The following is from a mailring post at the mailring by Kerry Weisner of British Columbia who partners as a primary teacher and also teaches at-risk high school students. Although the post is in reference to Kerry’s primary classroom, THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE MESSAGE IS APPLICABLE AT ALL GRADE LEVELS AND TO YOUTH OF ALL AGES. (The post is slightly edited for conciseness.)
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“We recently had a problem. A change in the school schedule led to a situation where our students had much less adult supervision at noon hour eating time than had been customary. Many students began to misbehave. We were really angry. Our first reaction was to jump to eliciting consequences. In giving it more thought though, we realized that WE’D BE MORE IN LINE WITH THE PROGRAM IF WE GOT RID OF OUR OLD-FASHIONED PUNISHMENT MINDSET (disguised as imposing logical or natural consequences) and instead created some PROCEDURES TO TEACH.
“Although we’ve always realized that it’s proactive to teach classroom procedures and aim at structuring the classroom (as opposed to controlling the kids), we now see that discipline problems can be handled positively, yet effectively, in the same way—by setting up procedures. IT TOOK US MANY YEARS TO RID OURSELVES OF THE REWARDS MINDSET. Perhaps how we handled this recent experience is an indication that WE’RE MOVING BEYOND THE PUNISHMENT MINDSET, TOO! It’s a peaceful feeling!
“We looked at how we could be more positive (Part II A of the teaching model) and how we might motivate the kids to WANT to be better behaved at eating time. We got them to reflect on their misbehaviour and the impact that their choices were having on their relationship with Eileen, our grand motherly noon hour supervisor whom they all dearly love. (Bless her heart! She told the kids that the situation was now at a point where she would have to give them a big hint when they were off-track in their behaviour: When she addressed an individual by the last name ‘Miss Smith’ or ‘MasterJones’—rather than by their first name—they should take it as a sign that she wasn’t very pleased with their behaviour.)
“Although these discussions and a realization that Eileen, to whom they are very attached, was disappointed with their behaviour brought most of the kids back into line, we still had a few who continued to misbehave. Once again, we decided to rethink our strategy and so stepped back to Part I of the teaching model to deal with what was the real root of the problem: WE HAD NEVER REALLY TAUGHT ANY ‘EATING-TIME PROCEDURES’ IN THE FIRST PLACE!
“Setting procedures and practicing them (at least 8 times) until they become routine, is the TEACHER’S responsibility! IMMEDIATELY OUR MINDSET CHANGED—FROM BLAMING THE KIDS AND FROM FEELING ANGRY WITH THEM—TO TAKING RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE PROBLEM OURSELVES. Once we had correctly analyzed the situation, it was easy to know what to do. We had to create some eating-time procedures, teach them, and then practice them religiously. Our anger and our belief that imposed consequences were necessary in the situation evaporated—so did our stress!
“Of course, the only downside to creating new procedures part way through the year is that infinitely more practice time is required to master them than would be needed to master them in September. According to Harry Wong, the guru of classroom management, 28 practice times are required to replace ineffective procedures with new ones. (Note: Dr. Wong attributes the number 28 to Madeline Hunter.)
“In other words, since the kids had each developed their OWN eating-time procedures (wandering as they ate, getting into trouble, etc.), we would have to provide 20 practice times of OUR new procedures to ‘erase’ the memory of their ingrained individual procedures—and THEN we would need the 8 more practice times required to teach any new procedure! A tall order but what other choice is there once you’ve neglected to teach the correct procedures the first time around?
“So in the end, here’s what we did:
“We made a poster outlining the main procedures that we expected the kids to follow when they came in after playtime to eat. We used short sentences/phrases that they read independently and made the chart look attractive and colorful with a graphic found on the Internet. We displayed it prominently on the front board.
“LUNCH TIME PROCEDURES:
1. Change shoes. (Kids have both indoor and outdoor shoes/boots in our climate.)
2. Use the washroom.
3. Eat at desk and KEEP all garbage and recycling trash.
4. When finished eating (Here was an opportunity to include some choice), read from the desk book bag or draw in Doodle Book.
5. AT THE BELL, clean up.
6. Return to desk.
“We took 15 minutes of lesson time to read and teach the list of procedures on the first day that we introduced it, explaining to the kids that we needed some clear procedures at eating time because it was obvious from the recent problems that we’d been having when the adults weren’t in the room that not everyone understood what was expected of them during eating time. Since then, every day we quickly review the chart just before the kids go out to play at lunch and Eileen also reviews it when the kids sit down to eat. Slowly but surely, we are working up to those 28 repetitions necessary to replace old procedures with new ones and behaviour has improved significantly.
“ONE INTERESTING EXPERIENCE I HAD WHEN DOING THE INITIAL TEACHING WAS WITH ONE OF OUR STUDENTS WHO WAS THE MOST POORLY BEHAVED AT LUNCH—THE ONE WHO WAS MOST OFTEN OUT OF HIS SEAT AND INVOLVED IN MISCHIEF. After teaching Procedure #3, I questioned him about what a person should do with a juice box once they had finished drinking all the juice. He replied ‘Put it in the recycling box at the sink.’ I said that we’d better read #3 again, which we did and I asked him the same question again—to which he gave me the SAME reply, ‘Put it in the recycling box at the sink.’ I COULDN’T BELIEVE IT! It took two more readings of Procedure #3 before it finally registered in this child’s mind and he could answer correctly, ‘Keep it at the desk.’
“THIS LITTLE INTERACTION SHOWED ME THAT THERE ARE SURELY QUITE A FEW KIDS WHO DON’T INTENTIONALLY MEAN TO MISBEHAVE BUT DO SO BECAUSE THEY TRULY HAVEN’T LEARNED WHAT THE TEACHER EXPECTS THEM TO DO. In the future, I WON’T BE SO QUICK TO FORM THE OPINION THAT CERTAIN STUDENTS ARE MISBEHAVING WITH THE DELIBERATE INTENTION TO BE BAD or to ‘get me’!
“Next year, we’ll begin by teaching eating-time procedures right off the bat in September—whether we seem to need them or not. Since we’ll be teaching them proactively—and not as a REACTION to a problem—we may be able to teach procedures that are less restrictive and give more opportunity for the development of SELF-discipline. Our procedures may eventually evolve over the course of the year to look more like the following:
“LUNCH TIME PROCEDURES:
1. Change shoes.
2. Use the washroom.
3. Eat at desk.
4. When finished eating (TO OFFER THREE CHOICES):
–Read a book, or
–Draw on some scrap paper, or
–Do a game/puzzle on the carpet
5. AT THE BELL, clean up.
6. Return to desk.
“We’re much happier with the way we’ve handled our noon hour problems this year. Although to some people unfamiliar with a noncoercive and non-punitive approach to discipline, it might look as if the kids got away with something and in fact were even rewarded with a fancy doodle book, we feel differently. We know that our students will be better able to develop true self-control when we show them step-by-step how to go about it, and we also now understand that retaining a positive relationship with our students is key and will make for fewer discipline difficulties in the future.”
More information on this topic is available at http://marvinmarshall.com.
