Classroom Management Techniques

Front 1

Know Your Students

Back 1

* Age Remember that middle-school students need more active experiences, shorter lessons, less lecture, and more small-group and individual instruction. Older students need less teacher-directed structure, longer lessons, more detailed information, many opportunities to share ideas, time to talk with peers, and more time working with the whole class.

* Strengths Get to know your students' interests, talents, favorite subjects, learning styles, family backgrounds, and cultural and linguistic backgrounds in order to highlight these strengths in your classroom.

* Areas to Support Get to know the areas in which your students may need support, such as reading (and other content knowledge) levels, learning differences, physical impairments, and English language background in order to make instructional decisions and support all students' learning needs.

Front 2

Know Your Role as a Teacher

Back 2

* Set clear expectations

* Enforce rules fairly and consistently

* Set positive and realistically high expectations that all students can learn

* Highlight students' strengths and support their achievement of goals

* Model appropriate behavior

* Accept and understand students within the student-teacher relationship

Front 3

Set Up the Classroom for Learning

Back 3

* Place materials for student use in easy-to-access places.

* Use wait time when questioning students

* Create a safe and uncomfortable learning environment that promotes students' risk-taking and deters bullying, harassment, and disrespectful behavior

* Have student materials simultaneously available whenever possible. For example, set up four crates of student notebooks and place one create next to each of the four worktables in your classroom. Each group of students will be able to get materials rather than wait for notebooks to be handed out individually.

Front 4

Punishment versus Discipline

Back 4

Is teacher-centered and authoritative v. Is student-centered and based on logical consequences

Communicates anger or disappointment v. Communicates concern

Closes choices for students v. Keeps choices open for modifications

Is concerned with retribution or revenge v. Is concerned with changing behavior

Is negative and short-term v. Is positive and long-term

Front 5

Canter and Canter

Back 5

In the 1980s, Lee Canter and Marlene Canter suggested a model of classroom management that is known as assertive discipline. The approach, still used today, includes teachers setting clear expectations for behavior and following through consistently and fairly with consequences. Students have a choice to follow the rules or face the natural consequences.

Front 6

Kounin

Back 6

Jacob Kounin's research from the 1970's shows that teacher "with-it-ness" (constant monitoring and awareness of student behavior), grouping decisions, and lesson planning are hallmarks of effective classroom management. Smooth transitions between lessons and lessons that maximize learning time are more effective.

Front 7

Ginott

Back 7

Haim Ginott's research from the late 1960s and 1970s promotes supportive and preventive discipline by recognizing the importance of the classroom atmosphere -- socially and emotionally. He suggested that teachers use "sane messages" in which they simply describe the issue or event of concern. This approach attempts to leave students' self-esteem intact and enables students to consider the situation and develop their own solutions with respectful support from their teacher.

Front 8

Glasser

Back 8

William Glasser's choice theory guides teachers who use this approach to conduct class meetings with students to codetermine class rules, guidelines, and consequences. Teachers use these class meetings to change student's behavior, focusing on general student behavior, not an individual student's behavior problems.

Front 9

Hunter

Back 9

Madeline Hunter's approach to classroom management centers on the strength of effective lesson planning. The teacher opens a lesson with an "anticipatory set" to help students connect the new content to prior knowledge or experiences. Next, the teacher models and provides guided practice for the new content to be learned. Then the teacher provides an opportunity for individual and extended practice.

Front 10

Jones

Back 10

Frederic Jones studied time on task and found that 50 percent of instructional time is lost because students are off task. He noted two common types of misbehavior: talking (80%) and goofing off (20%). Jones found that most misbehavior occurs during independent practice. He suggests three strategies to improve student time on task.

* Teacher body language (a.k.a. "the look")

* Incentive systems

* Efficient individual help for students