Julia G. Thompson

November 10, 2009

WHEN THINGS GET TOUGH…TOUGH TEACHERS GET GOING

With November’s cooler temperatures comes a shift in many classroom climates. The petty classroom annoyances that were almost charming little obstacles to be overcome in early September now seem to be huge hurdles as discouraged teachers wonder if we will ever make the kind of profound changes in our students that we dreamed about before school began.

If things have been going well, our classes are headed towards self-discipline. Although it would seem that this is something that should happen at the second class meeting when we explain our policies, rules, and procedures, but experienced teachers know for certain that it takes endless patience and plenty of reteaching before we can declare that a student is self-disciplined—if even only for a day.

It is worth all the thought and effort on our part to continue to push our students to be self-disciplined learners no matter what their age or gender or ability level or ethnicity. When a classroom is filled with students who make good decisions for themselves on a regular basis, then learning is paramount. Students enjoy their school days almost as much as their teachers do. Below you will find some tried and true suggestions about how you can help your students become the self-disciplined learners that you dreamed about before the school year began.

MOVING STUDENTS TOWARD SELF-DISCIPLINE

If the ultimate purpose of the enormous amount of energy, thought, and effort that we pour into our discipline policies and practices is to create students who are self-directed, at what point will we know we have been successful?

Unfortunately, as with most of our dealings with adolescent students, the process is not always an easy one. Often, just when we think that all of our discipline goals have been met, something will happen in class to remind us that our students still need us to help them from straying off-task.

In spite of the impossibility of knowing for certain just how successful our attempts to help students assume responsibility for their actions will be, we must work towards that goal. We should not only direct our students so that they understand what they should do, but we must encourage them to be willing to do the right thing at the right time.

TEACH STUDENTS HOW TO MONITOR THEMSELVES

One of the most powerful techniques for teachers who want to direct their students to become self-disciplined is to teach students to monitor themselves. When students monitor their own behavior, the responsibility for improvement and success rightfully shifts from teacher to student.

When your students learn to monitor themselves, you no longer have to assume the role of overbearing adult in charge of a room full of students who have perfected the art of learned helplessness. Instead you become a learning partner for your students. Below you will find a list of strategies or activities that you can adapt to help your students stay on track by monitoring their own progress.

• Offering rubrics in advance of an assignment
• Giving students checklists of tasks to be accomplished
• Asking students to reflect on their learning or on their work habits
• Setting and working toward a goal
• Making frequent progress checks
• Allowing students to see their grades at least weekly
• Encouraging students to chart their grades
• Having students break assignments into smaller parts and setting their own due dates for each small part
• Giving students a syllabus so that they can plan their work
• Having students complete admit tickets with their plans for the day’s work
• Asking students to assess their own strengths and weaknesses
• Asking students to keep a list of what they have learned and what they still need to know in a unit of study.

QUESTIONS THAT CAN ENCOURAGE SELF-DISCIPLINE

Although there are many different approaches to encouraging students as they to develop into self-disciplined learners, one of the most valuable of these involves asking thoughtful questions that require students to analyze their progress. When we ask our students to reflect on their work habits, their efforts, and their successes and failures we provide guidelines to help them develop the habits of mind that will lead to self-discipline. In the brief list below, you will find questions that require students to consider how they approach their work.

• Do you understand what to do to succeed on this assignment?
• How can you replicate this success on tonight’s homework assignment?
• What good work habits are you proudest of?
• What are your weakest work habits? What do you do to overcome them?
• What do you tell yourself when you are feeling lazy, but have lots of work to do?
• What is important about the approach to your work that you take?
• What do you do that makes it easier for you to complete your work well and on time?

FOCUS ON YOUR STUDENTS’ STRENGTHS

It is no secret that the relationship we build with our students affects their success. A positive relationship with our students is one of our strongest defenses against disruptive behavior.
Often we try to stop misbehavior with a flurry of negative commands and injunctions against behaviors that students find more natural than the more formal or productive ones we try to teach. Most secondary students can recite dozens of things they know they should not do. If those same students are asked to tell what their five greatest strengths are, however, many would be at a loss.

While it would be wrong to unfairly praise or encourage students for behaviors that are not acceptable to their future success, the negative attitudes that many of us carry to school with us are just as wrong. Although it is natural that we should spend so much time in our profession dealing with the errors our students make or with the things they should not do or with what’s wrong, we do need to balance this negativity by focusing on our students’ successes or strengths as well.

The long-term rewards that accrue when we focus on our students’ strengths are partly the result of a self-fulfilling prophecy. When our students believe they can do some things correctly, they are going to be brave enough to take that extra risk that will generate even more success. Hateful or unkind comments, on the other hand, will destroy even the bravest student’s confidence.

There are many ways to begin to include a more positive focus on your students’ strengths in your lessons.

• Pay your students sincere compliments whenever you can. This is a pleasant and productive habit to encourage in them also.
• Use positive body language to convey your respect and sincerity when you talk with students.
• Make eye contact. Pat a shoulder or a hand. Make sure your expression is pleasant.
• Ask students to share a hidden talent or skill with you.
• Be generous with praise. Students who are aware of what it is they are doing correctly will want to repeat it.
• Open class by having students tell what they did well on their homework assignments.
• End class by asking students to share the most important things they learned that day.
• Ask students to tell others what they did right on a difficult assignment so that the good news can be shared to the benefit of everyone.
• Do not compare one student with another, especially if you pit one student’s weakness against another’s strength.
• Hand out brightly colored pieces of paper and ask students to write out a contribution they can make to the class. Post these contributions for all to see.
• When students go over returned papers, have them correct their errors and list the things they did right, too.
• An easy way to make sure all students have the extra help they need is to have the student experts in the room share their expertise with others.
• Having students set and achieve goals is a good starting point for identifying the strong points of each. When students have a purpose for working, they tend to work well.
• Be careful that the strengths you compliment your students on are ones that are appropriate for their age level, unless you inadvertently want to either insult them or send a message that your standards are very low.
• Ask students for their advice or opinions. Students often have important insights and solutions to problems that surprise many adults, even those who know them well. Be obvious when you tap into this resource.
• Classes seem to take on a personality of their own. Use this to your advantage when you can. If classes are very talkative, turn this into a strong point by giving them lots of opportunity for debate and discussion. Make sure you focus on their strengths while you help them eliminate their weaknesses.

SIMPLE ACTIVITIES THAT WILL BOOST SELF-ESTEEM

• Have students create a class Who’s Who entry about each other. Include the hobbies, interests, and skills of each in an effort to help students learn to relate to each other in a positive way.
• Another way to increase the team spirit atmosphere in your room is to have students bring in words and photographs. These should reflect their interests, talents, and skills. Use them to create a large wall collage to display the positive things your students have in common.
• Create opportunities for students to reflect upon and recognize the contributions of their classmates after a shared assignment, project, or discussion. Teach the importance of recognizing each other’s accomplishments.
• Set aside space to create a “Wall of Fame” in your class where you can display excellent work.
• At the end of class, ask students to tell you something important that they did well or learned.
• Ask students to describe the most difficult part of a lesson and what they did to overcome that difficult part.
• Take photographs of your students while they are working well and display them.
• Ask students to share with you or with class members three things that will help them have positive feelings about themselves or their work.
• After a particularly long or difficult unit of study, hold an awards ceremony to celebrate its successful completion.
• At the end of the year, ask students to write a letter to a future teacher describing what they learned in your class.
• Ask students to list the ways they can accept personal responsibility for becoming successful in school.