Cooperative and Assertive Discipline

COOPERATIVE DISCIPLINE

COOPERATIVE DISCIPLINE

In Chapter 5, we are introduced to a Linda Albert’s work in instill cooperative discipline strategies for cooperative discipline. A lot of her ideas and beliefs about creating a classroom culture are some of the things that are already instilled in my interning classroom. Linda believes that misbehavior is an indicator that a student’s needs are not being met (Charles, p.8). Her main focus is to meet student’s needs in order to sufficiently reduce misbehavior in the classroom. Albert’s central focus on this topic is having the student feel like they belong in the classroom since this is when cooperation from the student is most likely to happen (Charles, p.8).

ALBERT’S PRINCIPAL TEACHING

In this chapter, it gives a list of things teachers should know about their students and how they should set up their classroom environment. Some things that Albert mentions is that students chose their behavior, they need to feel like they belong, and that misbehavior occurs in the classroom for specific reasons (Charles, p.69). I think that knowing that students choose their behavior is important because it’s up to the teacher to create an environment that allows the students to choose a positive behavior over a negative one. Having the student feel like they belong in the classroom will allow them to be more willing to connect with others in the classroom and contribute to what is going on in the class, which would decrease the amount of misbehavior happening in the classroom (Charles, p.69). In my own classroom we try to instill this by having every student in the classroom have a specific job for the week. Each student has a job so no one is left out; this allows them to feel like they belong and have a purpose in the classroom while also contributing to making the classroom rum more smoothly. Also, knowing why you student’s misbehave is key to stopping the behavior before it starts. Students misbehave either because they need attention, are trying to avoid failure, or because they are simply hyper or do not know what is expected of them in the classroom (Charles, p.69). I n our classroom we try to deflect this behavior by reminding the students of what is expected of them or by giving them special attention before they start to act up in class. Encouragement is used all the time in my classroom, especially since we are dealing with 1st graders. This is the best way to motivate good behavior when the students know that you approve of what they are doing or see that they have the potential to do something (Charles, p.69).

WHY STUDENTS MISBEHAVE

This portion of the text helps teachers understand why students act negatively in the classroom. I think that if we know that there is an underlying reason for their behavior, we are less likely to get our own emotions involved and try to help them more than punish them. Albert explains that the main reason students misbehave in the classroom is because they are trying to meet a psychological need to belong (Charles, p.70). When they feel like their needs are not being met they move towards exhibiting mistaken goals which can be either attention- seeking, power-seeking, revenge-seeking, or an avoidance of failure (Charles, p.70).

With attention seeking behaviors, students with use mechanisms like tapping loudly or saying something irrelevant in the classroom in order to get the attention they desire (Charles, p.70). Passive attention-seeking behaviors occur when students lag behind or are slow to comply (Charles, p.70). In my classroom, I have a few students who are this way. They like to make loud noises during instruction or purposefully do something that they know they will get in trouble for only to have the teacher come to them and redirect them. On the other hand, I have students who seem to not listen but are just taking their time to get to where we want them to go. In both cases, the text explains that the student is just trying to have some type of relationship with the teacher (Charles, p.70). In my internship, I make sure that I pat students shoulders as I walk by, give them praise when they do something positive on their own or the first time I ask, and make sure they know that I am there to help them and be there for them.

Avoidance of failure is something else that I see some of my students exhibit. They are the ones who either take their time to get started or do not start at all until the teacher forces them to. The text says that these students are trying to avoid doing poorly at something that seems difficult and would rather look lazy or disinterested in the work ahead of them than look stupid (Charles, p.71). The text gave many examples of solutions that would help students who struggle with this but in my opinion, encouragement is the best solution. I see how much even the toughest students change when they know that they are in a safe, judge-free, environment and that you believe in them and are there to help them each step of the way. I really like that when I am interning, there are four adults in the room which gives us the ability to really focus on the students who need the extra push to see that they can actually accomplish things in school.

THE 3 C’S OF COOPERATIVE DISCIPLINE

The three C’s of cooperative discipline include capability, connect, and contribute (Charles, p.72). The first “C” is all about have the students feel like they are capable of excelling in school (Charles, p.72). Anyone will stop trying when they are fearful of not getting to where they are supposed to be, but it is important that teachers remind their students that making mistakes is okay and that it shows that they are trying and learning (Charles, p.72). The text instructs teachers to build the student’s confidence, and recognize their achievement (Charles, p.73). I this can be done by exhibiting the students work on a bulletin board outside of the classroom or just simply praising them for gaining a new level of achievement. An idea that the chapter had was to make “I-can” cans in which students places a strip of paper into their own individual can so that they can see how much they are learning and accomplishing as the year goes on. This would be a great thing to have in my first grade classroom because my students would love being able to physically see how much they are actually learning and growing in school.

The second “C” is to help the students connect. The five “A’s” that go along with this concept include acceptance, attention, appreciation, affirmation, and affection. Accepting the students not only for what they physically look like but also the background they come from is important thing that I am learning currently in my internship. Sometimes I get frustrated and wonder how some parents could let their child end up the way they are but I just have to put things into perspective and focus on what I can do to help that child, which in this case is to help them feel like they belong. I like how the text said that “affection is freely given with nothing required in return” (Charles, 74). A lot of times because we are human, we do not want to give the same amount of affection to the students in our class that make our jobs harder, but doing so can have positive outcomes in which the student trusts you more and knows that you are only there to help them and not just punish them when they do something wrong. Since some students see affection as a type of reward (which it isn’t), they will then in turn alter their behavior so that they get your affection rather than your punishment.

The last “C” pertains to having the students contribute. In my own classroom, the contribution of each of our student’s every day is a vital part in our classroom management and procedures. We assign the students jobs each week and make sure that we are not only calling on the students who have their hands up by using the Popsicle stick system. This tells the students that the teacher do not only care about hearing the right answer, but rather everyone’s answer. We encourage the students to encourage one another as well. In our classroom we have taught the students how to use positive talk with their peers and to give each other compliments when they have a good idea. The phrase most often used by our students is “You are a smart cookie!”

AVOIDING AND DEFUSING CONFRONTATIONS & IMPLEMENTING CONSEQUENCES

When dealing with confrontations with students and especially on-going and severe confrontations, the teacher is the one who sets the tone in the argument. Students usually want to get a reaction from you when they confront you head on, so giving them nothing and showing them that you can be calm and level-headed shows that you still have the authority in the classroom. I like how that they text said that teachers should say “You seem to have mistaken me for someone who wants to fight. I don’t” (Charles, p.80). Saying this shows the student that you are not willing and have no desire to stoop to their level and that you are consistent in the way that you handle situations no matter how tough. To keep the classroom going, the chapter explains that it is important to move on and let the student know that you will discuss the incident at a later time when they are able to talk in a more civil way (Charles, p.80). I also like that the text said to remind the student that you do not have control over them, even in tough confrontations (Charles, p.80). Saying to them that you can’t make them comply and they have the option to obey or disobey tells them that you are giving them the power they are looking for but also they will receive the consequences of whatever choice they make (Charles, p.80).

When implementing consequences, it is important that the consequence matches the misbehavior, that it is proportional to what they have done, and also that it teaches students to behave properly rather than just be a punishment (Charles, p.81). This will allow the student to feel like what they have received for their actions was fair and in turn will have less resentment towards you because you were fair and was not just trying to seek revenge.

Works Cited

Charles, C. M. Linda Albert's 'Cooperative Discipline'. In Building classroom discipline

ASSERTIVE DISCIPLINE

This chapter had many of the same traits as the Cooperative Discipline chapter, although there were slight differences. The chapter opens up by giving a scenario in which a student is disobeying and the teacher uses assertive discipline in order to get the student to either comply with the rules or adhere to the consequences. The teacher uses “broken record” in which she repeats the same thing each time the students misbehaves and tells the student that they either have the choice to get back to work or comply with the consequences.

This chapter also noted the importance of not only planning the lesson but planning for what you will do when misbehavior arises. Misbehavior will always end up happening throughout the day, it is better to prepare for it and not be surprised, have an action plan, and stick to it. This will eliminate nonassertive and hostile approaches to behavior management. I can relate to this with my observation lesson that I had to do this week. My co-intern and I focused so much one how we would run the lesson a little on what to do to get the student’s attention back on us. Next time, I will plan a behavior plan along with my lessons so that I am prepared and expectant of students to misbehave during instruction.

ESTABLISHING CLASSROOM DISCIPLINE PLAN AND RULES

The text offer three direct steps when creating your own classroom discipline plan. This includes establishing rules that should be followed at all time, developing a way to give your students supportive feedback, and how you will use corrective actions when students choose not to follow the rules. In my classroom, we follow this guideline. In the beginning of the year, we clearly stated the rules and repeat them often when students do not follow them, give supportive feedback almost every time we seea student doing what is expected of them and being proactive, but also stick to our behavior chart when students do not comply to the rules. The only thing that we do not do in my internship is post the rules around the room. I would say it is because we are in a first grade classroom and they cannot read that well but we do have many anchor charts around the room. So far, not having the rules posted around the rooms does not seem to be doing so much damage to the student’s behavior in the classroom.

SUPPORTIVE FEEDBACK

I am all about supportive feedback in the classroom, especially for the little ones that I am dealing with. I can see that it really does fuel them to either do better or continue their positive behavior when I let them know that I realize they have done something right. In our classroom, our behavior chart goes up to blue and purple in which students can pump up their clip whenever the teacher sees them being a leader and setting a good example in the classroom. At the end of the day, each student who is on green or higher gets a fake dollar bill in which they can redeem a prize in the morning the next day. Even though this is an external reward, this chapter talks about the difference between bribing students and giving rewards. Bribing is when you tell them the prize they will get before they have completed the task and a reward is something given after the task is done or has been shown. For one of our more challenging students, we have a behavior plan in which we look over his goal and what he will get if his goal is complete for the day. In a sense this would be considered a bribe because he knows what he will get if he complies with the rules (extra computer time) but I think we made the accommodation from him because the regular behavior management that works for the other students does not work for him.

CORRECTIVE ACTION

The text explains that teachers should look at corrective action as the student’s choice. When you tell the students clearly what the repercussions for is behavior are and they still do not comply, they are then choosing the punishment instead of compliance. The text mentions frequently that consistency is key, so that the student knows they are doing wrong and that you will not change the rules no matter how many times they chose to disobey. It is always vital though that each day the teacher starts new with the student. In my classroom, I like to pretend that whatever happened yesterday didn’t occur and that a new student will walk into my classroom. Having this outlook will help the student feel like the teacher still favors them and also expects the best out of them despite their past.

Some forms of corrective that I do not agree with would be putting the student’s name on the board and also certain methods of isolation. The text says that an alternative to putting the student’s names who are misbehaving on the board, put the students who are doing well in the classroom. In my belief, I would not do this in my own classroom because I would not want my other students to feel like someone who is always good get that special treatment. There are other ways to reward students who show good behavior, but in my opinion, having the name on the board, which would most likely be there all day, reminds the other students that their name isn’t on the board. I always try to imagine myself when I was in elementary school and how I would have wanted to have been treated by the teacher, and that isn’t one of them. In terms of isolation, I do believe that it is ok at time to isolate certain students away from the group when they are being a distraction or are distracting themselves. However, I do not agree in resorting to time outs no matter for how long. In our classroom, we have a place in our classroom called the safe zone which many students (causing trouble or not) utilize on a daily basis. Giving the student the option of going to the safe zone allows them to get away from the noise of the classroom and focus on their own feelings, rather than having a time out where they focus on how bad they have been that day.

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