In previous years when we’ve had a new addition to our class, we’ve sometimes experienced the following problem:  If the new youngster starts to feel anxious and begins to cling to Mom when it’s time for her to leave, we’ve been surprised to see that there have always been one or two other kids in the class who start crying and clinging to their moms too!  I guess it’s a sympathetic reaction;  they must pick up on the new child’s anxiety and it makes them feel nervous or scared too.  Whatever the reason, it’s been a rather negative experience for all––just at a time when one would hope to create a positive atmosphere of  welcome.

She started the meeting by explaining that a new boy would be joining our class.  She asked the kids to imagine what it might feel like to be in his shoes.  Had they ever experienced something similar––a time when they were new to a group?

Then she brought out our DWS Hierarchy chart.  ”How might various people, operating at different levels of the Hierarchy, handle this out-of-the-ordinary situation?” she inquired.  She guided the discussion with questions and together they arrived at the following descriptors for behavior at each of the four levels:

Level A

• being mean to the new child,  perhaps teasing etc.

Level B

• not looking very pleasantly at the child
• ignoring the child altogether
• imitating clingy behaviour which upsets everyone in the class

Level C

• being polite to the child in class (when adults are present,) but essentially ignoring the child on the playground

Level D

• going out of your way to say hello
• telling the new person your name
• smiling at the new person
• inviting the newcomer to join in at lunch and recess
• offering help when the new child seems confused about routines etc.
• understanding that the new child may feel sad to be left in a new classroom––but not imitating that behavior
• offering friendship to the newcomer

At the end of the meeting she asked the children to keep this discussion in mind and to think about which level they wanted to operate on the following day when the new boy arrived.

The results of this meeting were great!  Not only did we avoid a problem we had encountered several times before, but we noticed that kids were shyly taking the initiative to say hello and introduce themselves in the cloakroom––even before the new student had been officially introduced.  We’ve never seen that happen before!

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.

Here is my latest success:
Last Friday, three third graders left their homeroom in route to my class (science) and on the way, chose to yell and scream and play an impromptu game of tag. (At my school, we don’t walk the kids from class to class, and all the classroom doors lead outside, so they were coming across the playground.) Upon hearing the commotion, their homeroom teacher flew out of her room and wound up in front of mine, fuming at the gall of these kids.

Since she got there first, I let her handle it. She said, nearly yelling, “Which one of you children decided to act like a preschooler and run and yell while you were coming over here?!?  I’ll stand here and wait until whoever it was comes forward!” And of course, no one moved a muscle because they could see how angry she was.

She went on and on about acting like wild animals, what the other teachers would think if they saw them, etc. It was clearly ineffective because after 3 minutes of this, still no one confessed.  There was a lot of staring and mean looks coming from her, and silence by all of us!  I knew the right way to approach this situation, but being that she has been teaching 30 years longer than me, I let her go.  She finally left it that the kids should all think about this incident over the weekend, and they would start Monday morning by writing apology letters to the other teachers who they may have disturbed.

Once the kids were in my room, I took a different approach.  I asked what level running and screaming was on. They clearly knew it was Level A. Then I reiterated that a Level A choice was never acceptable.  But I put this spin on it: I said that even though some of them had made a Level A choice already, now they had an opportunity to change it to a C level choice by cooperating and taking responsibility.  I explained that no one could make them do this, but if they chose to, this situation could turn into an acceptable one, with their decision to cooperate.

We talked about responsibility and how once a poor choice is made, we shouldn’t have to wallow in it forever; we can make a choice to fix it and move on. Because the levels are so concrete and understandable, the kids weren’t dwelling on the Level A behavior any more, they were working on turning it into a C.  Shortly thereafter, three kids came up to me and said they wanted to make a good choice and take responsibility.

The conversation followed from there:  “How do we walk between classes? Why wouldn’t we want to yell and run?” etc. I didn’t feel extra punishment was necessary because I wasn’t sure they ever understood these things in the first place; it was like a light-bulb moment when we talked about someone getting hurt without a teacher around to help them. Finally, I elicited consequences if this behavior should happen again and we moved on!

I should mention that I’m new to DWS and just finished reading the book in September.  If someone with only a month of experience can have these kinds of interactions, it must be good!  Read the book! Implement now, perfect later! It has made me feel so much happier throughout the day. No more “me-against-them” feelings. Good luck!

This year though, our introduction of the Hierarchy came about completely without prior planning. That was a surprise even for us! In the past we’ve planned a formal lesson to explain the levels and sometimes had the kids draw pictures. We’ve also read Tanis’ book over the space of several days and so concluded with a review of the four levels in pleasant storybook format.

This year however, Darlene saw an “everyday opportunity” to discuss the levels and how they related to something that had actually happened in the classroom.  She just went for it – much like we would do during all the rest of the year.  And it turned out well!  When I returned to teaching in our shared position just a few days later, the kids were easily talking about the levels. I simply carried on from there, discussing the Hierarchy in various situations throughout the day.  Tomorrow, at the start of our fifth week in school, Tanis’ book will arrive in our “classroom mailbox” and we’ll read the story over the space of two or three days.

We’re enjoying a very nice class this year but the kids are not without their individual quirks of course!  Several are quite stubborn and a few more seem to have fairly serious emotional/anxiety issues.  One morning, just over a week ago, the day started off on a very bad note.  Four kids arrived at school in various states of upset and all were crying loudly in the line-up outside the classroom.  The boisterous crying continued right into the cloakroom!  Darlene, my teaching partner, had quite a difficult time helping any of the four, simply because all were upset about something that had happened at home and over which she had no control, or even any real information to help her figure it all out.  One was mad at Grandma for some reason and the others were mad/sad/angry at Mom and Dad, each for their own reasons too, of course!  It wasn’t within Darlene’s power to help any of them with their actual “problems,” simply because they weren’t school related.

Although we have 17 other kids in our class, her attention had to go that morning, entirely to the four who were out of control as they entered the room. Eventually, about 15-20 minutes later, she did manage to get each one settled down; into their indoor shoes, out of their sweaters, a drink at the water fountain and into their desks.  And then the day went on, more or less as usual!  That’s a primary classroom for you–never a dull moment!

A couple of hours later, just before lunch playtime, she got out the DWS Hierarchy chart.  She asked the class to remember back to the early morning and what had happened when the teacher was in the cloakroom helping various kids with some problems.  She asked each one to think about what they had chosen to do while the teacher was very busy.  She explained that she had noticed that all those who didn’t have a serious problem themselves, had simply done all their cloakroom chores independently and then gone to their own seats and found something to do, leaving the teacher to deal with those who really needed help.

She said that she had noticed that some students had taken out their chalkboards or doodle books from their desks and begun to draw.  Some had taken books from the carpet area and had spent their time looking at them, while others took out bags of pattern blocks and had built beautiful patterns on their desks.  She explained that what she had seen could be described as Level D on a certain special magnetic chart that we always have hanging on our front chalkboard.  She brought the chart over to hang front and center on the board in front of the children.

She told them that Level D is the level where you can look after yourself – you don’t even need a teacher to be right there to make sure that you’re doing the right thing that you should be doing. She then explained the difference between Level C and D; that Level C was lower on the chart because that was the level where you needed an adult around to make sure that you were doing the right thing.  She again described the events of the morning, but focused on all the positive aspects of the (rather horrendous!) start to the day; the fact that many people had chosen to do the right thing – the grown up and mature thing – despite the fact that the teacher really wasn’t even available to help them or supervise them right at that moment.

Then she asked them to imagine in their own minds, times when they might have been on Level D in other situations – situations in which they had done something without being asked by an adult, something that was very grown-up.  One girl, new to our school, (who is basically an only child in a family with several adult siblings and nieces and nephews older than herself!) put up her hand to say that she thought that she might have been on Level D the very night before.  At that point, a wonderful and outgoing little boy in our room, spontaneously took over the teacher’s role!  He turned around to her and in very teacher-like way asked,

“What did you do?”

She answered, “I did the dishes and then I went into my bedroom and made my bed.”

In an effort to confirm that this was truly Level D motivation–and not something lower–Jeremy questioned her, “Did you do this ALL BY YOURSELF or did someone ASK you to do it?”

Emily answered, “I did it all by myself.”

To which Jeremy, seriously replied, “Well, then that was Level D.”

With a smile, Darlene went on to briefly explain the lower two levels herself!

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(Darlene is an amazing person!  She can turn almost anything into a positive event!)

Two DWS points:

1.  Find the positive in a situation – even if it’s hard to see right at the moment.  After a cool-down period of time has elapsed, focus your teaching energy into describing that (what you’d like to see more of!)  In this situation, the kids who were stubbornly at a lower level early in the morning, did receive the help and discussion they needed at that moment to get them operating at Level C, but later in the day they received no attention for their lower-level behavior. It wasn’t discussed at all, even though everyone had witnessed it and knew it was at the root of the whole situation developing as it did.

Instead the kids at the higher level received attention later in the day (without being named,) by virtue of the fact that Darlene used their behavior as an example of Level D.  In addition, the four stubborn kids were subtly given information about what it looks like to be well behaved and mature.  Without discussing their immature behavior in front of the class, they were given a comparison model in their mind about what it means to act maturely in grade one.  With the new understandings about Level D that were given to the class as a whole, they too will start to aspire more often to be on THAT level, rather than on the immature level that they know disrupted the class in the first place that morning.  Kids WANT to think of themselves as more, rather than less, mature.  As teachers we can benefit from that natural desire!

2.  Procedures are very important.  The 17 kids already had a very good understanding of what choices they have in free choice times and they all chose to fill their unexpected “free time” with an appropriate choice.  When their teacher was busy with the (stubborn and immature) criers in the cloakroom, they simply read the situation as free time for themselves and already knew what they could do with that sort of pleasant time.

“What to do when you find yourself with a bit of free time” is something we review quite a bit in the first weeks of school.  We certainly can’t take all the credit ourselves either!  Most of these kids came from a Kindergarten teacher who is the best “procedures teacher” I have ever seen, so these particular students are very used to following procedures at Level C.  We are benefitting greatly from her diligence last year, which is a wonderful thing about having colleagues who try very hard to be on the same page with each other!

We’ve just started a series of swimming lessons at our local Community Center for all the primary students in our school. This year I decided to be more proactive than in previous years. Instead of just talking for a couple of minutes–just prior to getting on the bus on the first day–about what behavior is expected at the swimming pool, I decided to plan for a time to discuss it the day before.

As soon as I really started thinking to myself in an organized way about what procedures we would need at the swimming pool, I realized that there were actually 4 SETS of procedures to talk about! Going swimming with 21 little kids is no mean feat!

In preparation, on chart paper I wrote:

What’s expected…

1. On the bus?

2. At the pool?

3. In the change room?

4. In the Water Safety lesson?

As part of our K/1 calendar time on Monday, I started by having the class look at our DWS Hierarchy. We talked about how the ultimate goal for a person is to be self-disciplined by operating on Level D. In other words, the goal is looking after yourself.

We talked about how we could benefit from this type of operation on our swimming trips. In addition to feeling good about our abilities to act capably and independently, we would also naturally be building positive relationships with many people–the swimming instructors, the parent helpers, the bus driver, members of the public also using the swimming pool etc. These people would certainly enjoy being with us if we were operating on the highest level. (For more information, see this related post.)

Then I asked the kids to give me suggestions for each of the above categories on our chart and I wrote a few pertinent words in each. (I worked in spelling lessons too as I recorded their ideas!) After we finished, I went back to each category and put large stars beside the most critical ideas.

What’s expected…

On the bus?

• fairly quiet
• stay in seat
• sit back
• don’t forget swim gear

At the pool?

• WALK
• listen to swimming teacher
• be polite
• try to learn

In the change rooms?

• change quickly
• keep belongings in one place
• walk
• be respectful (of senior citizens in change room)
• remember all your gear
• come out and line up quietly

In the Water Safety lesson?

• learn
• listen to safety teacher
• hand up to speak

Although my teaching partner and I have quite a challenging class this year, on Tuesday when we went swimming, the students were all extremely well behaved. Several parents at different times laughingly mentioned that their kids came home on Monday and seriously told them all about what’s expected during each part of a swimming trip–so I know that our 15 minute discussion and chart made an impression on them!

It was a pretty positive start, to what in the past has sometimes been a stressful afternoon activity.

In the chapter on discipline, a little story caught my eye because it contained a very PROACTIVE and POSITIVE suggestion that could be used by anyone who wanted to make changes in their life or wanted to develop new habits.

I find that many people are first attracted to the DWS Teaching Model because they like the idea of acting positively in discipline situations with young people, yet initially they find that the habit of positivity doesn’t come to them either naturally or automatically. Most people find that it’s something they must consciously and patiently develop over time.

The strategy offered in the following story, that of composing a written description of habits that one would like to eventually develop, would be a very effective strategy for those who are learning to use the DISCIPLINE without STRESS approach. Creating a written “vision” is a project that could also be used with STUDENTS who express a desire to make positive changes to their own patterns of behavior.

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Quoted from page 89 of THE BOOK OF NURTURING written by Linda and Richard Eyre:

One of the most inspirational things you can see in this world is a parent who, by the sheer force of will breaks a destructive pattern of behavior that has gone on through many past generations and starts a more positive and respectful parental behavior that will carry forward into future generations.

We have a friend, now a single mother of three, who was physically and verbally abused by both of her parents throughout her childhood, just as they had been abused by theirs. She’s a large and somewhat gruff woman, qualities that make her highly effective in her factory supervisory job. Yet with her children, she is an amazing example of tenderness and patience.

This friend told us that her parents’ bad example motivated her resolution to be the opposite with her own kids. Many parents have made this kind of vow, only to fall into the same patterns as their parents. This mom, though, went a step further than vowing to be different. She actually took the time to write a careful and thorough DESCRIPTION of the kind of mom she wanted to be. She didn’t include what she didn’t want to be or the mistakes her parents had made that she wanted to avoid. She just defined and described, completely from the positive side, the kind of tender, nurturing calm, and controlled mom she wanted to be. She reads that description, and sometimes adds to or edits it, nearly every week. It has crept into her subconscious and influences how she responds to and treats her children.

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She expressed with some regret that the Ministry wouldn’t consider allowing her to take on the role of a regular foster parent, instead of what she does now. She explained that now that she was 55 and nearing the end of her working career, she really wanted to change the occupational focus that she’d held for many years. Instead of taking in a series of teenagers for short periods of times–to stabilize them–she wanted instead to be able to have just one teen stay with her for an extended period of time.

Although she knew that her specialized job was important, she wanted the opportunity to have what she felt would be a more personally satisfying experience. She wanted to be able to get to know one child well, by way of a more permanent and long term relationship.

When I asked her why the Ministry wouldn’t allow her to do this, she said that it was because they had so few people who were able to do the work that she does. Her job is to settle these difficult teens down, enabling them to function in a regular foster family situation. She said she is very successful at what she does and the Ministry is desperate for her to continue her work with these extremely challenged youths.

Intrigued, I asked her to tell me her secret. What was it about her method of working and living with these difficult youths that seemed to work miracles? She said that many people have asked her this same question and that over the years, the best way that she had found to describe her approach was as follows:

She said that in her mind, she chooses to think of these disturbed young people as “aliens” who have come from another planet. She pictures them as beings newly arrived on earth—with no idea of how this world works. She treats them as she would treat any foreign visitor to her home.

She holds no preconceived notions that they should know anything at all about “Earth culture and customs”—after all they’ve just arrived here! She treats them with great respect and extreme politeness, realizing that they know nothing of her culture and are sure to make some social errors while visiting.

She never raises her voice and is never critical—she doesn’t want to offend her special guests. If they make a mistake, she simply and patiently excuses their faux pas and then calmly explains to them what it is they should do if the same situation comes up again in the future. She takes great care to neither offend or embarrass them. She considers it her job to patiently educate them about things that we do here on Earth so that they can learn to live successfully in a culture where the customs are so entirely unfamiliar to them.

As an example, she told me about the young girl who is currently living with her. The girl arrived home one day–just after my friend had washed the kitchen floor. The girl didn’t take her dirty shoes off at the door and instead tramped mud right across the entire kitchen floor on her way to the fridge. My friend didn’t get mad. She simply described the situation as she had observed it and noted the resulting consequences of the girl’s actions:

“When people walk across the floor in muddy shoes, it means that I must rewash the floor and that’s going to take me a bit of time. Perhaps, the next time you come in from outdoors, you might try to remember to leave your shoes at the door. That would really help me a lot.” Then she said that she had smiled but said nothing more. She simply went to the closet, brought out the bucket again and rewashed the muddy floor.

She told me that if she treats EVERY SINGLE INCIDENT of misbehavior, in this calm and very respectful way, she has found that her teenage foster children soon begin to act appropriately–all of their own accord. Rather than complaining, showing anger or meting out punishments, she just explains to her “alien visitors” what would be the right or helpful “Earthling way” to handle a similar situation in the future.

All I could think was “Wow!” This calm lady has it all figured out! I thought that her approach to working with young people was very much like the philosophy of DISCIPLINE without STRESS. She instinctively knows that the most effective way to work with misbehavior is to simply view it as “an opportunity to teach and to learn.” This lady showed me the power of a calm, patient and positive approach to misbehavior.

It highlights an important DWS teaching attitude–that of choosing to view a negative situation (students doing a poor job of completing and returning homework) as an opportunity to help students to take responsibility.

In addition to demonstrating the Principle of Positivity, this post also illustrates the importance of creating and then practicing procedures which is Part I of the DWS Teaching Model.
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IMPROVING THE QUALITY OF HOMETASKS

Yesterday, you might remember that I sent in a request for help on this mailring about how to get students to do their homework well. Last night, after fuming and deciding I would throw extra homework at my students today, demand it back the next day and if they didn’t do it, they’d be in at lunch time, I took many deep breaths and decided to take a different approach–something more in line with DWS.

Here’s what I did:

I started math class with a fun, interactive group activity. Then, I brought the class together and asked them why we have homework. The kids generated a great list of ideas: exercising our brains, reviewing what we’ve learned, becoming independent enough to do work without the teacher’s help, to challenge ourselves–I was really impressed!

Then I put a copy of some exceptional homework completed by one of the kids in the class, on the overhead projector. I asked the class what they noticed about it and we talked about how this one pupil went above and beyond; how neat it was and so clearly labeled, how this person showed their work as well as their answers.

Instead of giving them extra homework as I originally thought of doing, I gave them a “homework” assignment to complete–right there in class–in their HW books. This gave me a chance to walk around and encourage them and make suggestions about using rulers, labels, etc.

This lesson provided them with a model for what an exceptional piece of homework should look like. They have now hopefully internalized exactly what I expect of them. I must say, I NEVER would have taken this positive approach prior to learning about the DISCIPLINE without STRESS Teaching Model, so thanks to all of you on this mailring for your constant thoughts and ideas:-)

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Kerry’s comments:

Wow!

• You looked at a situation that wasn’t working and instead of reacting in the same old way, you “took a deep breath” and consciously chose to act otherwise.

• You were positive which is bound to pay off in engaging your students’ cooperation.

• You acted proactively by clearly outlining your expectations.

• You made the lesson meaningful by starting with a discussion of the purpose of homework.

• You gave your students the information they needed to be successful in their homework exercises, and;

• You gave everyone a chance to be successful by holding a homework practice session within class time, under your supervision–a brilliant idea!

Some suggestions for follow-up in the classroom:

1. Be persistent in discussing what you expect. I read an idea once that I like to remember. It was something to the effect that whatever you focus on will increase––by virtue of the very fact that you’re choosing to focus on it. (Unfortunately, the reverse is true too–if you focus on something negative, that too will increase!)

Sometimes, as teachers, we think that if we’ve discussed something thoroughly once, that’s all we need do. The DWS approach has taught me that we need to review, repeat and set the students up for success over and over again. Habits take time to develop!

If there continue to be some students who aren’t successful with their homework, don’t give up on them–just keep reviewing what they need to do to be successful. Give them feedback on their assignments and have them reflect on what they can do to improve. Your interest, attention and encouragement will pay off over time.

2. Make use of the DWS Hierarchy to encourage personal reflection and create a desire to do one’s best work. For instance, guide your students in creating a quick “homework hierarchy.” There’s no need to write it down–just do it orally. Something like:

LEVEL D – Motivation for doing a good job is internal.
- completes homework neatly
- shows all work
- starts homework without adult reminders
- returns homework on time.
- spends time to consider how this homework connects to other learning

LEVEL C – Motivation is external.
- completes work, as above
- relies on an adult to give reminders that homework needs to be done and done properly

LEVELS B/A
- does a messy, careless or incomplete job–or forgets to do homework altogether

As you assign hometasks each day, you might quickly discuss the benefits of operating on the highest two levels and allow the students to reflect on their feelings as they evaluate their own performance from previous days. As always, be sure to highlight the fact that great personal satisfaction results from operation at Level D.

Have your students look at their own homework and silently reflect on their own chosen level of operation. Have them silently set a goal for the next homework assignment, challenging them to improve if they aren’t happy with their current level of “homework operation”. Explain that there is always a new opportunity to do better–the very next time homework is assigned! Encourage them to use their choice-response thinking skills!

RESPONSE:
Dr. Marshall encourages teachers to think, speak and act with positivity in order to be most effective when they implement DISCIPLINE without STRESS system. Even when a situation might be perceived as negative, as in a case where discipline is necessary, he points out that it is possible to phrase communications with students in positive, rather than negative ways.

He points out that people do best when they feel better about themselves–as opposed to when they feel worse and suggests that student cooperation is more likely to be engaged if the relationship remains positive.

Below, are some statements, that might typically be made by teachers. Underneath each one, the same message has been phrased in more positive ways. Which set of statements is more likely to invite resistance/resentment and which is more likely to encourage students to willingly cooperate with a teacher?

• No talking!
This is a quiet time.
We work quietly during class.

• Stop running!
We walk in the hallways.

• Get down to work!
Is what you’re doing, helping you to finish your assignment?

• Stop that!
Is that in your best interests?
Is this going to help you get what you want?
Is what you’re doing safe?

• Sit down!
Time to be seated.

• No gum allowed!
Gum is for after school.

Well, that’s the theory of it anyway! In reality, we have never had a high rate of consistent and continued participation in this program. Although in the first few weeks of any particular school year, most families manage to send the home reading bag back and forth on a regular basis, as time goes on, fewer and fewer students actually participate to full advantage. They don’t maintain the routine of returning the bag on a daily basis.

This has always been discouraging to us because we know that establishing a nightly reading routine is extremely important for beginning readers. In an effort to improve participation, we have always emphasized to both the parents and the students, the importance of nightly reading practice.

Since becoming familiar with DISCIPLINE without STRESS, we have also always taken time to guide our students in building a hierarchy for this situation:

Level D – Motivation is internal.
Student brings the book bag back in the morning, remembers to take it from the backpack and put it into the Home Reading bucket so as to be ready for the daily book exchange time.

Level C – Motivation is external.
Student brings the book bag back, but depends on parents to give reminders about bringing it and waits to be reminded by the teacher before putting it into the book bucket.

Level B
Student doesn’t return book bag and/or leaves it in the backpack, despite adult reminders to put it in the Home Reading book bucket.

Level A
Not applicable in this situation.

Although hierarchy discussions have helped, we have never succeeded in getting this program to run as smoothly as we would like. This year it seemed that participation fell off even earlier than usual. Only two months into the school year, typically only five or six bags would be in the bucket each day. In a class of 24, only 25% participation! True, there were always a few additional students who had actually brought their bags back, but they hadn’t bothered to follow our procedure of taking the bag from their backpack and returning it to the Home Reading bucket first thing in the morning. That was discouraging too!

Feeling depressed about the situation, I started to fall back into old habits. I’m not proud to say that I began nagging, complaining and even giving big sighs when I looked in the bucket each day!

Finally, a couple of weeks ago, I had to admit to myself that book exchange time was becoming quite a negative experience, so I consciously decided to re-think the situation in terms of Positivity, the first Principle of the DISCIPLINE without STRESS Teaching Model.

I remembered something Dr. Marshall had once recommended: To improve students’ performance of procedures, he had suggested that a teacher might set up a challenge. I decided to try his advice—I would challenge our students each day to do a better job than they had the day before.

That morning, after our regular school announcements, I brought the book bucket with the returned home reading bags to the front of the class. I said, “Let’s count and see how many people have been responsible today in returning their home reading bag and getting it over to this bucket!”

We counted together (without mentioning or showing any names), and then I asked them to put their heads down on their desks, close their eyes and just think honestly to themselves about whether or not THEIR book bag was in the bucket. I asked them to silently evaluate their own levels–B, C or D?

I explained to them that if they weren’t happy with how they were feeling inside about their level today, that was okay–they could do something about it for tomorrow. Then I simply wrote the number of returned bags in a corner of the chalkboard–8, circled it and then challenged them: “Let’s see if we can improve on this number tomorrow. I wonder how many bags we can get back!”

The next day we had 15 bags! The following day, 18! Then one day last week, we had 21 – 88% participation! The kids were delighted and so was I! One day, only 12 bags had been returned, but my partner handled it by laughing and brightly saying in an exaggerated voice, “Surely, we can do better than this tomorrow, can’t we?” The kids all laughed and sure enough we were back up to a high number again the following day.

This little experience has really proved to me that it’s far more effective (not to mention, more pleasant!), to phrase communications positively than negatively. Consciously choosing to be positive is a habit worth developing!