in smooth running of the classroom and avoids unnecessary confusions in who needs to do what or in deciding whose turn it is. It also builds a strong class-room community. During the beginning of the year classroom jobs can be given to small groups of students, this helps them to model and learn from each other. When the teacher thinks the students are ready for individual jobs then the students can be as-signed individual jobs.
A very simple way to introduce responsibility is using “Job Chart or Responsibility Chart” in the class-room. The visual aid helps children to keep track of their responsibility and partners to do a particular job. Teachers may also use animated pictures for younger students, this helps them to understand even better.
A “Responsibility Chart ” could be organised according to a teachers necessity. First the teacher may make a list of jobs that has to be done with-in the classroom. For example cleaning the black board, organising the books, tidying the class by the end of the day, teacher’s assistant, gardener, supplies monitor etc. Then the teacher has to make a chart of the jobs and decide a time line until when the job will be retained by a particular student. After preparing the chart , the students should be given proper orientation about the jobs and their corresponding duties. Thus valuing each student’s role as valuable contributor of the classroom community.
Include all the student names and have a system to choose who needs to do what. Assign the jobs to the students and stick to the routine and be consistent in the system. Make necessary changes as you use the system.
In this way encouraging students to take responsibility not only promotes responsible students but also pro-motes more positive learning environment where everybody respects and takes care of each other as a community. This results in developing social skills and organisational skills for the students to work together as a team and as individual contributor for the benefit of the entire community.
Reference: Thanks to “The Corner-stone for Teachers Blog” for sharing the Responsibility chart.
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