You can call it time-out, time away, observation mode or anything you like, but the way you send a student there matters.
Far more than most teachers realize.
It can be the difference between an easy and effective process and a stress-filled waste of time. So what follows are three steps to help make sure your time-out works as it should.
1. Prepare your students.
Before putting your classroom management plan into practice, you must teach your students exactly what each rule means and under what conditions they’re broken.
They must know that when they’re sent to time-out it’s deserved based on the no-gray area, highly specific definition of each rule. This underscores the importance of you knowing and understanding inside and out what does and doesn’t constitute breaking your own rules.
Clarity is key to getting students to go to time-out willingly and benefiting from it. It’s key to them reflecting on their misbehavior and resolving not to make the same mistake again. It’s key to them taking responsibility rather than blaming you, their classmates, or outside circumstances.
So walk them through every step.
Model explicitly. Show them how and when to stand and take themselves to time-out and what you’ll say that precedes it. Use volunteers to model and practice how to do it. Take questions.
Be ridiculously detailed. Leave no room for confusion or misunderstanding. The idea is to eliminate any and all excuse, friction, or shirk of responsibility.
2. Be brief and matter-of-fact.
When a student breaks a rule that triggers the time-out consequence, approach only to within speaking range and say “Anthony, you broke rule number two because you didn’t raise your hand. Please take your materials and go to time-out.”
Then turn and walk away. Continue on with whatever you were doing and let them do the rest. Your job is done. It’s up to the student now to take themselves to time-out and fulfill their obligation. It’s as simple as that.
However, it’s critical that when you inform the student, you do so matter-of-factly.
You’re not a judge. You’re just a referee doing their job, calling em’ like you see em.’ Your neutrality helps shift the responsibility for misbehavior entirely to the student, where it begins to weigh on them and do its good work.
Essentially, you have nothing to do with it other than the actual enforcement. Students not only appreciate this approach, but they’re far more likely to reflect on their mistake and make a private commitment to never again go to time-out.
3. Let them be.
Your calm, clear, and even approach to time-out, coupled with your commitment to let your classroom management plan do its job without interference, will make the consequence maximally effective.
To that end, never walk students to time-out. Never show displeasure or outward disappointment. Just stick with the script above.
Furthermore, you mustn’t tell them how they should’ve behaved or what they should think or feel about their mistake. No lecturing, counseling, or pulling aside for a talking-to.
This may seem counterintuitive, but it’s absolutely essential to making time-out work.
Leave the student alone and let the stated consequence be the only consequence. Again, this ensures that responsibility for misbehavior rests on the student’s shoulders with none of it sticking to you.
A Different Animal
Teachers tend to buzz around the classroom with the weight of the world on their shoulders while students gad about without a care in the world.
To be effective, teaching must be a balance.
You have a very specific job with clear responsibilities, and so do your students. Sending students to time-out effectively, then, must support this idea—with you doing your part and they doing theirs.
Be precise about when and how a rule is broken and what happens when it is. Teach and model both the student’s role and yours. Lay it all out ahead of time. Leave nothing to chance and no stone unturned.
You’ll discover that this form of time-out is a different animal altogether.
Quite simply, it has the power to not only remove your stress related to enforcing consequences, but to very effectively curb misbehavior.
PS – There is a lot to this topic, including how to teach time-out, how long students should stay, how they should leave, and more. All have been covered extensively and can be found in our archive at right as well as in our books and guides.
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I’m retiring. And no one ever shared this wisdom with me before. It would be nice if teachers were treated with this amount of respect as they learn the rules if their very complex job. Thank you for this smart advice. I wonder if this advice works with emotionally hurt and mistreated (at home/in society) children, or do you simultaneously teach restorative practices as well?
Not with some of my students. I had one refuse to leave. I called the principal. She had to ask him SIX TIMES. KIDS DO NOT FEAR Authority OR CONSEQUENCES…
Just because you have a title doesn’t mean you have authority. Had you had authority AND asked in a way that didn’t make the kid think it was his last stand at the Alamo, he would have left. If your principal had authority, he would have left.
That’s my biggest problem in my classroom. My 9-10 year olds have zero fear of adults. Mostly because no real discipline is happening in their lives. If I send an email home, most parents say they “talked” to their student. I don’t send notes home for every misstep, it is usually continual misbehaviour and I make sure they know that.
1.You are assuming that your students have been socialized enough to realize what you’ve said and then to do what they’re told.
2. I am clearly seeing the child who looks at you and gives a challenging rejoinder. (This example grows within the classroom.)
3. Someone with autism or oppositional defiance (regular attendees in our modern-
day classroom of inclusion) will be unwilling or unable to comply.
When pre-taught, practiced, and surrounded by a context of authentic respect and love by the teacher, ALL students respond to this. I’ve used this method and seen how beautifully it works, even with the kids you mention. There may be an occasional outlier, but that would definitely be the rare exception. Kids respond well to gentle, consistent accountability.
True!
At one school I taught at, the kids would simply not get up to go to their time-out spot and the few that did, they would distract the class by goofing off. Any suggestions when this happens?
Hi Rebecca,
This topic has been covered too. Please check out the Time-Out category of the archive.
I love this kind of articles .
Thanks a lot.
I really appreciate what you write they are interesting topics.
When a teacher tells the child s/he has a time out, then turns and walks away, I can imagine kids with the chutzpah to not obediently get up and go. Then what?
Great! I like the referee analogy. One question – My room is small / crammed with desks so there is no space for time out. Any suggestions?
Send them to another room
Based on several comments posted here it is evident people have not done their own research through the rich treasure trove this website is. Search your questions in the search bar. Every question asked so far has been answered in more than one article.
Also, if my kids are refusing to go to time out, it’s a symptom of having already given my power as a teacher away and od having little to no leverage in class. If I have not created a class and community my kids are not DYING to be a part of, I have VERY little leverage over their behavior and my consequences become meaningless and enforcement of them breaks rapport even further garnering mistrust, resentment, and rebelliousness.
The power is in MY hands to do what I can to make my classes the thing students look forward to every day, not the students’ responsibility to behave well to make if possible for me to feel good so that I can have a good class and behave well. To use Michael’s analogy, I am the thermostat and the students the thermometers – not the other way around.
My tone may sound harsh in written form. It can often feel that way with the bare truth of responsibility and power we have as teachers. No one is to blame – not even ourselves. AND! NO one has the power to shift the mindset in the classroom except me the teacher (unless I’ve given it away to the students, parents, admin, or weather).
Well Said! Totally Agree!!
The modelling and pre-teaching are key points to make it work for all children. When done this way, it is not personal, and does not trigger that oppositional/defiant response. Also, intervening this way quickly rather than nagging several times first – which is generally what starts to create anxiety and negative emotion.
On our country we cannot send them out the class, to time out, admonish, give lines or any form of ‘punishment’. No detention. All considered corporal punishment. You can do physical education but can’t have learners do a few jumping jacks as consequence for not doing homework. The parents rush to the Dept. Our teachers have no recourse when it comes to discipline.
What country is this? I’m dying to know.
How do you do time-out in high school without it looking childish to the student?
I recommend checking out Michael’s high school plan. It’s quite different from his elementary and early middle school rules and consequences.
What do you do if more than one student needs to be sent to time out at the same time? I am going to set up a desk in the back but that would only be for one student.
What do you do when the student just ignores you (or says “no”) and stays in their chair? Had that happen today