Discipline Answers

QUESTION:
I have a first grade girl who, no matter how many times she is asked about what level she is on and how she can change to Level C/D, will not change her behavior. At what point would you give a think sheet? It was a VERY long first day of school!

RESPONSE:

During the first weeks of school, particularly in the primary grades, PROCEDURES are infinitely more important than having children assess their level or fill out reflection sheets. Go back to Step One of the DWS Teaching Model. Focus on teaching and practicing classroom procedures whenever you have a child who isn’t operating on Level C.

Harry Wong, the all-time guru of classroom management asks us to consider this information:

For a child to learn something new, you need to repeat it on average, 8 times.

For a child to unlearn an old behavior and replace it with a new behavior you need to repeat the new behavior on average, 28 times.

Twenty of those times are used to eliminate the old behavior and eight of the times are used to learn the new behavior.

Whenever I review this information I feel less stress. I am reminded that I shouldn’t assume that a child knows a procedure until I’ve formally taught it, reviewed it and practiced it a minimum of 8 times. It prompts me to remember that my first goal should be to teach every child the procedures of my classroom that will allow them to operate at Level C. Until I’ve done that, I don’t think of children as having discipline problems, I think of them as children who haven’t yet learned the procedures of my classroom.

Maintaining this mindset accomplishes two things:

1) It gives every student the very best possible shot at being successful; almost every child can learn a procedure after this amount of teaching, review and practice. When children have mastered a certain procedure, they’ve made it to Level C of this discipline system –– Hooray, that’s my goal!

2) Being reminded of the vast amount of teaching that is required for the class to reach mastery level, helps me to keep my mindset positive. It keeps me focused on what will be helpful (reteaching – at least 8 times) and keeps my focus off being annoyed with the one immature kid who seems to be misbehaving.

I ask myself:

Have I given this child an opportunity to learn/practice this procedure at least 8 times?

If not, is it fair to consider this a behaviour/discipline issue at this point?

Often I realize I should go the teaching route (focusing on classroom management,) rather than the route of discipline (focusing on the levels, checking for understanding and guided choices.)

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Posted In: Procedures in the Classroom
posted On: July 10, 2009: 10:28 am: By Kerry Weisner
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