If you follow a classroom management plan consistently but are still frustrated by how often rules are broken, there is an easy fix.
It’s also fast and effective.
Here’s how it works:
Step One – Identify 3-5 Misbehaviors
You’ll notice the same few misbehaviors are responsible for the high frequency of rule breaking. It’s usually between three and five.
Identify those few and jot them down.
Step Two – Understand Why
The reason it’s just a few is because some misbehaviors are harder to resist and/or there isn’t a deep enough grasp of the rule.
Thus, impulse control isn’t strong enough.
Step Three – The Solution
The solution is more detail, even if the problem is confined to just a few students. Detail, no matter what you’re teaching, results in deeper understanding.
It fills in the complete picture, making it clearer to see.
Step Four – Model the Exact Behaviors
This is the key step. Model each of the misbehaviors you identified in step one. Act them out as if you’re one of your students.
They must recognize themselves in your modeling. This is called the How-Not strategy.
Step Five – Explain Why
Explain why each misbehavior is disruptive and how it affects learning. The importance of ‘why’ is based on the research of psychologist Ellen Langer.
Keep this step brief. Resist the urge to go on and on.
Step Six – Have Them Model
Now, ask for volunteers to model each rule-breaking behavior and how to stay within the rules. For example, calling out and properly raising one’s hand.
Make sure each of the misbehaviors is student-modeled.
A Class Problem
Not every student in your class will need more detail. In fact, for some, you can hand them a list of rules the first day of school and that’s all they need.
But because the whole class is affected, it’s a class problem.
Thus, even if it’s just a few students struggling and in need of more detail, they must understand their behavior in the context of the class at large. This also provides an additional weight of healthy peer pressure and responsibility.
They have to see and experience how their disruptions affect everyone. The more the picture is filled in, the stronger their impulse control.
It’s worth repeating that the strategy only works—and your most challenging students will only care—if you’re already consistently following through.
In absence of consistency, you’ll be spinning your wheels. Placing band-aides on an injury that needs extensive surgery.
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