How to apply rules and procedures in classroom?

When we start the school year, we work with students to build the classroom rules, which will help us to guide the actions in the class. But immediately a question arises on how can we apply these rules and procedures in class? Consequences are the other side of rules and procedures (Marzano, 2007), these are the response when a student or students either follow or break the rules. Consequences can be positive or negative, a combination of both could be more effective rather than focusing in only spectrum. Rules and consequences should be established at the same time and are typically addressed routinely and frequently.

“If you break it, you fix it” is one of the consequence that I use in my classroom. For example, when a student disorganizes the class materials, the consequence is that s/he must organize them back. 

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When the students are following rules and procedures it is important to give students a positive consequence that reinforces the action. One kind of reinforcement is the use of a verbal o non-verbal acknowledgement to students who follow the class’ norms or execute successfully a task. The acknowledgement could be provided in by expressing approval or another non-verbal gesture.

For example, students are working in groups and the teacher say “I noticed that X group is working quietly and all of the students are focused in his work”, the teacher’s message recognizes the work of a specific group of students while helping the rest of the students to remember the expected behavior at this moment.

Acknowledging a positive action that is taking place within a specific group in the classroom may help to send a signal to students who need to improve their behavior and are not following the norms, redirecting and motivating students towards accomplishing the expected task or procedure in order to also be noticed by the teacher in a positive manner.

Also, we can complement the verbal or non-verbal recognition with a tangible recognition. This consequence is appropriate when students are consistently following  the rules and it goes beyond a verbal reinforcement; therefore, a student or the students can receive a tangible incentive from the teacher. Some teachers use virtual platforms like www.classdojo.com, where students receive points when they follow the rules, so students who collect a certain number of points receive a material recognition of this accomplishment, for example a letter for the parents.

The “Sun” symbol is a form of tangible recognition that I use in my kindergarten class. When a student constantly follows the rules and procedures, his or her name are posted in a “Sun” in the whiteboard. A name of a student in the “Sun” symbolizes an acknowledgement to a student who follows the rules in the class and sets an example to other peers. If a student completes a week “in sun”, s/he receives a small incentive.

The acknowledgement of a good behavior can be extended to the parents if a student has received verbal and tangible recognition and continues demonstrating an exemplary behavior. Teachers can write a note, send an email or call the parents to inform and congratulate them for the student’s behavior.

As I mentioned before, consequences are both positive and negative. Teachers need to be aware of potential problems and quickly respond to those situations which are at the core of effective classroom management. Robert Marzano defines this type of approach by teachers as withitness. Some of the actions that constitute withitness are: be proactive about potential problems, occupying the entire room physically or visually, noticing potential problems as quickly as possible, and using a series of graduated actions (looking at the suspected students, moving in the direction of students and stopping the class and confronting the behavior.)

Inappropriate behavior requires an explicit and concrete consequence. There are multiple examples of this kind of consequences but I would like to focus in two: Time-out or break and overcorrection. Time-out is a space of time giving to a student to reflect in his or her actions and try to find solutions to improve the behavior. In elementary schools, as it is my case in kindergarten, some students require a break to calm down and reflect. For example, a student is constantly talking and distracting other students in her/his group, the teacher tries to redirect many times but the student continues talking, as a consequence, the teacher request the student to continue his/her work in a different space in the class. The overcorrection is other kind of explicit and concrete consequence that involves engaging students in activities that overcompensate for inappropriate behavior. For example, a student knocks down a box of pencils from another student, so the student that behave negatively must  offer an apology to his classmate and collect the pencils, leaving everything in order.

Another type of consequence for students breaking the rules is the use of group contingency that involves holding the whole class responsible for the behavior of any and all members of the class. I say to my kindergarten students “you are a community and as community you need to be responsible of your behavior and help other friends who need support”. I have a chart to collect points that the whole class receive when they follow the rules as a group, so within the group they need to help each other to follow the rules and change their behavior to avoid losing points as a class. Similarly to the group contingency, a teacher can use home contingency to involve parents. Home contingency involves meeting with parents with the purpose to agree on a specific course of action to improve negative behaviors that are to be stopped in class and the specific positive behaviors that are to be exhibited.

When a situation with the student is out of control, this situation is referred as high-intensity situations. Teachers should be able to contact the principal or assistant principal for help, but teachers need to be prepared to take some actions. The first step is to recognize that the student is so upset that he/she is probably out of control. Then the teacher should step back and calm down. After that, listen to the student and plan the next actions. When the student clams down, the teacher can communicates a simple request intended at diffusing the situation, a good idea is to go outside the classroom to talk.

Finally, the teacher should find an overall plan for improving disciplinary behavior. The information collected from the student about her/his behavior should be used to build the plan. The teacher could determine that the student needs more support and start a RTI (Response to Intervention) to build a collaborative plan of intervention.

Resource: Marzano, Robert J. The art and science of teaching: a comprehensive framework for effective instruction. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Alexandria, Virginia USA. 2007