Classroom Management Active Engagement of Learners

Classroom management is one of the hardest areas to master in the classroom.

Coming into a classroom for the second part of a year can be tough on a student
teacher. Student behaviors are already established, and confusion of who is running
the classroom can exist. I believe that students need to own their problems. I like the
Gordon Model of management when it comes to problem ownership. Problem
ownership takes the conflict away, there is no he said she said, it is yours, how can I
help you deal with it. My next favorite is helping skills, another Gordon model.
Listening to the students is the key to solving the world’s problems. Using Active
listening (Gordon, 2008) I can mirror back what a student says and lets the child know
that I am listening to them. My third favorite are the “I” statements. The “I” statement
allows students to know that you care, but are also firm on your beliefs and standards.

The following three Vignettes are issues that I have dealt with using management skills
learned through my education:

Vignette #1

J.Y. is a second grader that has a behavior issue/learning disability and can be defiant
at times.

During a math lesson all the pieces to a sorting and grouping game were laid out and
J.Y. was asked what he saw. He noticed right away that some of the frogs had eyes,
and some didn’t. The first group was built which was with no eyes. I wrote on the
response sheet my group had no eyes. I then asked what else he saw, and the reply
was that there were dots on the frogs. When asked what kind of dots he had seen, he
responded some had two, some had three, and some had four, and so on. Good I told
him, now I need you to sort and group the frogs any way you want.

First, he made stacks with no rhyme or reason, just stacks of frogs. I asked him to tell
me about the stacks. I don’t know he said, there are stacks of frogs. Ok, tell me about
the stacks, why did you group them this way? The response was, this is much too
difficult, I don’t want to do it. I told him I can help you, but you have to show me what
you want to do. No, I am not going to do it was the response.

My discipline approach was along the lines of the Gordon Model from A Case Study
Approach to Classroom Management, CH7, Pg. 121, Problem Ownership. I explained
to J.Y. that the next lessons in math were going to be grouping, and that he was going
to be expected to group different items, and that he would have to explain his
responses. I told him that I was afraid he wouldn’t be able to complete the upcoming
tasks and I was willing to help if the writing was the problem.

I believe that following the Problem Ownership model and putting it back on him for
completion alleviated a conflict over something that is always boiling over. Helping him
complete the writing was simple, if I was the only teacher in the class I would have to
make changes to the lesson to include less writing for J.Y., until his skills increased. I
would use a verbal explanation from him in the interim to help him understand the task
and assignment to show he can complete the job, and then work on the writing skills
with special education.

This fits my philosophy because I allow the student to explain why there is an issue, but
the ownership of the issue is still there’s and they need to deal with it.

Vignette #2

H.K. is a second grader that has a learning disability (fetal alcohol syndrome) and can
be defiant at times.

During a math lesson, students were required to use a partner, and share crayons that
were used for marking a game board. When it was H.K.’s turn she took all the crayons
and put them under her arm instead of using just the one that was needed. J.A. spun
and was ready to color, and asked her for a crayon, her response was no! J.A. asked
again for just the green crayon, and again the response was no! He called my name to
get help and the moment I looked over I see H.K. take the crayons and throw them at
his head.

I asked H.K. to stand up and to come with me to another table by the door. First, I said
how worried I was that someone may have gotten hurt, and I asked her if she was ok.
This calmed her down and she said she was fine. I then asked her what the class rules
were for the behavior she exhibited, there was no response. I then used an “I”
statement and said, “I am afraid that you are going to hurt someone, so for now I need
you to sit here and think about what happened, and when you are ready you can call
me”. She called me over about two minutes later and said sorry, I want to go back now.
I said no, you have a problem on your hands that you need to deal with first. You owe
J.A. an apology and you need to pick up the crayons on the floor, but before we go
there, I need to know how we are going to prevent this from happening in the future.

My discipline approach was along the lines of the Gordon Model from Building
Classroom Discipline, CH5, Pg. 82, Helping Skills. I explained to H.K. that only one set
of crayons was needed for the activity, the students had to share, and the crayons that
were brought to the table were those of J.A. She agreed that they were in fact J.A.’s
crayons but that she wanted them. I told her she was going to lose her free time and I
had her get up and go back to the table with me; she sat down and apologized to J.A.
for throwing the crayons at him, not sharing, and yelling. Like all eight-year-olds, he
shrugged it off and wanted to continue. I had him take his crayons to another group and
finish the exercise. After J.A. left I told her that what she did was good, but the act itself
was bad, and she agreed. I told her I was proud that she took ownership of the
problem, and resolved it properly, but in the future what could she do if she felt like she
was going to have feelings like that again? She didn’t have an answer. I told her she
was going to lose her free time and she would finish the game with me then, for now
she needed to sit at the table (there was only 5 minutes of class left) and we would
resume when everyone was on their own. As we began to finish the exercise, she said
she could raise her hand when she felt like that and tell the teacher. I said yes you
could, but what if the teacher can’t get to you quick enough? She thought about it and
said I could just stop what I’m doing and put my hands in my lap. I said that was a good
idea, but how would she finish what she was working on. She then said I guess I would
continue to work until the teacher got to me but keep my hands at my own desk and on
my own things.

I believe that by removing her from the situation and putting her in a place where the
rest of the class could not see her or I, allowed her to calm down quicker, and think
about what happened. I also feel that by setting the tone that this was her problem and
that I was worried for everyone it allowed her to see things from a different point of view.
She was paired with a student that is middle of the road in behavior, but not a problem
child. I believe that if I had it to do again, I would have used the class crayons in cups,
that way they would have to stay on the desk, they would not be one person’s crayons,
and the need to share would truly be there.

Vignette #3

C.L. is a bright student that I believe is ADHD but has not been diagnosed as of yet, at
times he can be an attention getter.

During a social studies mini group reading I had student taking turns reading pages of a
book. During a reading by a Pilipino student that is an ESL student C.L. thought it
would be funny to put the book on his face, calk his head back and make snoring
sounds. My first feeling was furry, and I think it showed on my face because the group
all made a gasping sound. I quickly composed myself and said C.L. what seems to be
the problem. I think it was a combination of fear and honesty when he said I’m bored,
this is moving too slow, and then he quickly said I will be still, I promise. I then went
straight to an “I” statement, “I think you owe J.S. an apology”. “I understand that you
may think this is going to slow, but as we talk about these pages, it is important for
everyone to contribute; this may not be important to you, but to me, J.S., and the rest of
the group it is and I am afraid you will not know what is going on when we come to you”.
I then said, I have an idea, I got a piece of paper and a pencil, and put them in front of
him, and said I think it would be good if you took notes for the group, just the important
parts of the story, then we do not have to go back to read again. C.L. then apologized
to J.S. and the rest of the group for the snoring sounds and being disrespectful.

My discipline approach was along the lines of the Kagan, Kyle, and Scott Model from
Building Classroom Discipline, CH9, Pg. 160, Win-Win Strategies for Bored Students.
By giving C.L. an “important task” it allowed him to keep focused on the subject, and not
be deterred by a slower reader because he had a book in front of him to work with. To
be honest I had no idea that I was truly following the structure by the authors. By doing
what I did, C.L. became more engaged in the task, had good input when it was his turn
to talk and the disruptions stopped.
I believe that by changing the task on C.L. and giving him something to do while he had
to wait to read, it allowed him to focus on something and not be sidetracked by
something else. I think that if I would have truly thought about what I had read already I
could have prevented this from happening. I should have also front loaded the reading
assignment by allowing them to look at the pictures ahead of time and think about what
was going to happen in the reading. Talk about what they see, let them make some
guesses as to what they thought was going to happen, then as students read the story
the pictures would make more sense and the reading would have been comprehended
better.