Positive and Negative Behaviors

Encouraging Positive Behavior

There are several ways to encourage and respond to positive behavior in the classroom, and school as a whole, but I have found certain ideas to be more to my liking and comfort-level as a primary school teacher.

• Positive reinforcement through verbal praise making sure to be consistent in my positive reactions. If one student gets praise for getting 100% on an assignment, or listening closely, make sure the rest of the students receive the same praise. I will also use verbal reinforcement to encourage good behavior. When I seen good example of student behavior, I will verbally recognize it using phrases like: “I appreciate that Megan is sitting quietly”, or “Leslie and Alexandra are doing a good job showing me they are ready for spelling”. I enjoyed receiving this kind of attention when I was a student, and my class now likes it when I recognize their effort.

• Volunteering at Children's Memorial Hospital gave me the idea of an Applause Slip for students who demonstrate good behavior. The idea behind the Applause is that a student accumulates points for good behavior, which can then be traded in for rewards like:

• A pass on homework
• Special one-on-one tutoring with teacher
• First choice of class jobs
• Sitting in the comfy-chairs during silent reading

• Students can get get Applause Points for:
• Exceptionally good lunchroom behavior
• Two weeks without reprimand (checklist to keep track)
• Playing inclusively during recess
• Consistent quiet behavior while in lines in the hall, and during transitions
• No missed homework for a month
• Nothing below a B grade for two weeks

I will keep track of the Applause a student receives in my own student record book, though I won't hide the information from a student who wants to know how many applause points they have. While I don't want to dole out applause points too freely, I do want to make sure that all of my students have the opportunity to receive them, and and equal opportunity to get a reward.

• A note home to the parents, that a student can present, sharing the good behavior I observed in class, and why I appreciated it.

• Small things, like a "good job" on an assignment can help bolster a students self-esteem and reinforce good behavior. I can implement a policy that students who get 100% on a test or assignment will get a sticker, but I will also make sure that students who show a significant improvement over time are also given positive reinforcement, even if it's just a hand-drawn smile on their work.

Rewarding good behavior, no matter how it is done, encourages good behavior in students. I am loathe to bring up B.F. Skinner, because he seems so inappropriate for any classroom discussion, even though he is discussed in Classroom Management, but the Skinner Box did show that rewarding expected behavior encourages students (or, in his case, rats) to repeat the behavior to get a reward.

The key to my rewarding good behavior, though, is that it has to be earned. I won't reward students for doing what they should be doing in the first place. I will certainly show appreciation if they are sitting quietly, but I won't allow my students to think they deserve a reward for expected behavior.

Responding to Negative Behavior

Like I discuss in my Classroom Rules and Expectations entry, I have a sequential plan on consequences for rules that are broken and misbehavior in my classroom. At the same time, teachers deal with minor occurrences of misbehavior every day, and there needs to be some sort of plan to express displeasure without going through formal reprimand.

In my class I witness several examples of slight misbehavior every day, none of which deserves strict response. I see students talking out of turn, zoning out for a few moments, reading the wrong book, doodling, sitting down or eating during the National Anthem. While sometimes misbehavior can be ignored, occasionally these infractions should be acknowledged as inappropriate behavior. However, I don't need to disrupt class time to do that. There are several ways I can express displeasure without openly drawing attention to the behavior, or needing to sit down for a formal discussion.

Responses to minor misbehavior:

• Making eye-contact with the misbehaving student a.k.a. The Look
• Moving towards the misbehaving student
• Saying the students name in the context of the lesson "Let's say Andrew was going to the store . . . "
• Calling on the misbehaving student
• Call on a student and then ask a question. That way the student won't feel "picked on" and won't need the question repeated, which might cause unnecessary embarrassment.
• Standing near the misbehaving student.

These actions let the student or students know they are behaving in a manner I don't appreciate, and want them to stop. If, over time, these methods don't work, then I will warn the misbehaving student that I will have to move onto more serious consequences, and follow that sequence as the behavior dictates.

Self-Motivation: strategies and techniques

Discouragement is one of the surest signs of a student who is unable to connect their work to a positive outcome. The frustration from learning new concepts that can't seem to make sense can lead to frustration and hostility in students, which is often shown through disruptive behavior. While dealing with the disruptive behavior is one way teacher's choose to "fix" a problem, it doesn't get to the root of the actions: a feeling of failure when a students isn't able to understand.

In cases like this, my job is to re-establish the link between the student’s expectations and positive outcomes by creating learning situations where they can experience success. Helping students get the right answers is not enough; I believe students need to understand why an answer is correct (or incorrect) and what they can do to improve the skill further. By asking questions such as: ”What did you do to get that answer?”, “How did you know the answer was correct?”, and “Would this work for the following problem as well?”, I can actively involve the students in their cognitive learning process, and help them develop strategies they can transfer to other lessons.
Constant feedback and supportive comments are integral in developing self-motivated learners. Pointing out my students' strengths and focusing on what my students have already mastered as a foundation for new skills will help them to refine their strategies and use them in new ways.

I am aware that not all students are easily motivated, so it my responsibility to accommodate those students who are less likely to respond to my encouragement. While the classroom climate, and the way I interact with my students, definitely influences their motivation, I will also have to make tasks meaningful to my students. I can do this by incorporating a variety of interesting topics to my curriculum, that my students find relevant. This is where knowing my students comes in handy. I believe it is my responsibility as a teacher to find a way to motivate all of my students, and if that means I need to differentiate instruction for most of the class, then I will.

Motivating the students to learn can be as simple as creating a strong opening to my lesson. Asking students to write a sentence is dull instruction, and won't engage the students. Telling the students that I am going to use two vocabulary words to write a rich sentence about my superhero power is already more engaging and exciting to the students.

As Burden says, "there are four dimensions of motivation: interest, relevance, expectancy, and satisfaction" (p. 125). It will be nearly impossible to motivate my students if I don't first pique their interest. And even more, if my students don't see me getting excited about the lesson they are about to have, they won't be excited about it either.

By referencing superhero powers, in conjunction with vocabulary words, I am able to make the lesson relevant to my students, while getting them excited about the lesson. If I have a class that isn't interested in superhero powers, I can use the information I've gathered to refer to something that does hold their interest: activities at a zoo or circus, what they are doing over a long weekend, their best friends, their pets, siblings or parents. Just a little bit of digging on my part can open up a broad array of potential topics for lessons.

Another method for self-motivation I will use is to let the students know the intended outcome of the lesson or lessons. If I plan on having all of my students read a chapter book by the end of the week, I’ll let them know it! My confidence in them will help bolster their own self-confidence.

I will also make sure to vary my teaching strategies, so that my lessons appeal to all learning styles. I want to appeal to my entire class, not just the students whose learning style is similar to my own. I can stage debates for verbal learners, use artwork and manipulatives for visual/spatial learners, use role playing for kinesthetic learners and have the class create songs and poems and chants for musical/rhythmic learners. There are so many options for teaching, and while the content of the curriculum might be set in stone, usually the teaching methods are far more flexible. I know that this takes a great deal of time and energy, but I feel that it will be worth it, if a struggling child who feels he is a hopeless case discovers that he is, in fact, pretty darn smart.

There are so many ways to create self-motivation in the classroom. By establishing doubt, I can build intrigue in my students, and a desire to prove me right or wrong. Varying the level of difficulty in a lesson will help the struggling students feel successful when they know the answers. I can mix up students during group work, so that they have the opportunity to work with classmates with different strengths, ideas and views. Give the students control of a lesson, and pick out what they think the class should learn. Creating self-motivation in the classroom - helping students want to learn - is something that any teacher can do if he or she makes the effort.

Finally, I believe that it is important for my students to know that I want them to succeed. I need to create lessons that "promote student success" by matching the motivational needs of my students, and communicating what I expect of my class. I will be supportive of my students, and listen to their frustrations, taking the time to work through them.

Everyone who enters my classroom has the opportunity to thrive. It is my job to make them want to.

Resources and References

The following websites contributed to the creating of this Classroom Management Plan:

Classroom Procedures and Transitions
Educationworld.com
Georgia Child Psychologist
NCES Kids' Zone
Office.Microsoft.com
Our Class Web
Scholastic.com
The Teacher's Corner

The Following publications contributed to creating this Classroom Management Plan:

A Trainer's Notebook for Constructing Curriculum. (1995). Washington D.C.:
Teaching Strategies, Inc.

Burden, P.R. (2010). Classroom management (4th ed). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.

Burke, K. (2009). How to assess authentic learning (5th ed).Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

Guillaume, A.M. (2008). K-12 Classroom Teaching (3rd ed). Upper Saddle
River, NJ: Pearson.

O'Donnell, A.M., Reeve, J., & Smith, J. (2009). Educational Psychology (2nd ed). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.