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A Book to Baghdad

On September 4, 2008   /   Discipline  

Dear Marv,

I had the opportunity to know about your book Discipline without Stress, Punishments or Rewards through some of your articles and your interesting monthly newsletter.

What I really want is to purchase a copy of your book so that I can read it thoroughly and understand your approach more practically. But due to the current difficult situation in Iraq, we still have some complicated procedures in sending money abroad, and that's why I would like to ask you a favor, which is kindly inform me of a bookshop address in Jordan or Syria where your book is carried.

I have been in teaching for 35 years. Your approach is a big wide step forward in the field of … >>>

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Mind and Body Connection

On September 3, 2008   /   Discipline  

An understanding of mind-body connection is essential for reducing stress and influencing others. Thoughts have direct and powerful connections to all sorts of physiological functions. Think hard enough about jumping out of an airplane, and your heart will start to race and your palms to sweat.

Perhaps the most dramatic and best-known case was described by Norman Cousins in his "Anatomy of an Illness As Perceived by the Patient." While I was re-organizing my library, I came across his description of his experience in the May 28, 1977 issue of The Saturday Review (pp. 4-6, 48-51).

Cousins came down with a serious collagen illness, a disease of the body's connective tissues. One result of the disease is the … >>>

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Relationships and Learning

On September 2, 2008   /   Relationships  

Principals who desire to improve their schools, and teachers who want to improve their students’ academic achievements, need to keep in mind what psychologist Abraham Maslow conveyed years ago, viz., People must FEEL cared for and cared about BEFORE they will take risks necessary to achieve.

Students too often receive messages in the form of words, gestures, actions, and bulletin board postings of achievements that convey to them that they must achieve well in order to be thought of as worthy.

Too many educators fail to realize that, with so many students, the foundation of success rests in human relations. This is especially the case with young students and students in poverty—where relationships are their most prized possessions.

At one … >>>

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Mandating Positive Behavior Support

On August 31, 2008   /   Effectiveness  

Sometimes what we want others to do so focuses our attention that our actions become counterproductive.

You will find this worth reading to truly understand the significance of this truth. It is from a post on the Mailring.

———–

Hello, everybody. I feel a little frustrated and would like some words of wisdom or support.

INCIDENT #1:
I was pleased to be asked to speak to a group of new teachers on the nature of motivation. I printed out an article by Marvin Marshall and articles by Ryan and Deci. My principal has been impressed and intrigued by my philosophy and approach, which he sees as successful.

The very next day there was a Veteran's Day assembly for the … >>>

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Eliciting Consequences

On August 30, 2008   /   Responsibility  

While strolling and listening to the following story, I requested the storyteller send it to me so that I could share it using her own words. For obvious reasons, the author of the letter requested anonymity.

—-

After six years of using the Raise Responsibility System in our home, we had an amazing incident with our fifteen-and a-half-year-old son.

We live on a very large piece of property and my husband was preparing our son for driving by allowing him to drive the firewood truck from one area to another under his guidance and supervision. He would also allow him to move our vehicles around in the driveway. The expectation was always the same. This was a privilege and only … >>>

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Focus on Responsibility, Rather than Discipline

On August 29, 2008   /   Responsibility  

Everett McKinley Dirksen (1896 – 1969) was a U.S. Congressman and Senator from Illinois. As a Senate leader he played a highly visible role in the politics of the 1960s. He helped write the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and played the decisive role in its passage. The Dirksen Senate Office Building was named after him.

One of my favorite quotes is attributed to Everett Dirksen, viz., “I am a man of principle and my first principle is the ability to change my mind.”

So it is with me when I decided to emphasize “discipline” in my newsletters. A few comments influenced me to return to my original emphasis on “responsibility”:

1) Harry Wong, who reminded me that my mission … >>>

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Extrinsic School Rewards

On August 28, 2008   /   Learning  

Most of the extrinsic school rewards are of little motivational value to students who fail or fall behind.

Once children have a year or two of struggle in primary grades, once they feel and know for themselves that they are “behind,” they resign themselves to lower status and acquire a defeatist attitude.

The stickers, teacher approval, honor roll, family (and extended family) encouragement become less frequent, less meaningful, less sincere, and less valued. Even peer approval and acceptance begins to wane. Meanwhile, learning becomes more of an effort with fewer rewards and more discouragement, more negativism, more privileges withheld, and more on the punishment end of the reward-punishment continuum.

–Bill Page, “At-Risk Students: Feeling Their Pain,
Understanding Their Plight, Accepting … >>>

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Parent and Counselor’s Comment

On August 24, 2008   /   Discipline  

Dear Dr. Marshall,

I am the mother of 7 children working on my counseling degree. I spent the last school year as an intern at both an elementary and middle school. It opened my eyes as to why children become disruptive. Punitive teachers ratchet up the anxiety and hostility. Reading your book has shed further light on what does works and why.

Thank you for writing such an inspirational book.

Susan Reeve
Tabernacle, NJ… >>>

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The Levels of Development with Young Students

On August 23, 2008   /   Discipline  

QUESTION:
I am a kindergarten teacher in Spokane Valley, Washington. My colleagues and I have adopted your Raise Responsibility behavior plan. We are having some difficulties getting kindergartners to value the importance of intrinsic motivation. They’ll tell me they are showing level A or B behavior, and they’ll even do a reflection to focus on better choices and better behavior; then before I know it, they have repeated showing A or B behavior.

Can we really expect ALL children (kindergartners) to understand and abide by these 4 levels without ANY rewards?

RESPONSE:
The answer is, YES, but you start by differentiating between ACCEPTABLE levels and UNACCEPTABLE levels. See the posters and cards at impulse management.

Also, and—this is critical—be … >>>

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Referring to “Discipline” vs “Responsibility”

On August 22, 2008   /   Discipline  

A post was made at the Discipline Support mailring wherein the teacher oftentimes used the word “discipline” with students.

Clarification is necessary because the term, DISCIPLINE” should BE USED ONLY with ADULTS—not with students or children.

The ONLY part of the approach young people need to understand is the levels of social development, the first phase of the Raise Responsibility System—which is only a small but foundational part of the teaching and learning model model outlined at the Discipline Without Stress Teaching Model.

I – CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT vs. DISCIPLINE
TEACHING PROCEDURES (the essence of classroom management) is the responsibility of the ADULT.

II – THREE PRINCIPLES TO PRACTICE
A) Communicating with people in POSITIVE ways STARTS as the responsibility … >>>

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Differentiation

On August 21, 2008   /   Learning  

In a few presentations to teachers in the Los Angeles Unified School District, one of my charges was to include some ideas about differentiation. The following are some ideas on differentiation (both in content and process) that I shared.

ASSESSMENT (before):

Write a letter to your parents. Include interests, talents, learning preferences, long-range plans or desires, and goals in the class.

—

Topics for class meetings with PRIMARY students:
–Why are we here?
–What are we trying to do?
–What does it mean to do something well?
–How will we know if we are doing it well together?

Topics for class meetings with OLDER students:
–What does it mean to do quality work?
–How will you know that a quality … >>>

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Feeling Belonged

On August 20, 2008   /   Relationships  

People of all ages have an innate desire to feel included. This is especially important to remember for those who work with youth who have a compelling feeling to be accepted.

Even when the person is different from others, when the young person FEELS INCLUDED, the natural human desire to belong is met. Without that necessary feeling, everything else takes a subservient role and its effectiveness is significantly diminished.… >>>

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The Art of Influence

On August 19, 2008   /   Effectiveness  

Darlene Collinson in British Columbia related to me a success story that we should all remember.

Her 81-year-old mother was in the hospital and needed to participate in physical therapy before she could be released. The nurses, physical therapists, and physicians were not successful in convincing the patient to engage in the physical therapy.

After hearing of this, Darlene asked her mother, “What do you want?”

Her mother replied, “I want to go home.”

Darlene simply inquired, “What do you need to do to make that happen?”

Her mother replied, “Do my physical therapy,” which she started to do in order to accomplish her objective.

As skillful influencers know, the art of influence is to influence the person to influence … >>>

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PBIS (Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports) Is Doomed to Failure

On August 17, 2008   /   Discipline, Learning  

Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) was established by the Office of Special Education Programs in the U.S. Department of Education. The approach is behaviorally based in that it is a classic use of B.F. Skinner’s positive reinforcement of operant conditioning. The program was developed as an alternative to aversive interventions that were used with students with severe disabilities who engaged in extreme forms of self-injury and aggression. The approach rests on the idea that these students need something tangible to change behavior.

PBIS treats the acquisition and use of social-behavioral skills in much the same way we would academic skills. However, academic skills deal with the cognitive domain, whereas behavior has to do with the affective domain—those factors which … >>>

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Eliciting Rather than Imposing Punishments

On August 17, 2008   /   Responsibility  

The most effective approach for repeated discipline challenges is to ELICIT a consequence or procedure to help the student help himself to avoid future unacceptable behavior. This should be done in private by stating, “What you have done is not on an acceptable level.” Then ask, “What do you suggest we do about it?” Be ready to ask, “What else?” “What else?” “What else?” until what the student says is acceptable and will assist the student in not repeating the behavior.

The advantages of ELICITING the consequence are multiple:

  • 1. An adversarial relationship is avoided,
  • 2. The student has ownership in the decision,
  • 3. Victimhood thinking is not encouraged because the student is empowered—rather than overpowered, and
  • 4. The student
… >>> READ MORE >>> →
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Posting Reflective Questions

On August 15, 2008   /   Discipline  

At one of my British Columbia presentations, I had the pleasure of visiting Kerry Weisner and Darlene Collinson. While visiting Darlene’s classroom, I saw some reflective questions she had posted on the wall just below the ceiling to which she could easily refer.

Darlene told me that she rarely looks at the questions now, but having reflective questions in easy view helped her when she first started using the Discipline Without Stress Teaching Model. The following are the questions she had posted for her easy viewing and reference.

For commitment:
1. Could you have kept your commitment?
2. What are you going to do to make it happen?
3. On a scale of 1 – 10, how would you … >>>

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From Control to Improved Effectiveness

On August 14, 2008   /   Discipline  

Dear Dr. Marshall,

About a week before school started, I went online looking for a way to provide a suitable reward system to make sure that my classes were positive and motivated. I knew that rewards were more effective than punishments, or so I thought.

I did a search for “Discipline Rewards” and your site popped up. I started reading your website and I was immediately on-board. After spending about an hour on your site, I decided to try your system this year.

I spent the second day of school talking to my classes about the hierarchy. Their homework was for them to go online and research the Raise Responsibility System.

We discussed their viewpoints the 3rd day of … >>>

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