Keeping the Magic
In Elementary Classroom Management
Presented by Kris Miller
Classroom Management Professor at USU
And Classroom Teacher at Birch Creek Elementary
Based on “Three Tiers of Classroom Management”
By Kristin L. Sayeski and Monica R., Brown (2011)
Sayeski and Brown have presented a response-to-intervention framework that both special
and general education teachers can use to develop successful classroom structure and
management.
Tier 1: Preventative Management for the General Classroom
The guiding question: What is the core, behavioral curriculum in the classroom?
The number one problem in the classroom is not discipline; it is
the lack of procedures and routines. - Harry Wong
Do you have a specific, concrete plan for each of the following?
Organization of the classroom:
• Seating – What does it look like and why?
• Student supplies – Are they easily accessible to all?
• Teacher materials – Are they stored near where they will be used?
Clear communication of rules and expectations:
• Positively stated rules and consequences – Have they been repeatedly discussed and
practiced?
• Are there visual displays of instructions?
• Are procedures outlined step by step?
Established routines and procedures:
• Morning routine
• What to do with homework
• Line-up procedure
• Transitions
• End of day routines
• Classroom jobs
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What to do when students are finished with assignments
Recess equipment handling
Sharpening pencils
Restroom needs
Getting drinks during the day
Three steps to teaching procedures:
1. Explain in detail
2. Rehearse – more than once
3. Reinforce – many times!
- Praise the deed, Encourage the student
High student engagement:
It is impossible to significantly improve student achievement unless WE figure out ways to
improve our teaching. – Dr. Kevin Feldman
ENGAGEMENT is observable evidence of a learner’s interest and active involvement in all
lesson content and related tasks, with clearly articulated “evidence checks” of concrete,
productive responses to instruction.
– In other words: visible participation.
In a typical classroom 20% of the students are responsible for 80% of the doing! We are
responsible for changing that!
• Dr. Feldman suggests three types of visible engagement:
• Are students saying it?
• Are students writing it?
• Are students doing it?
• Take It Seriously! Ensure that EVERY single student in the class speaks, and often
writes, at least one meaningful academic sentence EVERY day! (Or in every lesson)
High expectations:
• Your students will give you exactly what you ask for if you are consistent and
supportive.
Positive student – teacher rapport:
Teachers who have positive relationships with their students had 31% fewer discipline
problems and rule violations over the course of a year than teachers who did not. (Sayeski
and Brown)
• Good morning circle: each child greets the one next to them, shakes hands, and tells
something about his/her day, feelings, plans, family, etc.
• Send positive letters and notes to students and their parents telling of something
good or thanking them for an act of kindness
• Add this phrase to the class promise or rule chart: “Because I am important and I
deserve a good day!”
• Positive note to end the day: “Play outside, read good books, and remember your
teacher loves you!”
• Make class birthday cards
• “Smile until they smile”
• Correct in a private location
• Fair does not mean equal
• Create and use personally relevant class examples.
• Learn something about your students' interests, hobbies, and aspirations.
Tier 2: First Line Interventions for the Minor Daily Interruptions
The guiding question: What interventions or additional behavioral supports are in
place?
Surface Management techniques: (Sayeski and Brown)
• Planned ignoring – attention seeking behavior strategically ignored to decrease
reinforcement of the behavior
• Signal interference – nonverbal signals: bell, flicker of the lights, hand signals and
verbal signals: reminder of the rules, short chant to help gain attention
• Proximity and touch control – presence of the teacher helps the student to refocus,
refrain, and reengage
• Hypodermic affection – more than skin deep, this is genuine affection
• Hurdle help – providing instructional support rather than a reprimand
• Antiseptic bouncing – non-punitive removal of the student from the classroom on a
neutral errand – use this one with caution!
• Regrouping – moving the players around in a positive way
• Restructuring – change an activity that is not going as planned in order to avoid
unwanted behavior
Changes in academic instruction:
• Review/reteaching of previous content
• Modified requirements on assignments
• Tutoring program
• Parent volunteer help with individualized instruction
• Advanced opportunities for learning
Types of reinforcement:
**Intrinsic reinforcement must be taught! Point out when they have done something
well or when they have improved and ask how they feel about it.
**Extrinsic reinforcement can help reluctant students get to the point where they can
begin to see some results that will help them develop intrinsic motivation.
• Activity reinforcement –
• List activities the students will find reinforcing.
• Develop a contract stipulating what they must do to earn the reinforcement.
• Social Reinforcement – Refers to the behavior of others to increase the frequency of
a desired behavior.
• Be careful about not embarrassing a student by recognizing them for their
good behavior!
• Token Reinforcement
• These are more effective for increasing the intensity of effort than for
improving the quality of performance – better used with routine tasks than
with novel ones.
• Rewards act as motivators ONLY for those students who believe they have a
chance to get the reward.
• Rewards are more effective if they are given sporadically than for every
single instance of following the directed behavior.
Contingency system:
• This is commonly seen as the flip-a-card system or the clipping-up-and-down charts.
• These are very effective IF a couple of rules are followed.
• PLEASE put the chart where it is not obvious to everyone who walks into the
room! The students already know they are in trouble. No one else needs to
know.
• PLEASE make sure that if they reach the bottom level they have an equal
chance of going back up to the top in the same day. Otherwise, they will
continue to misbehave for the rest of the day since they are already as low as
they can get.
Home- School notes:
• Daily or weekly behavior progress notes to parents that must be signed and returned
to school
Tier 3: Intensive, Individualized Intervention for Severe,
Consistent Behavior
The guiding question: What individualized, intensive behavioral supports are used for
the most challenging of classroom behaviors?
• This step should begin with an assessment that consists of collecting data on what
specific behaviors are being shown, when they occur, what is causing them, and
what socially acceptable skills are lacking in the student.
Self-monitoring strategies:
• Identify a target behavior.
• Solicit buy-in from the student on the advantages of self-monitoring.
• Determine how the monitoring will take place
• Determine the reinforcement that will accompany it.
Social skills instruction:
• Assumes that behaviors are learned and can therefore be taught.
• Social skills instruction should be customized to meet individual communication
and behavior needs.
• This cannot be considered successful until the skill is generalized to new settings.
Support groups:
• Parent communication is essential!
• Use the resource of other grade level teachers in your building.
• Cooperate with special education and other resource teachers.
Crisis management or safety plans:
• Have a back-up plan to remove the child safely from the room or to remove the
other children to a safe location in case of an emergency situation.
Problem solving conference
• Build an alliance to solve a problem.
• This is a strategy for addressing one persistent problem involving one student.
• These should be reserved for persistent issues.
• Academic problems
• Behaviors that interfere with others’ learning
• Behaviors that alienate other children
• Defiance toward the teacher
• Steps in a problem solving conference
• Establish the purpose of the conference
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Reaffirm teacher-student rapport
Talk about the problem: what the teacher notices, what the student notices
Name the behavior as a problem and why it’s a problem
Invite the student to work with the teacher on the problem
Explore the cause of the problem
Set a clear, specific goal to work on together
Generate solutions and choose one to try
Set a time for a “How are things going?” check-in
Functional Behavioral Assessments – Individual Written Agreements:
• Use when other strategies haven’t worked and when you are prepared to give
frequent feedback!
• Make sure you are in a collaborative frame of mind. (Don’t start this when you are
angry!)
• Include specific, easy-to-measure goals of behavior to work on – No more than one
or two at a time!
• Include exactly how it will be tracked.
• Include the reinforcement the student is working toward. A reward may not even be
necessary.
• Include signatures of all involved, student, teacher, and parent.
• Include dates for checking up or reevaluating the progress.
• Look for gradual improvement, not sudden perfection.
• If the student is not meeting the goal in the first two weeks, look for ways to
simplify it or make it more realistic.
*** Student Engagement Ideas to Try in your Classroom:
1. Use a “magic hat” with numbered cards inside. Have a student draw out a number
card to determine how many math problems they must do or how many
sentences/paragraphs they must read before they get to do the next movement
activity.
2. Have students respond in a funny voice; cowboy, football, baby, granny, spooky,
opera, etc.
3. Plastic picnic plates are great for dry erase markers and can be used to practice
spelling words, addition/subtraction, factoring numbers, geography bowl questions,
etc.
4. Crazy straws, princess wands, witch fingers, popsicle sticks decorated by the kids,
glittery unsharpened pencils, and many more make great pointers to help students
focus on what they are reading in a book or for reading the words in the room as
they point to them.
5. Pipe cleaners with cheap plastic beads in sets of five or ten make great
addition/subtraction tools and the beads all stay on the pipe cleaner instead of all
over your floor!
6. Put dice or number cubes in a small, see-through Rubbermaid container. They will
be less noisy and won’t roll all over the room.
7. Put students into A/B partnerships with the stronger partner always being the A
partner. When reading difficult materials, have the A partner read first to the B
partner and then have the B partner read the same material to the A partner. It still
gives them practice but takes away some of the performance anxiety.
8. Numbered Heads Together – Each student in the group has a number. The group
discusses the topic together and then the teacher chooses a number to designate
which student will share with the class.
9. Whisper the answer in your hand, on your arm, to your elbow partner.
10. Fist of 5 (0 – 5 rubric for any topic 0 = closed fist, 5 = full confidence) Students
show with fingers or fist how comfortable they are with the topic or how willing
they are to share what they know. After having a few students share with the group,
ask for a new fist of 5 to check for new confidence or knowledge.
11. Alphabet Summary – Use a preprinted sheet with A – Z going down the page or a 3
X 5 card with two or three letters. Students brainstorm what they know or remember
using the letters to start terms, phrases, or short sentences about the topic.
12. Found It! – Prior to having students read a passage with important vocabulary
terms, give them a list of the terms and have them scan the passage to locate the key
words. They should list the page numbers, location on the page or the context,
sentence, caption, part of a graph, etc., where the word was found. The purpose of
this is not to give them a way to avoid reading but rather to give them pre-exposure
and familiarity with the tough words.
13. Quick Draw – Before beginning a lesson, choose key words, concepts, or ideas that
students will encounter. As each of these key ideas come up in the lesson, allow the
students to create a quick picture that represents their understanding of the idea.
Later, have them share their understanding with a partner to solidify their ideas and
share their knowledge.
14. Circle, Triangle, Square – Give each student a 3 X 5 card or paper. Have them draw
the three shapes with room to write in or next to the shapes. Next to the circle they
will write something they are still unsure about. Next to the triangle, three things
they have learned, and next to the square, something they agree with or believe in.
15. Keepers and Wishers – Each student has two post-It notes, one labeled keepers and
the other labeled wishers. On the keepers note they will write something from the
lesson that they will remember. On the Wishers note they will write something from
the lesson they wish they knew more about.
16. Coded Reading – Before reading a passage, especially non-fiction, provide students
with codes to use while reading. Codes could include:
• ! for something they find interesting,
• ? for something they don’t understand,
• A speech bubble for something they’d like to talk about,
• A lightning bolt for something that strikes them as important. Etc.
17. Top 10 List – Have students list from 10 to 1 the items they believe
about what they are learning.
are important
18. 2 Truths and a Lie – Have students write three statements about the topic being
studied. Two statements will be truths about the concept and one will be untrue. Pair
the students up to see if their partners can detect the untruth.
19. Four corners – Before the lesson, place a picture in each corner of the room,
animals, methods of transportation, directional signs, etc. Periodically throughout
the lesson have the students go to the corner of their choice and discuss with the
other students in that corner a prearranged quote, topic or question that you will ask
them about the topic. You may have them bring books, handouts or other materials
to the corner to support the discussion.
*** Brain Break Ideas to Try:
• First you will need to train your students to respond to your prompt of “Brain
Break” by standing up, tucking in their chairs, and freezing with hands at their sides.
• When you are finished with the activity, you will need to train them to respond to
“Stop, sit, and breathe”.
1. :Tootie Tah”
CHORUS: A tooty-ta, a tooty-ta, a tooty ta-ta!
A tooty-ta, a tooty-ta, a tooty ta-ta!
Thumbs up (Students repeat each new direction) CHORUS
Thumbs up, Elbows back CHORUS
Thumbs up, Elbows back, Knees together CHORUS
Thumbs up, Elbows back, Knees together, Feet apart CHORUS
Thumbs up, Elbows back, Knees together, Feet apart, Bottoms up CHORUS
Thumbs up, Elbows back, Knees together, Feet apart, Bottoms up, Head
back CHORUS
Thumbs up, Elbows back, Knees together, Feet apart, Bottoms up, Head back,
Tongue out, CHORUS
http://wiki.kcls.org/index.php/A_Tooty_Ta_Ta
2. “Double double, this, this,
Double double, that, that,
Double this, double that,
Double double, this, that.”
Whenever you say “double”, you tap the side of your fists with the other
persons, when you say “this” you clap your hands with theirs, and when you
say “that” you clap the back of your hands with the back of theirs. Try to go
faster each time.
http://www.mamalisa.com/blog/double-double-this-this-handclapping-rhymewith-youtubes/
3. Over, Under, Around and Through (Energizers)
Teacher decides on a pattern where students go over, under, around and through
imaginary or real objects. Lead the line of students around the room, following this
pattern.
Example – Over a sea of sticky peanut butter, under a cherry tree, around an
ice cream cone, and through a sea of Jell-O.
4. Heart Smart (Energizers)
If the teacher calls out a habit that strengthens the heart, students will respond by
jumping (or doing that action) for 15 seconds.
If the teacher calls out a habit that weakens the heart, students will respond by
falling down or squatting for 15 seconds.
5. Stop and Scribble (Energizers)
a. The teacher calls out a physical activity such as jumping, twisting, jogging,
etc.
b. Students begin doing the activity and continue until the teacher calls out a
spelling word.
c. Students stop doing the activity and write the word correctly on a piece of
paper or white board.
d. Continue until all spelling words are written (or math problems are completed
or paragraphs of history read.
6. Memory Lane (Energizers)
a. Teacher calls out one task at a time and partners complete each task. Before
doing each new one they will repeat all of the previous tasks in order.
b. Use the following order:
High five right, high five left,
Low five right, low five left,
High ten, low ten,
Backwards ten high, backwards ten low,
Tunnel ten (feet apart, back to back, reach between legs and hit low
ten)
Soles of shoes right, soles of shoes left, elbow right, elbow left, both
elbows.
7. The 12 Days of Fitness (Energizers) Use the holiday tune, “The 12 Days of
Christmas” Write the activities on a chart to make them easier for students to follow.
Students will act out the following fitness song:
“On the first day of fitness, my trainer gave to me. . .
1 stork stand (balance on one foot)
2 scissors (feet apart then cross in front, feet apart then cross in back)
3 muscle poses
4 jumping ropes (imaginary ropes)
5 hula hoops
6 kicks to the front
7 jabs/punches
8 jogs in place
9 side stretches
10 knee lifts
11 raise the roof stretches
12 jumping jacks
8. Animal Kingdom
Teacher will call out various animals for students to mimic (movement only unless
you don’t mind a lot of noise). Each movement will continue until you call out a
new animal.
9. Adventure to Fitness – Exercise Videos for Kids http://adventuretofitness.com/teachers
10. Kids Dance Videos “Nature’s Candy”
http://www.jumpwithjill.com/uncategorized/kids-dance-videos-natures-candy/
11. Kids Songs by the Learning Station
a. Shake Your Sillies Out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwT5oX_mqS0
b. Get Funky Dance Steps https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGrnC1K3D7c
c. Happy Dance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQ6BPWyIueQ
12. 20 Brain Break Clips: Fight the Fidgeting!
1) ‘The Sid Shuffle’ Ice Age Dance Video
2) Madagascar’s ‘I Like to Move It’ Video
3) Wyclef Jean ‘Electric City’ Music Video
4) Just Dance Kids ‘Get the Sillies Out’ Video
5) Minions DJ ‘You Should Be Dancing’ Video
6) Shake Break Video
7) Just Dance Kids 2 ‘Whip My Hair’ Video
8) The ‘Ding Dong Song’ Crazy Frogs Video
9) The Learning Station’s ‘C’Mon Let’s Dance’ Video
10) Mario Dance Video
11) ‘Respect’ Rap Video
12) ‘The Cha Cha Slide’ Instructional Video
13) ‘If You’re a Kid’ Instructional Video
14) Dancing Pandas Video
15) Sesame Street: ‘Share it maybe’ Video
16) Cee Lo Green’s ‘Kung Fu Fighting’ Video
17) Just Dance ‘Happy’ Video
18) Some Nights: Wreck it Ralph Video
19) Koo Koo Kanga Roo’s ‘What’s That You Say?’ Video
20) Just Dance ‘What Does the Fox Say?’ Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMuJxd2Gpxo
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Sayeski, K. L., Brown, M. R. (2011) Developing a Classroom Management Plan Using a
Tiered Approach. Teaching Exceptional Children, Sept/Oct, 8 – 17.
Jones. V. F., Jones, L. S. (2000). Reinforcing Behavior. Comprehensive Classroom
Management Creating Communities of Support and Solving Problems. Boston: Allyn and
Bacon
Harris, B. (2011). Battling Boredom 99 Strategies to Spark Student Engagement.
Larchmont, NY: Eye on Education.
Dr. Kevin Feldman – Director of reading and intervention Sonoma County Office of
Education and an independent consultant who works with schools and school districts on
improvement strategies.
Crowe, Caltha (2009). Solving Thorny Behavior Problems How teachers and Students Can
Work Together. Turners Falls, MA Northeast Foundation for Children.
http://www.ecu.edu/cs-hhp/exss/upload/energizers_for_grades_k_2.pdf