May 11, 2015
I just came back from a ‘PD in the Pub' on behaviour management and run by Glen Pearsall. It was well timed, in terms of student behaviour, today was probably the most challenging placement day that I've had so far in my first teacher training placement. I was hungry for advice.
Two new words that I hadn't heard of before…
- Group Praise
- Cross Praise
The main message that I took away from the presentation was the importance of affirming and acknowledging good behaviour and the power that that has to improve student engagement. That's really captured in these two approaches.
Group Praise: What's the opposite of going up to the kid who isn't working and saying ‘Hey John, I can see you're not doing any work, can you do some?!'. Well, it's acknowledging the good work of other students in the class. ‘I can see that you guys have gotten started, that's excellent', ‘And you girls over the back, I like how you're using those tabs at the back of the book to ensure you're checking your answers.'. Glen emphasised how ‘everyone wants praise' and that students will often return to task if you are dishing out praise around them. Apparently Raymond Lewis found that this works in 24% of cases (I did a google but wasn't able to find this specific reference).
Cross Praise: This is really a variation on Group Praise, and is a bit more targeted. The basic idea is that you find a student that is working well and who is in the proximity of your target student (the one who is disengaged) and you stand so that your target student is roughly between the two of you, then you praise the working student specifically for the great work that they're doing. Glen shared the anecdote of when one of his student teachers was searching for a hard working student to leverage off, and in the end had to resort to shouting praise across the room because the only student who seemed engaged with their work was at the far corner!
To keep track of how effectively you're deploying these kinds of techniques it was suggested that teachers could try out using a ‘Command and Affirmation Chart', i.e., just fold a piece of paper a couple of times, hold it in your hand, and mark on one side whenever you make a command, and on the other whenever you offer affirmation. Check it at the end of class to see what your ratio is like.
Another theme that jumped out to me was how to use your presence to manage behaviour, but without engaging in a confrontation with a student. Glen mentioned ‘Side Approach‘, i.e., when you're approaching a student, don't come straight on and challenge them, face a bit side on, be there, but don't be challenging. Engaging the ego can lead to uncomfortable stand-offs that are best avoided. Glen coupled this body language advice with the suggestion to use ‘thank you' in the place of ‘please'. ‘Please sounds kind of like you're pleading.', he suggested, ‘Thank you conveys the expectation of compliance.'
He offered some good turns of phrase to help diffuse those annoying and provocative questions that students can ask: Things like ‘That's not the issue right now‘, or ‘Nevertheless‘, (I asked you to continue with your work)', which he suggested could be used interchangeably. (I wish I'd had this advice when I went into the classroom at the start of this teacher training block placement, I had no techniques for fending off the seemingly endless questions on which football team I supported and other non-math-related topics).
May 12, 2015
I managed to use two (and a half) of the techniques from yesterday's session in the class today. The first was the ‘That's not the issue right now' line. Super handy when I was up at the board highlighting a few summary points for the class prior to Friday's test. I don't remember the question now, but it was off topic. The second was using ‘Thank you' instead of ‘Please'. I routinely have to ask students to shut their computers once I've started talking. Keeping them half open is their little rebellion every time the class starts. I used to say ‘Please shut your computer', today I said ‘Shut your computer, Thank you!' (it worked, and much quicker than usual : )
The ‘half' that I referred to in the previous paragraph was using cross praise. It wasn't directly across an off-task student, but I did have it in mind. And I was a lot more aware of my command:affirmation ratio today, and put in extra effort to congratulate those quiet students who are always on task. Yesterdays session made me aware of the tendency to take the regular on-task behaviour of these quiet achievers for granted, I'm glad I was reminded to congratulate them on their continued effort.
Giving affirmation, Cross praise, Thank you instead of please. That's three good points taken from the PD and brought, at least somewhat, into the classroom the following day. Now it's just a matter of making them a habit. I look forward to exploring some of Glenn's books in the near future and delving deeper into this core teacher competency of behaviour management.