Fred Jones
By: Tracy McNew
May 29, 2006
Fred Jones is a clinical psychologist who has been studying classrooms for over
30 years. He has developed and published information on classroom management for
much of that time. Jones has studied in-depth, highly successful teachers and in his
works places emphasis on nonverbal communication. His central focus is to help
students help themselves and support their own self-control.
Jones’ principal teachings are based
on his experience of “massive time wasting”
in classrooms. He has noted that students are
most likely to misbehave when asked to work
individually or independently in groups. His
findings indicate that an average of 50% of
Fred Jones
class time is wasted due to misbehaviors.
Five clusters of skills for
teachers have been developed to remedy the situation and allow for more productive class
time.
The first cluster of skills that Fred Jones recommends is called Classroom
Structure to Discourage Misbehavior. Teachers are encouraged to minimize the physical
distance between themselves and students especially during seat work. Jones
offers his suggestion of the interior loop which is a seating arrangement that
allows the teacher ample room to walk among the students. He also teaches that clear
classroom rules should be set which include general and specific rules. Specific rules
should be taught and practiced for the first two weeks of class. Chores should be
assigned to students to promote responsibility, and bell work, such as review or warm-up
questions, journal writing or silent reading is also
recommended to minimize time wasted at the beginning of classes.
Limit Setting through Body Language is the name of Jones’ second skill cluster.
Jones encourages teachers to not use their mouth for discipline. Instead he encourages
body language which includes remaining calm and breathing slowly and deliberately
during stressful situations. Eye contact is considered very important to redirect
misbehavior as well as physical proximity and carrying the body in a confident manner
with good posture in order to pronounce leadership. Also Jones emphasizes the
importance of facial expressions to show interest and sense of humor and warns against
showing any negative feelings through facial expressions. With proper body language
the need for other discipline measures is minimized.
Another skill cluster that helps teachers reduce wasted time is called Using Say,
See, and Do Teaching. Here, Jones emphasizes that teachers should not wait until the
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end of class to ask for student responses as is typical of
traditional teaching. Say, See, and Do Teaching is oriented
toward the student doing what is being taught at short
intervals throughout the class period. This keeps the
students busy and helps them to absorb more of the
information presented as well as minimizing distractions.
Jones’s forth skill cluster is called Responsibility
Training through Incentive Systems. He Jones advocates the classroom management
style described as, teach well and reward well. The reward is an incentive or motivation
for students that have stayed on task. Jones offers many suggestions of hob best to use
incentives, among these are Grandma’s rule basically stating that the reward should wait
until after the task is completed to be effective. Incentives should also be genuine; they
should appeal to the entire class and be activity based not free time based. Preferred
activity time or PAT is the time set aside for preferred activities, this time needs to be
wanted and earned. Activities earned should be of educational value and should include
every student which creates a sense of group concern. This strategy for using PAT is
easy to implement with four steps; first establish and explain the rules, next allow the
class to vote and approve of activities, third keep track of the earned time, lastly be
prepared for activity changes based on classroom behavior of students. Multiple ideas
for PAT activities are available on Jones’s website at www.fredjones.com. Occasionally
students will still be disruptive and will need to be omitted from the group PAT system or
set apart but still be involved. As a last option for disruptive behavior, Jones
recommends a back up system be planned with three levels of responses to misbehavior
including small, medium and large backup responses which are similar to what Lee and
Marlene Canter recommend.
Skill cluster five in Jones’s system is, Providing Efficient Help to Individual
Students. Using a maximum of 20 seconds with each student in order to continue
circulating the room will minimize the time wasted with raised hands and disruptions
from those students who are waiting to be helped. In order to answer raised hands in 20
seconds or less Jones suggests “Be positive, be brief, and be gone.”
Jones’s model for positive classroom discipline is hailed as effective for
supporting positive behavior and discouraging misbehavior. It should be practiced
repeatedly within the class, but it can also be put into place incrementally making it easy
for teachers to adopt, practice, perfect.
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Thumb ball is a PAT activity that can be used to
review math or other concepts. Illustration to the
left. Concepts or numbers as is illustrated are written
on a ball which is passed around the classroom and
when someone catched it the spot on which his/her
thumb lands must be explained.
PATs from Tools for Teaching
Add It
Alphabet Search
Around the World
California Countdown
Chalkboard Relays
(math)
Caboose
(great for vocabulary)
Comprehension
Cut Throat
Dictionary
(language arts and vocabulary)
Double Diamond Baseball
Fingerprint
Imagination
(English and art)
Popcorn Balloon Game
Oh, What a Story!
(math)
(English and creative writing)
Tic Tac Dough
The Moon
Stump the Panel
Unscramble Me
(math)
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Totally
Hip
Tracy’s Retro Newsletter
March 29, 2006
Open any newspaper today and women
can be found on every page—in articles,
in advertisements, as reporters, and as
publishers. Finding the women in the
newspapers of yesteryear is more of a
challenge—women involved in the
production of newspapers were often
unnamed, women reporters had to prove
their competence, and newspaper
publishers and advertisers only slowly
recognized the importance of women as
audience and as consumers.
The Library's newspaper collection is the
largest such collection in the United
States. On a current basis, the Serial and
Government Publications Division
receives major titles published in all 50
states and from over 179 foreign
countries. Although the division does not
receive every newspaper published in
the United States or the world, the
collection's sheer size, breadth, and
diversity of viewpoints are unmatched.
Scholars researching a broad geographic
area or a subject encompassing whole
regions of the United States or foreign
countries are able, in a visit to a single
.
®
Volume 1
institution, to examine a wide range of
newspaper titles with comprehensive,
long runs. Most newspapers are housed
in the Serial and Government
Publications Division. But, newspapers
written in non-roman alphabets—Slavic,
Asian, or Near Eastern, for instance—
are housed in the appropriate Area
Studies divisions.
Other titles that many researchers may
consider to be newspapers (such as Anne
Royall's Paul Pry, the New York Ledger,
Woodhull & Claflin's Weekly, and Equal
Rights of the National Women's Party)
are classified as periodicals in the
Library of Congress because they are
subject specific and are not designed for
general interest. These are available in
the General Collections, the Microform
Reading Room, or the Rare Book and
Special Collections Division.
Newspapers that the Library classifies as
periodicals generally include the
underground press, military camp
newspapers, and trade newspapers
The good news is that modern technology offers
ways to do really cool things like put movies into
newsletters and change font style so that people can
hardly read it. Can you read this? I was hoping
not. LOL. I downloaded this video from
retrojunk.com1
1
http://www.retrojunk.com/ (assessed March 29,
2006) “Retro Junk Your Memory Machine”
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QuickTime™ and a
YUV420 codec decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
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