Rachel Chihil
EDL 711
Wright State University
Prompt 2: Impact on Professional Practice
What are some things that you will implement (or have already implemented) and/or do differently regarding your interactions with children and/or adults resulting from your understandings of Payne's framework?
1.) In Ruby Payne’s book, on page 105, she includes an activity for students to complete when an undesired behavior is exhibited. This gives them an opportunity to discuss different choices they could have made. I have used an assignment similar to this in the past and noticed dramatic improvements in student’s behavior.
Many times students over react to a situation, threaten others, want to fight, or begin yelling and argue with a teacher because they disagree with a punishment. When this occurs I often send students to the power station in my room. It’s a place in the rear of the class where I have displayed Ron Clark’s essential 55 and other self-control posters. The purpose is to allow students an opportunity to get back the power they need to make better decisions. Once they have cooled down I ask them to write their statement about what happened. From here we go over it together and make changes to the statement where needed. Usually the statement reads, “She/He did this,” she/he being the teacher. Instead of students focusing on what the teacher did, I make adjustments focusing on what the student did first before everything escalated to where they are currently. From here we write three other things they could have done to avoid the entire incident. They sign it, I sign it and it is kept in their folder. This greatly improves behavior in the future. One point to note though is that this usually does not work until the student has cooled down. When I have tried this before they settle down, all is lost.
2.) What was discussed above can also be understood by knowing the difference between casual and formal register. When students explain a confrontation between another student or teacher they begin with the end of the story first and many times completely omit the beginning. When I have a meeting with a student regarding the incident and they begin this way, I automatically stop them and ask them to begin from the very beginning. Many times I may have to stop them and ask them to start again beginning sooner in the situation. When we do this they often see where they made a mistake during the retelling and accept responsibility for their actions. Teaching them about where to start when telling a story also assist them in their summarization skills, helps them identify the climax of situations while also understanding conflict resolution in reading.
3.) Finally on page 103-104 of Payne’s text she lists a chart with possible explanations of behaviors, along with suggested interventions. Currently at our school three fourths of our staff is first year teachers who are struggling with classroom management. Recently I gave a classroom management presentation to the new staff and included this page as a reference. Many teachers have noticed changes in their classrooms and feel they have a better understanding of many of their student’s behaviors after reading this.
The ones which help the most is that they ALWAYS have their hands on someone else, are extremely disorganized, and talk incessantly. I constantly have to address these behaviors in my classroom as well, and use Payne’s interventions often.
References
Payne, R. (2005). A Framework for Understanding Poverty.
Your first section addressed one of my other questions (about having children think through their choices in a situation). Thank you for that.
ReplyDeleteI work in a building where I was the first new teacher hired in for 14 years. The staff has been around a long time, and is only in the last few years beginning to change more to having newer staff members. Do you find that the poverty level affects your staff longevity in the building? That is, do you think the challenges you deal with daily are part of why your staff has so many first-year teachers? I would think that "burn-out" would occur much faster in a situation like yours, especially for those who maybe don't have a good grasp on approaching families living in poverty. Your staff is lucky to have you to share your techniques (and those of Payne).
Kathaleen,
ReplyDeleteYou hit on exactly why we have such a high staff turn over rate!
Rachel, I really appreciated hearing the way you help students get back to the beginning of a problem incident. Now that you spell it out I see, even in subbing, how much this happens (students reverting immediately to the end of the story, not being "sequential" or "complete" or listing "cause and effect" the way "we" would) and how it makes teacher and student not able to actually communicate. I would think it would be exhausting and time-consuming to have to do this over and over with students all day long, though. Do they eventually start to catch on and relate an incident from start to finish, or do they still want to just get to the point where they can make excuses for their behavior, in spite of your efforts?
ReplyDeleteRachel, I don't see the chart you talk about on pp. 103-104. ???
ReplyDeleteTeresa,
ReplyDeleteIt is time consuming and definitely wears you out. Eventually students begin to catch on and this becomes easier, however it doesn't happen as quickly as one might hope. With time and effort though, eventually they know that I expect them to start from the very beginning. Actually, making them aware of their initial actions gets them also start thinking about their behaviors before they do something. Many times when they begin beating, speaking out, etc., all I have to do is look at them and they say, "alright, I'll stop, I'll stop."
I may have an older version of the book. It lists student behaviors and possible interventions.
Rachel-
ReplyDeleteGetting to know you over the course of this program, I knew that you would have a great deal of useful information to share with others in this class.
Teaching in a middle-income district for the durations of my career at this time, I have had little experience with the behaviors that exist in your classroom. I enjoyed reading your post in regard to having students write about addition options when undesirable behavior is exhibited. Is the writing assignment that you use in your classroom carried out throughout the entire building? I would think that the consistency of a school-wide “behavior plan” would be beneficial for students that may not have this consistency at home. If this is not a school-wide program, how long would you say it takes the students to “buy into” the process and truly see results from your interactions and discussions? In addition, you mentioned that on most occasion students blame teachers for their actions. Do you feel that this has something to do with poverty and authority figures?
Gretchen Rohrer