Classroom Consequences

Consequences - for both positive and negative actions - are needed in the classroom to help reinforce good behavior and to punish poor behavior.

Robert M. Marzano points out in his book, The Art and Science of Teaching that:

As with rules and procedures, consequences should be established at the beginning of the school year. Unlike rules and procedures, consequences are typically addressed routinely and frequently. That is, the teacher frequently reinforces adherence to rules and procedures as opposed to taking it for granted, and the teacher also acknowledges lack of adherence to rules and procedures. Rules and procedures for which there are no consequences—positive and negative—do little to enhance learning. (pg 131)

The presence of consequences are required in any high functioning, well-maintained classroom.

However, knowing when and how to act is key.

Here are some examples of action plans regarding student behavior:

My consequences (good and bad) are denoted with a point board that is on my front white board for all my students to see.

• If students behave correctly, their proper behave is rewarded with their name being elevated one point
• Names can continue to move up with each good action or class participation
• Similarly, bad actions result in the subtraction of a point
• However, it is important to keep in mind that all names can move up and down throughout the class as a student's behave changes 
• At the end of class where the students' name is, signifies how many points that student will get on their stamp page 
• Stamp pages have 100 slots for point accumulation
• 100 stamps = prize)
• If a student does not receive any points for that day and their name has fallen below 1 into the "yellow card" section of the point board, that student will receive a warning
• 3 warnings = a yellow card being sent home to their parents with their misconducted noted and explained for the parents' awareness

With that being known about my classroom consequences, 

here are some examples of what warrants responses (good and bad) to student behavior in my classroom:

Reinforcing good behavior - verbal praise, public recognition of work done well, points/stickers, extra activities, prizes - can be used when students are participating or conducting themselves in a manner that meets and exceeds the expectations.

Example 1: First grade student, Angela, comes to class before the bell rings and sits quietly in her seat waiting for the class to begin.  She notices that other children are up playing and running around, but she does not join in.  As the teacher enters she sees Angela sitting nicely and makes a statement of praise "Wow, Angela! You are sitting so nicely and quiet.  Thank you." Then slides the child's name up one point on the point board.  

Other students hear and see the praise and reward that Angela receive and return to their desk and conduct themselves in a similar manner. 

Example 2: Hayden continually demonstrates good classroom behavior and has earned 100 stamps on his Stamp Page.  Upon receiving his 100th stamp he is allowed to choose a prize from the prize box in front of the whole class so that they can see the benefits of behaving properly in class. 

Example 3: Sally has gone gone above and beyond on her book review assignment.  The teacher acknowledges this by putting Sally's work in the the room with an award recognizing her efforts for the entire class to see. 

Punishing poor behavior - "withitness", being pro-active, graduated actions (occupying the entire room, eye contact, stopping the entire class to address the issue), direct cost-consequences (time-outs, overcorrecting), group liability, home liability - can be used when dealing with difficult students.

Example 1: Chris has a hard time sitting correctly in his chair.  Upon the first time the teacher notices she makes eye contact with the student and nods to his seat, so that he knows she sees him and corrects his behavior.  Later in the class, Chris is again sitting incorrectly in his chair and the teacher moves over to him and taps him on the back which alters Chris to correct his behavior.

A 3rd time could result in the deduction of a point or the lose of his chair for a few mins.

Example 2:  Edward is a talkative, disruptive student who continuous creates problems in class.  Knowing this the teacher chooses his seat carefully in order to put him in a location where he will create the least interpretations.  To dissuade him from being disruptive in class the teacher constantly relocates herself during the class, so that she is standing/teaching from a location near him.  

However, Edward's behavior continues to be a problem and even with the deduction of points (he is now in the Yellow Card zone) his behavior has not improved.  The teacher stops class and addresses Edward publicly and directly, "Edward what are you doing is not helping you or other learn.  Do you think now is the best time to be doing X?" Edward's action have been acknowledged as poor behavior for the whole class to see, as a result, he corrects his behavior and class can continue.

Example 3: Yohan is a pleasant student, but a serious talker.  Even with the teacher's corrections he continues to gab.  Upon receiving 3 Yellow Card warnings, an actually Yellow Card is written up for Yohan to take home to make his parents aware that his is overly-chatty in class and causes a disruption.

It is important to remember that not every child is completely good nor is a bad child completely bad.  Positive and negative consequences should be applied when they are needed and just.  Teachers should be mindful and careful to not create biased ideas about a particular student and let certain behaviors go unchecked or to never praise a bad student.

Everyone has their up and down moments and we all need a chance to work towards our better selves.

Behavior Review

Often times, despite our best efforts and the training and practice put in place to have students learn and follow the classroom rules, some students still maintain certain behaviors that are not acceptable in the classroom.

The first step to helping a student address their behavioral problems is to assess the student in the classroom.

Using Pinterest I found a punch of behavior charts and checklist ideas and examples that will be useful in a classroom with a difficult child or more.

Here is a simple checklist that I created...

I designed it with grades K-3 in mind.

Baring in mind that this range of students would not have very large behavioral issues outside of the "norm" (i.e. not paying attention, not focusing, not following directions, etc.)

I would not consider this checklist to be appropriate for older students who might have greater academic and/or social disruptive behavioral concerns.

~~~

How to use:

1. The teacher would use theirs form (copy not shown) to monitor a student for a week, once a behavioral disruption has been noticed/identified.

2. This form could/should be filled out be all teachers that have the child in class, so that an all-encompassing assessment is conducted.

3. Upon a week's review, the parent form (above) would be sent home for the family to discuss the issue(s).

4. After the family has reviewed the form and sent it back signed, the teacher(s) would re-evaluate the student for change.

5. If no change is noticed a behavior IEP could/would be created with the school counselor, parents and child to see if an increase in proper performance can be achieved.

6. If no corrections are made with the behavior IEP; the student, parents, counselor would meet with the Vice Principal to discuss and address disciplinary actions.

Performance Anxiety

Korea loves tests.  They especially love when their own child/student does well on them.

Schools teach to the test.  

Information and topics are drilled and crammed into students' heads, so that the student (should) know exactly what will be coming at them on the exam(s) and they will then in turn be able to perform well on the test(s).

When I worked in a public school, it was laughable how blatant the the test prep was.  

I once had a geography teacher in high school who talked us through the test - the whole test! - the day before we were going to take it.  And what's worse, he let us write down "information" and "clues" on a notecard WHILE  he was reading us the ACTUAL test!

Korea feels a bit like that.  

You don't get to take a notecard with you, but everything that will be on the test is hammered into students' heads.

Hammered hard.

But despite the heavy blow of the hammer's head, this process is working for Korea.

Some Facts and Figures:

On the 2009 PISA test results, South Korea ranked:

1st in reading.  For every category.

4th in science.

(Wikipedia, 2015)

On the 2015 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)'s ranking of school performances, Korea finished 3rd.  The results were based on 15 year old students' average scores in math and science. 

(Graham, 2015) 

However, a report in 2009 found that Korea was near that bottom of test takers for TOEFL speaking skills. Ranking 136th out of 161 nations.

(Kang, 2009)

Reasons for their success:

       Waking up early to study before school.  

       Going to school and studying.  

       Going to hagwons after school to study more.  

       Going to another hagwon to study an extracurricular. 

       Private tutor visits student at their house.  

       Student does homework. 

       Student studies into the later hours of the night.

Repeat again and again and again...

Students ARE successful.

Life is NO fun.

Academic expectations:

Here's one student's review of the academic system and the pressure that is put on Korean students as a result of the high education expectations put them by their families, teachers and school system.

For me, it is hard to evaluate the high academic expectations because I do not fully know to what extent other subjects are taught and what all is being done in those classrooms to raise the level of students' educational endeavours. 

I do not know what teaching methods or strategies homeroom and other subject teachers are using.  I don't know what to what degree the engage students and push to advance their learning.

I do know that teachers have a their own amount of pressures and expectations to live up to though.  Korean teachers have mounds of paperwork and reports to fill out and submit regarding student performance and scores.  

This in turn reflects on the school and the school's ranking.  Making it all one big circle of pressure to demand better results and top performances.

I do believe that no matter where you teach or from what country you come from, teachers should set a high bar for their students to reach for in their academic studies.  Do not accept what you can do easily.  Easy isn't helping you.  It doesn't challenge you.  Push for what is challenging.  Work through what is hard.  Then you will succeed even more than you imagined and the possibilities before you will be limitless.  

Or so this is what I think teachers are meant to provide for their students.

Rising Up

Through the use of varied and/or new teaching approaches, teachers can extended and raise the expectations set for a child's learning.  The following 3 examples are new approaches to old methods that these teachers have used to rise the bar on learning.

1. Roller Coaster Physics   lesson plan -

• Academic expectations: Design and create a roller coast that is "fun and safe" and uses/enhances students understanding of motion and energy - potential and kinetic energy and Newton's 3 laws of motion
• Behavior expectations:
• collaboration, team work
• clear communication 
• promote autonomous learning
• individual work to highlight what each students knows
• problem solving skills
• match skills or roles assigned in groups
• Norms and Procedures: 
• The teacher hosted meetings that were held at the beginning of class to breakdown the activities of the coming day and to discuss practices and issues that came in up in the last lesson
• The teacher uses the meetings to:
• conduct formative assessments of the students
• Students are given independent work with specific requirements that need to be included so that they can:
• "showcase" what they know
• conduct teacher, self, peer assessments
• Independent work then flows into group work where students:
• develop team building skills
• collaboration
• consensus 
• The teacher limits the materials the students have access to, so that they have to problem solve and try to reach solutions based within their means and challenge their understanding
• real world practice using a budget and using math skills

2. 3rd Grade Chinese Math   East teaching West -

• Academic expectations: 
• Young learners beginning learning multiplication at an early age - first semester grade 2
• Teachers and parents expect high scores from students on their national standardized tests 
• Education is prioritized
• China's math goals:
• develop conceptual and procedural knowledge through rigid practice
• use whole-class instruction, engaging all students in the material and promoting feedback
• Behavior expectations:
• Score high on test and exams
• Study math for 4-5 (40-45 min) class periods a week
• Complete 30 mins of homework a night
• Study in addition to the above amount of work
• Drill, drill, drill 
• Norms and Procedures: 
• Teachers use a variation of teaching methods to help students learn math concepts and emphasize logical reasoning
• prompting students to ask questions and extend their learning
• Students are made and expected to memorize multiplication tables at a young age
• Students study math for 9 years
• taught to understand numerical relationships
• develop and prove their solutions in front of the class
• understand whole concepts of math
• apply previous knowledge to help learn new topics

3. Whole Brain Teaching   website - 

• Academic expectations: Students are fully engaged in receiving and instructions from their Teacher and responded with trained actions and chats to acknowledge that they have understood what is expected of them to do
• Behavior expectations: 
• Students are alert and responsive to the Teacher's instructions and commands
• Use movement, gestures, songs, chants and dance to help enhance and facilitate learning
• Students respond appropriately and timely
• Norms and Procedures:
• Whole Brain Classrooms (WBC) have 5 main rules that students are expected to know and follow:
• follow directions quickly (students shoot hands forward like a fish)
• raise your hand to talk (raise hand, bring down to head and make a talking motion)
• raise your hand to leave your seat (raise hand, make walking motion with fingers)
• make smart choices (students tap one finger their temple as they say each word)
• keep the teacher happy (students hold up each thumb and index finger making the letter 'L', frame their face, and then bob their head to each work smiling)

Compare & Contrast -

1. I really liked the Roller Coaster lesson and how the teacher went about breaking down various parts of the lesson to allow for great student involvement in their own learning.
I liked how she had a hands-on creation portion of the lesson, as well as, a computerized simulator that allowed to the students to observe and practice different outcomes of their roller coaster designs.
I also liked how she have "chirping" meetings, in which she let the whole class discuss, brainstorm and troubleshoot issues with their experiments.

This type of lesson is one that I would like to put into practice when I have my own classroom.  However, in my current teaching position - while it could be possible - it is not possible for me at the moment.
- My 1st graders are too young to be able to handle a lesson like this and while my 4th graders could do a lesson of this teaching method, I do not teach them the type of subjects that would allow for a lesson such as this.  I could use parts of it and adapt them to fit the needs and learning (language) abilities of my students, but again finding the right topic would be the most constricting element to consider.

2. This one is tricky.  This is what is done in Korea as well.  At least I can say that is what is typical done for ESL classrooms.  I was just told today in a staff meeting that I allow individual students to speak too much by themselves - and instead I should do full class drills and speaking in unison.

Blank stare.... 

Umm.. 

How about no?

Yes, drilling allows for greater repetition and practice, but it is also boring and dull and mindless.
The Chinese math teachers in the article allow for individual student work - in the classroom - in front of the peers!  Speaking English should be know different, because when in real life are you going to speak in unison with a group of 30 people, reciting set word and phrases?  Never. (Ok maybe at a sporing event or national ceremony or something, but not in normal, everyday life).

I do like how it stated that whole concepts are taught, varied teaching methods are used, and that emphasize is placed on logical reasoning.  But then it goes on to state that these practices are done by only some teachers.  So still old norms win out in areas that are less inclined than others.

3. WBC is hard for me.  I do use it.  And I see the need and success of it for young learners.  Y-O-U-N-G learners.  However, when it is used for students in grades 4, 5, and 6 it starts to get a bit questionable to me, and when it is used on 7th graders or older I get uncomfortable with the idea.  At that age and grade level I doesn't feel appropriate to me.  I feels childish and demeaning to the students and very out of place.

I like it and use it for young learners and will continue to use it in my future classrooms.  For young learners.

How can I use these examples to set high expectations for my students?... 

1. provide greater thought provoking activities and discussions
2. challenge students with questions that push them beyond what they already know and focus them to troubleshoot and problem solve
3. engage students in activities that are fun and make learning seamless
4. offer drills (in moderation) to re-enforce learning
5. vary my teaching practices to help develop students understandings
6. create methods that fully engage students - mind and body - for better focus
7. try my hardest to constantly improve and do my best

• Compare how you would create learning environments for your students that are similar or in contrast to the three teaching situations illustrated in the above videos. 
• Provide a brief context for your summary in terms of grade level and background of your students.

Step by Step

The gradual release teaching method allows teacher to slowly and carefully introduce new ideas and topics to their students, so that by using planned steps students are eventually able to do the work on their own. 

I used this method with my first grader students this week on a review lesson that focused on sentence creation.  

Are sentences were structured to two prompts:

We used a simple worksheet to help us stay organized and focused:

Here is how our lesson went:

Reflection:

I should have taped the other class!

It is that simple.  The other class is better.  

Better students.  

Better behaved. 

 Just plain better.  

When I did the lesson with them (in the period before the one I filmed) it went effortlessly.  The gradual release method flowed like water.  The students were patient, they listened, they observed.  Then when I asked for input they raised their hands and were considerate of other students and myself.  When we worked in our groups they needed little additional instruction and created sentences within their ability. 

They are just better on the whole.

It was/is frustrating to see myself in this video, because it's one thing to know of the frustrations that exist in your classroom.  But you like to tell yourself that you deal with them and move on.  Instead when you see yourself on tape - you see the frustrations as well!  

I can see myself annoyed.  I can see myself losing patience.  I can see the amount of affection and care I have for my students be pulled at and stripped.  It is frustrating.  It is upsetting. 

But this is a battle I have been losing this entire year with the class in the video. 

As for the gradual release method ~

This method works very well in an ESL classroom.  It fits in perfectly with nearly every lesson/topic/activity that I do/would do.  

Forecast for care and concern

Creating a classroom in which all students know that they are cared for and that someone is concerned about their well-being and education is a goal most educators strive for and one that does not tax them too far beyond the scope of their job, interests and passions.

However, being able to create this classroom climate is a different issue.  Wants/desires v. real life abilities/obstacles can be an uphill battle for teachers - young or old.

Yet it can be done!

I work in a school where I am the odd person out.  I am a Western face in a predominately homogenous Korean environment.  While I do have other Western co-workers and some students come from families of mixed ethnic makeup, it is still easy to feel separated from the norm.

And it can often be difficult to fully understand what is taking place. 

This too is true for my students and how they interact and deal with me.  There are obstacles that block us from fully understanding one another.  Culture, language and age to name a few.  But provided the right guidelines, rules and consistency a positive classroom climate can be established for everyone.

Below are a few procedures I like to incorporate to lay the framework for creating a positive classroom environment.

1. Determine and develop classroom rules that are simple and easy for students to understand and follow.
1. I have a set list of rules and expectations that I make my students aware of (i.e. no running in the classroom, raise your hand to talk, be quiet and listen to others).
2. I also let my older students work together to brainstorm some rules of their own.  This allows students to feel as if they are personally connected and responsible for the emotional atmosphere and productivity of the classroom.
1. If they create insufficient rules or do not create enough rules, then more disciplinary actions will need to be taken = less time doing the assigned work = less time feeling happy and engaged in their classroom community.
2. Establish a reward and punishment system that is clear and visible for all students to see and be aware of their standings.
1. My students (both grade levels I teach - grade 1 and 4) are very point motivated.  As a result a point chart is clearly displayed on my front board and students operate on a sliding point system.
1. All students start at '1' and their names can be moved up (to 5) or down to "yellow card" (or below depending on the severity of the child's actions/behavior), with everyone knowing that their names can move both up and down throughout the course of the class.  However, at the end of class wherever their name is determines the reward (points) or punishment (a written warning) they will receive.
2. No student or action is unredeemable. Students know that by correcting what they have done, they can elevate their name on the point chart and get themselves out of trouble.  
1. Often times bad behaviors need to be addressed on a class-wide level so that everyone is made aware of what is happening and how the action/behavior is hurting the learning environment for everyone.
2. This is especially true if bullying is occurring!
1. Teasing and hurtful words are not allowed in my classroom.  But I am at a large disadvantage on this front - being that I do not speak the students' native language.  In order to address issues of teasing and bullying I am reliant on students to come forward with the situation and make me aware what is happening. 
3. Learn personal information about each student. 
1. At the beginning of the year my two main walls are blank.  I reserve this space for the students' "About Me" posters. This activity not only allows me to learn personal information about the students but also helps me to be able to make connections with them and have avenues for things to talk about. 
2. I then follow up this activity with a speaking presentation, where students are able to share more about themselves that was not specifically covered in the poster.
4. Gage students' personalities and classroom involvement early so that you can tailor your expectations for them.
1. By doing so you can avoid creating a biased towards they child that they are "lazy or uninvolved".  Instead it could simple be an issue that the child is just shy or feels overwhelmed when asked to participate publicly in front of their peers.  Being aware of each students' behavior and demeanors can allow a teacher to better assess their involvement, learning and needs.  This will then cause the child to feel cared for and connected.  It could open doors to greater learning and nonverbal participation.

By incorporating these small features into my everyday teachings I am able to better connect with my students, assess what is happening, provide support and understanding to each child and be on the look out for emotionally hurtful situations (bullying or student isolation).

This is not as simple or as easy as it seems.  There are still other elements that contradict my best efforts and some students that despite my last stretch of patience still can't seem to turn around and contribute productively to the classroom, but I do try.  And I think on the whole I am doing a fairly good job.  If I can say so myself.  

Personal reflection:

I know from my experience that I need additional study/training in a few areas:

• Patience.  You can never have enough training in patience!
• Consistency.  I occasionally catch myself slipping with being consistent and upholding standards and rules that I have clearly set.
• Behavior corrections for extremely disruptive students.  I struggle here.  A lot.  These children really push me.  I find it challenging and sometimes impossible to be able to turn their negative attitudes around and productively and positively involve them in the class.  I could definitely use more study/training on this issue.  Because ooooh boy... God love them... I do not and I need help!