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In this lesson, we will discuss:
The best way to control improper student behavior is to prevent it from happening. Experienced teachers employ a number of techniques that prevent or minimize student disruptions so that students remain focused on instruction. The following examples are a normal and regularly-occurring element in most teachers’ “behavioral toolbox.” They are designed to prevent student misbehavior or minimize it when disruptive situations arise, thereby keeping students out of trouble while encouraging learning. These tactics are, for the most part, non-intrusive and allow for the continued flow of the lesson.
Teachers may choose to use a number of subtle ways to handle discipline problems when an overt, aggressive approach is not mandated by the situation, such as:
Avoid being alone with a student. Confidential conversations may be held in a room with the door open and with other teachers within visual range of the situation.
Interestingly, humor is often successful with tough-minded students. Through bad treatment, some students are hardened beyond their years and are considerably tougher than their teachers. For tough students who come from a tough background, the teacher may be the only friendly face and soft-spoken adult they see on a daily basis. Most tough students have an emotional callus that deflects all incoming insults and mean treatment. They may also react with the anger and violence that has been modeled for them through their environment. Surprisingly, they are often defenseless against someone in authority who is nice to them. The standard warning goes with this technique: Do not let the student take advantage of the situation and receive preferential treatment after the reprimand is complete.
Inserting humor into a tense situation allows the student(s) to get out of a situation without losing face.
Do not be judgmental. Students are in their formative years and change daily. They have the youthful capacity to reinvent themselves like a Phoenix if they have the right support and opportunity.
Loving teachers teach students, and everyone else teaches curriculum. As you probably realize, students prefer a loving teacher. Because of this, students often go out of their way to be kind and pleasant to that teacher. They are usually the students’ choice for Teacher of the Year. Discipline problems are minimal and the loving teacher seldom has the occasion to employ extreme disciplinary measures or send a student to the administrator. Conversely, normal students can also be monsters to a teacher that they do not like. People who like students may become great teachers, but teachers who do not like students will never receive the satisfaction of being a great teacher.
The vast majority of your disciplinary strategies should be subtle in nature. Although you must learn to use them appropriately, they quickly become instinctual.
Sometimes non-threatening disciplinary strategies fail to work. What should you do if that happens? First of all, realize that no discipline tactic works for all students all of the time. The following approaches are common in the teaching profession, but your mileage will vary depending upon your students, your personality, your school, and an infinitely large collection of other variables. When to use the correct preventative response is a function of teacher experience. You will make mistakes, but as long as you learn from them, the mistakes are worthwhile.
These moderately aggressive strategies are less subtle than the preceding list and are best applied only when subtle strategies have failed or are unlikely to resolve the issue at hand.
A verbal reprimand is a direct, in-class address to a particular student that contains the following elements: student name, description of the rule violated, corrective actions needed by the student, and the consequences imposed by the teacher if the student does not comply. The reprimand should not be a crazed shout, but rather delivered in a calm manner while maintaining direct eye contact. The purpose is to confront the student, identify the problem, provide a means to correct it, and lay the groundwork for possible escalation of consequences if the misbehavior continues. A verbal reprimand is intended to send a clear message to the student to correct poor behavior or face additional consequences.
If you find that you are verbally reprimanding students repeatedly, then it may be a sign of something else. It may simply be that the students are not impressed by a verbal reprimand. Unfortunately, some children come from dysfunctional families where the child may be screamed at on a regular basis. If that is the case, your verbal reprimand may not be seen as a big deal.
Your reprimand may be ineffective; consider your technique. Be conscious of the tone of your voice, your position in the room, your posture, and your eye contact. There is a delicate balance that must be maintained. On one hand, you do not want to verbally (or literally) back a student in a corner. A cornered student may react out of fear and adrenalin, like a cornered animal, which bodes poorly for his responses to the teacher. On the other hand, the teacher must present a position of power and authority at all times, especially when reprimanding a student. It is a good idea to arrange the classroom so that the teacher can easily move throughout the room and gain proximity to all students.
Keep the following precautions in mind when using verbal reprimands:
Verbal warnings are very effective if handled correctly. They are one of the lowest and least obtrusive forms of intermediate student discipline. Be careful to read the situation: the student’s demeanor, causative agents, and then deliver a reprimand that corrects the student behavior without belittling the student.
You can write the student’s name on a sheet of paper at your desk, in your grade book, or other a non-public location. This removes the glamour from the event and makes it less desirable for the student.
Writing a student’s name on the board is a good way to reprimand most students. There’s something powerful about seeing a written record of wrongdoing on the board that constantly and silently reinforces your classroom expectations and rules. There are some students, however, who like to see their name on the board. It is a form of positive reinforcement, an advertisement for bad behavior, and they will actively try to maintain their “celebrity status.” In such cases, choose a different disciplinary path.
Detention requires the student to remain in a location at an inconvenient time as a form of punishment. Typically detentions are held before or after school or during lunch. Some detentions are held on Friday after school or Saturday morning for greater inconvenience. The detention is magnified if the student is also given a meaningful assignment to complete, such as extra arithmetic problems to solve or a passage to read. Note that detention may require the parents to provide transportation, which provides the opportunity to confer with the parents and elicit their support to prevent further discipline problems.
Believe it or not, some students look for creative ways to wind up with detention. There are two common explanations for this odd type of behavioral pattern:
A student that is very attracted to a teacher is a career-ending catastrophe waiting to happen. Do not be alone with the student for any reason in any location. This preventive behavior is in the best interest of both parties. Do not present a private situation in which the student may feel emboldened to act upon his feelings or to fabricate a tale that no other witness could dispute. In the case of sexual harassment between a student and a teacher, “he said/she said” is more accurately described as “he said/she’s fired.”
Parent phone calls are probably the most overlooked and effective technique that teachers possess. An effective parent phone call is made on the day of the classroom disturbance, clearly describes the events that precipitated the call, identifies any previous incidents and the consequences meted out, and suggests a course of action to address the behavioral problem that is based upon a parent-teacher partnership. Use Form C, the Student Cumulative Discipline Record Form, and Form E, the Office Referral Form, to bring the parent up to speed on any prior history between you and the student very quickly.
If your students filled out a personal information card at the beginning of the school year, you’ll have phone numbers at which the parent can be reached and the hours you should call. When in doubt, call at dinner time and ask for a parent. Be prepared! Most parents do not want to hear anything bad about their child, so keep the following things in mind during the call:
You are not required to listen to parent profanity, nor are you required to be the parent’s punching bag. Refer the abusive parent to the administration or guidance counselor for future actions.
When talking to a parent, keep everything positive, productive, and purposeful. Your job is not to determine whose fault it is that the student is misbehaving, but to determine what everyone’s going to do about it as a team.
Sometimes teachers allow the class to generate their own rules and consequences. It identifies students as individual stakeholders in the success of the class and promotes adherence to the class rules. The students often consider past incidents in previous classrooms that interrupted learning, and are able to address those potential distractions preemptively. Beware that student-generated rules are generally very specific and are accompanied by an abnormally harsh penalty; therefore, the teacher should help to generalize the rules and the consequences.
Abnormally harsh or unrealistic rules and consequences create an unworkable classroom environment and cannot be justified to parents.
In order to jump start the brainstorming session, the teacher may present scenarios and ask the students to propose a rule and a consequence. The scenarios should reflect incidents that are likely to happen during the year. The teacher then asks leading questions like, “What rule should we make for waiting in line for a drink of water?” or “What type of behavior is expected when the teacher is talking?” A series of follow-up questions defines the consequence for violation of the rules. It is usually better to list the consequence for a violation of the rule as the rule is created. The class may wish to “balance” the consequences upon completion so that the consequence for a minor violation is not more unpleasant than the violation of a more important rule. Contact a peer or mentor teacher to generate a list of likely scenarios to use in this activity.
When students construct their own rules and consequences, it provides invaluable insight into the students’ collective psyche. You learn what is important in their lives and what aspects of class are foremost in their minds. It also minimizes the needs for an extensive explanation of the class rules and penalties. However, the downside is the initial investment of time required to create the list. Because the rules should be generated early in the year, the students may be less willing to speak freely in class, and participation may be agonizingly slow.
Make sure your class rules are consistent with school policies regarding student discipline. Share your rules with the building administrators.
When individual students do not respond well to subtle and moderate disciplinary measures, a more sophisticated strategy is necessary. At its core, a progressive discipline model (PDM) is a sequence of events designed to address the habitual rule-breaker. As the number of violations increase, the severity of the consequences increases progressively. So, if the teacher is confronted with a student who continues to break the rules, the discipline ladder can be enforced in a fair, predictable, and equitable manner.
The progressive discipline model has several benefits. First, it allows the students to see that the teacher has a mechanism in place for dealing with student misbehavior. This knowledge helps a good student to resist temptations to break the rules. Second, a PDM benefits the teacher, because the other students can see that justice is swift and impartial. In other words, if you commit this particular offense, then this particular consequence will happen. The action-reaction, violation-consequence chain is clearly communicated. When the presence of a PDM, itself, fails to deter inappropriate student behavior, then the components of the PDM are activated by the teacher. Consider the generic progressive discipline model below:
| First offense | Insert consequence |
| Second offense | Insert consequence |
| Third offense | Insert consequence |
| Fourth offense | Insert consequence |
| Fifth offense | Insert consequence |
| Serious offense | Insert consequence |
The number of offenses that pair with the resultant consequence are created at the discretion of the teacher—some teachers consider three offenses, rather than five, to be too many. Any more than five offenses usually means that either the consequences are not severe enough or the student’s habitual rule-breaking cannot be addressed in the classroom alone; in such cases, the child should probably be referred to an administrator.
The following sample PDMs present several appropriate consequences to choose from as student behavior gets progressively more disruptive.
| Table 1: Elementary School Progressive Discipline Model | |
|---|---|
| First or second offense | Verbal reprimand; name on board; yellow or red card used as visual warning; time out |
| Third or fourth offense | Sitting away from peers in a chair that identifies rule-breakers; lose portions of free/recess time; call home to parents |
| Fifth offense | Arrange for parents to shadow student; arrange parent conference; referral to administrator |
| Severe misconduct | Immediate referral to administrator; immediate advancement along the PDM (i.e., a single serious offense may constitute two or more typical offenses) |
| Table 2: Middle School Progressive Discipline Model | |
|---|---|
| First or second offense | Verbal reprimand; name on board; write the rule 25 times on paper and turn in |
| Third or fourth offense | Call parents; lose free time; write the rule 25 times during lunch detention; write the rule 50 times at home and have parents sign it |
| Fifth offense | Arrange for parents to shadow student; arrange parent conference; referral to administrator |
| Severe misconduct | Immediate referral to administrator; immediate advancement along the PDM (i.e., a single serious offense may constitute two or more typical offenses) |
| Table 3: High School Progressive Discipline Model | |
|---|---|
| First or second offense | Verbal reprimand; after-school or lunch detention; lengthy or repeated detentions; call parents |
| Third or fourth offense | Arrange for parents to shadow student; send note home to parent to be signed; loss of after-school privileges (to be coordinated with parent or sponsor of student’s extracurricular activity) |
| Fifth offense | Arrange parent conference; referral to administrator |
| Severe misconduct | Immediate referral to administrator; immediate advancement along the PDM (i.e., a single serious offense may constitute two or more typical offenses) |
These sample PDMs are intended to spark your imagination and to help you design your own PDM. Make sure to choose consequences that you are able to enforce and are allowed to enforce—you can’t assign consequences that would violate school policy. Remember, the entire purpose of a progressive discipline model is rehabilitating students who are continually disruptive. When used properly, they reestablish the productivity and deportment of a student, not hassle and nag the child to the point that restitution and a smooth return to class are impossible.
Notice that the PDM does not directly affect the student’s grade. For instance, the student does not receive a 5% grade reduction as a result of poor behavior. It is true that student behavior influences student learning, but you cannot alter a student’s grade as a result of her ability to conform to the rules of your classroom. Academic prowess and student behavior are certainly related, but it is legally indefensible to lower a student’s score because of bad behavior.
Progressive discipline works by advancing a student through increasingly invasive levels of consequences. At some point most students realize that the consequence is too great and will forego bad behavior. Post your PDM on the wall in a readable location until everyone understands how it works. For emphasis, use the chart during an actual disciplinary event to demonstrate how it works.
Progressive models require teachers to keep track of discipline on a daily basis to prevent future problems and to document past problems. Keep careful records of daily bad behavior when it occurs, especially if the behavior is habitual. You may want to use Form B, the Student Daily Discipline Form, to record a series of behavioral infractions observed during a single class period, and Form C, a cumulative student discipline form that tracks and documents instances of a student’s misconduct over a longer period of time. Feel free to modify the forms so that they better suit your PDM. For instance, you may want to include a spot for parents to sign the form and thereby communicate to them, in detail, how the student has violated your class rules and over what span of time it has occurred.
Once the components of your progressive disciplinary model are in place, it is time to think about refining some of the scenarios and consequences. Are all of the rule infractions treated the same? Are some infractions more serious than others? Do some infractions require a stronger consequence than others? For instance, consider the scenario where a student blurts out an answer in class without being recognized by the teacher. What is the consequence? Consider a more disruptive example such as a student who is continually talking to a neighbor thereby preventing that student from being attentive to the lesson. Are the infractions of equal value? Will the consequences be the same in both cases? Interesting question.
In general, most teachers weigh some infractions more heavily than others. A fight in the hallway or in your class is more serious than a student who forgets his pencil. Because of this, the wise teacher always prepares for a serious misconduct event and creates a rule that circumvents the step-wise approach described in the PDM. Examples of serious misconduct include: fighting, bullying, sexual harassment, threats to the teacher or other students, and possession of a weapon or controlled substance. When these events occur, the teacher immediately moves to the serious misconduct plan and bypasses the normal procedure. Notify the school administration, usually by means of the classroom call box, intercom, or phone system. You may also send a trusted student to carry the same message to the front office in person.
Note that a “severe misconduct” category is a component of each of the sample progressive discipline models. This specialized category serves several important functions. First, it allows the teacher to send a student directly to the administration for a serious offense without working through the progressive discipline ladder. Second, the teacher has the offense-advancement option, when the behavioral issue does not warrant a trip to the administration but is significant enough to require a more severe penalty. In both cases, this allows the teacher to skip one or more levels on the PDM to reach a consequence consistent with the offense.
It provides the teacher with the authority and opportunity to define what is considered an action requiring the severe misconduct designation, and also prevents students from using your own discipline system against you. Not all first offenses are created equal. A first offense of talking at an inappropriate time is not equivalent to a first offense of physically fighting in the classroom, and those infractions require different consequences.
The serious misconduct option allows the teacher a great deal of freedom in applying the proper corrective measures for a variety of situations.
Although the progressive discipline ladder is not perfect, it does an excellent job of addressing most situations. The tool, in and of itself, is useless—the teacher must use it appropriately and not allow students to take advantage of the system. As you read the following scenarios and try to diagnose the problems, consider how to best apply the disciplinary strategies you have learned in this workshop.
Solution 1: The consequence may not be unpleasant enough. In other words, the penalty is not persuasive enough to prevent the students from correcting their behavior. If this is the case, either strengthen the progressive discipline model or utilize the “severe misconduct” option and move them through the sequence more rapidly. Solution 2: Sometimes students are unruly because they do not understand the rules, or the teacher has not enforced them fairly and consistently throughout the year. In that case, the teacher needs to rethink the class rules and enforce them in an even, impartial, and consistent manner. Teachers who need to reinvent the class rules may find it more productive to time the change so that it coincides with a major break in the school year, such as holiday vacation. In so doing, the students return fresh and the new rules and procedures can be implemented without the veil of recent history confounding the issue. Solution 3: You may be the problem. Maybe your lessons are boring the students into civil disrespect. This misbehavior might be their way of telling you that something is wrong. Consider changing your methodology. Are you involving the students or do you lecture all or most of the time? Do you think of the students’ reactions when you prepare your lesson plans? Are you creating an environment that fosters active learning? Is the level of student achievement below expectations? Consider incorporating new techniques that favor a student-centered classroom that make students active learners.
Solution 1: This is a common situation. The students know how far they can go before they get into real trouble so they abuse the system. To remedy this behavior, use the serious misconduct rule to advance the targeted students on the progressive discipline sequence because of their pattern of misbehavior. Make it clear that repeat offenders will be promoted up the discipline ladder more quickly, as repetitively breaking a rule is an infraction of its own. As a result, the other students in your class are reminded of this option and, equally as important, feel the offending students have been duly warned. You don’t want to give your class any reason to defend the offending student, and thereby undermine your discipline policy, by interpreting your actions as violations of your own policy. Solution 2: The teacher may not maintain cumulative records for class discipline. Each teacher will have to decide if the progressive discipline sequence begins new each day or if previous offenses remain active as a cumulative record. A wise teacher records offenses in a cumulative manner so troublemakers do not start at the bottom of the PDM ladder each morning. This begs one question: What are the statutes of limitation, the length of time that an offense remains active? Most teachers are willing to drop or forgive minor offenses in a relatively short period of time if the student changes behavior patterns to an acceptable level. Removing previous offenses may also be a sign of forgiveness and an outward expression of reward for improved student behavior. If you are going to expunge a student’s record, make the announcement during class so that the rest of the students feel the warmth generated by this act, a kindness toward the teacher, and a better understanding of how the progressive discipline sequence works. Consider using Form C, the Student Cumulative Discipline Record Form, to keep careful records. Solution 3: Introduce a student behavioral contract between you and the student, as illustrated by Form D. This document explains the problem in detail, outlines the behaviors expected of the student, and describes the consequences for compliance and noncompliance with the terms of the contract. It should contain the signatures of the teacher, student, parent, and administrator, if practical. In this way, all parties are aware of the situation and have made gainful efforts to cooperate on a winning plan.
Solution 1: The administrator may be ineffective, for any number of reasons. Several of the reasons are beyond the control of the classroom teacher. For instance, the classroom misbehavior may not be an isolated incident. The student may be in trouble in all of the classes. In this case, the student is likely reacting to something outside of the school, such as an awful situation at home or trouble in the neighborhood. The administrator may be trying to bring balance to the student’s life by giving her another chance. Strong administrators will often try to work with a student before implementing the administrative progressive discipline model (APDM). In these situations, the administrator is focusing on changing the student’s situation as a means of changing behavior. As an example, an administrator may interview another student who may be bullying the troubled child to relieve the pressure on that student and apply it to the bully instead. Normally the administrator would secure a promise of good behavior from the student before allowing him to return to class, a promise reinforced by threatened consequences along the administrative discipline ladder. Within the same time frame, an effective administrator should communicate details of this plan without giving away confidential details. However, if the child continues to be a disruption in class, then the teacher may have to create a new discipline sequence, or send the child back to the administrator, or both.
Sometimes sending a student to an administrator is in the best interest of the child. Remember that administrative actions may be based on information that the teacher does not (or cannot) know. Avoid complaining about an administrator’s decision, especially to other teachers in the faculty lounge. Complaints, once aired in a public location, have a tendency to find their way to the people you’re complaining about, and the results are rarely uplifting.
Solution 2: There are two other reasons that an administrator’s actions may not prove helpful. One possibility is the APDM ladder—either the administrator’s discipline sequence is too weak or the student was started too low on the ladder. Both examples are easily addressed. The other possibility is that the teacher did not fully describe the nature of the offense and the actions already taken by the teacher before the referral to the administrator. The worst possible scenario for an administrator is a student that just shows up at her office. The administrator does not have the teacher’s side of their story, the background history, or the charges that are levied against the student. The student’s version of the events leading up to the referral will invariably differ from the teacher’s version. When no accompanying paperwork arrives, the administrator may not understand the gravity of the situation and return the student to class with only a warning. Contrast that situation with a student who arrives at the administrator’s office with a complete written summary report that details the actions of the teacher prior to the student’s cataclysmic incident, prior consequences imposed by the teacher and served by the student, and a clear description of the offending event that forced the teacher to send the student to the administrator. Armed with quality information, most administrators will provide appropriate corrective action. If the school or school system does not have a standardized form for referring students to the office, it is in your interest to develop your own, like Form E, the Office Referral Form. With a referral form in hand, the teacher and administrator are able to communicate even when the teacher cannot leave his classroom. Furthermore, the student knows that the administrator and teacher are aware of the teacher’s documentation and the administrative consequences, and cannot play one against the other. Note that the referral form should contain the same elements that are found in the teacher’s progressive discipline model. The congruence between the forms is important. The checklist clearly shows the administrator that the teacher has attempted a sequence of corrective actions before sending the student to the office, not as a first, knee-jerk reaction. Often the teacher is harried when completing this section of the form because the troublemaking student may still be in class. However, the “reason for referral” section is important and may be hurriedly scribbled by the teacher or sent to the administrator at the next earliest convenience. Either way, it must contain the reason for referring the student on that date. Describe the figurative straw that broke the camel’s back.
Except in the case of a serious misconduct offense, do not send students to the administrator before completing all of the steps in the progressive discipline model.
For a particularly troublesome student or a unique situation, the administrator may wish to have a follow-up conversation with the teacher to plan for the return of the student to class. Usually these sessions are designed to create an environment so that the child and teacher can once again work together successfully. The administrator or parents may have constructive suggestions about how to deal with this particular student or may inform the teacher about outside circumstances that may be affecting the student’s behavior. Be prepared to accept the student back in class. When you send a student to an administrator, call the front office to let them know that (insert student’s name) is on the way and an administrative referral form will follow at your earliest convenience. If the action is severe enough, the teacher may send a trustworthy student as an escort to the administrator. If you feel the situation is out of control, call for an administrator to come to your room to escort the student from class. Do not leave the rest of your class unsupervised to walk the student to the office yourself. The way you implement your progressive discipline model is just as important as the model itself. Ensure that you are consistently implementing it so that it operates effectively.
When a teacher sends a student to the administrator, the administrator assumes that the teacher can no longer control the behavior of that student and makes the following assumptions:
While no teacher can handle every single discipline issue without involving the administration at all, you can reduce your number of administrative referrals by removing the temptation or opportunity for misbehavior. Enforce a system of class rules in a fair and consistent manner that models justice and promotes peace. There are a number of subtle discipline strategies that work almost all of the time. When those strategies fail, a progressive discipline plan brings structure to more aggressive discipline solutions. Prevent problems if at all possible; be ready with a rapid response for all other situations.
The following is a list of resources that relate to the topic of classroom management.