Many years ago I read The Adventures of Robin Hood aloud to my 5th grade class.
One day in the middle of teaching an unrelated lesson a student yelled out “Hey, when are we gonna read Peter Pan?”
It was funny.
The entire class laughed. However, the behavior was disruptive. The student called out in class. It was also disrespectful because he was purposely interrupting.
This is something that absolutely cannot happen. Otherwise, other students can become so embolden. The blatant nature of the act required more than a warning.
Remember, as part of the SCM classroom management plan we recommend, you have the option of skipping the warning step and going straight to a stiffer consequence.
Possible reasons might include:
- Dangerous behavior like standing on a chair.
- Playfighting in class.
- Yelling in anger at a classmate.
- Tantrums.
- Blatant disrespect.
You get the idea. Any behavior that requires you to send a clear message to the student in question, and the rest of the class, that the behavior is utterly unacceptable.
However, the nature of the consequence(s) you give is up to your sole discretion. This is something that must be explained during the first week of school.
I like to add an asterisk at the bottom of my classroom management plan poster that says simply “All consequences are subject to the teacher’s discretion.”
In the case of a class clown who has the gall to disrespectfully interrupt a lesson, a warning isn’t enough. Otherwise, again, the behavior will happen again and encourage others to do the same.
After the class settled down, I sent the student to time-out without a warning. I didn’t say anything to the student, which would only weaken the lesson of the consequence.
Remember, to curb future misbehavior, the student must reflect and decide of their own volition to improve their behavior.
I also kept the student in time-out for a long while. If I recall, about an hour. After allowing him to return to his desk, I never mentioned it again.
And it didn’t happen again.
I don’t believe a warning would have had the same result.
You’re the teacher and leader of the classroom and therefore must make the hard decisions for the benefit of learning and the right of every student to learn without interruption.
In some cases, like that of a blatant class clown, the right call is to jump straight to a stronger consequence.
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Thanks Michael!
I’m teaching in China (third-graders) at an international school. Your articles (and your books I’ve bought) have helped me tremendously. Thanks so much. I still struggle a bit to keep my classroom super tidy, and I have diffulty (at times) to blend fun and serios learning, but it’s been a great journey so far. Your principles make so much sense and your advice really works. God bless you.
Dear Michael,
I’ve been following your blog for years and I’ve always found your advice very useful. I’m very grateful to you, because I think that you have contributed to making my classes calmer and more efficient. I’m a bit confused about your post today. Surely, the strength of the classroom management plan is that it stands on its own, without the teacher making decisions on the spot about the consequences any student might receive at a given time (which might be perceived as arbitrary, and therefore unfair). While I agree that dangerous or outrageous behaviour needs an immediate consequence, I think we should be careful when stating that all consequences are subject to the teacher’s discretion, as it might weaken our role as impartial ‘referees’. Thanks again for your valuable work!
So, what if there is no time out room or place, what would you suggest?
I have the student go to a table in the back of the class or an empty desk and chair in the back of the class, away from the general seating of your students for time-out
I don’t send anyone out of the room. I teach 12-14 year-olds; my “observation mode” is a smallish, heavy chair at the back of the room. Students know they need to pull the chair next to my desk and get the lap-desk that is part of the “mode.” They take all of their things and expect to stay there until the end of class. I ignore them while they get themselves there.
I have had to do a whole-class observation mode a couple of times when multiple students (think 10+ out of 25) were whispering after a whole-class warning. In one instance, I lined them up outside my classroom. Students I KNOW weren’t talking were invited to return inside and continue working silently. Once I whittled it down to the ones I either knew were talking or who talked while exiting the room, I let them stand silently while I stood in the doorway, supervising both (about 5 minutes). Then I reminded them that, since this was step 2, the next step would be a letter home. We have never had to repeat that observation mode.
Great post! I do have one question.
How would ypu handle this class clown student in a high school classroom where the students seem a bit too old for a “time-out”?
Could the same be achieved by sending them out into the hallway?
Hi Steven,
I’ll write about this topic in the future. However, The Classroom Management Plan for High School Teachers covers our entire program and philosophy from start to finish.
I wish it were this straightforward. When you don’t have admin that supports your consequences, you are powerless and the students know it. I would never be allowed to “time out” any of my students for 15 minutes, much less an hour.
When a teacher doesn’t have the authority to establish rules or enforce consequences. It’s a fact that students will treat you with the mode they feel like for the whole school year.
Thank you for the teaching!
When you say that you sent him to time-out where was this and who managed it?
In the classroom, by the teacher.
Thank you for these emails. They are really helpful. I have a couple of emotionally disturbed students who will continue to bball loudly from the time out seat, or continually get up and wave at peers from the time or seat. Our school’s only out- of- class discipline is a planning center, where students can sit and stew while rushing to do a reflection or any classwork. Sending the work home is futile since these students are still studying cvcc words in 5th grade (about 2/3 of the class is low in reading even though it’s green ed). I often give my lunch to host silent lunch detention, and we talk about what expectation needs to be met and how. This type of student is very common in my urban district, making it difficult for others to learn. Please guide me to some of your resources you think would target this specific area. Thank you again.
I absolutely recognize your struggle. Michael’s advice has been very helpful in many ways, but I also would like to see his experience working in these kinds of environments. Year after year, my elementary students who are school ready respond to the structure and discipline Michael supports. On the flip side, year after year I have more students with severe mental health and behavioral needs that go so far beyond this plan that teaching feels ever more overwhelming and unsustainable.
In this instance, what did “time out” look like? In the classroom? Another classroom?
We only recommend in-class time-out.
What if they’re not quiet in time out? …which my student I’m thinking of would not be? What’s the next step?
Btw, thanks for all your articles. They’ve helped me tremendously!
Hi Jeff,
We’ve covered this topic as well as every situation imaginable. When you get a chance, check out the archive in the sidebar or the search bar at top.
I have been transferred to teach middle and high school. I feel the 7th graders are similar but a bit more challenging than 5th and 6th grade. There is one student in particular who is always disruptive. I’m assuming it’s because he enjoys the laughter and attention. Last week, I did put him outside of my classroom at a desk to sit and work on his assignment. He still did not do his assignment but at least he was not disrupting the class anymore.
Thank you for sharing. If this worked for you for that time, then great! However, be really careful when sending a student out of the class. Just as a word of caution, be sure to monitor any student you send out, as it is usually a recipe for disaster. They could disappear, go around disturbing other classes, or worse—they could get into a fight or hurt themselves.
And if the student refuses to go to the time-out / observation area, what next?
This topic has been covered extensively. Please use the Search bar when you get a chance.
Your ideas seems great, but if you don’t have the teamwork from the admin. and you have called the parent what is the next step?