Discipline Answers

QUESTION: This is my first year of teaching first grade.  I’ve brainstormed a list of classroom activities and now I want to make procedures for each one.  I’m not sure how to go about it though.  Can you give me an example? RESPONSE: Sure!  Let’s take the example of planning procedures for Show and Tell. [...]

QUESTION: I will be teaching 1st grade in a month!   People tell me I need to plan my procedures but I don’t really know how to get started.  HELP!!! RESPONSE: You’re very smart to be thinking ahead to the procedures that you want to teach in the beginning of the year.  It’s a very [...]

After my teaching partner and I initially introduce the DWS Hierarchy to our primary students, we also introduce a smaller, portable version.   On this simpler version there are no descriptors, only the names of the four levels.  It’s made from a piece of black poster board (roughly 12″ by  24″) with a strip of [...]

QUESTION: I usually involve the students in the creation of classroom rules.  To me, we are just agreeing upon how we can make our classroom a safe and fun place to be. I don’t know if it’s really so different from a DWS approach of having procedures, but “no rules.”  Isn’t this just a matter [...]

QUESTION: I’ve read the DWS book and understand the point of internal being more important that external. However, I teach in a self-contained class with kids that are moderately cognitively delayed. I will have kids with autism and some with oppositional defiant disorder too. They will not have internal motivation for a while (they CAN [...]

In DWS classrooms, teachers use Dr. Marshall’s four-leveled Hierarchy chart to introduce young people to empowering information about internal motivation.  Students of all ages learn that to be motivated internally (as opposed to being pressured or coaxed externally,) is the highest level of personal and social development.  In order for students to take full advantage of the [...]

QUESTION: I love the question suggestions in the DWS book, but like the author said, it’s a skill that takes practice. I usually need a lot of practice and that means I’ll need the questions nearby to refer to often. I just don’t understand how teachers remember everything! RESPONSE: The questions in Dr. Marshall’s book [...]

  In his book, The First Days of School; How to Be an Effective Teacher, classroom management guru, Harry Wong, quotes research conducted by Madeline Hunter.  He asks us to consider the following information: For a child to learn something new, you need to repeat it on the average 8 times. For a child to [...]

QUESTION: As a first grade teacher, I totally agree with DWS being the best way to go.  However, I have some concerns about the developmental readiness of young children to operate on the level of Democracy on the Hierarchy.  I seem to recall from my Ed. Psych. class that this level of behavior was ‘normally’ expected [...]

QUESTION: Sometimes I have trouble choosing the right words.  I usually always ask a question though.  For example I might ask,  “Why are you talking during this lesson?“ or “Why are you choosing to play with your pencil instead of listening?” DR. MARSHALL’S RESPONSE: Never ask “Why?”  It is accusatory. And besides people often do [...]