RESPONSE:

DWS is very effective with grade fives!

Dr. Marshall first developed this approach for middle and high school students. It’s since been adapted for use with younger students in intermediate and primary grades––although the only real adaptations are in terms of vocabulary.  At every grade level the teacher explains the same four levels, but chooses words that are suited to the age and ability of their particular students.

Choosing appropriate vocabulary to explain DWS concepts would be much like what teachers would naturally do when students learn about any new or challenging topic.  For instance, students of any age might ask about global warming or other current events such as the HINI flu epidemic.  At various grade levels, teachers would respond with slightly different explanations depending on the age/maturity level of their students.

The older the child the easier it is to teach concepts, simply because children become more capable in their thinking as they grow.  You will find that it’s very easy to explain the four DWS levels to grade five students and to implement the approach as a whole with this age group;  it will make a lot of sense to them.

DR. MARSHALL’S RESPONSE:

Re:  Home Life

Focus on the behavior––not the “why” for the behavior.  Regardless of the “why,” everyone still has the freedom to choose their response to any situation, stimulus, or urge.

Simply put, expect your students to act in appropriate ways. Let them  know that if they don’t, they are the victims of their impulses. Not  even young children want to be victims.  (View DWS Impulse Poster.)

Re: Other Teachers

You can be the only one at school using the  program and the learning climate of your class changes. (Of course, the entire culture of the school changes if the system is adopted school wide.)

A related post: Using the DWS Impulse Poster

I want to implement DWS in my classroom this year. My concern is the fact that I’m required to send home weekly behavior reports rating behavior, completed work, homework etc.  Do weekly reports match this approach?

RESPONSE:

DWS is based on promoting internal assessments––students reflecting on their own behavior. Typically, schools that use daily/weekly reports base them on external assessments by the teacher.

The DWS Hierarchy is meant as a tool of self-assessment.  Its intended purpose is for an individual to use it to assess their own behavior. It’s not intended to be used by a teacher to report on a child. Although reporting to parents is part of our teaching job, the DWS level chart is not the best tool for assessing someone (other than yourself.)

Here’s one important reason:

The top two levels (both acceptable) are defined by motivation. Motivation involves what the child is thinking more than it does their actions. We can’t see what other people are thinking. Operation at Level C and D often look the same to an observer. If you walk into a classroom where everyone is on task and working, you wouldn’t know which students were operating on Level C and which ones were operating on Level D. Those operating on Level C are keeping themselves on track because the teacher is in the room, while those operating on Level D keep themselves on task whether the teacher is in the room or not.

Another example:

If you witness a child doing something kind for another student, you couldn’t know for sure on which level they were operating––Level C or D?  Is the child genuinely wanting to be kind (D)? or is the child acting kind, in hopes of receiving a birthday party invitation or perhaps impressing someone else (C)?  While we can accurately assess our own motivations (as long as we choose to look with honesty,) we can only guess at the motivations of others.

If children are aware that they will be marked on a report card with the DWS levels, then it could easily change their motivation level––to something lower!  A child who normally would be operating in a genuine way (Level D) may be influenced to put on an act (Level C) simply to impress the teacher in hopes of being marked as Level D. This is counterproductive to the whole purpose of DWS.

Therefore, a different tool is needed to report to parents; a tool that describes only observable behaviors and not motivation levels. If you want to stay true to the DWS philosophy––but must also meet school requirements for weekly reports––use a different assessment tool designed for that purpose. For instance, sending a report home about homework and completed class work is straightforward. Either the work is done, or not; this is very easy to assess through observation.

As I said, behavior is a trickier matter, but can be externally assessed by using a tool that allows you to assess whether observable behavior is appropriate––or not.

A related posting:

Isn’t it contradictory to use a “color change board” and posted consequences with DWS?

I have a problem.  My entire school district has been requested to update our classroom discipline plans for review by the new superintendent before the end of August.  My principal knows how I feel about the punitive discipline approach used across our district.  Last year he allowed me leeway––I didn’t have to post rules, consequences, rewards. However, with this latest pressure, he told me that I will have to comply with the new superintendent’s wishes.  I am wondering if there’s any way of making DWS “look” like a conventional discipline plan without “being” a conventional plan!

RESPONSE:

Well, it’s tough to take two opposite approaches and make one look like the other, BUT––survival seems key in a case like yours!   Maybe this might work:

1. Post classroom expectations or standards, instead of rules.

In this article, Dr. Marshall describes how standards differ from rules.  He explains:

“Standards engender student empowerment. They promote an esprit de corps in the classroom, similar to what occurs with any team. Standards serve as expectations, and expectations are responsibility lifting. They tap into internal motivation and foster commitment, rather than compliance.”

He gives two examples of classroom standards that could be posted:

• Do my work
• Have materials
• Be where I belong
• Control myself
• Follow directions

• Speak considerately
• Be prompt
• Bring materials
• Listen for instructions
• Honor self and others
• Accept ownership of my choices

2. Describe how students are held accountable for consequences in your room, with a statement such as the following:

Consequences will be elicited from students as necessary, and directly tied to each particular situation.

3.  Describe the rewards your students will reap from choosing to be motivated internally:

Students will be encouraged to reflect on the satisfying inner rewards that accompany responsible and high level behavior.  Encouragement and acknowledgement will be given every day!

What do you do if you have a problem with a child on the second day of school, before you’ve introduced the Hierarchy levels?

RESPONSE:

Don’t forget that Step One of the Teaching Model is Classroom Management. By proactively teaching specific procedures for everything you want your students to do, you will be able to deal with many so called “discipline problems” simply by teaching, re-teaching and practicing procedures. Maintain the mindset that most students will require at least 8 teachings of a procedure in order for it to become habit.

In the case of a true discipline problem that arises on the first days of school, you can employ the Three Principles of DWS:

• keep your focus in the situation positive–look for solutions,

• ensure that the misbehaving student has some choice in finding a solution;

• ask questions to encourage a student to think about whether or not what they are doing is actually going to pay off for them or not.

Although not ideal, you can also implement the two last phases of the RRSystem–even before you have taught the Hierarchy.

Here’s how:

Phase Two – Checking For Understanding
Even though students wouldn’t know about the levels on the first day of school, you can still ask a child to evaluate whether he/she is operating on a high or low level. I find that even young children instinctively know what you mean by “behavior at a high or low level”.

For example:

“Is grabbing a toy from someone, a high level thing to do… or is it a low level thing to do?”

Once a student has acknowledged that grabbing a toy is at a low level, that may be the end of it. Often, this type of discussion is all that’s needed. For others, you might need to ask them a few more questions. For a very few children, you may need to ask several increasingly more pointed questions:

• “You said that grabbing a toy is a low level thing to do. Can you explain to me why you think that?”

• “How do you think these other kids near you feel when they see you grabbing toys? Will they want to play with someone who might grab their toys?”

• Look at Andrew’s face…. How does he feel about having his toy grabbed away?

• What is a teacher’s job if someone is grabbing toys at play time?

Phase Three – Guided Choices
There’s no pat formula for this phase, so depending on the child and type or severity of misbehavior, here are some possibilities:

• You can help the child to come up with a procedure that will allow them better deal with a similar situation in the future. In this case, procedures for sharing would probably help.

• You can still go through a process of eliciting choices (or suggesting choices, if necessary.) Remember that this phase is used ONLY with those who continue to act inappropriately, after they have acknowledged a low level.

• You can ask questions that put the responsibility on the child: “What do you think should happen IF you should do this same kind of thing again?”

It’s certainly possible and worthwhile to build Hierarchy understandings for children, even before you’ve had an opportunity to formally introduce the actual levels. Now that we are more experienced with DWS, my teaching partner and I try to word all our everyday classroom talk in a DWS way. For example, right off the bat, we use the language of the Hierarchy even though we don’t actually refer to the four levels. In this way, we can build some understanding of the levels, even before we have time to teach the Hierarchy itself.

For example:

• On the first day when we introduce procedures for sharing and playing appropriately at centers (Level C,) we sometimes contrast them with examples of “unacceptable behavior” such as hoarding toys, running in in the classroom, or talking with outdoor voices (Level B.)

• We talk about what an “acceptable level of behavior” would look like at lunch time (using eating manners, following lunchtime procedures such as sitting while eating, and remaining in desks until the bell rings etc.) This is Level C.

• We discuss the importance of learning to “work on your own without waiting for a teacher to direct you” and we talk about how great it feels “to count on yourself to be able to listen well and so know what you need to do next in the lesson”. This is language describing Level D.

After a week or two in school, we hook these understandings to the four levels of the Hierarchy.

A related posting:

When do you introduce the Hierarchy?

I am very new to the DWS mailring. I’ll be a 2nd year teacher this coming school year and will be implementing this system in my classroom. I did have a concern about grades. Would you please review Dr. Marshall’s views on grades and how they are related to competition? If he discourages grades, how would a teacher handle that in his/her classroom, given the requirements for grades and report cards, etc. from the school administration and parents?

RESPONSE:

Dr. Marshall doesn’t suggest that grades not be given. Grading is a mandatory part of our teaching job.

He does point out that competition is counterproductive when it comes to learning.  See the article, Collaboration-Rather than Competition–for Quality Learning by scrolling down on the page.

Does anyone know if DWS is ever implemented in high school? I teach high school Leadership classes and I think high schoolers need these things even more immediately than little ones. The real world is going to require self-discipline of them, real soon! Raising their responsibility is exactly what high school kids need. Most of the discussions I hear about the system seemed aimed at younger children, though presumably they should be applicable to older students as well. I would like any tips, or even encouragement for using this in high school.

RESPONSE:

The DWS approach was developed when the author, Dr. Marvin Marshall, was teaching in a high school setting. It’s been adapted for primary , not the other way around. Often primary teachers initially have the opposite question. Knowing that this system has been originally developed for use in high schools, they wonder if it can be used with younger students!

Part One of the article, USING A DISCIPLINE SYSTEM TO PROMOTE LEARNING discusses how Dr. Marshall came to develop his approach.

The truth is that the approach can be implemented across the grade levels in almost an identical way. Many times, a high school teacher can benefit from discussions among primary teachers and vice versa too! A leadership class in particular is very much suited to ongoing discussions of the DWS Hierarchy.

You’re absolutely right in thinking that it’s very important for young adults to have information about self-discipline, simply because they’re soon to be entering the world at large. DWS ideas can be of immediate and very real use to them. Look at this “alarm clock hierarchy” created by high school teacher, Jim Mann.

I use the levels to teach the importance of establishing a procedure each morning to get to school on time. I use an alarm clock analogy:

Level D - You set your alarm clock, wake up, and get to school on time.

Level C - You depend on your parents to wake you up so you get to school on time.

Level B - You ignore the alarm clock and come to school late.

Level A – You don’t even set your alarm clock because you are only interested in what you want and do not consider how your actions affect others.

I tell my high school students that to succeed in college, they must have motivation on Level D. Their motivation must come from within.

This is the type of down-to-earth, very practical discussions that can take place in high school. All students can benefit from understandings like this one–simple in one way, yet leading to a much larger message of something that separates successful college students from others. To be successful in life/college, one needs to be motivated from within.

You’re on the right track!  If you see the value of internal motivation for your students and understand that the difference between Levels C and D is one of the key points in the DWS approach, then you can show your students how it relates to their everyday lives.

If you’ve experienced the power of internal motivation in your own life, share your stories with students. Look for opportunities to discuss how internal motivation helps people lead more satisfying lives, regardless of their age. Speak with passion so that the kids see that there’s a reason to take DWS ideas to heart!

QUESTION:

I have often been tempted to order the Discipline without Stress book. What has held me back is my school’s requirement that we use the same discipline plan throughout the department (in my case, 4th through 6th grades.).

The department has the same rules: (1) Be respectful (2) Be obedient (3) Be honest (4) Be responsible. After the usual warning, if any rule is violated, a tally is given to the student. The number of tallies for the week determines the child’s behavior grade. A behavior grade must be given each week.

Here is my question: Is it feasible to use both this discipline plan and the DWS method or would it be too cumbersome/confusing? The one is mandatory for grades; the other, the DwStress method, would be the philosophy I choose to use in my relationships and dealings with the students.

DR. MARSHALL’S RESPONSE:

You can do both.

Check to see if the mandatory requirements also mandate that the teacher assign the tallies or the grade. Chances are that you will not be violating the regulations if you instead, ELICIT the tallies and/or the grades from your students.

Just have the students evaluate themselves for the grade and submit it to you. (I used a 3 x 5 card.) In the vast majority of cases, the students will assign themselves the same grade you would have given them.

AND in cases where there is disagreement, share with the student your reasoning for your decision.

RESPONSE:
Student self-assessment is one of the key features of the DISCIPLINE without STRESS approach, however, I prefer to teach children to assess themselves–not every DAY–but EVERY MINUTE of the day! What does this mean?

It means that I want them to become more aware of their own behaviour and choices from MOMENT to MOMENT. I want to encourage them to use CHOICE-RESPONSE THINKING in combination with the Hierarchy to take responsibility for their actions–one action at a time. I find that this approach provides a greater opportunity for success than trying to look at improving an ENTIRE day at a time. And of course it follows that if we concentrate on improving our life moment by moment, eventually the days improve too!

Another consideration is the fact that in asking students to assess themselves for the purpose of reporting to parents, we may very well affect their willingness to evaluate their own behavior honestly. I personally prefer to have a student do this type of personal evaluation inside their own head–without asking them to share their thoughts with others. I believe that this approach greatly increases the chance that the student will examine their own actions with honesty. Honest evaluation often leads to positive change.