In Front of the Class

by Linda Starr, Education World®

Keep classroom practices fair with random selection methods.

Numbers, Please

Use numbers, not names, to identify students.

Assign each student a number and use those numbers to label supplies, assign texts, and so on. Have students put their numbers instead of their names on homework and class work to speed record keeping and distribution of corrected work. Numbers also can be used for objective student selection; for example, "All even numbers between 1 and 10 line up." "All odd numbers can go to the restroom."

And the Winner Is...

Pull a stick; choose a student.

Write each student's name on a craft stick, and place the sticks in an unbreakable container. Sticks can be used to call on students during class activities and discussions, to pick partners or groups for cooperative activities, and so on.

Random Selection

Who has the matching sock?

Other items you might use to assure random selection or to create pairs or groups include: pairs of socks, colored clothespins, playing cards, and computer-created business cards.

Copyright © 2008, EducationWorld.com, used by permission

In Front of the Class

by Ellen Delisio, Education World®

Having students write about their misbehavior, why it occurred, and what they are going to do to correct it is valuable for students and teachers. Students get a chance to have their say, and teachers can review the write-ups with students and keep the documents in students' files.

Looking for ways to help students reflect on disruptive behavior and learn to correct it? Let them write about their actions on contracts, questionnaires, and in journals, and then review the documents with them.

Contracts or questionnaires should be part of an overall classroom management strategy. Teachers should issue class rules at the beginning of the school year and ensure they are clear and consistent. Students should understand which infractions warrant discipline and the consequences for disruptive behaviors. Teachers also should make clear when students will receive forms: when the disruptive behavior occurs or right after class.

Slipping forms or instructions to students to write up the incident during class can decrease embarrassment for students and minimize class disruptions.

Reflecting and Writing

A student who writes himself or herself up can identify the behavior and its cause, explain why the behavior is a problem, and propose a way to correct the situation. That allows the student to express his or her viewpoint about the incident.

The teacher then can review the form with the student and decide whether a parent or guardian should sign it.

If having parents sign the form does not lead to improved behavior, the next time a student completes a form, consider having the student read it over the phone to a parent, in the presence of another adult.

Having students write themselves up doesn't mean teachers should give up, though. Writing short, on-the-spot notes -- pointing out positive and negative behavior -- also can be a good classroom management tool. While carrying around a pad of adhesive notes, jot down "good job," "excellent question," or "remember to raise your hand" and stick the notes on students' desks. Students get instant feedback and a reminder that the teacher is on top of things.

Not everyone favors writing as part of a punishment, though. Some schools do not want students to develop a negative attitude about writing, so they do not assign writing for misbehavior.

"I feel it is important to make the kids understand what they did wrong but not by punishing them with a skill in which we want them to excel," Dana Arhar, a teacher at Immokalee Middle School in Immokalee, Florida, told Education World.

One teacher from the Middle Level list serv came up with another kind of note. She sings (badly) to the recalcitrant youngster, mostly oldies. Tunes by the Monkees usually got the quickest response. After serenading some students with off-key verses, now she has only to threaten to sing, she wrote.

No Notes for You?

Other suggestions for managing your classroom:

• When leaving the classroom as a group, tell the students you will be watching the behavior of two children, but don't say who they are. If the two you are watching behave, reward the entire class after returning to the room.
• If a student interrupts another pupil and calls out an answer, tell him or her that the behavior "robs" the other student of a learning opportunity.
• Remember the keys to successful management strategies: fairness and consistency.

Copyright © 2008, EducationWorld.com, used by permission

In Front of the Class

by Linda Starr, Education World®

Focus

Project the morning's brainteaser or bell ringer activity onto the chalkboard with an overhead projector. That spotlight in the dimly lit room helps focus students' attention on the work and on day ahead.

Who's Watching?

When leaving the classroom as a group, tell students you will be watching the behavior of two students, but don't say who they are. If the two you are watching behave, reward the entire class after returning to the room.

Pasta Discipline

When students are all working well on a task, together or independently, grab a handful of macaroni and dump it into a jar. When the jar is full, students have earned an agreed-upon reward. Possible rewards might include a free activity time, a night without homework, or an ice-cream treat.

Copyright © 2008, EducationWorld.com, used by permission

In Front of the Class

by Cara Bafile, Education World®

Patterned after family meetings in her own home, teacher Donna Styles established a format for class meetings that enabled her students to share their thoughts and solve classroom issues on their own. In Styles's model, students take turns acting as a discussion leader, while the teacher promotes a respectful atmosphere and participates as a group member. Encouraged by the students' positive response to her approach, Styles decided to share her expertise with other teachers.

"I believe that creating community in the classroom and fostering a safe environment in which students are empowered to make choices, provides the rich ground from which confident, self-directed, successful students thrive and grow," Donna Styles tells Education World.

A teacher for more than thirty years, Styles is a veteran educator who has taught students in kindergarten through 7th grade, in both regular and multi-aged settings. She has worked as a regular classroom teacher, in English and French immersion classes, and as a thinking skills/enrichment resource teacher. She currently teaches grades five and six at Len Wood Elementary School in Armstrong, British Columbia (Canada). Styles' practical and effective approach to classroom management did not develop from her extensive teaching experience, however, but from her hands-on experience as a parent!

"My husband and I had successfully used family meetings in our own family for years," she explains. "We saw the positive effects of including our children in family decision-making. We saw firsthand how much more responsible our kids acted on an everyday basis, how much more an integral part of our family unit they felt, and how elevated their self-esteem became when their views were heard and considered. I realized the possible application in the classroom setting."

Research Styles conducted for her master's degree proved to her beyond a doubt that, in the eyes of students, class meetings are as effective as the literature on the subject claims. In her view, class meetings can play a critical role in the development of students' emotional, social, moral, and intellectual development. Styles suggests that class meetings also can promote personal growth, leadership, organizational and public-speaking skills, thinking skills and cognitive gains, problem-solving skills, and interpersonal skills -- creating a community of learners.

An Idea Worth Sharing

"Class Meetings are most successful in classrooms that have a warm, caring, supportive environment -- classrooms in which students feel comfortable to learn, feel safe to share their ideas, and feel free to ask questions and take risks," explains Styles. "Students in those kinds of classrooms are supportive of one another, work together cooperatively, encourage one another, assume responsibility for their own learning and behavior, and are allowed to make decisions."

In her book "Class Meetings: Building Leadership, Problem-Solving and Decision-Making Skills in the Respectful Classroom," Styles outlines several key components that make class meetings unique and effective:

• Students sit on chairs in a circle
• Meetings are held every week
• A set format is followed
• Students lead the meetings
• Both problems and suggestions are discussed
• Students encourage and compliment one another

Styles maintains that incorporating class meetings is a reasonable task if teachers prepare students for meetings in about two to three lessons during the first weeks of school. She proposes that lessons involve the teaching and practice of encouragement, creative problem solving, and circle formation. After several trial meetings, with the teacher leading and modeling the process, students become meeting leaders, with each student taking a turn as discussion leader during the school year.

Conducting Class Meetings

In a typical class meeting, Styles says, desks are moved to the perimeter of the room and students take their designated places in a circle of chairs. The meeting leader opens the meeting. Old business is discussed and new business is dealt with. "Thank yous" and compliments are offered and the meeting is closed.

If a student wants an issue raised at a meeting, he or she places a slip of paper inside a box provided in the classroom. The papers, which include the name of the student and the date, constitute the new business of the next meeting. Typically, three types of issues are put in the box: a problem involving one or more people, a problem or issue affecting the whole class, or a suggestion for a class activity.

During class meetings, Styles says, the teacher

• acts as a coach -- providing guidance to the leader, when necessary.
• fulfills the role of secretary.
• performs as a group member -- offering information only when needed, and making comments only when necessary to keep the tone positive and helpful.

The student leader

• keeps the meeting running smoothly.
• opens and closes the meeting.
• follows the order of steps for conducting the meeting.
• follows steps for solving problems.
• follows steps for discussing suggestions.
• makes eye contact with each person speaking.
• participates as any other member.
• keeps discussions on topic.
• lets students know if they are out of order.
• asks questions, clarifies or restates problems or ideas.
• summarizes.
• speaks loudly and clearly.

Accountability Made Simple

"Class meetings help make good classrooms even better," says Styles. "The true power of meetings lies in their ability to empower students, to motivate them to learn, and to help them discover their personal best. When both students and teachers are able to voice opinions and thoughts in a quiet, respectful atmosphere, mutual respect and understanding develops. The students realize that it is their classroom as much as the teacher's, and they take ownership and pride in that."

Styles has found that, with classroom meetings, discipline becomes a minor issue. Problems are discussed in meetings and students themselves determine the consequences for misbehavior. Students become highly accountable for their actions in the classroom, she observes, when their peers are taking note of their behavior and discussing poor behavior in class meetings.

"When students choose solutions to problems, they have a stake in seeing that the consequences are followed," Styles states. "Problems in the classroom are no longer just the teacher's problems to solve -- they become the class's problems. Practice with the process each week enables students to become excellent problem-solvers, coming up with fair and effective methods of helping classmates improve and change behaviors that interfere with others or with their learning."

Suggestions put into the box give students an opportunity to work on committees and to plan and orchestrate many interesting and fun activities during the year, Styles points out. This generates excitement and energy in the classroom, helping students to "buy into" coming to school and to feel a sense of belonging to the group. "As a teacher, I think there is no other tool that has such a long list of benefits. Conducting weekly class meetings with this format easily makes it one of the most powerful tools a classroom teacher can use. And it's so simple -- one period a week!" Styles reports that -- without exception -- students love class meetings, and that the approach is conducive to the inclusion of students with special needs.

Copyright © 2008, EducationWorld.com, used by permission

Teaching Theme of the Week

by Linda Starr, Education World®

Address Labels Save Time

Sticky-backed address labels prepared in advance can be real timesavers; they can save you from writing the same note over and over. For example, when students need to remember a date (e.g., the date a permission slip or other form needs to be returned or the date of a special event), create address labels with the need-to-know information on them. Have students attach those labels to their assignment logs or to their lunch boxes or anything else they carry home with them. You might use fluorescent-colored address labels, which are more difficult to ignore. You also can prepare labels that keep students informed about after-school extra-help times. Or use a pre-prepared label to let parents know students came to class unprepared; you might ask parents to initial the label to indicate that they are aware of the problem.

What Color Is Your Cup?

Provide each student with a red plastic cup to keep in his or her desk. During class activities, when students have a question, they simply put the red cup upside down on their desk. Doing that does away with raised hands and the sound effects that often accompany them in an effort to gain the teacher’s attention. When students are working in groups, you might employ a similar system using three colored cups: a green cup means all is well in the group; a yellow cup means the group has a question, but can continue working for now; and a red cup indicates the group has a question that needs to be answered before they can continue. (Note: Green cups can be difficult to find, so you might need to substitute some other color for green.)

Put a Stamp on Your Priorities

What are the important things you look for when grading student work? What are the things you and other teachers on your team have decided are most important? Once you decide, order a rubber stamp that lists them. For example, if you have decided that the most important things for students to pay attention to in their written work are spelling, punctuation, and neatness, have a stamp created that looks like this:

________ Spelling
________ Punctuation
________ Neatness

Use the stamp to stamp each piece of student work. Then grade students on those important elements. You might use a letter grade, a check or check-plus, or any other grading system to focus students on your team’s main goals.

Make Correcting Easier

Too many papers to correct? Looking for ways to ease the task? In many cases you can ease the job by having students create a special answer area on their papers. That can be done by folding the paper to create a small column on the right side of the page. This works especially well with math activities; you still have the computation work on the page to refer to if you have any questions about students arrived at their answers.

No More Worksheet Disasters

Have you made the mistake of writing on, or handing out, the master copy of a student work sheet you want to use again next year? Avoid the problem next time by using a yellow highlighter to write the word “MASTER” on your master copy of each work sheet. The word MASTER will remind you not to write on the work sheet or hand it out; and the transparent highlighter will not show up on photocopies.

Copyright © 2008, EducationWorld.com, used by permission