The article "Shouting Won't Grow Dendrites" listed many great ideas and below are the ideas I thought would be useful.
For attention getting behavior: 1. "Use humor when talking to them about their misbehavior. (p.17) 2. "...give them the attention when they are doing what is expected of them."(p.18) 3. Compliment them in front of their peers..."(p. 18)
For students who seek control: 1. "Put these students into positions of responsibility" (p. 18) Usually if I have papers to hand out, I ask students to help so they can get up and walk around.
For students who are bored: 1. I will create more activities that allows students to "move and meet with a discussion partner. 2. Once I have taught more vocabulary words, I would like to play "math hangman".
For students who feel inadequate: 1. I'm thinking of pointing out how far they have come along and point out the math they do know.
After reading "The Warm Demander" I found that it listed a few things I am attempting in my class. I am at the stage where I am trying to build relationships with my students. I make it a point to "high five them" as often as I remember, I smile, and I try to greet them by also saying their names, but I'm not sure where I stand as far as becoming a warm demander. I'm not sure if I'm clear and consistent with my expectations because I'm not even sure what they are. The paragraph that talks about providing learning supports mentioned that, "Students preferred teacher who explained material thoroughly and in multiple ways..." and I find that my class is split in half when it comes to this. Last week I introduced the class to the "plus delta" table and found that some students loved how thorough I am with the material and others wanted me to speed up. This is a huge dilemma because if I keep teaching "slowly" a few students will be bored, and if I speed up I'll lose other students thus leading them to feel inadequate.
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4 comments:
Chrisel, I like all the ideas you listed from the article in such an organized way. using the whole "plus delta" chart with your students seems like it could be really eye-opening... I've been trying to get my third graders to tell me how I can improve, but it's harder for them to reflect. Even if you get mixed results, I'm sure your students appreciate being able to give you feedback.
Hi Chris, I really understand how you feel about the teaching "slowly" versus speeding up. I have a huge amount of different skill levels in my afternoon class. One child that reads at a 4th grade level and one that reads at a pre-kinder level. I plan on differentiating their homework for next week but what is the "tiered" system you mentioned?
I am curious as to how humor can be incorporate further then what the reading mentioned. Do you have any other ideas on how approach behavioral situations with humor?
Hi Chrisel! I feel you on the too fast/too slow dilemma; that's something I'm struggling with in my own class. I'd like to teach them how to take notes effectively, but no one ever taught me effective note-taking skills so I don't have a "system" that I can impart to them.
I, too, am trying the "see how far you've come" tactic. Today, when I handed back their quizzes, I emphasized that nearly all of them had improved their grades over the previous quiz, and for some of them the change was quite dramatic. I did say that we're not yet where we want to be as a class, but we're headed in the right direction. I'm hoping that will inspire them to keep trying and do even better on the next assignment.
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