DR. MARSHALL’S RESPONSE:
A class meeting is a good start for the students.

But the problem is also an instructional one––there are some things that the teacher should not do and can do.

First, some things not to do:

DO NOT COLLECT anything within the first five minutes––this includes homework, lunch money, permission slips, etc.

DO NOT HAND ANYTHING OUT within the first five minutes.

DO NOT TAKE ATTENDANCE within the first five minutes.

DO NOT START A LESSON WITH THESE WORDS, “Take out your books.”

Today’s students live with remote controls in their heads. These controls have three switches: participate, apathy, and disrupt. Any of the above “dont’s” are more likely to prompt the second or third options.

Instead strategically plan for instruction:

Find one thing in your planned lesson that energizes or excites you. Then ask yourself what you can do to catch the students’ interest. The more unique the better! For example, assume you are teaching science and the lesson has to do with weather. Bring an egg and a bucket to class. Stand on a chair with an egg in your hand. Drop the egg. Ask the class why the egg fell. Obviously, the more outlandish or foolish your action, the more attention you will get and the less the students will want to miss your opening.

In this example, students will answer, “gravity.” Ask why didn’t the egg did not fall sideways. Legitimatize all answers, i.e., accept them all; don’t make fun of any.

If a student answers that the egg is heavy, then ask why a feather falls, and then the key question, “Why don’t clouds fall?”

The purpose of exercises like these is to create “killer questions”––those that prompt curiosity––not to pass a test or for some other external reason but one that students want to know for themselves.

I used to start my social studies classes showing a cartoon using an overhead projector. In English classes, have students do a “show and tell” the first few minutes. Then have students write on what they have seen or can learn from it.

Creating teaching ideas is what makes preparing for teaching so much fun.

The point:  Start every lesson with something that creates curiosity. Then watch how your students get to your class on time.

More is in the book under, “Sponge Activities.” In addition, “REDUCING TARDIES” has its own section with additional suggestions, starting on page 207.

——
P.S. Clouds do fall.  It’s called precipitation.

One thing I always admire about this friend is her ability to take an idea and run with it in the classroom.  She  inspires, elevates and motivates her students!  Teresa often bases interesting lessons for her grade sixes on some little item she’s found in the newspaper, something she’s heard on a radio talk show or something that comes from a good book she is reading herself.  She has a knack for recognizing something small that is full of potential.  She often takes one of these small ideas and then develops it into an in-depth theme that continues to grow, over weeks in her classroom.  I’m always amazed at how she is able to do this so creatively and (yet, it seems to me!) so effortlessly.

Once, years ago––1996, I think––she heard about a boy from Ontario who had just started a social activist campaign called “Free the Children.” When she learned that Craig Kielburger was 12 years old, her ears perked up; that was the same age as the students she taught.  Very quickly she had her class researching and learning about Craig and his valiant (Level D) crusade to eradicate child labor across the world.  Eventually, when she learned that Craig was planning a fundraising trip to our province, she and the class invited him to speak and join their families for dinner, thus making learning come alive in the truest sense!

This past year she had another good spur-of-the-moment “back to school” idea that I thought I’d share, for others who teach older students and might like to kick off their school year in a meaningful and exciting way.  (It would also provide a way in which to reinforce Level D concepts––taking initiative, taking personal responsibility for happiness, character traits of perseverance, determination etc. etc.)

Teresa is an avid reader.  Last summer, when she finished reading “The Last Lecture:  Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams” by Randy Pausch, she saw  great potential for using this book with her grade sixes as a way to encourage goal-setting at the beginning of the school year.  After sharing parts of the book with the class and having them watch the youtube video of Pausch’s incredible speech, she had the kids go home and interview their parents. She had them ask their parents about their childhood dreams: Which ones had they achieved?  Which ones had slipped away? Naturally, after all this discussion and thinking, the kids were really well prepared and primed to do a thoughtful job of writing their own goals––for the school year and beyond.

When Teresa and I were in university together, we had a Social Studies Ed. prof who often recommended, “Whenever you learn something interesting yourself, share it with kids.”  I think that Teresa learned that lesson well from our prof!

QUESTION:

I don’t want to use stickers to motivate my primary students to print more neatly.  Any suggestions to encourage them to take more care with their school work?

RESPONSE:

Here are some things that my teaching partner and I do in order to help build neat work habits over time:

1.  We talk a lot about neatness.  I’m a great believer in the idea that whatever you put your focus upon will increase!

2.  We talk proactively.  In other words, before a  lesson begins we discuss what a great job would look like.  This helps the kids who really have no idea of what a good job looks like and it helps the other kids who might not care too much about neatness otherwise.  It sets everyone up for success.

3.  Sometimes we have the students build criteria for “a good job.”  Sometimes we write it on a chart paper or make it into individual checklists that students can refer to.  We bring it out prior to each new session of writing.

4.  Along the same lines, we sometimes orally build DWS Hiierarchies with the kids to pinpoint characteristics of operation on each of the levels with respect to certain activities.  See this link for some examples:  The spelling and reading hierarchies are ones we often talk about with our grade ones.  We find that kids become very motivated by these hierarchies if we refer to them often.

5.  We talk a lot about the satisfying feelings that are associated with working on Level D–In other words we talk about how it feels when you look at a piece of work and know that you have put forward your best effort in completing it.

6.  We encourage the kids to compare their current “best job” with a similar piece of work from earlier in the year.  For example, each child in our class has a math binder in which they complete calendar activities every day.  On the first day of October, I had the students look at their September calendar and pointed out to them, that after a month of number-writing practice in Grade One, they probably would be able to make their October calendar look even neater than the September page.  We talked about how this was an opportunity  to improve their work. We talked about how it would feel to do an even better job than the month before.  Every day for the first week or so of the month, we would look back to the September page and compare the number writing to the October page so everyone could feel proud of their accomplishment.  We do the same thing in their journal, in their printing book and in their drawing book.  Frequent opportunities to reflect on individual progress encourages students to want to make continual improvements.

7.  We give specific and individual feedback as the kids are working.  That “g” is exactly the right shape.  Now, you’ve got it! Continue making “g’s” like that!”

8.  When we do printing lessons, we always make a point of letting the students know that printing correctly and neatly isn’t just something to be concerned about during printing time only — it’s something that should carry over to their every assignment.

9.  One year, with a particularly messy class, my teaching partner, Darlene, had a special set of pencils that she brought out whenever the class was to do a writing assignment.  The pencils were only used for writing assignments — never for math etc.  The fact that she had these special pencils out sent a silent signal to the class that neat work was especially important at that time.

10.  We encourage the kids to analyze their own work and make their own judgments about what looks good and what they might like to improve upon in the future.  At the start of the next lesson, we remind them that they had already thought of some way in which they wanted to improve their work and ask them to take a minute to reflect on how they will improve today.  If they are doing a row of “s” letters, we ask them to circle the one that they feel is their best.

11.  If the child is particularly pleased with a piece of work, we quietly ask them if they would like us to xerox the page so that they can show it to family members at home.

12.  We try to create opportunities to use their work in meaningful ways so that there is a real reason to be neat and tidy.  For instance, we often do pieces of writing that will go into a memory scrapbook, on a bulletin board or will be used to accompany a piece of artwork in a display.  For example, last year for 6 weeks, all our writing projects were linked to the making of a “Dinosaur Museum” to which we invited all the people in our school and our families.   The kids made various types of “fossils”and wrote about how they were formed in nature.  They made informational dioramas about various individual dinosaurs, and wrote explanations of how the teeth of dinosaurs were related to their diet.  Because the kids were so motivated to create a Dinosaur Museum for real visitors, it was easy to get them to write as neatly and as well as they could — they had a real reason to do so.

Hope that some of these ideas will be of use to you!

For those who don’t know me, I have three teaching positions, all of which are shared with the same partner. Darlene and I share a grade 1 classroom, each working one end of the week, and on our other days we share two literacy positions, working with individual students at an alternate high school and a regular middle school. It’s hectic but we love it!  At our high school and middle school jobs, we work with a great range of students, some struggling with courses like English 10, but most with much lower skill levels. At both the middle and high school, a number of our students are currently reading (independently and accurately, that is) at a mid-grade 1 level.

Usually when we start with a new student, we initially have them work at conquering the alphabet. Recognizing/saying/writing the sounds of the letters is of course necessary for both accurate decoding and spelling. We always begin each 15 minute daily session with a quick “say/write the alphabet sounds” until the student is able to record all the sounds, automatically, as we dictate. Whenever we take on a new student, we also offer them a chance to learn to print each letter shape correctly at the same time. (DWS Principle of Choice!) Many are interested in improving their penmanship by doing that.

Early this week, one little grade 7 boy mentioned to Darlene that he was trying to remember to print every letter properly–not only when he was working with us, but all day long–whenever he had to write something in one of his classes. As a DWS teacher (always on the lookout for any flicker of internal motivation that can be fanned into a stronger flame!) Darlene explained how significant it was that he was CONSCIOUSLY CHOOSING to do this for himself. Naturally, she happily passed this information along to me so I could continue to build on it.

When I met with Mark on Thursday, I started our standard “say and write the sounds,” by telling him that Darlene had mentioned to me that he was starting to take charge of his own learning by choosing to improve his printing all day long. I said, “Wow! That’s the highest level of human behavior there is–to take charge of your own learning like that.” He nodded and on we went with all the various parts of his literacy lesson.

As it happened, we finished up everything I’d planned for that day a minute before his 15 minute time slot was up. Rather than fill in with some other impromptu literacy activity, I decided I had just enough time to explain in more detail what I had meant earlier in his session, when I referred to “the highest level of behavior.” I started to draw a quick DWS Hierarchy on our little white board, D, C, B, A and explained while writing, that human behavior could be described in four levels.

Beside A, I quickly scribbled, “Anarchy” and gave him the briefest of descriptions. Then as I was about to write another quick word next to B, he said, “that’s Bullying and Bothering.” Well–you could have picked me up off the floor, I was so stunned! This is the first time I’ve ever encountered a student (who didn’t attend my own elementary school,) who was already familiar with the DWS Hierarchy! Then I remembered that there was one teacher in this middle school who had told me a month or so ago that she had ordered Marv’s posters and was planning to teach her grade seven classes about the Hierarchy. Of course that explained it; Mark was one of her students.

So, on we went quickly to review the higher levels, with him, explaining to me, what each was about, and we also talked about how these levels connected to his decision to print carefully all the time. By then it really was time for him to go, so I stood up to usher him out to his next class but he remained seated. He asked, “Have you ever taught anyone at this level?” I sat back down and explained that yes, I had sometimes worked with those on Level A before. (In my mind, I thought of a student, who came to our high school with a knife a week ago, and two of our grade 1 students who (unbelievably!) bit two older students on their arms, one after the other, on the playground!)

Then I stood up again–by then we were really cutting into the next student’s time slot–but being a rather easy-going guy, Mark was in no hurry to leave! For the second time, I sat back down, to hear what he wanted to tell me.

He said, “I once knew two kids on Level B. Remember I told you about the teacher who taught me in a little group in grade 5 and then was my tutor in the summer? She was the teacher who taught me about vowels and consonants.”

(When I first met Mark a few weeks ago, I was impressed because he was the only student I had encountered at the high school level who had a pretty accurate understanding of what vowels and consonants are.)

He continued, “These two kids were on Level B with that teacher. They wouldn’t do any work at all and they said they didn’t want to learn anything, and they said mean things to her. But…I just sat back and thought to myself: I don’t want to be like that. I won’t be like them. I’ll try to learn something here–and I did.”

And as he stood up to go, now a few minutes late, I asked, “And what level were you on then?”

“D,” he said, as he went out the door.

To me, this is a bit of “scientific” evidence that even a brief introduction to the Hierarchy can have an impact on a child. Mark’s teacher has only been talking about the levels for a month at the very most–I’ll have to check in with her–and already she’s had an impact on this child. He’s aware that he’s making decisions to be internally motivated and he’s making use of the Hierarchy to make sense of things he’s experienced in his life.

It was exciting for me to witness how one DWS teacher’s efforts are paying off for this child! It was what some people refer to as a “Marshall Moment!”

She recently asked me the question posted below and I share my response here because it includes an explanation of how this discipline approach can be used to help children take responsibility for their own behavior by understanding the concept of CHOICE-RESPONSE THINKING. In other words, as humans, we have the ability to consciously choose our behavior, so therefore, we also always have a choice in how we respond to any situation or stimulus or impulse.

Whereas most conventional discipline approaches–typically based on external motivation–rely on OVERPOWERING or DISEMPOWERING students who choose to misbehave, an approach based on internal motivation has a different goal; to EMPOWER a child to take charge of their own behavior. This makes discipline far more positive. As well, over time, DWS offers many valuable understandings to the students–understandings that are totally bypassed when a teacher is focused primarily on just stopping misbehavior immediately, with either the quick promise of a reward or the threat of a slight punishment.

Here’s that question I was asked …

QUESTION:
Do your parent volunteers bring babies, toddlers and preschoolers with them when they volunteer during your Whole School Read? If so, how do you deal with these little children in the room when your class is trying to read?

MY RESPONSE:
Sometimes we do have younger siblings join us when their parents come in to volunteer for the half hour of reading. When we do, we make toys available but it’s the parent’s job to get them out etc. Sometimes, it’s actually a bonus if we have a preschooler or toddler who loves stories and will sit still and listen. It provides an audience for the grade ones — then it works out really well! Sometimes an older baby is content to sit in a stroller with their own toys, near their mom who is helping.

Sometimes though, a younger child CAN BE a bit of a problem but then we use our discipline system to deal with it. Just to be clear, we use our discipline approach to deal with our grade ones–not the disruptive toddlers who are simply doing what toddlers naturally and joyfully do!

Such a situation gives us the perfect opportunity to talk about self-discipline. That’s one of the first suggestions of this approach: view problems as opportunities to teach and learn! We use Marvin Marshall’s Discipline without Stress, Punishments or Rewards which is all about fostering SELF-discipline. We really focus on this; it’s quietly woven into every subject and activity. We think of this program as a gift really. What better gift could you give a child than starting them down the path towards becoming self-disciplined in their lives?

DWS is based on teaching a Hierarchy of four levels that can be used to discuss personal and social responsibility. It’s too much to explain it all here but the article, Using a Discipline System to Promote Learning would give you an overview.

To deal with the situation you asked about, we have a discussion with our grade ones using the four levels of Marshall’s Hierarchy. We focus on the two highest levels, both of which are acceptable levels of behavior in the classroom.

We talk about the need for SELF-control when someone younger can’t manage (or appears to be having a great time playing with toys during our lesson time!)

In other words, regardless of the fact that there is:

• someone having a playtime while WE’re reading,

• baby “babble” in the room,

• a younger child moving around a bit too quickly, or;

• a toddler eating a snack that looks quite good! etc.,

WE can still be in control of ourselves and make good use of our reading practice time ANYWAY. Our Whole School Read is one of the most important learning times of our day and so it’s important to stay focused and use our time wisely. In fact, it’s our job to use our school time to learn. Our playtimes, snack times and free times come later in the day–not first thing in the morning!

Referring to the four levels of the Hierarchy, we help our students to understand that a person who lowers their own behavior when young children and babies are in the room, is in effect deciding to choose a very young level of maturity themselves.

Viewed in this light, misbehavior doesn’t look very attractive! Students are keen to display a high level of maturity because all of us (at any age,) want to feel capable and in control of ourselves. Even someone as young as grade one would like to consider themselves grown-up–certainly grown up enough to manage better than a cranky baby or slightly out-of-control two year old.

We finish the conversation by reviewing that all behaviour is a CHOICE. We can CHOOSE to act with self-discipline–even in situations that aren’t perfect. We can CHOOSE not to be distracted by small things. We can CHOOSE to “do the right thing, simply because it’s the right thing to do” which, in a nutshell, sums up the focus of Marvin Marshall’s discipline program.

QUESTION:

I am a high school Social Studies teacher. As a teacher of a content area, I don’t penalize my students for spelling errors on their assignments as an English teacher would, but at the same time, I don’t want to give them the impression that spelling isn’t important. I’m not having much success. Once the students know that no marks will be taken off for errors, they seem to get even sloppier with their spelling! Do you have any suggestions for how I might use this DwStress to motivate students in this academic situation?

RESPONSE:

One reason that I enjoy using the Discipline without Stress approach in my own teaching is that I find that the Hierarchy makes it easy for me to motivate students to WANT to operate on the higher levels–not only in terms of their behavior, but also academically.

Whenever I introduce an assignment, project or activity, I not only explain the basic expectations (in other words, the Level C expectations/standards), but I also routinely leave the class with an understanding that there is always an option to CHOOSE to operate on a higher level–if they would like to feel more satisfied with themselves. By being proactive and spending the time to concretely give them a vision of what Level D–the level of internal motivation–might look like in a specific situation, I find that the majority of students become more interested in striving for that highly satisfying level.

(By the way, since genuine internal motivation can never be mandated, the teacher bears no responsibility for students who choose to remain at the more ordinary Level C. Remember Level C describes acceptable behavior. Anything lower is unacceptable–but anything higher is voluntary.)

Here’s a rough outline of how the conversation might go in the situation you described:

Social Studies is a content subject, so while spelling is not as much of a priority as it would be in English, and I won’t be basing your mark on spelling, spelling IS important to the overall presentation of your work. Spelling will be important to you in life, for example at times when you are applying for a job or writing a letter to City Hall, or going to college or university.

Even though spelling doesn’t indicate any certain level of intelligence, sloppy spelling certainly doesn’t look very good on paper. Here’s an example of a paper poorly spelled, from a very bright (but anonymous) student from years ago. How does the spelling affect your impression of this paper and of this person and their abilities? Now… here’s that same paper, with correct spelling. And a third version, correctly spelled and typed. What do you think?

Of course, the amount of care you put into your work is a personal choice, however, I find that many students decide by the time they come to high school, that they really want their work to start looking more mature. They decide for themselves that they want to do their best work in order to feel proud of themselves. If you want your work to look like that of a much older or more capable student, one thing you can do is to take care with spelling.

If spelling doesn’t come naturally to you, what can you do to help yourself? Right, you can use the spellchecker on the computer, you can use a dictionary, you can look back at your textbook to find the correct spelling of a term or a historical figure, or you can ask someone for help–all good ideas!

I’m just throwing this out as an option for those who don’t feel satisfied with handing in work that might give the impression you’re not as intelligent as you really are or that you’re a much younger student than you are.

In my own teaching, I find that more often than not, this type of a discussion leads to a high level of motivation in almost every student. Who wouldn’t rather think of themselves as MORE mature and MORE capable, if there’s a choice? It’s a satisfying feeling to know that you are CHOOSING to operate on a level that’s above the ordinary. Students of any age find this an attractive thought.

The Hierarchy from Discipline without Stress, is a powerful teaching tool. It provides teachers with a way to inspire their students!

I work with very low math students. 
Part of my plan for next year is to convince them that
 things can be different. I want to convince them that they can find
 success and not be so frustrated! The worst behavior cases seem
 to be the kids that have given up.
 But then I worry! Maybe I shouldn’t try to convince them that
 they can succeed. What if I’m just setting them up for disappointment? What if they don’t realize that they will have
 to TRY in order for that to happen? I doubt myself constantly.
 Any suggestions?

RESPONSE:

I think you’re absolutely on the right track!

Convincing your students that putting in 
effort is a worthwhile thing to do is very important. I believe it’s a key part of our job. Certainly, consistent effort is 
the only way a less capable student is going to find success.

But at the same time, I don’t think you should promise anyone “specific” successes. 
For example, I don’t think it would be wise (at least not in the first week of school, before you know your students well,) to promise a someone with learning 
difficulties that they could successfully pass a difficult course–simply as a result of expending 
effort. At that early point, you wouldn’t know 
if that was even possible. Every year there are 
many students who DON’T pass math or other difficult subjects, DESPITE 
many hours of hard work, diligent concentration and even the assistance of a 
personal tutor—they simply don’t have the innate cognitive ability.

For part of the week, I work at an 
alternate high school with the lowest students in our school district. Almost all of these 
students have come to this school because they are no longer welcome at any other 
high school in our area – usually for reasons of serious misbehavior (which often 
ultimately stem from low academic skills, dysfunctional home lives, mental illness, 
addictions etc.)

My teaching partner and I find that it’s best to be completely honest in the sense of letting them know that we actually don’t know how far they can go 
in their learning but that if they are willing to give us a chance, and if they’re willing 
to attend regularly, we CAN promise them they will see results. They will see 
PROGRESS. Then, once we’ve promised them progress, we do everything we can to make sure 
that they do see bits of progress (and therefore, success) EVERY DAY. We tailor our teaching to their needs so that they can succeed in baby 
steps if necessary.

For a very discouraged student, promising them that they will SUCCEED (in a specific 
way) is probably too much for them to initially believe. By promising too much, you 
might likely “scare” them. With these sorts of kids that likely means MORE 
behavior problems; it’s actually a defense mechanism for them. Once students have found some success through your careful guiding of instruction, you’ll find it gets 
easier and easier to convince them TO TRY. That’s when they become willing to 
believe you that bigger successes are possible–because you have proven to them 
that success is within reach. At that point, you may be able to promise more specific 
successes because you will have a better grasp of what is realistically possible for 
them.

At that point, my partner and I also do everything we can to ELICIT goals from the 
students and encourage them to make small learning decisions for themselves. 
Dr. Marshall calls this EMPOWERING students through choice. Dr. Gordon Neufeld 
describes it as helping young people “PUT THEIR HANDS ON THE STEERING WHEEL.” 
If you can help students to make goals for THEMSELVES (just small ones at first,) then 
almost automatically they become willing to put forth the necessary effort to improve 
(and hopefully, succeed.)

After all, if a person doesn’t get their hands on the steering wheel, how are they ever going to 
drive on their own and get where they want to go? A student who is “driving” on their 
own is going to go further, faster, than those who have to wait for the TEACHER to 
drive them! This helps foster the desire to operate with INTERNAL motivation, which 
is a very powerful driving force indeed!

Just as a small example, in our high school literacy job, most of our students have an 
individualized stack of vocabulary cards to help them increase the number of words 
they know. At the end of reading a selection, instead of US picking out the words we think they should practice again, we ask THEM to determine which words THEY would 
like to add to their practice decks, based on which they think will be of value to them 
in the future. Over time we find that this sort of continual focus on turning over small 
decisions to them, prompts an inner desire to take charge of their own learning and 
then they start to VOLUNTARILY voice small goals now and then – a significant sign of 
progress in and of itself!

If I were teaching math as you do, I would ask THEM which type of 
questions THEY thought they needed to practice more and then I would follow 
through with that on subsequent days or would be sure to assign those types of questions for 
homework. I would ask THEM to determine HOW MANY questions they thought they 
needed or how difficult the questions should be. Anything you can do to turn over small decisions to your low students will pay big dividends in the long run, as they start to 
see that they can be in charge of their own learning.

Sometimes we find that students make unrealistic goals for themselves. For 
example, our lowest student, 19 years old, asked me for a ride home on the last day 
of school because it was a very hot day and he didn’t want to walk, pushing a stroller, 
(Yes, he has a 2 year old son!) the five 
miles that he usually walks to get home.

As I dropped him off, I asked if he planned to return to school next year and he said, 
“Yes! And I know what I want to do. I want to read the Driver’s Manual and take my 
driving test. I’m going to sit down with the principal and you and all my teachers and 
tell them that this is what I want to learn at school.”

My heart sank. This wonderful, very personable and caring young fellow has extreme 
symptoms of FAS (Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.) Despite having attended school in a resource room setting, with a 
student/teacher ratio of less than 10 to 1, for all his elementary school years, he 
couldn’t read ANYTHING at all when we met him two years ago. His parole officer 
told us that prior to working in our program, he couldn’t even find his own name on a 
page of writing.

It has taken us 160 sessions of 30 minutes each, over two years, to get him to part-
way through a grade one level and we consider this a huge success, especially because his 
progress is speeding up as time goes on. However, our highest hope for him is that 
over the next couple of years (as he goes through Adult Ed.,) that we’ll be able to get 
him to a grade three or four reading level—he simply doesn’t have what it takes to read 
the driver’s manual–probably ever.

My first thought was that I needed to tone down his expectations for what he could 
achieve, so as to protect him from disappointment, but thank goodness, I suddenly 
remembered some advice that I heard long ago from a school counselor. 
This man had said that as adults, it is not our job to squash the dreams of children. 
REGARDLESS of how unrealistic we feel a child’s dream is, it is our JOB to support 
them and cheer them on. And then, if necessary, it is our job to be there to support and comfort and love 
them, should they face disappointment or failure. Our job is to encourage, assist and support them through disappointment, not to help them avoid the experience altogether.

With that in mind, I said, “Doug, 
that is an exciting and challenging dream you have! Darlene and I will do all we can 
to help you work towards it!”

And with that sort of mindset, on the way home I thought of how we can start to support him as he works toward meeting his goal. We can begin with the easiest section–on traffic signs, 
reading the short labels that describe them. And at the same time that we can 
continue to teach him at his developmental level, from his grade one books, “Bread for the Ducklings” and 
“Tasha Rides a Bike!”

Good luck! I think your students are very lucky to have you as a teacher!

QUESTION:

I have a 3rd grade student who is demonstrating increasingly 
disruptive behaviors. I have all kinds 
of support with him – my principal, school counselor, 
behavioral specialist – we’re all involved, every day. This boy can work elsewhere when he can’t manage in the classroom. My question is this: How do I 
teach the other students that it’s better for them to 
ignore this student’s behavior than to be an audience or worse yet, play along? I need some “choice 
words” to really explain it and underscore the importance of this.

They did a great job today and I complimented 
them on doing so after the student had been removed from the room. A couple of them asked me individually why that student wasn’t with us and I told them that when behaviors 
interrupt everyone’s learning time, it can’t be permitted to go on and that the student was with the principal. Any advice/good words to use?

RESPONSE:

For situations like this, I find a discussion centered around the understandings 
of Marvin Marshall’s Discipline Without Stress HIERARCHY to be invaluable. Even 
though you may not be familiar with Marshall’s approach, I think I could explain 
the basics of it enough for you to be able to use it in your current situation. You wanted some “choice” words to use. One of 
the principles that forms the basis of this approach is helping kids understand 
that all personal behavior is a choice.

In a nutshell, Marshall’s approach fosters SELF-discipline. This is exactly what I 
imagine you are hoping your students will develop with respect to managing 
their own behavior when faced with a classmate who is 
displaying very little self-discipline.

Marshall’s Hierarchy has four levels of personal/social development: 
Levels A, B, C, D.

Levels A (Anarchy) and B (Bossing/Bullying) describe unacceptable behavior in 
any situation.

Just as an example, 
currently your disruptive student is often choosing to operate (either consciously or non-consciously,) at these lower levels of A 
and B. In other words, he is not in control of himself and relies 
on an adult to take control of his behavior most of the time. Just as you 
explained to students in your class, whenever a person can’t manage their 
own behavior in an acceptable manner, then the adult has to take over and 
manage their behavior for them. In your case, the adults in the school have sometimes 
found it necessary to remove this child from the room in order to preserve the 
learning environment for all the other students. It’s only fair that the other 
students have the opportunity to learn in an orderly, safe classroom.

Here’s an important point from Marshall’s program for students to 
understand:

All behavior is a personal CHOICE. If any of them were to follow along and 
misbehave–by copying a disruptive student or even by just giving encouragement as an appreciative audience–they too would be CHOOSING to 
operate at a lower level than acceptable.

In discussing the situation, you would also talk about the other two levels, C 
(Cooperation) and D (Democracy), which describe HIGHER levels of 
personal and social development. Level C is acceptable. But then there is Level 
D, which describes something even higher than acceptable. You might think of 
it as exceptional, although Marshall doesn’t use that exact description in his program.

DwStress teachers use the Hierarchy to help students understand self-discipline. The key to the approach is to explain ALL the levels to students but focus 
especially on some important understandings related to the highest two levels, 
C and D.

The difference between Level C and D (that is, between acceptable and 
exceptional behavior), can be explained in terms of motivation:

At Level C, a student is motivated EXTERNALLY to behave themselves by 
cooperating, and by willingly conforming to the expectations of the adult—AS 
LONG AS THE ADULT IS PRESENT. In your situation, this would describe 
students who can manage themselves appropriately in the classroom (even 
though one child is being incredibly disruptive in front of them,) whenever they 
notice the teacher is nearby or directly looking their way.

This level is higher than Level B because (at least when the teacher is present 
and is watching,) the child operating at Level C is self-disciplined enough to do 
the right thing. Their motivation is external however. They are motivated to do the right 
thing, perhaps to please their teacher or because they realize that to do 
anything disruptive would only lead to getting into trouble themselves.

Level C is the expected level of behaviour in the classroom in Marshall’s system 
of discipline. It is the level of obedience. In all other discipline systems 
that I’ve seen, this level is considered the highest level of behavior, but not so 
in Marshall’s approach. Having a higher-than-acceptable level is what makes 
Discipline Without Stress unique.

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Level D is the level of taking responsibility for yourself. It is the level of SELF-
discipline. It is the level of doing the right thing simply because it is the right 
thing to do. In other words, students operating at Level D think for themselves. 
They consciously make CHOICES for themselves with the understanding that all 
behavior is a personal choice.

You might think of Level D as the level of following your own conscience. When 
operating from this highest level, a student does the right thing regardless of 
whether or not an adult is present. In your situation, this describes a student who 
notices that a fellow student has chosen to behave in inappropriate ways and yet 
is not influenced to follow along–whether the teacher is watching or not.

They decide for themselves that following along or giving encouragement to the 
disruptive student would only mean that their own behaviour was no better off 
than that of the disruptive student–they would no longer be in control of 
themselves – in fact, they would be ALLOWING THE DISRUPTIVE STUDENT TO BE IN CONTROL OF THEM.

When you complimented your class on being able to manage themselves when 
one student was losing control, you were actually acknowledging that they were 
either on Level C or D of Marshall’s Hierarchy. The interesting thing is that Level 
C and D behaviour usually looks identical to anyone watching. The only 
difference between these two levels is in WHY the person is MOTIVATED to act 
correctly.

Some of your students would have been on Level C—they were motivated to act 
appropriately because your presence motivated them 
(externally) to behave themselves. This is acceptable but it’s not the highest 
level of behaviour.

Some would likely have been operating on the higher level, Level D. They simply 
knew inside themselves that to follow or encourage the disruptive student would 
be inappropriate. In other words they were INTERNALLY motivated.They 
wouldn’t have followed along with or acted inappropriately–even if they 
were all alone in the room with him.

Here’s the conversation I have had with 
previous classes in similar situations.

Just as you did, when it came up, I would be quite candid in discussing that ____ is sometimes working elsewhere in the school. Just as you did, I would 
explain that his behavior is out of control at the moment and that he is 
showing little self-discipline. I would ask someone in the class to identify the 
Hierarchy level of this type of disruptive behavior. Any child in the class would 
be able to correctly identify it as either Level A or B. Then I would ask them to 
tell me what happens when someone chooses to operate at an unacceptable 
level–to the point where it interferes with other people’s learning. Someone 
would say that when a student continually operates at Level B, a teacher has to 
take over. A teacher has to be the boss and tell the person what to do.

I would agree and say that yes, that is what the current situation is. ____ 
has such little self-discipline at the moment, that the adults have decided that 
he needs to work somewhere else in the school so that others can still learn and 
he can be helped to learn some self-discipline. Hopefully, with some help, ____ 
will soon learn to control himself enough to be able to rejoin the class in an 
acceptable manner. Then he too, will be able to move forward in his schooling.

Then I would initiate a discussion about the behavior of EVERYONE ELSE in this 
situation. I would talk about how we all have a personal choice in how we 
respond to ____ and his lack of self-discipline. I would ask them to imagine 
some scenarios.

For example, I would say:

What if someone chose to follow along and copy ____? What level would that 
be? (B)

What if someone chose to encourage ____ by laughing or making other 
comments (B)

Would a person who chose to encourage ____, or be influenced into following ____, be self-disciplinedthemselves?

I would talk about how some people in this situation might follow or encourage 
____, thinking that it was ____’S FAULT that they were misbehaving. I would 
make sure that everyone understood that ____’s behaviour can only influence 
our own, if we allow that and if we have no self-discipline ourselves.

Then I would move to discussing higher level behavior, Level C and D. I would 
first get them to describe behavior at each of these levels. They would explain that at Level C, a student watching ____ and 
his antics, wouldn’t follow or encourage ____ because they see the teacher in 
the room and know that it wouldn’t be a good idea to act like ____ because then 
they’d be in trouble too.

I’d say, yes, that’s true. Level C is acceptable behaviour. They would be able to 
manage their own response to ____ because they’d be smart enough not to do 
something inappropriate themselves WITH A TEACHER WATCHING. We’d talk 
about how they were doing the right thing, but that they were relying on the 
presence of the teacher to influence them in how they chose to behave. The 
result would be that classroom atmosphere would remain fairly calm and we’d 
be helping ____ too because he would see what self-discipline looks like in the 
rest of us.

Then I’d remind them that both Level C and D are acceptable and I would ask 
them this:

If Level C is acceptable, how is Level D higher?

Then some child would be able to explain in their own words that Level D is 
higher because the person at Level D wouldn’t be influenced by ____’s antics–
EVEN IF THE TEACHER WASN’T WATCHING or even if the teacher wasn’t in the 
room at all. Regardless of whether the teacher was in the room or not, they 
wouldn’t follow or encourage misbehavior, simply because they know that that’s the 
right thing to do. They wouldn’t want to encourage ____ to act up because they 
would know that wasn’t helping ____. They wouldn’t follow ____because 
they wouldn’t want to sink to Level B behavior themselves.

Then we’d talk about the benefits of being self-disciplined and being internally 
motivated to do the right thing simply because it’s the right thing to do in the 
situation. We’d talk about HOW GOOD IT FEELS to be in control of yourself. 
We’d talk about how people who are self-disciplined can respect themselves. 
When people often operate at a high level, they understand that to sink down to 
a lower level and follow someone else’s misbehavior means that they would be part of the 
problem. What self-respecting person wants to think of themselves as a 
problem! It FEELS GOOD to respect yourself and think highly of your own 
behavior. Operating at Level D allows you to take great pride in yourself.

As I said, I have had this exact same discussion with my own class in previous 
years and I have many similar discussions EVERY DAY about the benefits of 
operating at a high level; about exactly what it looks like to operate on a high 
level in ordinary everyday situations.

Although this might sound as if it would be above the heads of primary 
students, it isn’t at all. I teach Kindergarten and grade one. I simply 
use vocabulary that young children will understand to get the points across.

Although this way of thinking about behavior and self-discipline is very new to 
most teachers, I sense from your question that you are already thinking along these 
same lines. I hope my own experiences with fostering self-discipline through 
Marvin Marshall’s Discipline Without Stress will be of value to you!

QUESTION:

I am still waiting for my Discipline without Stress book to arrive, but this morning I introduced the system to my class anyway. Even though it’s almost the end of the year, I have such big behavior problems that I decided I had nothing to lose and everything to gain! However, I must have done something wrong because the very students who need this system most, were the ones who didn’t pay attention to the discussion and mocked the levels right from the very start. Any suggestions for making this system real to kids who don’t pay much attention to things like this?

RESPONSE:

Here is an example of just one small discussion I have had with my own class in an effort to make the levels of the Hierarchy meaningful to them. Although the following example comes from a primary grade level, I hope you’ll be able to see that you could use this same kind of DWS discussion framework with older students to help them realize that it is always to their own benefit to become more SELF-disciplined.

A Sample Hierarchy Discussion in a Real Classroom Situation

I often use the Hierarchy to talk with my grade one students about things that are connected directly to our lives in the classroom. For example, every year I initiate a few conversations to connect math corrections to the Hierarchy. I feel it’s important for students to correct any math errors that they might have made on previous days, before we move on to new learning. I find that the this type of fifteen minute discussion always has a large positive impact on the choices my students make during math time for the rest of the year.

In keeping with the DWStress Principle of Reflection, I usually begin the discussion by eliciting from the students what operation at each of the four levels might look like with regard to the situation at hand. I guide the discussion and the students participate by sharing their thoughts. At the same time, we also talk about the results a person can expect from consistent operation at each of the levels. I always begin at the lowest level and build up to the highest level, in order to end on an inspiring note.

Here’s a synopsis of what we discuss with regard to math corrections:

Operation at Levels A/B:

• People operating at these levels don’t bother doing many math corrections at all–unless the teacher forces them.

• A person at this level might feel badly that their book has lots of errors in it but they don’t do anything to help the situation–so they continue to feel badly.

• During Math time, they might just sit there or goof off, play little games by themselves or with others. They might even have a lot of fun.

• People operating at this level often take pleasure in the thought that they are “getting away” with something. They notice that while everyone around them is doing math corrections, they are not—they’re having free time.

• Eventually the decision not to do math corrections during class time catches up with them and the teacher responds by taking control. After all, individuals at Levels A/B are not displaying SELF-control. Whether they consciously know it or not, they are ensuring that the teacher must take over.

• Once class time allocated for doing corrections is over, the person has lost the opportunity to use school time to finish their work. When are some other times to complete the required corrections? (At recess? At free choice center time? At lunch time? After school? At home?)

• In the end, did this person “get away” with anything at all? In actuality, they’ve lost out. For one thing, a person who doesn’t consistently attempt to understand and correct their math errors is less likely to understand the math concepts at their grade level—their learning suffers.

• In addition, a person operating at Levels A/B, often feels discouraged whenever they look at their notebook. Even though they have tried to ignore the situation, they know that their notebook is full of errors. Despite the fact that outwardly they may appear not to care, inwardly they feel uncomfortable.

• When the majority of their classmates are ready for recess, the person who decided to use their class time to play, must then BEGIN to work.

• Sure, they got away with not doing their corrections in Math lesson time–but was it worth it?

Operation at Level C:

• A person at Level C is cooperative and so doesn’t misbehave in Math time. They comply with the teacher’s expectation that math corrections should be completed first thing, during math class time.

• This is an acceptable level of operation because the student completes their corrections–as expected by the teacher.

• At Level C, a person is complying but not exhibiting true SELF-control. They wait for the teacher to say that it’s time to do their corrections before they begin. In other words, they depend on the presence of the teacher to start and keep them working.

Operation at Level D:

• At the highest level of operation, people take charge of their own behavior and feel competent because of that. It’s personally satisfying to know that you are SELF-disciplined.

• People operating at this level take initiative–they don’t wait for the person in charge to tell them what to do when they know they need to do something. As soon as they get their notebook back, they look to see if they have any corrections to do and they get started. They take pride in the fact that they are keeping up and acting responsibly.

• Often they can correct one or two errors while other classmates simply sit–waiting for the teacher to tell them what to do. Because they have made good use of their time, they often have a few free minutes later, to do something of their own choice, while they wait for others to complete the required work.

• People who make an effort to understand errors have a greater chance of understanding math concepts at their grade level.

• If the teacher has written, “See me” on a page, students operating on Level D, take the initiative to ask for teacher help–they don’t wait until the teacher finally catches up with them. While they are waiting for the teacher to come to their desk, they go on to any other corrections that they might be able to complete independently.

• When they get their work back each day, they know they will only have one day’s corrections to do, not days and days’ worth. They look at their noebook and take satisfaction in the fact that all the pages are clipped and up to date.

Every year I find that this discussion about math corrections is very effective in 
motivating kids to WANT to look after their errors promptly and without nagging 
by me. Once we have discussed 
what autonomous behaviour looks like in this situation, they WANT to see themselves as operating autonomously. That’s not to say that 
EVERY child has aimed for, or achieved Level D in this regard, but I would say that a very large majority have, after this type of a discussion.

I find that as the year goes 
on, my students become increasingly more responsible about completing corrections 
independently. One year, when our regular Math time followed recess, I would typically return to the classroom, always to find a 
large number of students with their math books out–by choice–working 
independently to get their corrections up to date for the day. On seeing this, the remainder of the class would often follow suit… peer influence at it’s best!

Dr. Marshall’s Hierarchy of Social Development is a wonderful tool for encouraging students to look honestly at choices in all areas of their lives. With an understanding of choice-response thinking, young people become aware that a conscious choice to operate at the higher levels is always an option—an option that results in powerful feelings of personal satisfaction and a greater sense of self-control. In an academic setting, this naturally leads to a desire to improve and to achieve academically.

Here is one example of how my partner and I use the DISCIPLINE without STRESS approach to help students make progress academically–in this case, with regard to spelling. Using the Hierarchy, we find that we can concretely show our students how they can CHOOSE to become better spellers. We begin by using the basic framework of the Raise Responsibility System Hierarchy to create a new hierarchy related specifically to SPELLING and tailored to our own particular classroom practices.

Just as it is most effective to ask students to do their own thinking in a discipline situation (as opposed to the teacher simply telling the students what the teacher thinks), it is similarly effective in an academic situation to “ask,” rather than “tell.” In accordance with the PRINCIPLE of REFLECTION, we often guide our students to create an “academic hierarchy” for a particular subject area, by ASKING questions that enable students to come up with descriptors for each of the applicable levels. Sometimes we record the descriptors for later reference, but more often than not, the exercise simply takes the form of an oral discussion.

Here is an example of a “spelling hierarchy” developed orally in our primary classroom:

Level D (Motivation to become a good speller is INTERNAL)
• Attempts to look critically at his/her own writing in order to find spelling errors.
• Independently uses the words, spelling lists and spelling cues posted on the classroom walls.
• Tries out different spelling patterns independently before asking for help
• Remembers having seen the word somewhere (possibly in a book) and looks it up to copy correct spelling.
• Uses a primary dictionary.

Level C
Does all of the above but with one important difference–the motivation to spell correctly is EXTERNAL. In other words, a student at this level, WAITS until a teacher points out that a word is spelled incorrectly before trying to fix it, or waits until being REMINDED before thinking to look for words on the wall or in a book etc.

Level B
• doesn’t make any attempt to be careful with spelling when writing
• doesn’t make use of the words on the wall, spelling lists, dictionary etc.
• doesn’t bother to proofread

Level A
Not applicable in a discussion of academics

As in any DISCIPLINE without STRESS Hierarchy discussion, a critical point to highlight is the difference between Levels C and D—a difference in the source of motivation only. As teachers, my partner and I want to encourage our students to take care with spelling and become increasingly more responsible about looking critically at their own completed work–with an eye to finding their OWN spelling errors, without a teacher necessarily being present.

Having taken time to build a hierarchy related to spelling, we then proactively refer to it whenever we begin a writing activity with our students. At the start of any writing lesson, we VERY QUICKLY review ONLY the two higher levels and prompt the students to reflect on the benefits of operating at the highest level–improved spelling performance and an internal sense of pride and satisfaction!

Following the writing activity, we ask them to once again, silently REFLECT for a moment–this time focusing on their personal level of operation with regard to spelling in the lesson that has just passed. We find that over time, this process of prompting reflection in connection to an academic subject, both before and after lessons, motivates students to WANT to improve their academic performance.

Other sample academic hierarchies are available on Dr. Marshall’s website.