Consistency and Practice in Your Management System

Students can behave in wild ways  sometimes...

Are you just about ready to pull out your hair?

In a previous post, consequences were introduced as a way to enforce your rules. The posting, Consequences: the Backbone of Classroom Rules, detailed the reasons behind having consequences for your rules. What happens when you are    using consequences but you are still  struggling with behavior issues? Take a look at these quotes:

"How many times do I have to tell you to stop talking?"
"You should know how to behave by now!" 

If this sounds like the daily song that you sing to your students, perhaps you should reflect on your management system. Remember that the highlights of your system include your rules,  consequences and procedures:

1. Rules - the established list of acceptable behaviors in your classroom. 
2. Consequences - what happens when students fail to follow the rules of the classroom.
3. Procedures - how you want students to perform specific activities in the classroom.

These are the main highlights, but what drives the management system is how you enforce these parameters. How you do it boils down to two techniques: using consistency and practice, practice, practice.

Consistency: 

Take a look at your rules. Are they an important ingredient to your classroom management system, or are they just another poster on the wall? Do students follow the rules? How do you enforce them? It's important to do what you say, and say what you do. If you don't treat your rules and consequences as if they're important, don't expect your students to follow them. Being consistent means having a meaningful response to any breach of the rules. And the responses (whether they are a look, a conference, or a phone call home) must come immediately after the infraction, so the students know what to expect. And you can't break the rules either - if you expect students to raise their hands to speak, don't answer questions or comments that students blurt out, ever!

Practice and Procedures:
How you address your procedures often makes the difference in how students handle these expectations. You may have issues if your procedures are:

*overlooked or ignored on a regular basis

*debated and argued instead of followed

*goals instead of classroom habits

* something that you don't enforce regularly

Now, take a look at your procedures. How do you regulate them? If a student doesn't do things the way you want them done, you need to reteach your procedures, and have the student(s) practice them.

Let's see how to put teeth behind your rules and procedures!

  

Creating a RAFT - A Teaching Strategy

Are your students adrift when it comes to developing their writing skills? Why not throw them a raft!  

Rafting adds excitement to learning!

RAFT is a strategy that helps develop creative writing skills, and helps students practice writing for different audiences.

What is a RAFT?

When writers use RAFT techniques, they look at each element of a sentence and use those elements to create a unique perspective. That perspective helps during creative writing. This is how writers will learn how to write for different audiences.

Consider the letters of the word RAFT:

• R - the role  (are you an astronaut, a kitten, a molecule)
• A - audience (are you addressing  a parent, the principal)
• F - format (journal entry, letter, poem, poster, brochure)
• T - topic (what are you writing about?)

How do we use this strategy?

The best way to introduce this strategy is to use it as a whole class exercise.

1 -  Explain each letter of RAFT to your students as an important element to your writing.

2 -  Offer an example of each element

role: a Revolutionary War soldier

audience: your family at home

format: a letter 

topic: what is happening during the Battle of Bunker Hill

3 -Show a completed sentence after the RAFT elements have been put together

This is the  constructed sentence: 

 As a Revolutionary War soldier, write a letter to your family at home that describes what is happening during the Battle of Bunker Hill.

4 - Give students another example with each element identified, and together with the class construct the sentence.

5 - Now give students the constructed example, and see if they can identify each element of RAFT 

4 - Have students choose one of the constructed examples and complete the activity.

When do we use this strategy?

What you want your students to achieve?

to activate prior knowledge - use RAFT before reading

to engage students during a lesson - use RAFT during reading

to assess content knowledge - use RAFT after reading 

This can be a whole class activity, small group activity or individual activity. You can also offer students a choice of RAFT activities by placing several Roles, Audiences, Formats and Topic options in a table. Use your creativity, but if you are at a loss, simply google RAFT strategy, and you will find lots of examples. I found this example for science journaling from www.readingrockets.org: 

Role	Audience	Format	Topic
Plant parts	Plant	Picture	We’re made for each other
Roots	Stem, flower,  leaf, seeds	Letter	You’d be lost without me
Flower	Stem, flower,  leaf, seeds	Ad	I’m more than just a pretty face

Have fun rafting! 

  Queen Bee

Pinterest + Teaching Channel = Great Teaching Resources

Are you looking for a few good ideas? Well if you haven't tried Pinterest or the Teaching Channel, you're missing out on  great resources for your classroom!

Check out what teachers are sharing on Pinterest and the Teaching Channel!

What is Pinterest?

Pinterest is a social network that shares information by way of interesting images. It requires a free subscription, but once you are on it, these are things you can do:

• Scroll through loads of different images. 
• You can save information or images that you like by  creating   boards for later reference. 
• Once you've opened a "pin," you can find additional information and resources.  That's where you'll find a host of information at your fingertips.  
• There's a search bar that you can use to focus your search of specific resources and strategies.
• You can even link to Pinterest from this page (click on "follow me on Pinterest") to find the boards that I've developed.

URL: pinterest.com

What is the Teaching Channel?

This is a wonderful resource that is created for teachers by teachers. It is a free subscription site that offers videos tailored to your subject and grade. Here's what it includes:

• Video clips: These are developed by educational experts and teachers. The clips  include discussion points that can be used to generate active discussion and professional development.
•  Blog: Tchrs' Voice is a blog that is dedicated to teachers' concerns. It is moderated by several noted professionals, including Pat Wesley, Sarah Brown Wessling, and Lily Jones. 
• Newsletter: The Tch Newsletter gives informational updates on new videos, ideas on lesson planning, and info on the Common Core and the Teaching Channel itself.
• Teachers' Workplace/Notebook: An area set up to save videos and notes that you want to refer to at a later time. 
• Teachers' Roll Call: Once you register your subscription to Teaching Channel, you join a pictorial listing of teacher members. Last week, the 100,000 member joined the ranks! 

URL: www.teachingchannel.org

  

Whip Around - A Teaching Strategy

How about a strategy that will snap your students into focus, and provide an easily planned and delivered formative assessment?

The whip-around strategy is quck and easy to use!

Teachers need a way to check on student understanding, and be able to do it with the least strain on planning and lesson intrusion possible. Whip-around to the rescue!

What is the whip-around strategy?

The whip-around strategy is a quick gauge of how your students are understanding topics. It can be used as a formative assessment because it monitors achievement. It can also be used as a check of understanding, because it provides a snapshot of what your students are absorbing in the lesson.

How does this strategy work?
Just follow these steps:

1. Present a topic to your students. Ensure that you are offering students enough support to understand the topic.  
2. Provide guided examples where you show students how to address the topic or solve the problem
3. Have the whole group practice the skill or solve a problem together, based on what  you have just presented to them. 
4. Now create a whole class question that has several responses. Explain the strategy to the students (no "gotcha") and give students a couple of minutes to create their answer. 
5. • Examples of questions:
   • What are the parts of an insect?
   • How did Scout express her feelings about Bo?
   • What can a hurricane impact the economy of a city?
   • Using the periodic table name an element from the halogen family?
6. Ask for an answer to this question as you travel up and down the seats - have each child provide their idea of the best answer for the question. No pauses, no judgments, just quick answers from each student. If there are repeats, that's okay (it will reinforce the information.)
7. Afterwards review what has been said- clarify any misunderstandings. If a misunderstanding has been repeated by several students, then you must reteach the skill to the class. If a single student is not clear, then you need to support that student individually.

There you have it. You have just whipped around the classroom and assessed student understanding with one single question. 

Why should you use this strategy?
This is an easy strategy that will give you critical information about what students know in a quick way. You have an idea of who is paying attention, who is following the lesson, and who is struggling. If this is presented as a formative assessment, you have information about how each child has mastered the information, and you can use it as an oral assessment. 

Quick. Simple. Easy.

What strategies do you use for a quick assessment?

  Queen Bee

Handling an Out of Control Class: A Teaching Strategy

Have you ever walked into a chaotic classroom?

Well I have, and I usually witness a familiar pattern:

• There is a center of activity, with other students watching
• It is a loud and noisy atmosphere. 
• Students will be seen looking for a reaction from an adult presence. Without an adult reaction, it's "party time!"

When you see this, what should you do?

Establish authority. You must be in charge of the situation, and you must establish the leadership of the classroom. It's important for you to create a sense of adult presence - this will bring calm to the classroom. Here are some examples of what to do and what to say:

What to do:

1. Look around the classroom and establish eye contact with the students. Look around the room slowly.
2. Stand apart from the chaos and be a center of calm.
3. Have your feet apart and your body fully visible. Have your arms crossed or on your hips.
4. Do not lose control, yell, or bark orders. Speak in a medium volume with medium energy. 
5. Do not apologize "Would you please be quiet?" or ask  politely. Demand attention and compliance.
6. Give time between brief verbal orders. Walk towards the chaotic centers, but keep at a distance from it.
7. Do not copy the frenetic energy or loud volume of the classroom - be a center of calm.
8. Have an activity (a hand-out or a simple activity on the board that the students can handle independently.)

To establish calm and get students to ease away from a high energy situation, you have to speak in simple commands, using  medium volume. Speak in measured tones - don't yell!
Only thank students for on-task behavior when they are on-task.

What to say:

1. "All right, students, it's time to calm down and sit in your seats." 
2. "Students, play time is over.  (pause for effect) "It's time to get back in your seats."
3. " Let's stop this and get back to work."
4. "You need to sit down.  Now let's get to work."

Keep this mantra until students have settled down. Accept zero tolerance of off-task behavior. If individuals start playing, give eye contact and repeat your commands. Proximity may be helpful. Do not isolate or give public ridicule (this will backfire and agitate the situation.)

Safety issues must be addressed at once. Call for assistance if there's a fight or students are engaged in harmful activities that will hurt themselves or others. 

Even veteran teachers look for ways to address volatile classroom behaviors. Remember that there is no one successful way to get students under control.

What do you do in these kinds of situations?

  Queen Bee

What Do You Make?

Here is a broadcast of timely words from Taylor Mali, the original author of the poem "What do You Make?"

If you are not seeing the broadcast, but you see a box with a question mark, you do not currently have access to social networking sites like Pinterest or YouTube. When possible, please check out Taylor Mali's broadcast on YouTube.com: What do You Make? or on 
Pinterest.com: What do You Make?

You may have seen or heard a variation of this poem, but like most art, the original shines brighter. Here are are the words:

What Teachers Make

By Taylor Mali

(copyright 2009: All rights reserved)

I mean, you’re a teacher, Taylor.

He says the problem with teachers is
What’s a kid going to learn
from someone who decided his best option in life
was to become a teacher?
He reminds the other dinner guests that it’s true
what they say about teachers:
Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach.
I decide to bite my tongue instead of his
and resist the temptation to remind the dinner guests
that it’s also true what they say about lawyers.
Because we’re eating, after all, and this is polite conversation

Be honest. What do you make?

And I wish he hadn’t done that— asked me to be honest—
because, you see, I have this policy about honesty and ass-­‐kicking:
if you ask for it, then I have to let you have it.
You want to know what I make?
I make kids work harder than they ever thought they could.
I can make a C+ feel like a Congressional Medal of Honor
and an A-­‐ feel like a slap in the face.
How dare you waste my time
with anything less than your very best.
I make kids sit through 40 minutes of study hall
in absolute silence. No, you may not work in groups.
No, you may not ask a question.
Why won’t I let you go to the bathroom?
Because you’re bored.
And you don’t really have to go to the bathroom, do you?
I make parents tremble in fear when I call home:
Hi. This is Mr. Mali. I hope I haven’t called at a bad time,
I just wanted to talk to you about something your son said today.
To the biggest bully in the grade, he said,
“Leave the kid alone. I still cry sometimes, don’t you?
It’s no big deal.”
And that was noblest act of courage I have ever seen.
I make parents see their children for who they are
and what they can be.

You want to know what I make? I make kids wonder,
I make them question.
I make them criticize.
I make them apologize and mean it.
I make them write.
I make them read, read, read.
I make them spell definitely beautiful, definitely beautiful, definitely beautiful
over and over and over again until they will never misspell
either one of those words again.
I make them show all their work in math
and hide it on their final drafts in English.
I make them understand that if you’ve got this,
then you follow this,
and if someone ever tries to judge you
by what you make, you give them this.

Here, let me break it down for you, so you know what I say is true:
Teachers make a goddamn difference! Now what about you?

Mali. Taylor. “What Teachers Make.” What Learning Leaves. Newtown, CT: Hanover Press, 2002. Print. (ISBN: 1-­‐887012-­‐17-­‐6)

 hope you enjoy this as much as I have,

Lessons Learned from Challenging Students

Every student has a story and a lesson for us - some teach us about understanding, others teach us about patience and compassion. 

Challenging students are mini-teachers!

However, I find that students with challenging behaviors may teach us more than anyone else. How?  They force us to do things that we don't do on a regular basis. 

Consider this - which of these behaviors are you practicing now with a challenging student?

• We are reaching deep into our "teacher's toolkit" for teaching strategies that will work 
• We are searching out specialists and counselors to get ideas on how to handle the students' behaviors.
• We find ourselves thinking about this student and how to address this student's problems when we're away from school.
• We have conversations with other teachers and try to draw on their experience.
• We look for information that may shed light on why the student acts this way.
• We find ourselves kneeling in prayer for the patience to be professional around this student.

Well, each of these things are things that professional educators should practice on a regular basis (but we often go on "automatic" and teach within our comfort level!) In short, these challenging students get us to stretch our skills as educators, and make us better at what we do!

We should welcome this chance to grow when we have challenging students (as long as we don't have to have these students all of the time!) Let's look at them with a different eye - one that sees these students as a gift that wakes us up and moves us to learn and grow.

  

Assigning Work in Small Groups: A Teaching Strategy

How can you get everyone in your small groups to work equally?

All members of small groups should share responsibility!

In the post, First Steps for Creating Classroom Groups, I shared ways that you can introduce small groups in your classroom. But once you have students in small groups, how do you ensure that every student is doing their share of the work?

Using Job Responsibilities

One way to get everyone involved in completing a small group task is to have assigned responsibilities. Similar to the concept shared in the "One Minute Manager," it's a good idea to have something specific for each member of the team. If this isn't done, you can frequently end up with the industrious students getting burned out from doing all of the work, the lazy students doing nothing, and everyone receiving equal credit - Not Fair!

Assigning Responsibilities

Within your 4-5 member small groups, have a system in place that gives each student a job description:

• recorder - responsible for drafting notes of what has been done, completes any written documentation for the group
• moderator - responsible for leading the group and taking charge of the discussing and outlining the task
• facilitator - ensures that each person contributes to the completion of the task, and supports the efforts
• reporter - responsible for sharing out the results of the small group's work
• timekeeper - keeps everyone on the established timeline, and refocuses the group if it gets off-task

Keeping Students on Track

A great way to remind students about their specific task within the group is to have a task card folded like a tent for each student in the group. Each student would have the task card in front of them like a name card would be shown. This task card would have the job on one side, so that each member of the team knows who is doing what. On the flip side of the card there is  a description of the job, so that each student can have the job reminder facing them. 

  Queen Bee

Honoring Introverts and Extroverts in the Classroom

Here's a way to treat introverts and extroverts with the special care they deserve:

Source: decrescenzio.blogspot.com via KindergartenWorks on Pinterest

What do you do to help introverts and extroverts in your classroom?

  

Discovering Your Students' Strengths

Do you know your students' strengths, talents and learning styles?

Identifying student strengths can be a helpful tool in the classroom!

One of the best ways to find out how your students learn is by watching them at play. Do you see students reading, sketching things, or building things? Do your students have lots of friends and socialize most of the time? Are your students musical and rap oriented? Are they puzzle-solvers or dancers? These activities can give you a glimpse into their academic strengths. For instance, by observation, you may find out these special talents that your students have:

• Readers - may be visual learners
• Sketchers - may be visual or  artistic
• Builders - may be kinesthetic or logical thinkers
• Socializers - may be interpersonally skilled
• Rappers, Musicians - may be artistic
• Puzzle Solvers - may be logical thinkers
• Dancers - may be artistic or kinesthetic learners.

Notice that I say "may." This is a very broadly sketched observational tool.  You can also get information about student talents, literacies and intelligences by having them share the information themselves. Offer them a survey, and then collate the information. Who better to share this than the students themselves? To learn more about multiple intelligences, please:

1. Familiarize yourself with Howard Gardner's theory on multiple intelligences 
2. Watch the following  video by Laura Candler, who explains how to use a student survey that she created.  
3. Use this link to her student survey, the Getting to Know You Survey, and use it with your students. 

Take a moment to watch Laura Candler's video to see how the survey is completed. 

Have you learned anything new about how your students learn?
  

Establishing a Relationship with Your Students

Have you made a connection with your students yet?  

Making a connection with students will reap great benefits for you and them!

We've all had teachers who motivated and supported our learning. Those teachers established a positive relationship with students in the classroom from the very first of the school year. In one of my recent posts, Remembering My Favorite Teachers, I mentioned how certain teachers established a personal connection that made a real difference in my academic success.  Our students are no different. How can you establish a meaningful, caring and professional relationship with your students? Here are a few ways that you can develop these connections:

• identify students' strengths and challenges, and take the time to discover your students' interests
• explain "why it matters" during your instruction
• offer students choices based on learning skill and style
• be respectful, firm and consistent
• avoid "playing favorites" in your room  by giving all students an opportunity to aid, assist and support others
• establish time to have personal conversations with small groups of students 
• connect with parents and students outside of school hours
• promote school functions and attend them
• develop a sense of humor (not sarcasm) and use it in the classroom
• offer tutoring when needed, be available to students who need help, and direct students to resources within the school.

What things do you do to develop relationships with your students?