Gradually, as I experienced continued success with using Dr. Marshall’s Discipline without Stress approach to help students develop self-discipline and a sense of responsibility, I realized that there was enormous potential and value in using his Levels of Developmentto inspire young people in all areas of their lives. One day I decided to have a discussion with my grade one students about how they could use their understanding of the four levels to help themselves become better readers. We talked about the “Whole School Read” session in which we participate each morning. I asked the youngsters to describe hypothetical behaviors of students operating at each of the levels during this daily reading time. Using their own words,they were able to clearly
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My teaching partner and I have a little girl in our grade one classroom this year who is very stubborn and actually downright defiant in a passive aggressive way. Right from the beginning of the year she would deliberately do the opposite of whatever the teacher was asking or quietly not do anything at all. When everyone was asked to print certain letters on the chalkboard she would draw pictures. When asked to get out her calendar binder, she would get out something entirely different. Then just before the end of calendar time, she would quickly take out her book and finish up what was expected. When everyone else would stand to celebrate a classmate’s birthday by singing a few songs and finger plays, she would remain seated or
READ MORE >>> →Promoting Responsibility & Learning – Volume 11 Number 11
#2 Easy ways to promote responsibility
#5 Five ways to promote learning
#7 Discipline vs. classroom management
Like many of my Kindergarten students, I’m concerned about Damian because he doesn’t have an adequate vocabulary or many expressive oral language skills. His articulation when speaking is also extremely poor; he’s missing a very large number of top teeth (as a result of years of excessive sugar in his diet.) I’ve noticed that when he can’t find or clearly say the words he needs to communicate, he resorts to hitting or kicking to get his points across. In fact, after just a week in school, we had to make alternate arrangements for him at lunch playtime so that his opportunities for getting into trouble would be fewer. Damian now goes to the Resource Room for supervised play time and
READ MORE >>> →I’ve learned a great lesson from my teaching partner, Darlene, who has wonderful “people skills.” We share a grade one class. She begins the year with a quick phone call to every family, starting with those children who look like they may eventually have some behavior issues. She simply asks the parents to let her know how the child is adjusting to school and whether or not they feel comfortable coming. The parents are happy to have this conversation and are encouraged by it. By starting home phone calls so quickly, she generally has only positive comments to make––usually kids are on their best behavior on the first days of school! This gets her off on the right foot with the
READ MORE >>> →A few years ago, I posted some ideas regarding good intentions that Darlene and I had learned in our workshops with Dr. Gordon Neufeld, a well-known Canadian developmental psychologist. Gordon’s ideas about attachments and relationships are quite unique and extremely helpful to anyone interested in using DWS. Here’s the gist of his ideas regarding good intentions: As adults we should actively look for times when a child is displaying or expressing good intentions––and then we should nurture those intentions. Despite the fact that the young person may NOT be able to carry out their good intentions, and that the situation may actually turn out negatively in some sense, we can applaud their initial desire to do the right thing. By pointing out that the intention was good,
READ MORE >>> →I think I work with the most masterful and quick-witted teacher alive! Here’s just one very small example of how Darlene took a negative situation (partly created by me!) and instantly found the positive kernel inside that could make a child feel encouraged and hopeful. For the month of June Darlene and I decided to work with our grade one class to create a musical circus performance for our school. We knew it was a crazy time of year to do a major production but earlier in the year we’d promised the kids that we would make a circus in May. When various school-wide plans interfered with that timing, we felt we had to keep our promise and do the circus
READ MORE >>> →QUESTION: I’m new to Discipline without Stress so bear with me. I’m wondering if whole-class incentives for staying on Level C or D is appropriate. For instance, if the whole class can stay on Level C or D for a certain amount of time, then could there be some sort of reward like a movie, free time or Preferred Activity Time? Does this completely fly in the face of Discipline without Stress? Are all incentives discouraged? RESPONSE: I can only speak for myself but here are several reasons why I, personally have decided not to offer incentives in my teaching: 1) The basis of the Discipline without Stress program is that it’s counterproductive to reward expected behaviors. 2) Once an adult rewards Level D
READ MORE >>> →The following is from an e-mail I received: “I am reading the book right now and have already tried some things on my 3-and-a-half-year-old daughter. “I’ve always used choices with her. It makes life simpler with little ones. But I have not always used contingencies. Saying, “If you clean up, you can go to the park” sounds so much better and works much faster than saying, “If you don’t clean up, then you can’t go to park.” “It is so much easier for youngsters to take responsibility when you communicate in terms that are positive and prompt them to reflect on the choices they make.” ———- Notice—as mentioned—that in addition to communicating in positive terms and prompting reflection, the underlying
READ MORE >>> →Learning requires motivation, but motivation to learn cannot be forced. Highly effective teachers realize this, so they prompt students to want to put forth effort in their learning by creating curiosity, challenge, and interest in meaningful lessons. In addition, however, and especially with youth in poverty, these successful teachers also create positive relationships with their students by practicing positivity, choice, and reflection. These practices are part of the teaching model. This sysdtem avoids approaches that inhibit motivation for responsibility and learning. Following are 10 counterproductive approaches that are commonly used. Unfortunately, they are so counterproductive that they actually exacerbate the increasing dropout rate of students—especially in low economic areas. 1. BEING REACTIVE Teachers too often become stressed by reacting to inappropriate
READ MORE >>> →I received the following communication: “I’m a retired electrical engineer. I recently began working as a substitute teacher handling any subject from grade 3 up through grade 12. “The biggest challenge is to keep the noise level down and the smart alecks from disrupting the class. Things have sure changed since I went to school! “So I have approached the challenge by being strict. Smart alecks, mainly 12-year-old boys, end up standing facing the wall until they apologize for disrupting the class. I knew there had to be a better way, so I spent some time in the local library and discovered your book. I am going to teach 6th grade tomorrow and I plan to implement your suggestions in
READ MORE >>> →I received the following excerpt from a doctoral dissertation and reproduce it with the author’s permission: “As you can tell from the dissertation excerpts I sent you, I have thoroughly researched your approach to discipline, as well as countless others. Unfortunately, the many other more traditional approaches have failed us as educators. I spent the past nine years in administration trying to make a difference in public education. “But more importantly, I wanted to impact the course of public education positively. Catching kids doing something good and then reinforcing those acts by positive rewards is a component of Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) that I experienced firsthand. As a matter of fact, I was delighted to spend my first
READ MORE >>> →QUESTION: Positive Behavioral and Interventions and Supports(PBIS) is the discipline approach that is being mandated by many states. Do you have any thoughts on this approach? RESPONSE:This antiquated and backwards approach is based on the ideas of Ivan Pavlov, John B. Watson, and B.F. Skinner. Without going into detail explaining the differences, they are “behaviorist” and have the following in common: 1. Behaviorism is naturalistic. This means that the material world is the ultimate reality, and everything can be explained in terms of natural laws. Man has no soul and no mind, only a brain that responds to external stimuli. 2. Behaviorism teaches that man is nothing more than a machine that responds to conditioning. The central tenet of behaviorism
READ MORE >>> →Promoting Responsibility & Learning – Volume 11 Number 10
#2 Rewards and discipline
#5 Promote learning using time-pair-share
#7 R + R – R = R + R
Recently I surfed into a parenting blog. It featured the following quote that spoke of an ancient form of what I would call “discipline positivity!” In the Babemba tribe of South Africa, when a person acts irresponsibly or unjustly, he is placed in the center of the village, alone and unfettered. All work ceases, and every man, woman and child in the village gathers in a large circle around the accused. Then each person in the tribe, regardless of age, begins to talk out loud to the accused, one at a time, about all the good things he has done in his lifetime. Every incident that can be recalled with any detail and accuracy is recounted. All his positive attributes,
READ MORE >>> →This is the fifth part in a series of interviews about “Where We Are Going” with Michael F. Shaughnessy of Eastern New Mexico University. QUESTION:School reform has now been a topic for generations but there seems to be little improvement. Any suggestions? RESPONSE:Any meaningful reform must affect the student-teacher relationship. I cannot think of a single school reform that started top down (and was a headline twenty years ago) that is still being used today. Now education leaders have given their leadership over to government and business leaders. What reason do we have to think that legislators can improve education? On what basis can we assume that business is a model for education when every few months a new top-selling
READ MORE >>> →This is the fourth part in a series of interviews about “Where We Are Going” with Michael F. Shaughnessy of Eastern New Mexico University. QUESTION:What kind of assistance is found at your website? RESPONSE:MarvinMarshall.com is the foundational site that contains free information explaining the entire system. This site includes such links as The Discipline Without Stress® Teaching Model, The Hierarchy of Social Development, support links, and other links to implement the proactive, totally noncoercive (but not permissive) system . My aim is to have teachers increase their joy of teaching, reduce stress, improve relationships, and become more effective. In addition to this main website, there are other sites to help teachers and parents: Discipline Without Stress is the website for
READ MORE >>> →Recently, I saw a posting on the ProTeacher group, in which a teacher shared a great process for helping young children learn to stay in line while walking. Firstly the students were taught four procedures for how to walk appropriately in the school: Stand directly behind the person in front of you. Face your body forward. Hands stay down at sides. We walk quietly in the hall, without talking. Then the teacher shared an effective and silent procedure that she uses to help students live up to these expectations. If a problem occurs as they are moving from place to place in the school, she stops the line and wiggles four fingers above her head. The class remains stopped until the
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