A Complex Problem I've Faced in the Past Year

A complex problem I have faced in the past year was an issue I was having with classroom management. The situation was I had a 6th grade homeroom made up of 20 students, about half boys and half girls. At the beginning the year, we had discussed rules and proper classroom behavior. The students were well-behaved and were following classroom rules. However, as the year went on, I started to feel like I was losing my control of their classroom behavior. The students were pretty well-behaved overall and never did anything that I would specifically think of as really "bad" or disruptive behavior; however, I was still feeling as if I didn't have the class under control sometimes. This was becoming very stressful for me and was causing me to feel frustrated every day.

I decided I needed to think about what was going on and why I was feeling at a loss for control in the classroom. I figured out that the times when the students were the chattiest and hard to refocus was during transition times. The students had a hard time going from once subject or activity to the next without talking to their friends and starting to lose attention. This was hard because I would have to refocus the students after each class, and it was wasting instruction time. This transition time was the problem. I figured out that the factors were the students understanding of "transitions," expectations from previous years, how I expected them to behave, and how I conveyed the transition rules to the students. The students were expected to transition to the next subject in an organized and quiet way, but obviously they weren't clearly getting this message. Obviously the stakeholders in this problem were the students and I. I knew that the desired state of affairs would be that the students would make easier transitions. The perceived contradictions between the desired state of affairs and the desired outcome was the loss of instruction time and transitions that were taking too long. This would allow me to take full advantage of instruction time, keep me less stressed, and allow the students to benefit from the best use of our time during class. The problem was......how do I accomplish this?

I decided to brainstorm how I could solve this situation. I knew I could talk with the students about proper transitioning behavior. I could also make an individual behavior system for each student, where they would get a consequence if they weren't following directions. However, neither of these options seemed like it would do the trick. The students in this class had to be held accountable, but I wasn't sure how to do it. As 6th graders, I knew that they cared what each other thought and didn't want to be seen as un-cool. I thought I could use this to my advantage. Instead of having an individual behavior system, we would use a whole class behavior system. I figured this would hopefully have a good affect on the students who were transitioning well, because they wouldn't want to let down their classmates.

I would write the word "Cardinal" on the board at the beginning of the day (it is our school mascot). During transition times, if the students weren't able to get ready quickly and with little disruption, they would lose a letter. Each time this would happen, they would lose a letter. Their goal was to have at least one letter left at the end of the day. If they had a letter, they would get a tally mark. When they reached 5 tally marks, they would get a reward. Later in the year, I increased the amount of tally marks to 10 to make it more challenging. A few of the possible rewards were an ice cream party, 20 mins. to play games, extra recess etc. These were obviously things that the students wanted, so using a whole class behavior system was a good idea. The benefit would be that I could make the most of my instruction time and be less stressed trying to get everything accomplished in a day. The students would benefit not only because of the instruction time, but also because they are affected by a teacher's mood. A calm, stress-free teacher makes for a much happier classroom environment.

I found this system to work very well. As I thought, the students had a good influence on each other and helped keep each other in check. I felt less stressed at the end of each day, which in itself, let me be a better teacher. The students were more respectful of my rules and responsible for their own actions and those of their classmates. If one student was being disruptive, a classmate would remind them to get ready for class or to follow directions, because they were working together as a team. If one student messed up, the whole class would be affected, and it might cause them to not get the reward they had been working towards. The whole classroom environment and “classroom family” mentality was better and allowed us to make the best use of the time that we had together each day.

Current Complex Classroom Problem

A current problem that I face in my classroom is identifying the special learning needs of one of my students. This 3rd grade child seems to have problems with focus, reading directions, processing speed, and independence. She was on a behavior/academic chart last year (in 2nd grade) and was said to have made great process throughout the year. The chart was used to monitor focus, reading directions, and working independently.

At the end of the day, the teacher and child would both evaluate the child's progress in these areas. If the child succeeded overall in these areas throughout the week, she was given a reward on Fridays. The chart was said to give the child motivation to push her to give more effort and care to her daily work. At the beginning of this year, I didn't start off using the chart. I wanted to see how this child had progressed and form my own opinions about her abilities and work habits. It became clear quickly, that she needed some kind of accommodations. To keep her on track, yet encourage her independence, I formed a new system. I wanted to be able to help this child, but build on the growth she had made since the previous year, since she was now a third grade student.

I started by taping visual reminders on her desk. These reminders were "Focus," "Re-read directions," and "Try on my own before asking the teacher for help." Although these seem to help, I haven't gotten the results I wanted. Instead of pointing to a reminder or having the child make a correction on her own, I often have to use verbal or tactile reminders to keep her on track.

I met with the mother recently to discuss her daughter's progress. While the mother would simply like to go back to the old chart, I would like to continue to push for more independence and accountability from the child. I feel that verbal and tactile reminders, in addition to her visual reminders on her desk give the child more immediate feedback. She knows when she isn't focused or on task, because she is corrected by me immediately. With the chart, she is told about her progress at the end of the day, rather than when the undesirable behavior actually happened.

The first step I will take is to determine my goal: To get the child to start to become internally motivated and to become more independent, while making progress, both academically and behaviorally in the classroom. In order to do this, I must construct a model that monitors how the child performs in the classroom with the current conditions (the verbal/tactile reminders and visual reminders on her desk) vs. the new system that I am going to put into place.

The new system will stick with the visual reminders on her desk. However, I am also going to add a number chart. She will get 5 points for each day. Any time I have to correct her behavior from one of the categories of her reminders, she will lose one point. If she still has at least one number left at the end of the day, she will earn a point. If she gets 4 out of 5 points at the end of the week, she will get a reward. Her reward will be a special job in the classroom.

The reason for the new system is to monitor how motivation for the reward affects her progress. Does she perform better or does it not seem to affect her progress? This system will also allow her to gain more independence. When she is corrected, I will remind her to cross off one number; however, she will be responsible for this. She will be provided with instant feedback throughout the day, rather than waiting until the end of the day to review her progress.

In order to determine if she has made progress, I will be able to monitor her behavior through observation. However, in order to monitor her academic progress, I will administer the Aimsweb Reading, Math, and Language Arts tests. I plan on evaluating her progress throughout 4 weeks. In the first 2 weeks, she will be given the Aimsweb tests at the beginning and continue using the behavior/academic system that we currently have in place throughout that 2 weeks. During the second 2 weeks, I will use the new behavior/academic system, with the number chart. At the end of these 2 weeks, I will have her take the Aimsweb tests again. I will then be able to compare/contrast how the old system worked vs. the new system. This will allow me to identify if motivation and responsibility for her own actions/independence are affecting her success in the classroom. This will allow me to gain insight into what isn't working and form new strategies and accommodations if they are needed.

I believe this problem hasn't yet been solved because proper documentation hasn't been kept to evaluate the successfulness of the behavior/academic systems being used in the classroom. I am hoping to gain better insight with this model, which will allow me to better understand and meet the needs of my student.