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PUTTING STUDENTS TO WORK ON CLASSROOM DISCIPLINE

From Katherine Mitchem, West Virginia University
and Julieann Benyo, Ogden City School District, Ogden, Utah

Students in middle school and high school can take charge of their own behavior and classroom discipline with some encouragement, and perhaps an element of competition to make it exciting. A pair of educators in Maryland developed a self-management plan, tested on middle-school students, that builds on the "thumbs up, thumbs down" feedback method many teachers use with very young children. The plan gives teachers a quiet way, without disrupting their teaching, to let students know when they are not acting appropriately.

TEACHING STUDENTS SELF-MANAGEMENT: MORE THAN JUST PRACTICAL
March 20, 2000

STUDENTS LEARN TO:

• Stay "on task," a term that is defined and frequently repeated to help all students understand the common goal
• Take leadership roles within the class, helping to run the program to free teachers up to teach rather than police the students

IMPLEMENTING THE PLAN:

1. Explain to students "the ABCs" of behavior: In every incident, there is an antecedent, or trigger, for a particular behavior. From that behavior comes a consequence. Spelling this out ensures students buy into the program by emphasizing they have to power to gain a measure of independence, which most adolescents crave.
2. Define "appropriate" and "inappropriate" behavior, leaving nothing open to interpretation. Discuss and practice even the simple concepts of how to get the teacher's attention or how to follow directions.
3. Help students track good behavior by themselves and their peers. Pairs of students evaluate each other silently at regular intervals during the class period, each making a mark on a piece of paper if he or she was "on task" during that interval, then making another mark if his or her partner was on task. Pairs earn points when they are both on task in the same interval.
4. Let competition motivate the students: Pit half the class against the other, with the points each pair on a team earns contributing to the team's overall score. Rewards, such as 5 minutes of social time at the end of a class period, can be established for the winners.

Special Education News welcomes lesson plan suggestions. Please e-mail them to educators@specialednews.com. This site may from time to time contain disconnected links due to changes in the web sites we have linked to. We will endeavor to update links to outside resources as they change, and we appreciate tips on changes being made.