Effective Classroom Management: Class Discipline

As a classroom teacher, you are the one who is most responsible for establishing rules, and carrying through with them in your class. If you do not have rules which clearly delineate what you expect from your students, and the students don't know what to expect from you, then how can you honestly expect to have a successful class?

I regularly share with my students the following statement: "Through the choices you make, you shape your destiny." I believe that to be true for every student that walks into my class. And with that statement, I have five reasonable rules that I expect my students to obey while in my class.

1. Follow directions cheerfully and immediately the first time I give them.
2. Be in your seat when I ring the bell; stay there unless you have permission to get up.
3. Listen quietly and don’t interrupt when someone else is talking.
4. Keep hands, feet, and objects to yourself.
5. No note passing in class.

I recommend that you have no more than five or six rules at any given time for your class. When your students have mastered one or two of them, then make them an unwritten rule, but still enforceable; then add one or two new rules to your list. You need to post your rules in a conspicuous place in your room; I put mine on my bulletin board that no student can say, "But Mr. Simons, I don't know what the class rules are!"

You also need to have clearly thought-out consequences for what to do when a student chooses to violate a class rule. At our school, we have a discipline hierarchy (based on the Lee Canter Assertive Discipline model) which is uniform throughout the school. It is very easy for me to follow through with the discipline steps because they have already been established. In the event you happen to teach in a school where there is no formal system of discipline for breaking rules, then you may need to come up with your own plan. I strongly recommend that you go to your administrator or principal and solicit his or her assistance and help.

As a teacher, you have the right to teach your subject in a disciplined classroom. Your students have the right to learn in a well-ordered class, so it is up to you to set the rules early on for your students, and expect them to obey. If you don't, then you will be chasing students all year long, and your classes will not be the learning environment they should be.

However, discipline is not just negative in its ramifications. It also has a positive side, too. I like using the "marble jar" for recognizing excellent class behavior. Lee Canter, the author of Assertive Discipline, recommends that you "catch your students being good." The practice is that when the students do something right, the teachers adds a certain number of marbles to a jar. Start the school year with a smaller jar, then build to a larger one.

What reward do they have, what incentive are the students working toward when the marble jar is filled? As a class, we decide. A sample of meaningful rewards that I have given in the past include an ice cream party, going out to eat for lunch, and a reduced amount of homework. You see, when my students behave the way that allows me to teach and them to learn, I think it's simply good policy to give an appropriate reward when their marble jar is filled. This method enables me to focus on good behavior, instead of always having to deal with bad behavior and losing valuable class instruction time. This doesn't mean, however, that I simply let bad behavior go unnoticed, because I don't. As I prepare to start my 8th year of teaching, I wish I had learned this valuable lesson when I first started teaching, because it sure would have made my classes a whole lot easier!

This Classroom Discipline Plan is what I have instituted in my classroom for the 2004-2005 schol year.

According to Dr. Harry Wong in his book The First Days of School, it is also important that, as a part of classroom management, you document what you want your students to do concerning procedures. Procedures are simply a method or process for how you want things to be done in your classroom. It differs from rules, because while rules are primarily focused on student behavior and have associated consequences, procedures focus on how things are done, and they generally have no rewards or penalties attached to them.

Perhaps you may be wondering what relationship procedures have with the real world. If a person wants to be successful in life, then it is essential for that person to follow the procedures. If your students are to be successful for the entire school year, then it is absolutely essential that you have procedures in place before the very first day of school. Procedures enable achievement to occur all through the school year.

But it's never too late to develop a Student Procedures Manual. Simply start wherever you are, and go from there. Take the time that is needed to put your manual together. And as long as you are going to make a full length manual for yourself, make short form editions for all your students to put into their notebooks for easy reference. Then tell your students that, from now on, here's the way things are going to be done. And stick by your manual! Students want and accept procedures, and they need to know that the established procedures are for their good. They will be able to do their work with much less confusion, and they will be successful! And that's what we all want, isn't it?

Until the summer of 2003, I had never heard of developing a Student Procedures Manual. I knew what I wanted my students to do, and I explained it to them in class. But there was a need to have a manual that documented exactly what I wanted them to do, and the way in which I wanted to them to do it. Now, they have no excuse for not knowing the proper procedure for entering my class, handing in homework, being dismissed at the end of the period (and it's not just getting up and leaving without my permission!), or what to do in the event of an absence.

I have taken many hours, and a great deal of pride, in developing, editing, revising, and revamping these two documents:

• my Full-length Student Procedures Manual (teacher's edition), and
• my Short Form Student Procedures Manual (for student use).