Helping students understand your classroom expectations
What do you do when a student does not meet or follow your expectations on the second day?
Before I share with you my thoughts, I have a little warning for you.
I only want you to continue to read this poist if you’re down with positive behavior management. I know it’s not everyone’s thing, so if you want to click out of the blog and move on, I totally understand!
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If you’re still reading this then I know you’re on board with positivity, praise, and positive reinforcement.
Now back to the question.
What do you do when a student does not meet or follow your expectations on the second day?
If you’ve been around here awhile, you know I was a special education teacher, so I taught in many co-teaching situations.
In one classroom, the regular ed teacher pointed to a student, Anthony, and said, “Look. He’s not responding to the journal question. Should we write him up for not following directions?”
She was right. He was not meeting the expectation of being actively engaged in his work.
However, from experience with this student, I knew if we put negative energy out there, we would be met with negative energy.
I suggested something new - something that could put positive energy out in the classroom.
I pointed to Blake, sitting beside him, and said, “Look! Blake is doing it. Let’s make a big deal and praise Blake and give him a Jolly Rancher and see what happens.”
I walked over to their table and said so the whole class could hear, “Oh my gosh, Blake! This is amazing! Thank you for putting in so much effort! You rock!” I gave him a fist bump, put a Jolly Rancher next to him, and walked away.
I did a lap around the classroom and continued to say thank you and give Jolly Ranchers to students who were meeting the expectation.
By the time I circled back around, Anthony was writing. I thanked him for his effort and rewarded him with a Jolly Rancher.
The point is most students want and crave this positive attention.
Most of us want to be told we are doing a good job. It feels good to know someone recognizes our efforts.
This leads me back to how I handle students who do not follow my expectations on the second day.
I typically give my students a week's grace period before I start with consequences. During this week, I am praising the heck out of students who remember and follow my expectations.
And because I do not own a Jolly Rancher factory and I don’t feel like spending my entire first paycheck on Jolly Ranchers, I give out tickets like they are candy.
If you walked into my classroom that first week, you would hear:
Thank you, Julie, for getting your materials out in the first three minutes. You’re awesome! Here’s a ticket!
Thank you, Lucas, for starting on your bell ringer after I gave instructions! You’re amazing for remembering that! Here’s a ticket!
Thank you, Aniya, for throwing your trash away at the table trash can. That’s a tough one to remember since we are all used to walking to the trash can! Great job! Here’s a ticket!
Thank you, table four, for keeping your conversation during the activity at your table. Y’all are great! Here’s a ticket for everyone at your table!
That first week, I’m the Oprah of praise and tickets. “You’re awesome! You get a ticket! You get a ticket! You get a ticket!”
Again, everything is said loud enough that other students who are not following the expectation can hear it. They see me praising students who are meeting the expectation. They want the praise and recognition, too, so they do what they’re supposed to.
In short, if I see someone not meeting the expectation, I find someone who is and praise them loud enough for the student whose behavior I’m trying to change to hear. 99% of the time, this works! It’s mind-blowing how effective this strategy is!
If a student continues to not meet the expectation, I quietly remind them of my expectation and ask them if there is anything they need from me to help them.
For example, one of my big expectations is to keep conversations at their tables and not talk to another table group.
If I see someone talking to another table, I go over and calmly say, “Hey Aiden, remember I expect that we keep our conversation to our table group. I saw you talking across the aisle to Izzac. Did you have a question? Is there something I can help you with?” I usually get an “Oh! My bad, Mrs. Kepley. I’m good.” I say thank you and move on. This calm redirection nips it in the bud.
The key here is consistency. You have to constantly be praising students who are meeting the expectation and redirecting, if needed, students who are not - especially that first week.
You can not go over the expectations one time, never bring them up again, and then get frustrated when students don’t meet them.
Students need training to meet your high level of expectations.
If you’ve made it this far, you might be wondering what I do with those tickets I mentioned.
We put them in a bowl at the end of the week, and I draw three winners for random prizes. They might get candy, extra credit points, take a quiz with a friend pass, a forever high five (this is just a piece of paper that has the outline of my hand. 😂) or something silly like a can of corn or a pet rock. They love it!
I do a ticket drawing the first and second week, and then I start spacing it out and giving fewer tickets. So, I will do one on the fourth, sixth, and ninth week.
In the second quarter, I move on to another incentive. You can read about those here.
Honestly, I could go on and on about classroom management.
Outside of teaching strategies, it’s one of my favorite topics!
If you’re vibing with my style…
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