Classroom Management according to Harry Wong’s The First Days of School
The following information is taken from Wong’s book.
Having numerous ideas, techniques, and skills can help you improve your performance as
a teacher. According to Harry Wong, there is only one way to create good schools and
that is with good teachers. The most important factor is the teacher. An inefficient
teacher can affect student learning for years, but two successive ineffective teachers can
damage a student forever. The following are tried and true, fundamental, basic things
that good teachers know and practice to get results in the classroom.
Welcome students to your class
1. Smile and welcome every student by name daily-act like they are your favorite
person you haven’t seen in a long time.
2. Be at your door between classes.
3. Always call a student by his name, say please with every request, add thank you
to all pleases, be caring and warm.
Classroom Management
1. Effective teachers MANAGE their classrooms. Ineffective teachers DISCIPLINE
their classrooms.
2. To foster student involvement and cooperation in ALL classroom activities, the
effective teacher plans a variety of activities that are appropriate for learning.
These activities may include reading, taking notes, participating in group work,
taking part in class discussions, participating in games, and producing materials.
An effective teacher has every student involved and cooperating in ALL
activities.
3. For all students to work on their activities, the classroom must be conducive to
learning. The teacher must have everything ready when class begins.
4. Display student work, display your discipline plan and consequences in a
prominent place visible by all, display assignments and instructions on how to do
each, post objective for the day
5. Students should be tested on objectives not chapters.
6. A teacher’s discipline problems are directly proportional to the distance from the
students.
7. Put your name on the outside of the door and what you teach.
8. Give students a seating assignment when they enter the class on the first day.
Have it written on an index card and hand it to them when they enter the
classroom or have their name on the desk when they enter. Do not rearrange the
seating after the class is all seated.
9. Have an assignment on the student’s desk the first day and tell them to start to
work on it immediately. This will train them to start bell starters when entering
the classroom from this day forth. It should be something they can complete
successfully. Always collect/count/check bell starters.
10. Practice how to enter the classroom appropriately.
11. Set procedures for a returning absent student-Check yesterdays assignment board
for a detailed list of the activities, have a box or file cabinet drawer with labeled
folders of any handouts. This will reduce class interruptions. Leave daily
activities on the board 5 days at a time.
12. Have a pattern for passing out papers and collecting papers. Practice this every
time so that this is also not a class disruption. Have a basket for HW, CW, late
work etc.
Discipline, Procedures, Routines
1. Have a plan for all 3.
2. Rules that are practiced and enforced create strong expectations.
3. General rules need to be explained clearly to students as to what is included.
Specific rules need to be limited in numbers.
4. Try not to have more than 5 rules. Replace rules as they become mastered by
students.
5. Rules must have consequences
6. Consequences must be consistent and predictable.
7. Positive consequences for following rules-rewards(good grades, extra credit, good
work posted, chosen as student of the day, week, month,etc., VIP certificate, a
smile, a word of encouragement, a warm fuzzy note home, a phone call home,
stickers, candy)
8. Negative consequences with penalties.
9. POST consequences Positive and Negative.
10. Students are aware of a teachers enforcement or nonenforcement.
11. Consequences should be reasonable and fit the crime if students are to follow
them.
12. Have tickets for infractions, simply list students’ name and the rule # broken and
consequence listed. Keep a record book on tickets given out. These should all be
posted anyway and practiced. Or simply list student’s name of board for 1st
infraction, a check for 2nd, two checks for 3rd. Never stop the lesson to discuss
this. Simply list it on the board and keep going. The consequences should be
posted for students to see.
13. Send a copy of rules, consequences and rewards home for parent and students to
sign.
14. Have an action plan form to give students and to work with students on when they
break a rule. Title-My Action Plan 1. What’s the problem? 2. What’s causing
the problem (please list the factors) 3. What plan you will use to solve the
problem? Student’s signature and date.
15. Have the student work on the action plan over and over until the problem is
corrected.
16. Commend the student when that occurs.
17. Call parents and tell them about the action plan their student is to be working on.
18. Stay calm-whisper if needed-do not argue with a student. Smile and say thank you
when they comply with a request. Still smile and stay calm when making an
office referral.
19. Have procedures for what to do when students finish work early. Perhaps work
on the classroom computer (Castle learning-Study island-textbook/online
reviews) in small quiet groups until the majority are finished.
20. Have procedures for how to enter class and get started on an assignment
immediately, quieting the class, students seeking help, movement of students and
papers, and class dismissal.
21. Explain, rehearse, and reinforce procedures clearly. Reinforce a correct procedure
and reteach an incorrect one
22. Use a red card /green card on the students desk to signal which students need
teacher assistance.
23. Pass papers across rows, not up the rows
How to increase student learning and achievement
1. The person who does the work is the ONLY one who learns.
2. Have an assignment posted daily to be done upon entering the classroom (one that
is short and should have a high rate of student success) No more than 5- 10
minutes at the maximum to complete.
3. Teach procedures and routines to minimize interruptions and maximize
uninterrupted learning time..
4. Constantly monitor students so as to keep them on task.
5. Explain exactly what students are expected to learn and demonstrate the steps
needed to accomplish the task and students will learn more. Have it all written on
the board or on a handout.
6. You must have an undying belief that every student can and has the ability to
learn.
7. You must persevere putting in effort at developing effective teaching strategies
until success is achieved.
8. Tell the students up front what the students are to have mastered at the end of the
lesson. It is your objective on the board SCOS. Tell students each day, don’t just
have it posted.
9. A poor assignment tells the student what to do at the BEGINNING of the
assignment.
10. A good assignment states what a student is to have accomplished or achieved
when the assignment is FINISHED.
11. You tell students what you want accomplished. Then you give procedures to help
them do so.
12. The length of your assignments should be based on your students learning styles.
Build in a lot of opportunities for success each day and each week.
13. Have short lessons with structured assignments that state precisely what the
student is to accomplish.
14. Use Bloom’s Taxonomy to create assignments.
15. Rewrite your state objective into an essential question they should be able to learn
when the lesson is over for the day. Assign an exit assignment to answer the
essential question.