The 3 Keys (Part 1): Building Positive Relationships

When formulating my “Jigsaw Approach to Classroom Management” back in 2008, I made the following observations:

A safe learning environment relies on positive teacher-student relationships and positive peer relationships.

Teachers can develop such relationships by taking a meaningful interest in their students’ lives, and promoting an anti-bullying ethos through their words and actions.

Make an effort to forge positive, respectful relationships with your more challenging students.

Study the purpose and triggers of their behaviours, and learn about their backgrounds. Use behaviour management strategies which target the cause of their misbehaviour, and remember they too have the right to a safe learning environment.

In my teaching experience, I have found these two factors to be absolutely critical in successfully working with challenging students. I am not alone in thinking along these lines …

… one of the most common objections which comes up when we talk about this subject… “I’m a busy teacher, I don’t have time to build relationships with challenging students?”

The answer to that is “You don’t have time NOT to build relationships with challenging students.” 

Think about the amount of time spent mopping up incidents, and dealing with students who don’t follow instructions – THAT is a huge waste of time. 

Many teachers complain that they are unable to do their jobs purely because of the time spent dealing with behaviour problems. Students are more likely to behave for a teacher they respect, trust and get on with so spending time building relationships with them is going to SAVE you time in the long run.

Chris (June 15, 2010). Making Time to Build Relationships with Students. From the Behaviour Needs Blog

Coming Up: Relationship Building Strategies

1) Small Talk: BIG Rewards
2) Get Involved with Breakfast / Lunchtime Clubs / Activities
3) The Importance of Active Listening

A Brief Interlude

I have had a very busy few weeks, working close to full-time relief and visiting two new schools, bringing my total up to 23. I’ve also started writing my first proper merit-select applications for full-time/part-time employment in 2011, a very slow and painful process.

I recently received some wonderful feedback on A Relief Teacher’s Journey, which I have permission to share:

“I think it’s fabulous, and provides sound evidence of your growing professional knowledge and your capacity for self-reflection focused on improvement … You would be an asset to a school.”

Liz Healy
Manager, Professional Learning and Teacher Development
Professional Learning Institute
Department of Education, WA

“Wow!! Its amazing.  So very impressive.  I’m impressed with your detailed reflection, your actions, and your considered thoughts on your craft. 

This blog could be a fantastic tool for teachers to access.  Not only in terms of reading about your stories, thoughts, learning and outcomes, but also to know they’re not alone in their ventures.

Relief teaching, as well as normal classroom teaching, can at times, be very isolating.  Your honesty is refreshing and your willingness to share your learning and knowledge is just fabulous.”

Jill van de Ruit
Consultant Professional Learning
Department of Education, WA

I’ll be returning to my blogging endeavours shortly, and hope to complete my several thousand word treatise on effective classroom management in a few weeks.

Cheers,

Michael

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Queen Mary II in Fremantle Harbour, WA (March 14, 2010)

What is a “problem” or challenging behaviour?

A ‘problem’ behaviour is a particular behaviour, defined by its context, intensity, and frequency, which is expressed in an inappropriate social situation (Conway, 2005, p. 211).

While a student’s ‘problem’ behaviours may offend, annoy, or irritate their teachers and peers, they are rarely meant to be spiteful. Such behaviours are associated with poor social skills, and usually indicate an attempt to avoid work, seek attention, or communicate frustration (p. 211).

Is it fair to blame the ‘problem’ student for their behaviour?

Many teachers blame ‘problem’ behaviours on the student’s poor self-control and parenting, laziness, or their special needs ‘label’ (e.g. Autism, ADHD). Unfortunately, this attribution ignores the underlying causes and communicative purposeof the behaviour.

There are many factors which can contribute to ‘problem behaviours’, and very few lie with the student.

Causes/Triggers of Problem Behaviours

The Student

  • Frustration & anxiety – they may be unable to work independently, or may not understand the task.
  • Poor social skills
  • Underlying learning difficulties
  • Special needs (e.g. ADHD, Autism Spectrum Disorder)

The Home Environment

  • Unstable / dysfunctional family environment
  • Low socio-economic status
  • Family values and attitude to schooling
  • Lack of parental support
  • History of neglect or abuse
  • Culturally acceptable behaviours (e.g. attitudes towards women)

The Teacher

  • Negative attitude towards student’s behaviour
  • Inappropriate (unintentional) reinforcement of problem behaviours – providing negative attention, being drawn into power-struggles.
  • A classroom management style based on power and dominance, rather than relationships.

The School & Curriculum Environment

  • Boring and unstimulating classroom environment
  • Peer provocateurs (students who instigate / negatively respond to their peer’s problem behaviour)
  • Inappropriate level of curriculum difficulty
  • Lack of appropriate teaching and learning adjustments
  • Reliance on teacher-centred strategies – ‘chalk & talk’

(Conway, 2004, pp. 210-213)

Exploring the Purpose of a Student’s Challenging Behaviour

A student’s challenging behaviour is purposeful, and may fall into one/more of these categories – Power, Attention Seeking, Withdrawal (Assumed Disability), or Revenge/Anger.

When you understand the underlying purpose of the challenging behaviour, you are better able to respond to its underlying causes and incidence in the classroom/playground. This can prove invaluable knowledge.

For further information, I highly recommend reading the relevant chapter in Classroom Management: A Thinking & Caring Approach(Bennett, B. & Smilanich, P., 1994).

I also recommend the Quick Strategies notes on the Behaviour Needs websites, which provides a list of graduated responses to common misbehaviours (e.g. attention-seeking, confrontation, disruption). (http://www.behaviourneeds.com/quick-strategies/)

 

Summing Up:

Advice for Teachers on the Firing Line

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As a relief or subsitute teacher, I know what is like to be on the ‘firing line’ – I’ve worked with a range of students exhibiting ‘problem’ or ‘challenging’ behaviours. I’ve been kicked, sworn at, received “attitude”, and dealt with my fair share of fights and runaways.

I’ve made my mistakes, but gee, I’ve learnt some fundamental lessons along the way.

 

To work effectively with challenging students, teachers need:

  1. To try and understand the causes, environmental triggers, and underlying purpose of the problem behaviour(s). (This is easier said than done)
  2. To identify appropriate proactive and reactive behaviour management strategies for the individual student.
    • Proactive strategies target the underlying causes of the ‘problem’ behaviour & promote social inclusion (e.g. high expectations, teaching social skills, dealing with peer provocateurs)
    • Reactive strategies guide the teacher’s graduated responses to the incidence of the problem behaviour (e.g. Time Out, Buddy Class, Loss of Reward Time)
  1. A commitment to building a positive teacher-student relationship; building trust and mutual respect, and working to engage the student in their learning. This may involve the formulation of an IEP / Behaviour Plan.

These fundamental lessons, drawn from university research and relief teaching experience, form the basis of my “Three Keys to Working with Challenging Students”, as outlined in my previous post.

 

References

Conway, R. (2005). ‘Encouraging positive interactions’. In P. Foreman (Ed.). Inclusion in Action, Melbourne: Thomson, [Chapter 6: pp. 210-251].

Keen D and Knox M. ‘Approach to challenging behaviour : a family affair’. [online]. Journal of Intellectual and Developmental Disability;.29(1), pp.52-64. Retrieved March 25, 2008, from http://search.informit.com.au/

Challenging Students: Dealing with Student Anger, Defiance, Aggression, and Violence

As a relief teacher, I meet and work with challenging students on a regular basis; and it is fair to say that my 2008 school experience and 2009 relief teaching experience in a TRIBES school have defined my attitude and management approach towards these students.

My experiences, observations, and professional learning in these schools underpin my ongoing efforts as a relief teacher to win-over and build effective relationships with my most challenging students. They have also contributed to some of my major success stories working with students that some dread to teach.

Common Characteristics of Challenging Students

  • Their behaviour disrupts the learning process, verbally or physically harms others, frustrates their teachers, and often results in office withdrawal or school suspension. 
  • They are usually male, ranging in age from 7-12 years old (K-7). I have also worked with some challenging female students, but they are usually found in upper primary. 
  • They can be socially-isolated, or associate themselves with students with similar background experiences. 
  • Their behaviour is directly linked to the emotional / social baggage they bring to school, and is motivated and purposeful.
  • They generally can’t cope with changes in classroom routines, and are more likely to negatively respond to relief teachers. 
  • The attitude and management approach of the classroom teacher, and school staff, are CRITICAL to a successful intervention with a challenging students

 The Three Keys to Working with Challenging Students

  1. Focus on Building Positive Relationships
  2. Focus on the Classroom Learning Environment
  3. Focus on the Teacher’s Attitude, Professional Knowledge, and Management Approach

I will be discussing these “Three Keys” in the context of Rod Plevin’s (2009) eBook: MAGIC Classroom Management: How to get the most from the worst kids in school (www.classroom-management.org), as his approach mirrors the lessons I have learnt over the past few years.

Dealing with Challenging Behaviour (Belize Teacher Training)
 

The “Theory of Bumps” Explained

This is a summary of the key ideas & strategies I learnt to employ while applying the ‘Theory of Bumps’ framework in my relief (substitute) teaching practice.

For detailed explanations and descriptions of the framework and management strategies, I recommend obtaining a copy of Classroom Management: A Thinking & Caring Approach (Bennett, B. & Smilanich, P, 1994)

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Bump 1: Low-Key Responses

Purpose:  To clearly communicate that the teacher is aware of what is happening in their classroom by managing classroom routines, and swiftly and quietly dealing with student misbehaviour before it becomes a problem.

Key Characteristics

  • Winning Over – Meet students at the door, take a genuine interest in their lives, develop positive relationships
  • Explicitly teach & reinforce signals for gaining attention and procedures for lesson transitions – Specify the WHEN, WHAT and WHO of the transition. Practice (repeatedly) and give explicit feedback on students performance. (This is an art)
  • Vary your position in the class. Be a moving target. Don’t be afraid to move in amongst students to ensure compliance, especially when seeking their attention prior to issuing instructions
  • Facilitate interesting learning experiences – use instructional learning strategies
  • Non-verbal/Minimal Verbal Responses – active scan, use of proximity, “the look”, use of student’s name, dramatic pause, hand gestures, assertive body language, planned ignore (of attention-seeking behaviour)
  • Demonstrated respect & polite attitude towards ALL students, particularly those who are misbehaving
  • Be careful using proximity / touch – beware of & respect students’ personal space & cultural differences. Seek to avoid ‘standing over’ or ‘backing students into a corner’.
  • Your allies, those students who are actually demonstrating their best behaviour, are an asset. Reinforce their positive behaviours, and try to avoid collective punishment
  • Focus on the behaviour, not the student. This communicates to the student that they are accepted in the classroom, but their negative behaviours are not.

Bump 2: Squaring Off

The teacher bumps up to ‘squaring off’ when the use of several low-key management strategies have failed to stop the misbehaviour.

Key Characteristics

  • You pause (and stop talking)
  • You turn to towards the student (square off)
  • You give a minimum verbal request to stop
  • Finish with a “thankyou”
  • Resume the lesson

Bump 3: Either/Or Choice

Stop, make eye contact with the student, and offer them a either/or choice. Use an assertive, unemotional voice. For example: “You have a choice – you can choose to behave, or you can choose to go to buddy class. What do you want to do?” Wait for response, and end with a “Thankyou”.

This process doesn’t have conducted in public. Students hate to be shamed or humiliated, and a public reprimand is not always the best approach. In some cases, it is very important to remove the audience. Taking misbehaving students aside for a quiet chat, or keeping them behind for a few minutes at Recess can prove extremely effective, particularly if you are dealing with an angry / attention seeking student. Waving an Office Referral slip under their nose can also be surprisingly effective.

Bump 3 makes the student responsible for their own behaviour, and the consequences they will face if they choose to continue their misbehaviour.

 

Bump 4: Implied Choice

If the student continues to misbehave, follow through with the consequence from Bump 3. “You’ve made your choice, please …”

 

Bump 5: Power

If a student tries to draw you in a power struggle, you need to recognise and circumvent it. This is NOT easy, but essential if you wish to maintain your sanity in complex behaviour situations. I will go into more detail about this in an upcoming post about aggressive/ violent/at-risk children.

If the student moves to power, it is often best to take a step back from the situation, ignore or calmly describe the behaviour, or ask the student to leave the classroom due to severity.

If you are faced with a situation where the student has lost control of their anger (e.g. throwing chairs), it is important to remove the audience (either the class or the student) to avoid shaming them, and to allow them to calm down. This also allows the teacher time to consider an appropriate course of action.

 

Bump 6: Informal Behaviour Contracts

This usually involves formal/informal agreements between the teacher and the student. It may also involve the formulation of Individual Behaviour Plans, in consultation with parents, specialists, etc.

References
Bennett, B & Smilanich, P. (1994). Classroom Management: Thinking and Caring Approach. Bookstation Inc. Toronto, Ontario

Department of Education and Training (WA): Behaviour Standards and Wellbeing Directorate (2007). Classroom Management Strategies Awareness Workshop Notes.

Julien-Schultz, L. (2008-2009). Preventing and Responding to Misbehaviour through Low-Key Responses. Nipissing University: Faculty of Education. Accessed (2/8/2010) from: http://www.nipissingu.ca/faculty/ronjc/EDUC4454Management/powerpoints/class4_bump1.ppt

The “Theory of Bumps”

The “Theory of Bumps” (Bennett & Smilanich, 1994) is a framework which guides teachers’ responses to student misbehaviour along a continuum of severity.

The Key Principles of the “Theory of Bumps”

  • An effective teacher expects and plans for student misbehaviour as a natural part of the learning process. They aim to prevent or reduce the severity of student misbehaviour, minimising its’ impact on the learning process.
  • Student misbehaviour is purposeful, falling into one or several categories – attention seeking, power seeking, revenge, assumed failure (the “I can’t” syndrome
  • Student misbehaviour is designed to provoke particular teacher responses, which often escalate/reinforce the negative behaviours
  • Teachers have no influence over the emotional baggage their students bring to school. The only thing they CAN control is their response to students’ misbehaviour

 

Trust Me, This Works

I can personally attest to the practical effectiveness of the “Theory of Bumps”, as it underpins and influences my proactive classroom management approach, as articulated in previous postings.

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The Four Stages in the Context of my Teaching Practice

Stage 1: Moving from Blissful Ignorance to Recognising Stark Reality

When I started teaching, I thought that my experiences in my final year practicum had prepared me for managing student behaviour as a qualified teacher. My first week of relief teaching proved that I was wrong.

I attended my first Graduate Teacher Module with literally two days teaching to my name. At the time, I was heavily focussed on curriculum planning for literacy and numeracy, an area in which I was most definitely “consciously unskilled”, and had little time to think about classroom management.

Some disastrous relief teaching experiences over the coming months marked my remarkably swift transition from Level 1 to Level 2 on the “Conscious Competence Ladder”, as I realised just how unskilled I actually was. This was indeed a most “uncomfortable” and extremely stressful period, as the development of my classroom management skills became a matter of survival.

In June 2009, a review of my strengths and weaknesses revealed my significant issues with: 

  • Gaining student attention, without raising my voice to excess (to be heard over the chaos)
  • Being fair and consistent with classroom discipline (particularly with ‘resistant’ behaviours)
  • Establishing my personal expectations for student behaviour.
  • Establishing a broad repertoire of graduated consequences, particularly for dealing with prolonged, more serious misbehaviour.
  • An overreliance on humour to defuse classroom management situations, which tended to aggravate cheeky behaviours (A big thankyou to the CMS consultant who pointed this out)
  • Establishing a repertoire of relief activities, games, and time-fillers for various year levels, helping to keep students on-task and interested on unplanned relief jobs (with no work left)

Moving from Level 2 into Level 3: Developing my Classroom Management Approach

Over the next three to four months, I made behaviour management a priority goal for for my personal professional development; engaging in widespread reading, collegial discussions, work-shadowing, and reflective writing. I particularly benefited from working with the DET Classroom Management Strategies (CMS)Trainers, where I observed teachers’ model lessons, and talked with the assessors about my developing management approach.

While working in Stage 2, I learnt one of the greatest lessons I ever learnt as a relief teacher. Through my observations of experienced teachers, and discussions about their behaviour management approach, I learnt that my colleagues were the greatest professional learning resource I was ever likely to meet, and that asking for help was not a sign of weakness.

One of the greatest resources I picked up on my relief travels, through about 13 schools at that stage, was a CMS PD handout,  based on excerpts from Barrie Bennett & Peter Smilanich’s Classroom Management: A Thinking & Caring Approach.

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I used this text’s detailed explanations of the “Theory of Bumps” and explicit strategy descriptions to guide my journal reflections and goal setting for experimenting and evaluating new management strategies. Over time, I documented improvements in my use of attention signals, managing transitions, use of graduated consequences, and efforts to win over my most troublesome students.

One journal entry from July 2009 brings back some interesting memories, as I recorded my reflections on my “ghosting” behind misbehaving/off-task students and standing there until they noticed my presence. I remember reading over my notes from Graduate Module 1, wondering if this approach was too frightening for the students. I was starting to realise that some students HATE surprises, and I was worried that it might provoke an unintended and perhaps violent reaction, despite my intention to lighten up the situation with a mock-serious ‘look’.

With several students commenting that I was “scary” or “evil”, due to this aforementioned practice, I decided to position myself in the offending students’ line of sight, and soon abandoned this potentially negative practice.

Working in Level 3: Noticing a significant reduction in my management challenges

Returning to relief teaching in February 2010, I began to notice a significant change in my classroom management approach.

  • The student-teacher relationships I had worked so hard to foster in 2009 had led to a positive reputation amongst my students, and I was surprised by the level of enthusiasm I received in a variety of schools
  • I had clear expectations for student behaviour and attention, and wasn’t afraid to sit the class down and explain them
  • While continuing to express my ironic sense of humour, I was increasingly able to flexibly move to direct, explicit management strategies when the situation required
  • I was increasingly using a variety of management strategies, flexibly changing my approach to suit the particular student or class I was teaching.
  • I was finally starting to master my use of non-verbal and non-verbal techniques, and was improving in my management of lesson/class transitions

My increasingly confident management approach, accompanied by my experimentation with the use of instructional strategies to liven up boring relief activities, led to a marked reduction in my classroom management challenges – both inside, and outside the classroom.

In March 2010, I reflected on several classroom/playground incidents where I was able to effectively respond to medium to high level management challenges. I have decided to share some journal excerpts here:

I had a major management success recently which I managed to effectively deal with an emotionally unstable student’s outburst (screaming) in class. By the time the Deputy Principal (walking nearby) looked in to see what had happened, I had the class working normally with the student in question given space behind me to calm down. She had a nasty shock – and so did I.”

I did have one situation where I felt of my depth, where I had to deal with a Year 4 student verbally threatening and assaulting a fellow student. My initial priority was to remove the protagonist from the situation, and then talk to the victim. To complicate matters; however, the protagonist kept returning to dish out more, and thankfully a more experienced teacher was able to provide assistance. While I didn’t perform poorly in the situation, I have drawn some positive lessons which will help me deal with similar situations in the future.

Today, (11/3/10), I was placed in an extremely challenging Year 4/5 class at [school removed]. While the Deputy Principal assisted with several severely challenging students, I was pleasantly surprised to find myself keeping the class under (reasonable) control for nearly a whole day. I experimented with having students sitting on the mat at the day (and when introducing some activities), establishing my signals and behavioural expectations. I borrowed this technique from another relief teacher, and I strongly suspect it helped establish my control over the class.

Moving into Stage 4: Redefining my Self-Development Priorities

As I write this post in early Term 3, 2010, I feel I am finally starting to move into Stage 4 in the development of my behaviour management skills. While I am still working on a few niggling issues (e.g. controlling student movement between classrooms, working out tailored management steps for particular students), I have become a more confident and effective classroom manager in sometimes challenging relief situations.

I am now moving my professional development focus from managing student misbehaviour to developing my instructional skills, learning how to translate a teacher’s daily work-pad / relief notes into meaningful learning activities. Having recently engaged in a variety of professional learning workshops at the Professional Learning Institute’s Autumn and Winter Vacation Schools, I am now working to translate my broad professional knowledge into my relief teaching practice.

Experimenting with Year 6 Reading

A good example of this changing focus was a Year 6 reading lesson I taught earlier this week, when I was asked to “read through a [dense and wordy] information sheet about the Australian Gold Rush with students, and have them answer the comprehension questions on the back in their reading pads”.

While in the past I might have literally followed the teacher’s directions, I decided to experiment with encouraging students’ practice of the ‘scanning’ reading strategy. I asked the class to read the questions on the back of the sheet, and highlight paragraphs / sections of the text which would help them answer them.

After allowing time for silent reading & highlighting, students shared information from the text which they could use to respond to the questions. Before moving on to the writing component of the lesson, I asked if someone could explain why “I asked them to scan the text”. Asking one of my most challenging students to share his idea, I was shocked when he correctly and succinctly answered that it allowed him to “get the gist of the text without reading everything”.

I personally took a lot of personal satisfaction out of this session, as I have finally started finding opportunities to clarify & develop my literacy teaching practice following my engagement in First Steps professional development seminars. I will be exploring this changing focus in more detail in a later post.

The Conscious Competence Ladder: The Four Stages of Skill Development

As I learnt in Graduate Module 1, there are four stages in skill development, and this has particular relevance to teachers’ use of behaviour management strategies.   

I am currently seeking permission to reproduce a definition of this model from the MindTools website. Until then, please visit this link for a full definition.

The Four Stages

Level 1 – Unconscious Incompetence
(You Don’t Know that You Don’t Know)

Level 2 – Conscious Incompetence
(You Know that You Don’t Know)

Level 3 – Conscious Competence
(You Know that You Know)

Level 4 – Unconscious Competence
(You Don’t Know that You Know – It Just Seems Easy!)

Part 6: My Experiences with the Third ‘R’

Moving to a more student-centred curriculum

To date, my experience with the Third ‘R’ has been limited to a form of curriculum negotiation in my Year 3 class of 2008, but what a story I have to tell …

As I began my teaching experience, exploring our Under the Sea theme, my initial planned learning experiences were primarily teacher-directed. Over the course of those eight weeks  I learnt how to facilitate open-ended learning tasks, encouraged students’ sharing of their prior knowledge and experiences,  learnt to keep my “teacher talk” to a minimum, and (unwittingly) tapped into a wealth of community knowledge.

A good example of my early approach was the science lesson about fish adaptations, which saw students observe, handle and draw the features of real (dead) fish. This highly authentic and extremely unusual activity created quite a stir amongst staff and students; and while it achieved the desired learning outcomes, some students’ still live in “fear” of Mr Graffin’s “little friends” returning to haunt them!

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Negotiating the Curriculum to Reflect Students’ Experiences, Knowledge, and Interests

As I became more confident in planning and facilitating student learning, I began to inquire into my students’ lives and communities through my “Fishing Equipment” & “Fishing Letters” activities. While I initially perceived this as a natural extension of my teaching, this change represented a fundamental shift in my theoretical understandings of my teaching practice, moving towards encouraging students’ active involvement in the learning process. 

Halfway through the term, I decided that students would write letters to inquire into the commercial fishing industry, supporting their achievement of the Society & Environment – Investigation, Communication & Participation outcomes.

As a prelude, I invited parents and students to share their fishing expertise and experiences with the class. The response blew me away, as they brought lobsters pots, fishing rods, shells, crab pots, a tackle box, diving float, mussel floats, rope splicing equipment, and even a GPS unit to class, much of which they loaned for our Open Night displays.

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My students happily spent an entire lesson examining the different types of fishing equipment, and I had several boys and girls, including “Roy”, enthusiastically teach the entire class (and the teacher!) about how they used fishing rods, crab pots, and hand-reels in their lives. I discovered Roy’s deep love of mussels (shellfish) and interest in crabbing; and learnt that another student’s father ran a local mussel farm.

This activity marked a turning point for Roy, the most challenging student in the class. I had finally found a topic which he was interested in, and about which he could contribute his knowledge to the class. From this movement forward, I noted a significant decrease in his challenging classroom behaviours (while I was teaching), and a corresponding increase in his enthusiasm and engagement in his learning.

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Later, students brainstormed questions they had about the fishing industry, and wrote letters to various family members, local businesses, and John West Tuna (Simplot Australia), seeking answers. We ultimately received answers to most of our letters, with some amazing results.

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We received a wonderful letter from the marketing department at John West Tuna, who decorated their office with our students’ letters. They also sent us an inflatable tuna can, inflatable fish, and a carton of Tuna to Go. Naturally, the teacher got first pick…

We also received letters from WA Mussel Co-Op, and several students’ relatives working as commercial fishermen throughout Western Australia

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So, what did I learn from this experience?

  • Negotiating the curriculum, even in a small way, can have significant, and sometimes unexpected positive impacts on the learning process
  • Students, and their families, can bring useful knowledge, expertise, and skills to class. Recognising these boosts students’ self-esteem and impacts on their classroom behaviours.
  • As a teacher, your choice of learning experiences, curriculum design, and teaching approach significantly influence your students’ motivation and classroom behaviours.
  • Effective, proactive classroom managers seek to engage students in their learning by making it interesting and relevant to their lives and experience. Motivated, engaged students are much less likely to misbehave.

These ideas are reflected in my teaching philosophy: “What students bring to class is where learning begins. It starts there and goes places.”
Ira Shor. (1992). Empowering Education: Critical Teaching for Social Change.

Part 5: The Third ‘R’ – (Shared) Responsibility

The Third ‘R’ of an effective learning environment relates to developing students’ sense of responsibility for their learning and classroom environment.

To effectively manage this long-term process, graduate teachers need to clarify their position in, and plans for their classroom learning environment. My personal approach has been influenced by my teaching philosophy and relief teaching experience in TRIBES schools.

I hope to create a classroom learning community where I facilitate, rather than dictate, the learning process. I want to develop my students’ skills for cooperation and higher-order thinking; enabling them to become active, informed and multi-literate learners. This means I will be ultimately positioning myself as a co-learner in the classroom community, using students’ questions, skills, and talents to drive the learning process, within the boundaries of the set curriculum. For this to work, I will need to develop the ‘Third ‘R’.

As a relief teacher, I have observed and researched various avenues for developing this in the classroom, with each strategy building on the last.

1) Developing Classroom Rules with Students

While classroom rules are an essential feature of virtually every classroom%20rulesclassroom; to be truly effective, students need to be given the opportunity to “own” their class rules by negotiating them with their teacher.

This sense of ownership ensures students share the responsibility for the effective running of the learning environment.

2) Differentiating & negotiating curriculum, themes, and learning experiences to reflect students’ interests, talents and expertise

With the pressures of an overcrowded curriculum, the need to meet system priorities (e.g. NAPLAN), and rigorous assessment and reporting demands, it is often difficult to negotiate core curriculum content with students.

What we can do; however, is differentiate the curriculum to reflect students’ interests, special talents, multiple intelligences, skills, and community resources. This can be achieved through Term themes (eg. Colonial Australia, Under the Sea, The Solar System); open-ended learning tasks (e.g inquiry projects); use of Blooming SMART matrixes; teaching higher-order thinking skills; and weaving students’ questions through unit learning experiences.

A step up from this might involve students negotiating assessment criteria and presentation mediums. Developing shared rubrics, and encouraging students’ to use different technologies/learning products (eg. PhotoStory, PPT, short movie, podcast) to share their learning, are powerful ways to involve students in the learning process. 

If a student has a special skill (eg. film-making), why not encourage them to use it in class – to share their learning and to teach others? Teachers DON’T have to be technological experts – use your more knowledgeable students’ as “peer teachers” instead.

The move to negotiating curriculum requires a shift in thinking on behalf of both the students and the teacher. Our students tend to be used to being passive receivers of information, and may lack the necessary skills and understandings to actively participate in their learning. Therefore, teachers need to explicitly teach the necessary social and cooperative skills prior to negotiating curriculum with their students. Also, teachers need to adjust to their new role and status in the classroom, moving away from being the ‘font of all knowledge’ towards being a “life-long learner”.

This is NOT an easy process, requiring extensive professional research and reflection, but implemented effectively, the rewards are life-long.

Excellent Resources – Curriculum Differentiation:

Blooming SMARTs Matrix 

Thinking Curriculum (Kurwongbah State School, QLD)

Tony Ryan’s Thinker’s Keys [pdf]

3) Explicitly teaching social or “working together” skills, which underpin collaborative learning

I have now taught in 21 schools in the Perth (Western Australia) metropolitan area, and I have only seen the explicit teaching of social skills in three, upper primary classrooms.

In our society, there is an incredible need to teach social skills as part of the everyday curriculum. By doing so, we are not only helping those children with special needs, but all our mainstream students as well. As the global economy increasingly requires collaborative, active learners & knowledge workers, this has become a pressing learning priority.

Social, or interpersonal skills can be effectively integrated across the curriculum (under the Listening / Speaking strands of the new Australian Curriculum), and reinforced across a range of learning activities.

Drawing upon my reading in this area, I would suggest focussing on one social skill each week; spending perhaps 30-40 minutes/week explicitly exploring what the skill looks/sounds/feels like, role-playing social situations, and incidentally reinforcing its’ use across the curriculum.

For some excellent social skills teaching resources, and professional learning materials, I highly recommend a visit to these sites:

http://www.lauracandler.com/strategies/socialskills.php 

Kurowongbah Unit – I Can Make a Difference (Yrs 1-3) [doc]

4) Develop a classroom community based on the four TRIBES agreements

tribagre 

While I have seen the enormously positive impacts of the TRIBES approach in some extremely challenging schools, my professional knowledge or training in its application is minimal at present.

I will seek to develop my understandings in this area over the coming months, and eventually plan to undertake formal TRIBES training. I will update this post then.

In the meantime, I would recommend visiting these sites for further information:

TRIBES Official Site: www.tribes.com 

Explanation: http://www.southkent.net/~bdhs/tribes/Tribesexplain.htm

tribes_learning_community_lg

Sourced from: http://www.westfieldpremiersscholarship.dpc.wa.gov.au/index.cfm?event=reports2004