Rutine Lining Up
Content
Fred Jones
Tools for Teaching
Discipline • Instruction • Motivation
Primary Prevention of Classroom Discipline Problems
Study Group Activity Guide
for the third edition of Tools for Teaching
Fredric H. Jones, Ph.D.
Companion to Dr. Jones’
Tools for Teaching
and the
Table of Contents
Introduction
1
Organization Meeting
5
Meeting 1:
Working the Crowd and Room Arrangement
8
Meeting 2:
Praise, Prompt, and Leave
11
Meeting 3:
Providing Visual Instructional Plans
14
Meeting 4:
Say, See, Do Teaching
17
Meeting 5:
Rules, Routines, and Standards
20
Meeting 6:
Understanding Brat Behavior
24
Meeting 7:
Calm is Strength
26
Meeting 8:
The Body Language of Meaning Business
29
Meeting 9:
Eliminating Backtalk
32
Meeting 10:
Responsibility Training
37
Meeting 11:
Omission Training and Preferred Activity Time
40
Meeting 12:
Dealing with Typical Classroom Crises
43
A:
Mess Up: Praise, Prompt, and Leave
46
B:
Mess Up: Visual Instructional Plan
49
C:
Partner Teaching
51
D:
Breathing Practice
53
E:
The Turn
58
F:
Smile Practice
64
G:
Moving In and Moving Out
70
H:
Goof Off
82
I:
Group Problem Solving Process
85
J:
Peer Observation Feedback
89
Addenda
1
Tools forTeaching
Study Group Activity Guide
Introduction
Building Study Groups
Why Study Groups?
Mastering the Specifics
Tools for Teaching is packed with specifics. If you are to master Tools for Teaching,
you will need to study it chapter by chapter. The purpose of our Study Group
Activity Guide is to provide the structure for making this study as productive as
possible.
A Little Help from Your Friends
Implementing Tools for Teaching will be a lot easier with a little help from your
friends. Going through the book with a colleague will greatly increase your comfort level as you try out new ideas in your classroom.
You will receive even more help if you form a Study Group at your school site.
The Study Group can help you perfect management skills prior to implementation in the classroom, and it can help you solve difficult management problems
as they arise.
Affordable Staff Development
With adequate structure, a brief after school meeting can become a significant
learning experience. The Study Group Activity Guide provides structure for the
practice exercises and learning activities that produce comfort with new skills.
Hopefully, working with colleagues will become a permanent part of your school
culture. The time invested in the Study Group will be recouped in parent conferences and IEP meetings that are no longer needed.
2
Study Group Content
Meeting Agenda
The Tools for Teaching Study Group Activity Guide provides structure for 12
Study Group meetings of roughly 45 minutes duration plus an organizational
meeting to help you get started. The 12 Study Group meetings will focus on the
following skill areas:
1) Working the Crowd and Room Arrangement (Chapters 1-4)
2) Praise, Prompt, and Leave (Chapters 5, 6)
3) Visual Instructional Plans (Chapter 7)
4) Say, See, Do Teaching (Chapters 8-10)
5) Rules, Routines, and Standards (Chapters 11, 12)
6) Understanding Brat Behavior (Chapters 13, 15)
7) Calm is Strength (Chapter 14)
8) The Body Language of Meaning Business (Chapters 16, 17)
9) Eliminating Backtalk (Chapters 18-20)
10) Responsibility Training (Chapters 21, 22)
11) Omission Training and Preferred Activity Time (Chapters 23, 24)
12) Dealing with Typical Classroom Crises (Chapters 25, 26)
Meeting Structure
Each Study Group meeting will contain the following:
• Focus Questions: These questions guide your reading of Tools for Teaching
and structure discussions of key concepts during your weekly meetings.
• Study Group Activities: These skill building exercises and classroom simulations provide practice of key classroom management skills.
• The Video Toolbox: When incorporating the Video Toolbox into your
Study Group meetings, these video training sessions enhance the Study
Group Activities by providing insight and visual reference from Dr. Jones.
• Performance Checklists: These outline the steps of implementing each
major skill and serve as a handy review.
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Study Group Activities
Study Group meetings contain the same activities that Dr. Jones uses in his
workshops. These activities transform an after school meeting into a hands-on
workshop. Study Group activities range from skill practice exercises to simulations of complex classroom management situations. These exercises and simulations are described in detail in the Addenda to the Study Group Activity Guide.
While Study Group leaders can reproduce the practice exercises by studying
these Addenda, as always, a picture is worth a thousand words. In order to make
coaching as easy as possible, all practice exercises are modeled by Dr. Jones on
the Coaching Disc of the Video Toolbox.
Study Group Activity Guide Addenda
A: Mess Up: Praise, Prompt, and Leave – a simulation for practicing
Praise, Prompt and Leave with a preexisting lesson plan
B: Mess Up: Visual Instructional Plan – a simulation for practicing
Praise, Prompt, and Leave following the teaching of a lesson by a group
member using his or her VIP
C. Partner Teaching – a simple and efficient format for Say, See, Do
Teaching that is applicable to any subject area
D: Breathing Practice – a relaxation exercise that lays the foundation for
learning the body language of “meaning business”
E: The Turn – the integration of relaxation and a commitment to
meaning business that signals to students the beginning of Limit Setting
F: Smile Practice – an exercise for practicing relaxation in the face of
backtalk
G: Moving In and Moving Out – a series of exercises that build
proficiency in the body language of meaning business for situations that
range from students simply “fooling around” to nasty backtalk
H: Goof Off – a simulation for practicing Limit Setting in a wide variety of
realistic classroom situations
I: Group Problem Solving Process – an efficient problem solving format
that creates safety and comfort for group members
J: Peer Observation Feedback – a simple and supportive format for giving
feedback to colleagues following a classroom observation
4
Study Group Supplements
Video Toolbox
Any attempt to build skills must rely heavily on the visual modality. The Video
Toolbox augments Tools for Teaching by giving you a front row seat at one of Dr.
Jones’ workshops. In the Video Toolbox Dr. Jones explains procedures, models key
skills, and demonstrates skill building exercises.
The Video Toolbox contains 12 training sessions which correspond to the 12
Study Group meetings, an Overview Disc which highlights the entire Tools for
Teaching program, and a Coaching Disc which models the steps of each Study
Group activity. Also, DVD training sessions 1, 3, 4, 5, 10 and 11 include bonus
footage of Tools for Teaching at work in real classrooms. Using the Video Toolbox
will increase your meeting’s length from 45 min. to approximately 75 min.
www.fredjones.com
The Study Group Activity Guide is provided free of charge on our web site
(www.fredjones.com). We encourage you to download it and print copies for
each participant. The web site also contains a PAT Bank where teachers can
share enrichment ideas and learning games, a message board, articles by Dr.
Jones and much more.
Tools for Teaching Workshops
Dr. Jones presents three-day Tools for Teaching workshops throughout North
America to provide training in the skills of classroom management. While many
of the participants are individual teachers, over half of the participants represent
training teams from school districts or school sites. With the structure provided
by Tools for Teaching, the Study Group Activity Guide, and the Video Toolbox, training teams can reproduce Dr. Jones’ program with a high degree of accuracy after
returning from the workshop. See the “Workshops” section of our web site for
current dates and locations (www.fredjones.com/workshops).
5
Tools forTeaching
Study Group Activity Guide
Organization Meeting
Study Group Structure
Study Group Pledge
“I promise to be the kind of student that I would like my own students to be.
I will show up on time, read the assigned chapters before coming to the Study
Group meeting, and participate actively in discussions and group exercises.”
Meeting Guidelines
If you receive significant benefit from attending your Study Group, you will
keep attending. It is extremely important, therefore, that Study Groups be productive. Study Group guidelines are designed to ensure a minimum of wasted
time. They embody years of experience with such groups.
Meet Regularly
Meet on a regular weekly basis. When meetings are held less often such as biweekly, attendance tends to drop off. These meetings should be placed at the
highest level of priority by both the principal and participating faculty so that
they are never cross-scheduled with other faculty activities.
Keep the Group Small
Group size should be kept small so that each member’s concerns can be
addressed in a timely fashion. Work groups of this type are most productive when
the size is limited to roughly 5-8 individuals. If you attempt to simplify scheduling by having one large group, attendance will drop off until you have one small
group. At a given school site there may eventually be several study groups. Crossscheduling can be minimized by having them all meet after school on the same
6
day. If you have a large group attending your organizational meeting, break up
into smaller units at that time.
Start On Time and End On Time
Most Study Groups will meet after school. Do not wait for everyone to show up.
If you do, you will always start late. Keep the meetings short (45 minutes is most
common), and always end at a preset time.
Get To Work
Somebody has to be responsible for saying, “Let’s get started.” That person is
the Study Group leader for that week’s meeting. Rotate the job so that everyone
takes a turn. A simple agenda helps to get things started. For example, the meeting might begin with the sharing of a PAT.
No Complaining
We all have cares and worries that come from students, parents, and administrators. If colleagues start bringing these issues into the Study Group, it will kill
the Study Group. Colleagues who want to use group time to air complaints will
consume the first half of the meeting, and those colleagues who would rather
“get down to brass tacks” will quit coming.
No “Big Issues”
Focus on implementing Tools for Teaching. This is not a “mini” faculty meeting.
Study Group Leadership
Someone In Charge
Each meeting of the Study Group will have a designated leader. The job of
Study Group leader can be shared by all group members on a rotating basis. The
Study Group leader will be responsible for the following:
• being in charge of the meeting. The Study Group leader will begin and
end the meeting on time and be in charge of the agenda.
• being the teacher for group learning activities. The Study Group leader
will review the protocols for learning activities and simulations that are
scheduled for his or her meeting (see Addenda).
• being moderator of group problem solving. The Study Group leader will
review the Group Problem Solving Process (see Addendum I) so that he
or she can moderate group problem solving should it be required.
7
Study Group Leader Sign-up
Week
1.
Leader’ s Name
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
Preparation for Next Meeting
Study Group Members:
Read
Chapter 1:
Chapter 2:
Chapter 3:
Chapter 4:
Learning from the “Natural” Teachers
The Primary Prevention of Discipline Problems
Working the Crowd
Arranging the Room
Study Group Leader:
• Preview the next meeting’s agenda.
• Bring graph paper for everyone.
• Bring a roll of paper towels.
• If you have the Video Toolbox, see the red box on page 2 of the Video
Toolbox Handbook.
8
Tools forTeaching
Study Group Activity Guide
Meeting One
Working the Crowd and Room Arrangement
Reading Assignment
Chapter 1: Learning from the “ Natural” Teachers
Chapter 2: The Primary Prevention of Discipline Problems
Chapter 3: Working the Crowd
Chapter 4: Arranging the Room
Focus
A good room arrangement makes “working the crowd” easier. The optimal
room arrangement allows you to get from any student to any other student with
the fewest steps. You need both compactness and generous walkways. Achieving this
requires a high degree of planfulness in the spatial arrangement of your furniture.
Focus Questions for Reading
1) Traditionally we have referred to the skills of classroom management as a
“bag of tricks.” Why is it necessary to have a classroom management system as opposed to “a bag of tricks?” (pages 24-26)
2) If you were to stand at the back of a typical classroom and observe “goofing off,” what behaviors would you most often see? (pages 6-8)
3) What is the most common way in which teachers and parents deal with
these everyday disruptions? (pages 8-11)
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4) Why must a classroom management system be comprehensive and synergistic in order to produce dramatic results (pages 15-19)
5) Describe the calculations that students subconsciously make as you move
from the red to the yellow to the green zones? How does working the crowd
“disrupt the disruptions?” (pages 30-33)
6) How does working the crowd provide “camouflage” for setting limits on disruptive students? (pages 33-34)
7) Looking at the diagrams of room arrangements on pages 41-45 of Tools for
Teaching, which pattern would work best for you?
8) If you have a classroom with work stations that cannot be moved, how could
you arrange the furniture for brief presentations to the group that would
allow you to work the crowd in at least an abbreviated fashion?
Study Group Activities
With Video Toolbox: View Session One (optional DVD Bonus)
Without Video Toolbox: Discuss the Focus Questions
Design Your Room Arrangement
Take the piece of graph paper supplied by your group leader and spend ten
minutes drawing your room arrangement.
Move Furniture
Nothing facilitates room rearrangement more than to have a few of your Study
Group partners enter your classroom and say, “Well, where do you want the furniture?” Extra hands and some friends with which to brainstorm makes the job
much easier.
Divide the Study Group into “furniture moving squads” of three or four and
make the rounds of each member’s classroom. Start by removing obstacles from
the middle front of the classroom, and then lay out your interior loop.
Have the members of the furniture moving squad sit in your desks. Unroll the
paper towel (provided by your group leader) between your colleagues’ toes and
the desks in front of them to represent a walkway. Adjust your room arrangement
until all of your walkways are wide enough to allow easy passage.
Talk to the Custodian
Before your next meeting, it might be a good idea to check with the custodial
staff so that they know what you are doing and why. They may need to help you
move cabinets or shelves. Ask them if there is anything you can do to make their
job easier in the light of your need to work the crowd.
10
Performance Checklist
• Remove barriers from the middle front of the classroom so you can bring
the students’ desks forward. Often, this simply entails moving your desk
to a corner in the front of the room.
• Bring the students’ desks as far forward as possible.
• If there is an overhead projector, see if you can place it so that it does not
occupy “the best seats in the house.” Sometimes you can turn it 90
degrees to project on a side wall. See if you can have a student operate the
overhead projector in order to free you up to work the crowd.
• Lay out your walkways so that you can get from any student to any other
student in the fewest steps. Usually the most efficient pattern of walkways
will contain a “loop” in the middle of the room.
• If you have work stations that cannot be moved, see if you can have the
students bring their chairs close to you for group presentations.
• Make your aisles wide enough so that you will not constantly be stepping
over feet and backpacks. In order to reduce obstacles in the walkways, you
may wish to have students lay their backpacks along the back wall so that
only relevant books and materials are brought to the desks.
• Make sure that students are arranged in pairs to facilitate easy interaction.
Move students until you have partner pairs that work well together.
Preparation for Next Session
Study Group Members
Read
Chapter 5: Weaning the Helpless Handraisers
Chapter 6: Praise, Prompt, and Leave – The Verbal Modality
Study Group Leader
• Preview the next meeting’s agenda.
• Review the protocol for playing “Mess Up: Praise, Prompt, and Leave” in
Addendum A of the Study Group Activity Guide.
• If you have the Video Toolbox, see the red box on page 4 of the Video
Toolbox Handbook
12
Tools forTeaching
Study Group Activity Guide
Meeting Two
Praise, Prompt, and Leave
Reading Assignment
Chapter 5: Weaning the Helpless Handraisers
Chapter 6: Praise, Prompt, and Leave – The Verbal Modality
Focus
The focus of this meeting is the giving of corrective feedback. We want to give
clear feedback in the shortest amount of time so that we can:
• begin to wean the helpless handraisers.
• regain the ability to work the crowd.
We will concentrate on the verbal modality. What do you say when giving corrective feedback to a student? How can you give students all of the information
they need and leave as quickly as possible?
Focus Questions
1) How many helpless handraisers do you have in your class? Are they the
same students every day? How much of your time do they consume?
2) What forms of dependency and “clingyness” other than handraising do
you observe in your classroom?
3) What are the limitations of long-term auditory memory that would govern
the duration of corrective feedback? (pages 58-59)
4) Why do we always tend to find the error when looking at other people’s
work? (pages 60-61)
5) Why do people tend to get defensive when they are given corrective feedback? Have you observed this outside of your classroom? Have you experienced it? When? (page 61-63)
6) Describe Praise, Prompt and Leave beginning with the relaxing breath.
(pages 63-68)
Study Group Activities
With Video Toolbox: View Session Two
Without Video Toolbox: Discuss the Focus Questions
Play “Mess Up: Praise, Prompt, and Leave”
“Mess Up” is a game that allows you to practice Praise, Prompt and Leave. The
protocol for playing this game is contained in Addendum A of the Study Group
Activity Guide.
Mess Up is a game that simulates typical student-teacher helping interactions.
During the game the group brainstorms good “Praise” and “Prompt” statements.
Then, players practice them so that fluency in giving brief and focused corrective feedback is achieved. Use the VIP of long division on page 74 of Tools for
Teaching to make things simple the first time you play.
Performance Checklist
• When you see the error, take two relaxing breaths and clear your mind.
• Take a second look at the work, and ask yourself, “What is right so far?”
• Choose two features of correct performance that would be most useful in
serving as a springboard to the prompt.
• Describe these two features in simple declarative sentences.
• As a bridge between the Praise and the Prompt, begin the transition sentence with the formula, “The next thing to do is...”
• Describe what you want the student to do next in one or two simple declarative sentences. Refer to any visual aides that are available, and mark on
the student’s paper in any way that might be helpful.
• Turn and leave. Resist the tendency to “hang around” to see how the
prompt turns out.
14
Preparation for Next Meeting
Study Group Members
Read
Chapter 7: Visual Instructional Plans – The Visual Modality
Bring
Each member of the Study Group will bring a VIP to the next meeting – something that they plan to teach during the following week.
Study Group Leader
• Preview the next meeting’s agenda.
• Review the protocol for “Mess Up: Visual Instructional Plan” in
Addendum B.
• If you have the Video Toolbox, see the red box on page 6 of the Video
Toolbox Handbook.
Tools forTeaching
Study Group Activity Guide
Meeting Three
Providing Visual Instructional Plans
Reading Assignment
Chapter 7: Visual Instructional Plans – The Visual Modality
Focus
The focus of this meeting is to:
• represent a lesson visually step-by-step.
• pre-teach the lessons playing “Mess Up: Visual Instructional Plan” in
order to trouble-shoot the VIP.
Focus Questions
1) Why is it so easy to “backslide” into verbosity after having mastered the art
of giving simple verbal prompts? (pages 70-71)
2) What is the difference between a summary graphic and a VIP? (pages 7172)
3) How does a summary graphic open the door to wallowing? (pages 71-72)
4) What are the main characteristics of a good set of plans? (page 72)
5) Who is the primary user of a lesson plan? (page 73)
6) How do VIPs aid the weaning process? (pages 75-76)
7) What are the various forms that a VIP can take? (pages 77-78)
16
Study Group Activities
With Video Toolbox: View Session Three (optional DVD Bonus)
Without Video Toolbox: Discuss the Focus Questions
Play “Mess Up: Visual Instructional Plan”
The game of Mess Up can be played at two different levels. You can use it to
practice Praise, Prompt and Leave as we did during the previous session, or you
can use it to trouble-shoot a VIP. The protocol for playing “Mess Up: Visual
Instructional Plan” is contained in Addendum B of the Study Group Activity
Guide.
Break into subgroups of 3 or 4 to once again play Mess Up. To start the game,
one of the Study Group members will teach a brief lesson while putting a VIP for
that lesson on the board along with a practice exercise. The roles for playing
Mess Up are 1) student, 2) teacher and 3) moderator. The person who supplies
the VIP always plays the role of student since he or she can best mimic the students’ errors and speech patterns.
To begin the game, the teacher turns his or her back to the student. The student
makes an error on the practice exercise that is typical for this type of assignment.
The teacher then turns around to look at the error.
After taking a relaxing breath, the teacher lists for the group the things that are
right so far. The moderator then engages the group in a discussion of the Praise
statement so that the person playing the role of the teacher, rather than being “on
the spot,” is part of group brainstorming. When the teacher and the group are
comfortable with the Praise statement, the brainstorming process is repeated
with the Prompt statement. Then, the teacher practices the entire
Praise/Prompt statement. Finally, the teacher turns his or her back to the student
to begin the next round as the student makes the next “mess up.”
Any flaw in the VIP will be revealed as you play Mess Up. Mess Up clarifies
where gaps exist in the task analysis, where additional graphics are needed and
where “chunks” of performance are too large or too small.
Performance Checklist
VIPs
• Define the performance that you want from students, and break it down
into steps. This process of task analysis is made much easier if you perform the task yourself as you analyze it.
17
• Depict performance one step at a time. Make each step visual either
through pictures, an outline or a Mind Map.
• As you play Mess Up, add or modify steps of the VIP if the group decides
that clarity can be gained by doing so.
Praise, Prompt and Leave
• Relax and give yourself a moment to assess what is right so far before
speaking.
• If you choose to utilize a praise statement (which is optional), make it
brief – one or two simple sentences.
• Keep the prompt brief and to the point. Exploit the graphics in the VIP
to answer the question, “What do I do next?” in the fewest possible words.
• See if you can make an adequate prompt with a simple sentence or just a
phrase. Beware of the natural tendency toward verbosity that we all have.
• Guard against a lengthy explanation of the VIP. A major purpose of the
VIP is to serve as a substitute for lengthy explanations.
Preparation for Next Meeting
Study Group Members
Read
Chapter 8: Say, See, Do Teaching – The Physical Modality
Chapter 9: Creating Motivation
Chapter 10: Providing Accountability
Study Group Leader
• Preview the next meeting’s agenda.
• Review the protocol for Partner Teaching in Addendum C.
• Prepare a VIP for a lesson of 10-15 minutes duration that will serve as a
vehicle for demonstrating Partner Teaching.
• If you have the Video Toolbox, see the red box on page 8 of the Video
Toolbox Handbook.
Tools forTeaching
Study Group Activity Guide
Meeting Four
Say, See, Do Teaching
Reading Assignment
Chapter 8:
Chapter 9:
Say, See, Do Teaching – The Physical Modality
Creating Motivation
Chapter 10: Providing Accountability
Focus
The focus of this meeting is to:
• practice Partner Teaching.
• get a feel for structuring a lesson as a series of Say, See, Do Cycles.
Focus Questions
1) How does Say, See, Do Teaching increase student engagement? (page
82)
2) What is the most efficient way to create comprehension and longterm memory during the teaching of a lesson? (pages 83-84)
3) Compare Say, See, Do Teaching with Bop ‘til You Drop teaching. How
does the cognitive overload typical of Bop ‘til You Drop teaching feed
into the dependency of helpless handraisers? (pages 85-86)
4) What are the advantages of structure in the teaching of a lesson? Why do
kids need structure? (page 88)
5) What methods in Dr. Hattie’s research produce the greatest benefit? How
might you best summarize his findings? (pages 90-92)
6) What are the “Suffering Costs” of innovations with an effect size of less
than s= 0.40?
Study Group Activities
With Video Toolbox: View Session Four (2 optional DVD Bonuses)
Without Video Toolbox: Discuss the Focus Questions
Practice Partner Teaching
Partner Teaching is a simple Say, See, Do format and an efficient way of making learning interactive. The protocol for Partner Teaching is contained in
Addendum C of the Study Group Activity Guide.
Since this format is so simple, it is easy to organize. And, since the partner
pairs are doing most of the work, the classroom teacher has plenty of time to
supervise student performance during each step of the lesson.
Performance Checklist
Partner Teaching
• The classroom teacher places students into partner pairs that work well
together.
• One of the partners “goes first” in playing the role of the teacher while the
other member of the partner pair plays the role of the student.
• The classroom teacher presents a step of the lesson (i.e. a Say, See, Do
Cycle) to the group.
• The classroom teacher then says, “Teach your partner.”
• The partner who “goes first” (the teacher) teaches that step to his or her
partner (the student).
• The classroom teacher then says, “Now, teach the other direction.”
• The partners switch roles and repeat the step. Consequently, each mem-
20
ber of the partner pair “learns by doing” and “learns best by teaching.”
• This process is repeated for each step of the task analysis.
• As the partners are teaching each other, the teacher can work the crowd.
Typically, the teacher’s attention is focused on the students’ work. During
a social studies lesson the teacher might simply “cruise and schmooze.”
However, during a lesson which produces “correct answers” such as math,
the teacher might check the students’ work.
• Checking work during Guided Practice opens the door to offering incentives (sponge PATs) for diligent and conscientious work.
• To offer incentives, the teacher needs to be able to check the work as it is
being done, and the students need a Criterion of Mastery.
• A Criterion of Mastery tells the students in advance how many things
(math problems, for example) have to be done in a row correctly before the
students can be excused to hand in their papers and begin the sponge
PAT (usually some kind of project or enrichment activity).
Preparation for Next Session
Study Group Members
Read
Chapter 11: Succeeding from Day One
Chapter 12: Teaching Routines
Study Group Leader
• Preview the next meeting’s agenda.
• If you have the Video Toolbox, see the red box on page 10 of the Video
Toolbox Handbook.
Tools forTeaching
Study Group Activity Guide
Meeting Five
Rules, Routines, and Standards
Reading Assignment
Chapter 11: Succeeding from Day One
Chapter 12: Teaching Routines
Focus
We will learn how to teach routines and establish high standards.
Focus Questions
1) How does Bell Work help to define the classroom as a work environment
while eliminating the time wasted by “settling in?” (pages 131-133)
2) What icebreaker will you use during the first class period of next semester? (pages 133-134)
3) In order to act like a teacher, you have to think like a teacher. Teaching
embodies the following two timeless truths:
• I say what I mean, and I mean what I say.
• We are going to keep doing this until we get it right.
How are these two timeless truths embodied in your mindset and in your
procedures while teaching a classroom routine? (pages 138-141)
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4) In teaching routines, it is easier to have high standards than to have low
standards. How does practice, practice, practice isolate the “goof offs”
while getting the rest of the group to support you in establishing high
standards? (pages 141-143)
5) How do you plan to organize chores in you classroom? (pages 143-145)
6) How do you plan to communicate your standards and expectations to
parents? (pages 145-147)
Study Group Activities
With Video Toolbox: View Session Five (optional DVD Bonus)
Without Video Toolbox: Discuss the Focus Questions
Review the Teaching of a Routine
• Take a few minutes to reread pages 148-150 of Tools for Teaching (Training
the class to pass through the halls quietly).
• Read the protocol for teaching the classroom routine of lining up in the
Performance Checklist below.
Begin to Develop Your School Site Procedures Manual
Develop a list of basic procedures and routines that members of the group use
on a day-to-day basis. Assign a procedure to each group member. Have each
group member develop a protocol for his or her routine to bring to next week’s
meeting. Have each protocol include the following:
• Name of Routine
• Description of Routine
• What does it look like?
• What does it sound like?
• Training Procedures
• Criterion of Mastery
Performance Checklist
The following protocol can serve as a model for group members as they develop protocols for the School Site Procedures Manual. We have chosen to develop
a protocol for lining up. This is not only an extremely common procedure, but it
also logically proceeds the procedure for walking through the hall quietly that is
described on pages 148-150 of Tools for Teaching.
Name of Routine
Lining up
Description of Routine
What does it look like?
• The students will walk, not run
• They will line up in order (i.e. in the order that minimizes potential disruptions as the students walk down the hall). Consider having:
• two lines rather than one in order to place the end of the line
closer to the teacher.
• disruptive students near the front to be close to the teacher.
• disruptive students separated from each other by non-disruptors.
• a few trustworthy students at the end of the line to reduce straggling.
What does it sound like?
• The students will be quiet as they line up.
• The students will be quiet as they wait for further instructions.
Training Procedures
• Have students line up in the desired order. Have students identify the persons to their right and left as well as “landmarks” they can use to find their
spot.
• Have students take their seats, and then begin practicing lining up. Set a
goal for lining up quickly that can be easily reached with practice (for
example, lining up in 5 seconds). Begin slowly with a target of perhaps 20
seconds, and emphasize the importance of walking in an orderly fashion.
Once the students can find their places in an orderly fashion, gradually
speed up the routine.
• Make a game out of reaching your goal. Keep practicing until you reach
the goal at least twice in a row. Congratulate the class during practice as
they approach the goal.
24
“You did it in 12 seconds. That is a lot faster
than last time. Most importantly, there was no
running and no talking. Good job class.
“Now, let’s quietly take our seats, and we will
practice it again. We should get quicker every
time we do it. But, remember, walk, don’t run.
“Alright class, you may take your seats.”
Criterion of Mastery
• Practice until the class can line up quietly in five seconds or less twice in
a row.
• Tell the class that this is the standard you will expect them to meet every
time they line up. In addition, tell the class that, should the routine
become slow or sloppy, they will simply practice some more until they can
do it right before leaving the classroom.
Preparation for Next Meeting
Study Group Members
Read
Chapter 13: Understanding Brat Behavior
Chapter 15: Being Consistent – Our Thoughts
Do
Bring protocols for classroom procedures to the next meeting to be included
in the School Site Procedures Manual.
Study Group Leader
• Preview the next meeting’s agenda.
• If you have the Video Toolbox, see the red box on page 12 of the Video
Toolbox Handbook.
Tools forTeaching
Study Group Activity Guide
Meeting Six
Understanding Brat Behavior
Reading Assignment
Chapter 13: Understanding Brat Behavior
Chapter 15: Being Consistent – Our Thoughts
Focus
The focus of this meeting is to:
• clarify the meaning of consistency (Chapter 15)
• begin to develop you School Site Procedures Manual.
Focus Questions
1) Schools produce the same number of office referrals year after year. What
payoffs does Larry get for being suspended? Why doesn’t the School
Discipline Code “put the lid on” as we would hope? (pages 150-153)
2) Why must a teacher embody these rule if they expect to “mean business?”
• No means no.
• I am not going to stand here and listen to your yammering.
3) What is funny about someone saying that they are “pretty consistent?”
How do “Weenie” parents build brat behavior? (pages 173-175)
4) How can inconsistency gradually undermine your capacity to be nurtu-
26
rant? (pages 178-179)
Study Group Activities
With Video Toolbox: View Session Six
Without Video Toolbox: Discuss the Focus Questions
Develop Your School Site Procedures Manual
1) Share your protocols for classroom procedures.
2) Discuss additional routines that should be added to the manual.
3) Make copies of the protocols for each group member.
Performance Checklist
Make sure each protocol for a classroom routine contains the following:
• Name of Routine
• Description of Routine
• What does it look like?
• What does it sound like?
• Training Procedures
• Criterion of Mastery
Preparation for Next Meeting
Study Group Members
Read
Chapter 14: Staying Calm – Our Emotions
Study Group Leader
• Preview the next meeting’s agenda.
• Review the protocol for Breathing Practice in Addendum D.
• If you have the Video Toolbox, see the red box on page 14 of the Video
Toolbox Handbook.
Tools forTeaching
Study Group Activity Guide
Meeting Seven
Calm And Consistency
Reading Assignment
Chapter 14: Staying Calm – Our Emotions
Focus
We will learn:
• the importance of staying calm on the job.
• how to relax when provoked.
Focus Questions
1) How is the fight-flight reflex related to stress? (pages 159-164)
2) What is downshifting? How does it account for us saying and doing things
that we later have to apologize for? (pages 164-165)
3) What is meant by, “calm is strength and upset is weakness?” Can you be in
control of a situation without first being in control of yourself? (pages
166-168)
4) The fight-flight reflex is quick, powerful, and natural. How can you abort
the fight-flight reflex before you downshift into your brainstem? (pages
168-169)
28
Study Group Activities
With Video Toolbox: View Session Seven
Without Video Toolbox: Discuss the Focus Questions
Do Breathing Practice
The objective of Breathing Practice is to place relaxation under voluntary control so that we may remain calm in the face of provocation. The protocol for
Breathing Practice is contained in Addendum D of the Study Group Activity
Guide.
As in the workshop, we will employ a series of practice exercises that build
from simple skills to more complex skills. The breathing exercises are:
• Tension/Relaxation
• Slowing the Cadence
• Visualizing Calm
• Relaxing the Jaw
Performance Checklist
1) Relax (exhale) to begin a relaxing breath
2) Breath in slowly, and keep the breath “small.” A relaxing breath is not deep
breathing. Rather, it uses a minimum of energy as when you are resting.
3) Relax as you exhale. Rather than pushing air out, exhale with a simple,
whole-body relaxation response.
4) Check you jaw by running your tongue back along the roof of your mouth
to where you can feel the beginning of soft palate. This simply pushes
your jaw down perhaps a quarter of an inch. However, if you habitually do
this as part of a relaxing breath, you will prevent yourself from “setting
your jaw” and signalling tension and upset to the students.
Note: See Breathing Practice in Addendum D of the Study Group Activity
Guide for a detailed description of the prompting sequences used in
practice. In addition, Dr. Jones will prompt the group through each part
of Breathing Practice on the Coaching Disc.
29
Preparation for Next Meeting
Study Group Members
Read
Chapter 16: Setting Limits – Our Actions
Chapter 17: Following Through
Study Group Leader
• Preview the next meeting’s agenda.
• Review the body language for meaning business in Chapters 16-17.
• Review “The Turn” in Addendum E.
• If you have the Video Toolbox, see the red box on page 16 of the Video
Toolbox Handbook.
Tools forTeaching
Study Group Activity Guide
Meeting Eight
The Body Language of Meaning Business
Reading Assignment
Chapter 16: Setting Limits – Our Actions
Chapter 17: Following Through
Focus
We will develop our understanding of Meaning Business – the commitment,
the consistency, and the body language.
Focus Questions
1) How do students read your commitment? (pages 182-184)
2) “The Turn” is as much about commitment as it is about follow-through.
Contrast the response of a teacher who means business like Miss Haines
with a “weenie” when first seeing a typical disruption like “talking to
neighbors.” (pages 184-185)
3) Why do we focus so much time and attention on “The Turn?” How can an
effective turn save you work? (pages 185-186)
4) The students watch your body language to discriminate whether or not
you mean business. What are the key discriminative stimuli that the students read as you turn toward them? (pages 187-192)
31
5) What are the main types of pseudo-compliance as you “Move In and Move
Out,” and how do students use pseudo-compliance to cut deals? (pages
196-198)
6) In the poker game of meaning business, what are the choice points during Moving In where students either raise of fold? (pages 198-203)
7) What are the true economics in Meaning Business? How does it self-eliminate? (pages 204-206).
8) How does working the crowd combine with the body language of meaning business to create camouflage? (pages 207-208)
Study Group Activities
With Video Toolbox: View Session Eight
Without Video Toolbox: Discuss the Focus Questions
Practice “The Turn”
The protocol for “The Turn” is contained in Addendum E of the Study Group
Activity Guide. The Turn contains a series of practice exercises that add critical
features of performance one at a time such as:
• Turn in a regal fashion.
• Point your toes.
• Get a focal point, etc.
The breathing exercises from the previous meeting are integrated with The
Turn so that group members learn to begin relaxation as soon as they see the disruption. The final segment of The Turn deals with the natural tendency of students to give us “smiley face” when caught goofing off as well as our tendency to
smile in return.
Performance Checklist: “The Turn”
Begin with excusing yourself from Robert (page 199), relaxing and breathing
in gently before slowly standing and turning toward the disruptive students. The
critical features of the turn, the signs by which the student can discriminate
whether or not you mean business, are the following:
• Turn in a Regal Fashion (pages 187-188). Turn from the top down in four
parts; head, shoulder, waist, feet.
• Point Your Toes. (pages 188-190). Never make a partial turn.
32
• Get a Focal Point. (pages 190)
• Relax Your Arms (pages 190-191)
• Relax Your Jaw (pages 191-192)
• Wait for 2 Relaxing Breaths The student will either get back to work, or
they will not. You will know soon enough. Focus on passively waiting
rather than “staring them down.”
Preparation for Next Meeting
Study Group Members
Read
Chapter 18: Eliminating Backtalk
Chapter 19: Dealing with the Unexpected
Chapter 20: Coaching the skills of Meaning Business
Study Group Leader
• Preview the next meeting’s agenda.
• Review the body language for “dealing with backtalk” in Chapter 18.
• Review the protocol for “Smile Practice” in Addendum F of the Study
Group Activity Guide.
• Review the protocol for “Moving In and Moving Out” in Addendum G of
the Study Group Activity Guide.
• If you have the Video Toolbox, see the red box on page 18 of the Video
Toolbox Handbook.
Tools forTeaching
Study Group Activity Guide
Meeting Nine
Eliminating Backtalk
Reading Assignment
Chapter 18: Eliminating Backtalk
Chapter 19: Dealing with the Unexpected
Chapter 20: Coaching the skills of Meaning Business
Focus
The focus of this meeting is to practice:
• staying calm and keeping quiet in the face of backtalk.
• responding to unpredictable provocations such as a “cheap shot” as you
walk away.
Focus Questions
1) What is the meaning of, “It takes one fool to backtalk, but it takes two
fools to make a conversation out of it?” (pages 209-212)
2) How do kids get “off the hook” by switching the agenda? (pages 212-215)
3) What is your short-term response to backtalk, and how does it help you to
have an effective long-term response? (pages 217-218)
4) How is reconciliation possible as an outcome of backtalk? (pages 223-224)
5) How does extreme neediness and extreme anger alter your use of body
language in setting limits? (pages 226-228)
6) How does Guided Practice help us to confront our emotions and “grow
up” as a teacher (pages 239-243)
7) How do the findings of neuroscience inform your thinking concerning
the amount of repetition needed for learning? (pages 243-245)
Study Group Activities
With Video Toolbox: View Session Nine
Without Video Toolbox: Discuss the Focus Questions
Do Smile Practice
The protocol for Smile Practice is contained in Addendum F of the Study
Group Activity Guide. Smile Practice is a Partner Teaching exercise in which one
partner (the teacher) attempts to relax and keep a straight face while the other
partner (the student) attempts to make the teacher react. Then, the partners
switch roles.
The only way to learn to relax under pressure is to practice relaxing under
pressure. In Smile Practice we begin with mild pressure (trying to make the
other person laugh) and end with more severe pressure (backtalk). Thus, Smile
Practice is not only a relaxation exercise, but it also preparation for dealing with
backtalk, the topic of next weeks Study Group meeting.
Practice Moving In and Moving Out
It is important for Group Members to get a sense of the timing and sequence
of “Moving In and Moving Out” as described in Chapter 17 of Tools for Teaching
as a prelude to dealing with backtalk. The protocol for practicing Moving in and
Moving Out is contained in Addendum G of the Study Group Activity Guide.
The most important features to emphasize are:
• reading pseudo-compliance on the part of the students.
• continuing the body language poker game until the student “folds.”
• staying with a student prior to thanking them until you observe a stable
pattern of work as opposed to more pseudo-compliance (eyes up-eyes
down).
• thanking the student and then remaining for two more relaxing breaths.
• giving both students equal time if two students are involved in the disruption.
35
• turning toward the disruptive students and monitoring them after you
leave so that there is no clear end to the interaction.
Practice Meaning Business with Backtalk
Have the student give the teacher “whiney backtalk.” Practice Moving In as far as
“Camping Out in Front,” and then discuss when this would or would not be a
good idea.
If you have time, have the partner pairs practice responding to the “Last
Hurrah” and a “cheap shot.” Once the Group Members have a good sense of
Moving In and Moving Out complete with Curve Balls (see Tools for Teaching,
page 234), you will be ready to play “Goof Off” (see Addendum H).
Performance Checklist
Moving In
This scenario assumes a fairly typical student as opposed to a highly oppositional student. To gain a perspective on the management of atypical situations,
read Chapter 19 (Dealing with the Unexpected). To troubleshoot specific
responses to difficult management situations, role play that situation as part of
Goof Off.
• After you turn, check the knees and feet of the students for pseudo-compliance. If you do not have full compliance, you have pseudo-compliance.
Check the impulse to nag (i.e. silly talk) and walk to the student’s desks.
Begin with the biggest trouble-maker.
• Check the student’s lower body for a partial turn as he or she gets back to
work. This level of pseudo-compliance is known as “giving the teacher
half a loaf.” Lean down (one palm on the desk), and give the student a
visual prompt to turn forward and get to work.
• Check the student’s lower body for a partial turn after giving the student
a visual prompt. Counter pseudo-compliance with a verbal prompt. You
will end up at “Palms” (both palms on the desk, elbows locked).
• Stay at Palms and watch the student work until you have a stable pattern
of work. If the student checks you out with “eyes up – eyes down,” hang
in there a little longer.
• Thank the student pleasantly, and stay down at palms as the student continues working. Do not stand up until you feel that you have a stable pat-
36
tern of work. If a second student is involved, repeat the above steps.
• When both students are busy with the assignment, stand and take two
relaxing breaths as you observe them working. Then, slowly move out.
• Turn fully and point your toes toward the disruptive students and take a
relaxing breath before beginning to work with another student. If the students look up, they will see a teacher who is quite willing to return if necessary.
Responding to Backtalk
• Should you receive backtalk (usually in response to a verbal prompt),
take two relaxing breaths so that you do not react emotionally. Let the
words go “in one ear and out the other.”
• Either stay at Palms or move in to Camping Out in Front.
• Wait until the student runs out of gas. Then, wait some more.
• Direct the student back to work with a visual prompt if necessary. A verbal prompt at this point will often stimulate more backtalk.
• As you watch the student work and as you relax, consider whether any
special long-term response is called for in this situation. If not, thank the
student for getting back to work and stay down as you take another relaxing breath. Then stand, relax and move out as you normally would.
Responding to the “Last Hurrah”
• Sometimes, when you thank a student, they make an unpleasant remark
such as, “Yeah, right,” or “You didn’t help me.” etc.
• Relax and let it go “in one ear and out the other.” The Last Hurrah can
catch you off balance, but it is just more of the same old whiney backtalk.
If you keep your mouth shut, the student will usually run out of gas and
get back to work.
• Stay down and watch the student work until you have a stable pattern of
work. Thank the student again. Then, stand slowly and take two relaxing
breaths. Move out as before.
Responding to the “Cheap Shot”
• Sometimes, as you walk away from a student, they make an unpleasant
remark such as, “Big deal,” or “I’m impressed.” Obviously, the student
wants very much to have “the last word.”
• If you hear a remark, you must respond to it. In classroom management
37
you cannot turn a “deaf ear” to a problem anymore than you can turn a
“blind eye.” If you know it happened, so does the whole class.
• Stop and take a relaxing breath. There is no sudden or dramatic response
that will help you. Rather, think of your response as part of teaching the
students to treat you as you wish to be treated.
• Turn slowly, pause and walk slowly back to the edge of the students desks.
Take two relaxing breaths and move slowly to Palms. Monitor the students
until you have a stable pattern of work.
• Thank the students for getting back to work. If you do not know which
student took the “cheap shot,” thank the students collectively (“I appreciate your getting back to work.”). Then stand slowly and move out as
before.
Preparation for Next Meeting
Study Group Members
Read
Chapter 21: Building Cooperation
Chapter 22: Teaching Responsibility
Bring
The Study Group leader will ask for a volunteer to share a PAT with the group
during the next meeting. The teacher who volunteers will serve as the “PAT
Presenter” for the week.
The PAT Presenter will lead the group in playing one of his or her favorite
PATs (as opposed to just discussing it) so that the group can learn by doing. In
addition, the PAT Presenter will write up a brief protocol of the PAT that will
serve as the beginning of the group’s PAT Bank.
Study Group Leader
• Preview the next meeting’s agenda.
• If you have the Video Toolbox, see the red box on page 20 of the Video
Toolbox Handbook.
Tools forTeaching
Study Group Activity Guide
Meeting Ten
Responsibility Training
Reading Assignment
Chapter 21: Building Cooperation
Chapter 22: Teaching Responsibility
Focus
We will:
• implement Responsibility Training.
• exploit PAT bonuses.
• build a PAT Bank.
Focus Questions
1) How often should you schedule PAT for your students? (pages 262-263)
2) How do Hurry-up Bonuses train students to hustle? (pages 266-270)
3) How can the time loss condition seduce teachers into abusing
Responsibility Training? (pages 270-273)
4) What are Automatic Bonuses used for, and how do you implement them?
(pages 274-276)
5) How might you layer bonuses so that students can work for long-term
goals without giving up short-term incentives? (pages 271)
39
Study Group Activities
With Video Toolbox: View Session Ten (optional DVD Bonus)
Without Video Toolbox: Discuss the Focus Questions
Get Ready to Implement Responsibility Training
• Review the procedures for implementing Responsibility Training in
Chapters 21-22
• Review the PAT ideas contained on the website. Play academic baseball
briefly in order to learn the rules.
Share PATs
• Begin a tradition of sharing one PAT per Study Group meeting. The PAT
Presenter will teach the group one of his or her favorite PATs.
• Begin to build a PAT Bank by collecting protocols for all of the PATs that
are taught during the Study Group meetings. (For model protocols, see
examples on the website.)
• Sign-up to teach a PAT during each subsequent Study Group meetings on
the PAT Presenter sign-up list below.
Week PAT Presenter
1.
2.
3.*
4.*
5.*
6.*
7.*
8.*
* You may wish to continue meeting after you have read the book just to share PATs.
Performance Checklist
• Determine the time frame for giving PAT to your students, and build your
daily schedule around it.
• Explain PAT to your class.
• Give the class a free PAT so that they know what you mean by PAT. Use an
enrichment activity or a learning game rather than “free time.”
• Ask the group if they would like to have PAT as part of their normal classroom routine. You may have them vote on it just to increase ownership.
• Post your gift of PAT on the classroom PAT tally.
• Explain bonuses to the class so that the group can see how they are in control of the duration of the PAT. To avoid cognitive overload, you may wish
to do this the following day. Give them a tease like, “Tomorrow I will tell
you how to make PAT even longer.”
• Explain dawdling and loss of PAT the day after explaining bonuses.
Preparation for Next Meeting
Study Group Members
Read
Chapter 23: Turning Problem Students Around
Chapter 24: Initiating Preferred Activity Time
Bring
The next PAT Presenter will bring the protocol for a favorite PAT to teach the
group. Add it to your PAT Bank. Make copies for everyone.
Study Group Leader
• Preview the next meeting’s agenda.
• If you have the Video Toolbox, see the red box on page 22 of the Video
Toolbox Handbook.
Tools forTeaching
Study Group Activity Guide
Meeting Eleven
Omission Training and Preferred Activity Time
Reading Assignment
Chapter 23: Turning Problem Students Around
Chapter 24: Initiating Preferred Activity Time
Focus
We will:
• implement Omission Training.
• “piggyback” other management agenda onto Responsibility Training
using the Omission Training format.
• expand our PAT Bank.
Focus Questions
1) Omission Training is the general name given to an incentive system that
trains a person or group not to do something. How can you reinforce
someone for not doing something? (pages 286-287)
2) How does Omission Training combine with Responsibility Training to
create a powerful, cheap, and positive means of dealing with severe and
chronic discipline problems? (page 287)
3) What are the key elements of your “heart-to-heart talk” with Larry?
(pages 287-290)
4) How can Omission Training make Larry popular? (pages 290 291)
5) How do you use Omission Training to protect automatic bonuses?
(pages 293-294)
6) How might you extend Omission Training beyond discipline management to “piggyback” other management objectives onto Responsibility
Training? (pages 294-295)
7) What forms of team competition have you found most effective in your
classroom? How do you maximize the number of students participating
at any given time (pages 299-300)
Study Group Activities
With Video Toolbox: View Session Eleven (optional DVD Bonus)
Without Video Toolbox: Discuss the Focus Questions
Share More PATs
The next person on the PAT Sign-Up List will teach the group a favorite PAT.
Make sure that you play the game or do the activity for 5 or 10 minutes to get a
feel for it. Add the protocol of the new PAT to your PAT Bank. If you have time,
take turns sharing additional PATs.
Performance Checklist
• When the “big altercation” occurs, take two relaxing breaths in order to
give yourself a chance to remember Omission Training before going to
your Backup System. (The biggest problem with Omission Training is
that, since it is seldom needed, it is forgotten when the time finally
arrives.)
• In your immediate response to the provocation, particularly if Larry has
made a “big deal” out of PAT being “stupid,” acknowledge that you cannot make someone like PAT. This gives Larry some “space” and can often
diffuse the situation.
• If you cannot diffuse the situation gracefully, you may have to go to your
Backup System on the spot. If you can finesse the crisis in the short term,
make arrangements for your “heart-to-heart talk” with Larry before he
goes home.
• If, as a result of your “heart-to-heart talk,” Larry decides to meet you halfway, initiate Omission Training. Describe the new program to the class in
very simple terms after Larry has earned the first bonus minute. Thus, the
43
program is presented to the class in positive terms.
Preparation for Next Meeting
Study Group Members
Read
Chapter 25: Dealing with Typical Classroom Crises
Chapter 26: Exploiting the Management System
Bring
The next person on the PAT Sign-Up List will bring the protocol of a favorite
PAT to add to the PAT Bank. The PAT Presenter will take the first 5-10 minutes
of the Study Group meeting to teach the PAT to the group.
Study Group Leader
• Preview the next meeting’s agenda.
• Bring a copy of your school discipline code and/or the district discipline
code.
• Review the protocol for Goof Off in Addendum H of the Study Group
Activity Guide.
• Review the Group Problem Solving Process in Addendum I of the Study
Group Activity Guide. Use the protocol to solve difficult management
problems.
• Review the protocol for Peer Observation Feedback in Addendum J of
the Study Group Activity Guide.
• If you have the Video Toolbox, see the red box on page 24 of the Video
Toolbox Handbook.
Tools forTeaching
Study Group Activity Guide
Meeting Twelve
Dealing with Typical Classroom Crises
Reading Assignment
Chapter 25: Dealing with Typical Classroom Crises
Chapter 26: Exploiting the Management System
Focus
• Clarify your Small Backup Response Options and their function in preventing crises.
• Clarify your Medium and Large Backup Response Options and your use
of the decision ladder as it operates at your school site.
• Plan for the continuation of the Study Group.
Focus Questions
1) What kind of message does a Small Backup Response give to the student
who is “really pushing it?” (page 314)
2) How are Small Backup Response Options an extension of Limit Setting?
How does working the crowd camouflage not only Limit Stetting but also
your entrance into the Backup System? (pages 311-314)
3) What are the Small Backup Response options? (pages 314-317) Do you
have any other Small Backup Response options that work for you?
45
4) Why is the likelihood of the student’s folding in response to a warning a
function of your skill and consistency in Limit Setting? (page 319)
5) How does a positive approach to discipline management turn common
sense upside down? (pages 328-329)
6) How is relationship building an integral part of the behavior management in Tools for Teaching?
Study Group Activities
With Video Toolbox: View Session Twelve
Without Video Toolbox: Discuss the Focus Questions
Clarify Your Use of Small Backup Response Options
Share another PAT
Follow Through
Discuss whether or not the group members want to continue meeting in order
to share ideas and solve problems. If you do:
• select a meeting time.
• continue sharing PATs
• begin to observe in each others’ classrooms.
Follow Through Activities
Now that you have the key skills of classroom management under your belt,
you can use them to solve truly difficult problems that, until now, have seemed
to defy solution. The following three activities will facilitate problem solving by
the Study Group, and they will provide much of the structure for your group
meetings should you choose to continue working together.
Playing Goof Off
Goof Off is a simulation game that allows the group members to practice Limit
Setting with realistic situations as they unfold. Goof Off is especially effective in
helping the group map “uncharted territory” in management. With Goof Off the
group can brainstorm responses to tough situations and then rehearse the strategies in order to fine-tune them.
If you do not have time to play Goof Off during this meeting, return to it in
46
future meetings. It will provide your “advanced course” in Limit Setting. The
protocol for playing Goof Off is contained in Addendum H.
Group Problem Solving Process
The classroom management procedures contained in Tools for Teaching represent the most cost-effective procedures for managing the range of problems that
typically occur in a classroom. Extremely deviant or bizarre behavior may require
a specialized behavior management program of the type found in clinical settings. Guidelines for building such programs are contained in Dr. Jones’ book
Positive Classroom Discipline in the chapter entitled “Behavioral Modification and
Parallel Programs.” This chapter can be found online at our Tools for Teaching Web
Connection. (See Tools for School Site Management.)
Before investing the time and effort necessary for building a specialized behavior management program, however, use the Group Problem Solving Process contained in Addendum I in order to fully exploit Tools for Teaching. Have a group
member volunteer to present a problem that has been particularly difficult to
solve. Use this problem as a vehicle for becoming familiar with the Group
Problem Solving Process.
Observing Each Other’s Classrooms
It is important to begin observing each other’s classrooms as an avenue to
sharing and mastering new skills. It is virtually impossible to analyze your own use
of newly acquired skills while in the midst of teaching a lesson.
Divide the Study Group into partner pairs and set up a schedule for one partner to observe the other during the coming week. Then, switch during the following week so that partners observe each other’s classrooms during a two week
period. Then, choose new partners for the following two weeks’ observations.
Naturally, the most difficult part of partner observation is covering the classrooms of the observers. While this is never easy, “where there is a will, there is a
way.” Sometimes administrators can cover classrooms. Sometimes a substitute
teacher can be hired to cover several classrooms in a single day. And, sometimes
teachers can “double up” or use “prep” periods to cover classrooms.
It might be helpful prior to this first observation to have the partners meet to
confer on the lesson being taught. Perhaps they could plan the lesson together.
This will put the teacher being observed at ease since the lesson is a shared
endeavor. Check Addendum J for guidelines for giving feedback following a peer
observation.
Study Group Activity Guide
Addendum A
Mess Up: Praise, Prompt, and Leave
Objectives
• Practicing Praise, Prompt and Leave
• Reducing verbosity
Materials And Preparation
• A lesson plan in VIP format.
• The materials and equipment normally used to present the lesson.
Participants
• A group of 3-5 teachers
• The Study Group leader or a colleague serving as coach
Roles
• Teacher
• Student who “messes-up”
• Coach
The Play
1) The Study Group member who plays the role of teacher will supply a lesson plan in VIP format plus a sample practice exercise for that lesson. If
the group is not yet familiar with VIPs, the teacher may wish to use “long
division” from Tools for Teaching, page 74, or some other lesson familiar to
the group.
2) Participants take the roles of teacher, student who “messes up,” and coach.
The colleague who presents the VIP will play the role of student since they
are best able to mimic the errors that students make on this assignment.
3) The teacher turns his or her back to the student as the student begins the
practice exercise. While performing the first part of the practice exercise,
the student makes an error. After they have “messed-up,” they say “Ready.”
4) The teacher turns around to look at the student’s performance while they:
• take two relaxing breaths.
• formulate a Praise statement.
5) The coach says to the teacher,
“What is right so far?”
After the teacher shares his or her Praise statement, the coach says:
“Are you comfortable with it, or do you want to give it another
try?”
6) After the teacher is comfortable with his or her praise statement, the coach
says to the student:
“Is there anything else that we should mention in the praise?
This prompt triggers informal discussion between group members of the
Praise statement. If many items have been singled out for praise, the coach
will then say:
“Let’s pick one or two items to mention in the Praise statement
in order to keep it short. What would be the most useful items
to mention?”
7) After this discussion of the Praise statement, the coach says to the teacher:
“Let’s hear your Praise statement now.”
After hearing the Praise statement, if it seems verbose, the coach might
say:
“Now, say that in half as many words.”
As you can see, the coach’s job is to structure group brainstorming with a
few simple, open-ended prompts. At all times, however, the teacher is in
control. Teachers can choose what they like from the brainstorming as they
formulate their own statements.
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One of the most useful contributions of the coach apart from structuring
some simple “give and take” among group members is to say, “Now, say
that in half as many words.” Usually, the teacher can do this. In this step
more than any other, the teacher learns to replace verbosity with a simple
declarative sentence or two.
8) The coach then says:
“Now, let’s go to the Prompt statement. What exactly do you
want the student to do next?”
The coach again engages the group in some simple brainstorming. The
discussion is usually brief, but it can help the teacher to be clear and specific. Then, as with the Praise statement, the coach may say:
“Now, say that in half as many words.”
9) Finally, the coach says to the teacher:
“Now, let’s put both parts together. Then, turn around as you
‘Praise, Prompt, and Leave.’”
After the teacher does Praise, Prompt, and Leave, the coach says to the student:
“Now, do the next part of the practice exercise. After you have
‘messed up,’ say ‘Ready,’ and we will turn around again.”
10) After the student makes the next “mess up” and says “Ready,” the process
of generating a Praise/Prompt statement is repeated. After one or two
times through the group brainstorming process, the group gets the hang
of it, and the coach’s role shrinks as group members spontaneously confer
on how best to phrase the Praise and Prompt statements.
Study Group Activity Guide
Addendum B
Mess Up: Visual Instructional Plan
Objectives
• Practicing the simple verbiage of Praise, Prompt and Leave
• Troubleshooting a VIP before presenting it to students
Materials And Preparation
• A lesson plan in VIP format prepared by each participant
• The materials and equipment normally used to present the lesson.
Participants
• A group of 3-5 teachers
• The Study Group leader or a colleague serving as coach
Roles
• Teacher
• Student who “messes-up”
• Coach
The Play
1) A member of the Study Group presents:
• his or her lesson plan in VIP format to the group.
• a sample practice exercise for the lesson.
2) Participants take the roles of:
• coach
• teacher
• student
The colleague who presents the VIP will play the role of student since he
or she is best able to mimic the errors that students make on this assignment.
3) After the student presents his or her lesson, the group plays Mess Up. Play
Mess Up exactly as you did last week.
In addition to improving your skills of giving brief prompts, Mess Up
using VIPs from group members will help improve the skills of building a
VIP. Any flaw in the VIP will become evident as you play Mess Up. If a step
is not clear or if it is too big, the group will know. If a step is left out, it will
hit you in the face.
4) Mess Up allows you to “pre-teach” a lesson. This is particularly valuable
for new teachers and for experienced teachers with new curriculum since
it provides some of the experience that normally only comes from trial
and error in the classroom. In addition, Mess Up serves as an excellent
stimulus for discussions about broader aspects of the craft of teaching.
5) Study Group members can take turns teaching their lessons to the group
before playing Mess Up.
Study Group Activity Guide
Addendum C
Partner Teaching
Objectives
• Mastering an easy to use Say, See, Do format
• Making more of our lessons interactive and social
Materials and Preparation
• A lesson plan in VIP format
• Materials and equipment required by the lesson
Participants
• a Study Group member to be the classroom teacher who presents a lesson
using Say, See, Do Teaching accompanied by a VIP
• all other Study Group members organized in partner pairs who will take
turns playing the roles of teacher and student
Practice Exercises
Partner Teaching is a simple and efficient way of making learning interactive
(see page 94). In the classroom, the teacher divides students into partner pairs
that work well together. One of the partners “goes first” by playing the role of the
teacher while the other partner plays the role of the student. Then, the partners
switch roles so that every student in the class has the experience of teaching the
lesson.
One of the Study Group members (the classroom teacher) will present a lesson
to the group using a Say, See, Do Teaching format along with a VIP. After the
classroom teacher present each step of the lesson, he or she will then say, “teach
your partner.” The student who “goes first” (the teacher) then turns to his or her
partner (the student) and repeats the classroom teacher’s instruction.
Then, the classroom teacher says, “teach the other direction,” and the second
member of each partner pair becomes the teacher. Thus, during each “Say, See,
Do Cycle,” each student is taught the step twice and teaches the step once.
This format can be used for the humanities as easily as for mathematics. While
students repeat the teacher’s input nearly verbatim in mathematics, in the
humanities students typically paraphrase, brainstorm or share experiences during each step.
Study Group Activity Guide
Addendum D
Breathing Practice
Objectives
• Learning to relax
• Becoming aware of the cues for tension and relaxation that we receive
from our bodies
Materials and Preparation
• Review the “fight-flight reflex” and “downshifting” in Chapter 14 of Tools
for Teaching.
• If you have the Video Toolbox, watch Dr. Jones lead a group through
Breathing Practice in Session 7, Calm Is Strength as well as on Segment D
(Breathing Practice) of the Coaching Disc.
Participants
• Coach
• Study Group Members
Practice Exercises
The practice exercises described below contain not only prompts that guide
performance, but also the brief “asides” that normally occur as Dr. Jones leads
these exercises in his workshops. Consequently, the descriptions of the breathing
exercises contained in this addendum are more complete than the demonstration presented on the Coaching Disc of the Video Toolbox. Use the Coaching Disc
to get the feel for the exercise, and then enrich your own presentation with Dr.
Jones’ “asides.”
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Tension/Relaxation
“Relaxation is a skill. It is acquired like any other skill – with
practice, practice, practice. The practice exercises that we will
do together build the skill of relaxation one step at a time.
“First, let’s do a tension/relaxation exercise to get the feel of
whole-body relaxation. First, we will tense as hard as we can
and hold it for 30 seconds. Then, we will relax. You can feel
your body “coming down.”
• “Push your chairs back from your tables and turn toward me so that your
knees point directly at me. Put your feet flat on the floor and relax your
hands in your lap. Relax your entire body.”
• “When I say, ‘Go,’ clench your fists, press your fists against your shoulders,
press your chest against your thighs and lift your toes as far as you can off
the floor. Flex every muscle in your body as hard as you can until I say,
‘Stop.’”
• “Ready – Go!” (hold this for 30 seconds).
• “Stop! Sit up, and relax. Put your feet flat on the floor, relax your hands
and breath slowly.”
“Feel your body ‘come down’ – your breathing, your heart rate,
your muscle tension. Keep relaxing as you breath slowly.
“We will attempt to learn a whole-body ‘let down response’ that
reduces tension, heart rate and breathing rate that we can
employ at will whenever we feel stressed. Managing stress effectively is one of life’s basic survival skills.”
Slowing the Cadence
“Now, we will learn to do a ‘relaxing breath.’ It is slow and easy.
Watch as I model it for you.”
Note: Direct the cadence of each relaxing breath with a gentle
sweep of the arm the way a band leader might. The slow sweep
of your arm creates a visual prompt for the breathing cadence.
Do this with each breathing exercise.
• “First, relax to begin the cadence.”
• “Now, let the air come in.” (“A thousand one, a thousand two.”)
• “Now, relax.” (“A thousand three, a thousand four.”)
• “Now, wait.” (“A thousand five, a thousand six.”)
“As you can see, it is unhurried. We breath this way when we
are completely relaxed, perhaps even ‘dozing off.’ Do it with
me a few times so that you can get the cadence into your muscle memory.”
• “First, relax to begin the cadence.”
• “Now, breath in gently.” (“A thousand one, a thousand two.”)
• “Stop.”
“I want you to raise your hand if you took a ‘deep breath’ – if
you filled your lungs.
“You have a lot of company. At least half of any group does this.
“Now, as we take our next relaxing breath, I want you to focus
on keeping the breath small. This is not a deep breathing exercise. Rather, it is a shallow breathing exercise – slow and shallow the way you breathe when you are asleep.”
• “First, relax to begin the cadence.”
• “Now, breathe in gently.” (“A thousand one, a thousand two.”)
• “Now, relax.” (“A thousand three, a thousand four.”)
• “Now, wait.” (“A thousand five, a thousand six.”)
Note: Direct the group through a half-dozen relaxing breaths
in order to put the cadence into muscle memory.
Visualizing Calm
“Now, let’s add an element of visualization to our breathing
exercise in order to help us slow down and relax. Imagine that
you are sitting in a chair watching the late news after a long day
in the classroom. You could have gone to bed a half-hour ago,
but you wanted to hear about the big late-breaking news story
which, of course, comes at the very end of the news broadcast.
You feel tired as you watch the local news. The room is warm.
You are getting sleepy. You have trouble keeping your eyes
open.
“At this moment, you are breathing exactly as I want you to. A
‘relaxing breath’ is the way you breath when you are ‘dozing
off.’ Imagine dozing off as we continue practicing – with one
footnote. You must keep your eyes open. (Several participants
have typically been breathing with eyes closed as they ‘zone
out.’) No matter how relaxed you become, you cannot manage
a classroom with your eyes closed.”
• “Once again, place your feet on the floor, relax your hands and your body
as you exhale to begin the cadence.”
• “Now, breath in gently.” (“A thousand one, a thousand two.”)
Note: Do another half-dozen relaxing breaths with the group
to build muscle memory.
Relaxing the Jaw
“You are getting a feel for the slowness of a relaxing breath.
Next, we will focus on your jaw. Your jaw muscle is a repository
of nervous energy. When we get upset, we ‘set our jaws’ or
‘clench our teeth.’
“Unfortunately, the students can see this body language from
the other side of the gymnasium. In order to fully relax and
appear relaxed to the students, we must learn to relax our jaws
so that we may have a relaxed facial expression.
“First, stretch your jaw muscle by opening your mouth as wide
as you can, and keep stretching. Don’t do this in front of the
children.
“Now, relax your jaw and relax your face. When your face is
relaxed, you have no facial expression. Consequently, the
meaning of your facial expression comes entirely from the context. If you were reading a book, a relaxed face would have very
little significance. However, if you were a major league baseball
umpire in the middle of a ‘row’ with a manager, that same
expression would communicate volumes.
•
‘There is not a chance in this world that I will change
my call.’
•
‘I am not listening to a word you are saying.’
•
‘You are wasting everyone’s time.’
“It is important that you be able to monitor your facial expression to make sure that it is relaxed when you want it to be
relaxed. Then, you can check yourself in the middle of a class-
room ‘row’ such as backtalk. Since you won’t have a mirror
handy, I will give you a method for checking your jaw that is
invisible.
“First, place the tip of your tongue at the base of your upper
front teeth. Then, run your tongue back along the roof of your
mouth until you get to the beginning of soft palate. This pushes your jaw down slightly which keeps you from ‘setting’ your
jaw.
“Play with it a little because, of course, you can overdo it.
(Model a comically exaggerated facial expression with lips
together and jaw thrust down.) Do it several times. With practice you will begin to feel when your jaw is down so that you
have no facial expression. Eventually you can just touch that
spot with your tongue, and finally you will be able to feel your
face well enough to monitor it without doing anything.
“I will prompt you to check your jaw with the words, ‘Check
your jaw.’ We will check our jaws at the end of each relaxing
breath. Let’s add that step to our breathing as we practice.”
• “First, relax to begin the cadence.”
• “Now, breath in gently.” (“A thousand one, a thousand two.”)
• “Now, relax.” (“A thousand three, a thousand four.”)
• “Check your jaw.” (“A thousand five, a thousand six.”)
Note: Do another half-dozen relaxing breaths with the group.
Remind the group members that all of this repetition is simply
to build muscle memory.
If you still have some time in your Study Group meeting, break
into partner pairs and have some fun. Have one partner practice relaxed breathing while the other partner plays the role of
a student who is making an excuse for not having an assignment in on time. Have the first partner breathe calmly, relax
his or her face and think, “This too shall pass.”
Study Group Activity Guide
Addendum E
The Turn
Objectives
We will learn to:
• integrate relaxation with turning toward the disruptive student so that
both become a single, automatic response.
• become aware of the “fine points” of the turn which signal our intentions
to the disruptive student(s).
Materials and Preparation
• Preview consistency in the classroom in Chapter 15 and the body language of “meaning business” in Chapter 16 of Tools for Teaching.
• If you have the Video Toolbox, watch Dr. Jones lead a group through “The
Turn” on Segment E of the Coaching Disc.
Participants
• Coach
• Study Group Members
Practice Exercises
As with “Breathing Practice,” the practice exercises described below contain
not only prompts that guide the performance of participants, but also the brief
“asides” that Dr. Jones’ would give during a workshop. As always, the practice
exercises progress from simple to complex as component skills are first built and
then integrated into a whole.
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As a warm-up activity, do some “Breathing Practice” with the group for review.
A good relaxing breath is contained in every aspect of The Turn. Then model a
3-second turn and a 6-second turn so that the group can appreciate the difference.
The Beginning: To The Transition
“By the time you have turned toward the disruptive students,
you are either relaxed or you are headed for your brainstem.
As the students look at you, they will know exactly what is happening. The turn is rich with body language that signals
whether or not you mean business. We will slow down the
action so that we can master the details one step at a time.
“As we practice, I will call out each prompt at the proper time
so that you do not have to worry about getting it right. First,
watch me as I model the first part of the turn and give you the
prompts. Then, you will do it.
“Imagine that when you look up, you see a typical disruption
such as ‘talking to neighbors.’ This is the moment of truth. You
will probably want to keep teaching because the disruption is
‘no big deal.’ However, if you fail to commit, you have just signalled to everyone in the class that discipline management is
on the ‘back burner.’ (See Tools for Teaching pages 187-191.)
“We will begin by having you stand behind the chair you are
presently sitting in. Imagine that you are helping a student
named ‘Robert.’ You have turned or ‘buttonhooked’ so that
you can see as much of the class as possible thereby minimizing ‘blind spots.’
“This first time through, we will go as far as excusing yourself
from Robert and staying down as we take a relaxing breath.
Stay down until I release you with the prompt, ‘Now.’ (Model
the turn through the prompt that begins, ‘Stay down...’)”
Note: Prompts to the group will be bullets. Asides to the group
will be indented.
• “You are helping little Robert, and you have “buttonhooked” so that the
class is in front of you.”
• “You catch some “fooling around” out of the corner of your eye, and you
check it out. Eyes up to the target.” (Hold your hand up at the level of
your head to serve as a target. If members of the group are slow in looking up, practice again emphasizing that timing is important.)
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• “As soon as you see the disruption, you commit.”
• “Put your weight down, and excuse yourself from Robert.” (Have the
trainees whisper, “Excuse me Robert.”)
• “Stay down (a thousand one), breathe in gently (a thousand two), and
clear your mind (a thousand three).”
• “Now.” (Stop.)
“How many of you felt that you stayed down an extremely long
time before the prompt, ‘Now.’ (Trainees almost always report
that it seemed ‘like forever.’) Our natural tendency is to go too
fast. When we are helping a student, our mind is racing. Then,
when we see a student fooling around, it triggers a fight-flight
reflex which speeds us up even more.
“Without a clear transition both mentally and physically from
fast to slow, from instruction to discipline, we will turn too fast.
We will make at 3-second turn rather than a 6-second turn.
“As you could see from my demonstration earlier, a 3-second
turn is not particularly convincing. As a result, rather than
looking the student back to work, you will probably have to
walk over there to get results. That is expensive.
“Let’s do it again just to get the feel of slowing down as soon as
you see the disruption. Stay down after you excuse yourself
from Robert, breathe in gently and give yourself time to switch
gears both mentally and emotionally.” (Repeat the previous
practice exercise.)
The Basic Pattern
“This time we will take the turn a little further. After we have
made our transition from instruction to discipline, we will
stand slowly and turn slowly. Watch as I model it for you and
give the prompts.”
• “You are helping little Robert, and you have “buttonhooked” so that the
class is in front of you.”
• “You catch some “fooling around” out of the corner of your eye, and you
check it out. Eyes up to the target.” (Hold your hand up at the level of
your head to serve as a target.)
• “As soon as you see the disruption, you commit.”
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• “Put your weight down, and excuse yourself from Robert.”
• “Stay down (a thousand one), breathe in gently (a thousand two), and
clear your mind (a thousand three).”
• “Now, stand slowly and turn slowly toward me. Square up.”
• “Relax (exhale) and check your jaw.”
• “Take two relaxing breaths.”
• “Stop.”
“You can see why we check our jaw at the end. A lot of decisions
have taken place in a very short time.
“Always take two relaxing breathes after you turn. Wait to see
what happens next. Either the students will get back to work,
or they will not. You will know soon enough. In the meantime,
lower your blood pressure. You are not ‘staring them down.’
You are just waiting. You are in the passive mode.”
Fine Point #1: “Turn in a Regal Fashion.”
Model a 3-second turn and a 6-second turn. Ask the group,
“Which turn most resembles Queen Victoria?”
Emphasize turning from the top down in four parts – head,
shoulders, waist, feet. Have the trainees think, “We are not
amused” as they look at the students, turn, and take their relaxing breaths. (See Tools for Teaching pages 199-204.)
Repeat “The Turn” adding the prompt, “Turn in a regal fashion.”
Fine Point #2: “Point Your Toes.”
Model a partial turn and a complete turn so that the trainees
can see the difference (Tools for Teaching page 202). A partial
turn is a classic example of a mixed message which signals
ambivalence about terminating instruction in order to commit
time and energy to the discipline problem. Discuss ambivalence, mixed messages, and signal clarity in relation to The
Turn (Tools for Teaching pages 194-196).
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This might also be a good time to briefly discuss how body language “telegraphs” our intentions. Body language reveals what
we plan to do next. See Tools for Teaching page 194.
Repeat The Turn adding the prompt, “Point your toes.”
Fine Point #3: “Get a Focal Point.”
Model a 6-second turn with eyes periodically glancing around
the room as though monitoring the group, and then model
the turn with constant eye contact with the disruptive student.
Ask the group, “Have you ever talked to someone who would
not look you in the eye? Are they confident? Are they comfortable?
Repeat The Turn adding the prompt, “Get a focal point.”
Fine Point #4: “Hands Down.”
Discuss briefly the fact that, when we are upset, our hand gestures are “up” (usually waist high), and when we are relaxed,
our arms and hands are down. We will want to signal that we
are both relaxed and comfortable by having “hands down.”
Discuss and model some alternatives with the group (hands in
pockets, hands at your sides, etc.). The main advantage to placing your hands together behind your back is that it hides any
nervous gestures with the hands when you are first learning to
relax. (See Tools for Teaching page 203.)
Repeat The Turn adding the prompt, “Hands down.”
Fine Point #5: “Check Your Jaw.”
“We will add one final fine point, ‘Check your jaw.’ You are
already very familiar with this fine point. This is a feature of
The Turn that you learned during Breathing Practice. Let’s
take a moment, however, to look at it again before we practice
it.”
Note: Discuss “smiley face” and “trigger mechanisms” (See
Tools for Teaching pages 203-204.) In a nutshell, we are biologically programmed to respond with a pleasant look (known as
“greeting behavior”) when a child smiles at us. Children, not
surprisingly, learn at an early age to smile at us when we catch
them doing something wrong in order to get “off the hook.”
We call it “smiley face.”
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Consequently, relaxing your jaw does not occur in a vacuum. It
occurs in a situation in which you are looking at “smiley face.”
To master the Queen Victoria look, we will have to practice it
in a variety of circumstances.
This last fine point leads into Smile Practice (Addendum F). In
Smile Practice the trainees will practice relaxing their jaws and
maintaining the Queen Victoria look “under pressure.”
Take the group through “The Turn” one more time with all of
the critical features.
Study Group Activity Guide
Addendum F
Smile Practice
Objectives
We will practice
• relaxation in the face of mild provocation.
• relaxation in the face of backtalk.
Participants
• A group of teachers of any size divided into partner pairs
• The Study Group leader serving as coach
Roles
• Teacher
• Student
• The Study Group leader serving as coach
Game Structure
“The only way to learn to relax under pressure is to practice
relaxing under pressure. Let me describe the practice exercises.
“In each partner pair, one person plays the role of teacher while
the other person plays the role of student. Then, partners switch
roles so that everyone gets to play the role of teacher.
“The objective of Smile Practice is to give the teacher a chance to
practice relaxing under pressure. The game is played in three
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parts representing three levels of “pressure” or provocation on
the part of the student. The three levels are as follows:”
1) The student trying to make the teacher laugh from a seated position.
2) The student trying to make the teacher laugh from a standing position.
3) The student giving the teacher backtalk (from a standing position).
Role Descriptions
Students
“The game begins on a light-hearted note with the teacher
standing and facing the student who is seated. On a signal from
me, students can do anything they want in order to make the
teachers laugh.
“Fist of all, students, this is no time to be proud. Your job is to
make your partner laugh even if you have to act like an idiot.
In addition, your job is not just to make them laugh, but to
‘crack’ them as often as you can. Make them work at relaxing and
keeping a ‘Queen Victoria’ face for the entire duration of the
exercise.
“Consequently, you must keep coming up with new material in
order to ‘crack’ your partner. If you run out of material, look
around to see what other people are doing. But, keep working!
I do not want to look up and see people breaking out of role
to chit-chat with their partners.”
Teachers
“Teachers, your job is to relax your body, relax your breathing,
and look at your partner with your best ‘Queen Victoria’ face.
When you are thoroughly relaxed, you will look bored to death
by the foolishness in front of you.
“However, relaxation is a skill with several important components. As you are attempting to relax, do the following:”
1) Get a focal point: “Teachers, you must look at your partner, but do not
actually look them in the eye. Eyes are the most expressive part of a person’s body, and we are built to respond to each other. However, you must
create the illusion of looking your partner in the eye.
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“To create this illusion, get a focal point right between your partner’s eyebrows. Use anything that is handy such as a wisp of hair, the frame of their
glasses, or simply the skin that separates the eyebrows. You will appear to
be paying attention, but you will have created psychological distance
between you and your partner so that you are less likely to react to them.
“Relaxation at this level is a game of concentration. When you have good
concentration, your focal point is about the size of a quarter, and you do
not really ‘see’ the other person. Everything outside of the focal point is
slightly blurred. Should you lose concentration, however, the focal point
will rapidly expand so that you see the other person complete with gestures and facial expressions. If you crack, it will be when you lose concentration. As an alternative strategy, you can throw the other person out
of focus by slightly crossing your eyes.”
2) Leave the scene of the crime: “If you do not occupy your mind with some
calming thought when playing the role of teacher, your thoughts will be
occupied by the outrageous behavior of your partner, and you will tend
to react. When you play the role of teacher, imagine a scene that is innately calming.
“Let’s talk a moment to find a scene that is calming (pause). You will, in
effect, be daydreaming. With practice this becomes a calming mindset
which translates emotionally into, “This too shall pass.”
3) If you lose it: “If you begin to crack-up, go ahead and laugh. You won’t be
fooling anybody by trying to ‘hold it together.’ Instead, after you laugh or
smile, close your eyes, breathe in gently, and then open your eyes as you
relax. If you lose it again, repeat the procedure until you habituate to
whatever your partner is doing.
“I don’t care if you lose it twenty times as long as you work to regain your
composure twenty times. All I care about is that you keep working. The
only way to learn to relax under pressure is to practice relaxing under
pressure.”
The Play
Make Them Laugh from a Seated Position
• “Partners, turn toward each other knee to knee.”
• “Teachers, stand, push your chair under the table, and face your partner.”
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• “Teachers, Get your focal point and relax.”
• “Students, ready...set...go!”
Note: Walk among the participants and encourage them.
Coach the teachers to relax as needed, and urge the students on
should they slack off. Let it run for a couple of minutes until it
starts to wind down, and then say:
Make Them Laugh from a Standing Position
• “Alright, teachers, relax.”
• “Now, students, you may stand in front of your partners. As before, your
objective is to make your partner laugh. But, now you have more elbow
room. You can move about and do a dance if you want. But stay in front
of your partner.”
• “Teachers, if the student should move to the right or left, react as little as
possible. Follow them slowly with your eyes, and then, if they stay there,
move your head slowly to look at them. This is the art of under-reacting.”
• “Teachers, face your partner, get your focal point and relax.”
• “Students, ready...set...go!”
Note: Once again, walk among the participants and encourage
them. Coach the teachers, and urge the students on as before.
Backtalk from a Standing Position
• “Alright, teachers, relax.”
• “Now, students, the game changes. You are no longer trying to make your
partner laugh. Instead, you will give them backtalk.”
“Anything that you have ever heard is fair game. Tell your partner that they are not being fair – that you weren’t doing anything – that they are picking on you. Tell them that their class
is boring. Get personal. This is showtime!”
• “Teachers, we will add one new skill this time around. Whatever your partner says, let it go ‘in one ear and out the other.’”
“Backtalk is not what you would call a ‘significant communication.’ Rather, think of it all as ‘baloney.’ It is just ‘blah, blah,
blah.’ If you listen to what the student is saying, it may upset
you. Instead, ‘zone out’ and think to yourself, ‘This is boring,
boring, boring.’”
• “Students, ready...set...go!”
Note: Once again, walk among the participants and encourage
them. Coach the teachers, and urge the students on as before.
After the teachers get good at relaxing with backtalk, say:
• “Alright students, let’s up the ante. Get in your partners face and shout!
‘Quit looking at me!’ ‘Get out of my face!’ Let me hear you shout. Ready
... go!”
Note: The first round usually ends in a tumultuous uproar with
people laughing at colleagues who are “letting it all hang out.”
Several minutes of loud and animated conversation typically
ensues.
Feedback
Ask the Students
After the group settles down, ask the students the following question:
“Students, how many of you felt at every level that, the longer it
went, the harder it was to keep it going? How many of you
eventually felt foolish?”
It is a revelation for participants to realize how vulnerable students make
themselves by engaging in backtalk. If the student does not get the teacher off
balance right away, their position becomes increasingly untenable.
Ask the Teachers
Ask the teachers the following question:
“Teachers, how many of you felt that, the longer you practiced,
the easier it became to relax and get in the “zone” where nothing bothered you?”
It is a revelation for teachers to realize that they can deal with backtalk in a
relaxed fashion without getting pulled into the student’s melodrama. Smile
Practice, therefore, serves a dual function: 1) practicing relaxation under pressure, and 2) preparing the teachers to understand the nature of backtalk from the
student’s perspective.
Switch Roles
For the second round of Smile Practice, have the participants reverse the roles
of teacher and student. The second round of Smile Practice is referred to as “Sweet
Revenge.”
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It is important for you to stress that backtalk does not occur until students are
instructed to do so. Without this instruction, students will often begin Smile
Practice with backtalk since they are so focused on that topic. Rather, each group
of teachers needs a chance to practice relaxation under the low threat of comedy
and silliness from both a seated and a standing position before getting to backtalk.
After repeating all of the practice exercises, conduct feedback as before.
Teachers often report that they experience backtalk quite differently after having played the student role. They report not feeling as threatened by backtalk
since they now realize that the student is taking all the chances and is doing all
of the work. As one teacher said, “As long as I don’t lose, I win. And, as long as
they don’t win, they lose.”
Study Group Activity Guide
Addendum G
Moving In and Moving Out
Objectives
We will learn to:
• read pseudo-compliance in the body language of students as we attempt
to set limits.
• wait when setting limits at a student’s desk until we get a stable pattern of
work.
• deal with backtalk from either one or two students including unexpected
events such as “The Last Hurrah” and “The Cheap Shot.”
Materials and Preparation
• Preview the body language of “Moving In and Moving Out” in Chapter 17
of Tools for Teaching as well as responses to backtalk in Chapter 18.
• If you have the Video Toolbox, watch Dr. Jones briefly model “Moving In
and Moving Out” on Segment G of the Coaching Disc.
Participants
• Coach
• Study Group Members
Background
“In order to be skillful in dealing with ‘goofing off’ in the classroom, we must become skillful at reading pseudo-compliance.
Pseudo-compliance is well known to any parent – that half-
baked minimal compliance known as giving ‘half a loaf.’ For
example, you ask your son to make his bed, and he pulls up the
covers and then looks at you as though to ask, ‘Is this enough?’
“Pseudo-compliance is one of childhood’s basic tools for getting out of work. And, it is one of childhoods basic tools for
expressing willfulness – of saying, ‘I don’t have to’ when a parent tells a child to stop fooling around. As soon as the parent’s
back is turned, the child goes right back to doing what they
were not supposed to do.
“You will see a lot of pseudo-compliance in the classroom, especially when setting limits. Students will seem to comply when
you ask them to get back to work, but when you look up two
minutes later, they are talking again. You must learn to read
pseudo-compliance when setting limits on classroom disruptions so that you can follow through until you get real compliance.
“Body language reveals intentions – it telegraphs what a person
plans to do next. You can read the students’ next move just as
they read yours. But you must first know where to look. How
can you spot pseudo-compliance?
“In this session we will practice a discipline management situation in which you have to walk over to the student’s desk in
order to get compliance (i.e. time-on-task versus talking to
neighbors). We will refer to the entire sequence as ‘Moving In
and Moving Out.’
“The practice of Moving In and Moving Out will make us savvy
in reading students’ pseudo-compliance. We will look at
Moving In and Moving Out as if it were a body language poker
game. The game is played as a series of moves. With each move
the student must make a decision, either to fold (get back to
work) or to raise (pseudo-compliance).
“If you cannot spot pseudo-compliance, you will fold (Move
Out) when you should be raising (Moving In). Let’s slow down
Moving In and Moving Out in order to follow the moves.”
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Model Moving In and Moving Out: No Backtalk
“I will first model Moving In and Moving Out labeling each
step as I go. Then we will get on our feet and do it together to
get the feel of it.
“First, lets divide our group in half. One half will play the role
of teacher while the other half plays the role of student. Then,
after we practice, we will switch roles.
“I will prompt both teachers and students so that you will both
know what to do as the scene unfolds. I will precede teacher
prompts with the word ‘teacher,’ and I will precede student
prompts with the word ‘student.’
“Students, I do not want you to ‘ad lib’ during these scenes. You
are not really role playing. Rather, you are simply there to help
the teachers practice. We are walking through generic scenes
just to get a feel for sequence and timing. If you ad lib, none
of my prompts will fit the situation.”
• “Teachers, you are helping little Robert, and you have buttonhooked so the
class is in front of you. You catch some fooling around out of the corner
of your eye.”
• “Students, look at each other as though you are talking. But, do not talk in
order to be able to hear the prompts.”
• “Teachers, check out the disruption. Eyes up to my target.”
“You see the disruption, and you commit. Lean over, excuse
yourself from Robert and stay down. Breathe in slowly and
relax. Then, stand slowly and turn in a regal fashion.”
• “Teachers, the students have not looked up. Take two relaxing breaths.
Then, say the students’ names.”
• “Students, look up and give the teacher ‘smiley face.’”
• “Students, return to work, but keep your lower bodies pointed toward each
other.”
“Teachers, you will usually get ‘smiley face.’ Do not be surprised
if the students return to work leaving the orientation of their
lower bodies unchanged. The name of this version of pseudocompliance is ‘pseudo-scholarship.’ (See Tools for Teaching,
page 208-209.)
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“As you look at them and take two relaxing breaths, you must
be able to read their body language in order to know whether
or not they are really getting back to work? How can you tell
the difference between a commitment to work and ‘pseudoscholarship?’
“If you want to know what the student’s intend to do next, look
beneath the desk at their knees and feet. If the students are
facing forward, they are probably focused on doing their work.
But, if their lower bodies are still pointed toward each other,
chances are that you have accomplished nothing.” (See Tools
for Teaching, pages 208-210.)
“When you commit to dealing with the problem and turn
toward the students, you raise the stakes in the body language
poker game. When the students gave you pseudo-compliance,
they raised you right back.They said, in effect, ‘What are you
going to do about it?’ You will have to walk over to the students
in order to deal with their pseudo-compliance.
“Beware of the tendency to open your mouth and nag in an
attempt to save yourself the inconvenience of walking over to
the students. It is time to ‘move the body, not the mouth.’”
(See Tools for Teaching, page 211.)
• “Teachers, pick the student that is the biggest trouble-maker, and walk over
to the edge of his or her desk. Stand there as you take two relaxing
breaths.”
• “Students, turn half-way forward and return to work. You give the teacher
‘half a loaf’
“Walking over to the students is your next raise in the body language poker game. Often, they will start turning around to
face forward before you have taken three steps toward them.
They were wondering if dealing with this situation was worth
your time, and you just answered their question. You said, ‘Yes’
by walking. By facing forward, they said, ‘That’s all I wanted to
know. I’m getting back to work.
“Pseudo-compliance as you stand at the students’ desks will
usually take the form of a partial turn forward. They are saying,
in effect, ‘I will give you part of what you want to see if you’ll
take it.”
• “Teachers, put one palm on the student’s desk, and use the other hand to
motion to the student to turn all of the way forward.”
“Using a visual prompt reduces the chances of backtalk since
speech is a trigger mechanism. Unless the student is a highroller, he or she will probably fold at this point. Up until now
the student could play poker by appearing not to know what
you wanted. Now they must defy you in order to raise you – a
big threshold to step over.”
• “Students, come half-way around again.”
“If the student wants to play one more round of poker without
getting into high stakes, they might give you another partial
turn – most of the way around but not all of the way around.”
• “Teachers, give the students a verbal prompt to turn forward.” (‘Bring your
chair all of the way around.’)
• “Students, come all of the way around and get to work.”
• “Teachers, put both palms on the student’s desk, and watch them work.
Stay until you get a stable pattern of work.”
“If the student is still testing to see whether or not they really
have to do what you want, you will often get ‘eyes up – eyes
down.’ The student simply glances up quickly to see if you are
still there.
“When this happens, it tells you to simply ‘hang in there.’ Just
kill time until the student stops testing and really starts working.”
• “Students, eyes up – eyes down.”
• “Teachers, after you have a stable pattern of work, thank the student.
Touching is optional. Stay down.”
“Thank the student warmly to show approval and as a ‘closure
message.’ Your mood goes from neutral to warm and then back
to neutral. Thanking the student says, in effect, ‘That is what I
wanted.’
“Sometimes students misunderstand closure messages because
they are not accustomed to common curtesy. They lay their
pencils down because they think it is all over. When you stay
down after thanking the student, you tell them that you expect
them to keep working.”
• “Teachers, move to the other student who is disrupting, and give him or
her equal time. After watching the work, thank the student and stay down
as you did with the first student.”
• “Students, continue working.”
• “Teachers, stand slowly, and take two relaxing breaths.”
“You are moving out now, but you will move out by degrees
rather than all at once.”
• “Teachers, turn and walk away. But, before you engage another student,
turn to face the student you just left. Point your toes.”
“Never make a partial turn. If the disruptive students look up,
they will see someone quite willing to return.”
• “Teachers, as you begin to help the next student, buttonhook so that the
disruptive students are in your direct line of vision. Consequently, there is
no clear end to the interaction.”
“That is as far as we will take this first walk-through. I will use
these same prompts as I walk you through this vignette.
“You do not have to worry about remembering the prompts.
Just listen and do what the prompt tells you to do. I will give
you correct timing and sequence so that you will get correct
muscle memory.”
Practice Moving In and Moving Out: No Backtalk
Note: Walk the trainees through the scene described above,
and then have them switch roles so that everyone plays the part
of both teacher and student.
“Students, sit next to each other in pairs as if you were two students engaged in ‘talking to neighbors.’ Look at each other as
though you were talking, but do not actually talk so that you
can hear the prompts. When the teacher says your name, look
up and give them smiley face.
“Teachers, bring your chair away from the students to give yourself a little space in which to walk. Pretend that you are helping ‘little Robert,’ and we will begin with ‘The Turn.’
“Here we go. You are helping little Robert, and you catch some
fooling around out of the corner of your eye...”
Model Moving In and Moving Out: With Backtalk
“This time we are going to add ‘whiney backtalk.’ Let’s just
start at the edge of the desk as though you had already walked
over.
“We will take it as far as ‘camping out in front.’ You will go
down on one elbow and get very close to the student. This is as
close as you ever get. We will do it just so that you can get a feel
for maximum proximity.
“Of course, this is not to say that you should get that close. I
would certainly not recommend it if you work at Juvenile Hall.
Any kid with a history of child abuse would freak out.
“Rather, this is just for practice sake so that you will know what
‘camping out in front’ feels like. Let me model it for you.”
• “Teachers, you are standing at the edge of the student’s desk, and you take
two relaxing breaths.”
• “Students, turn half-way forward and return to work. You will give the
teacher ‘half a loaf’”
• “Teachers, put one palm on the student’s desk, and use the other hand to
motion to the student to turn all of the way forward.”
• “Students, come half-way around again.”
• “Teachers, give the students a verbal prompt to turn forward.” (‘Bring your
chair all of the way around.’)
• “Students, give the teacher ‘whiney backtalk.’”
• “Teachers, move down slowly to ‘camping out in front.’”
• “Students, keep giving backtalk.”
• “Teachers, stay down and relax. Let the backtalk go in one ear and out the
other.”
• “Students, let the backtalk die down.”
• “Teachers, stay down and take two relaxing breaths.”
• “Students, return to work.”
• “Teachers, watch them work until you have a stable pattern.”
• “Students, keep working.”
• “Teachers, thank the student, touching is optional, and stay down.”
• “Teachers, switch with the teacher next to you and give the ‘second student’
equal time.”
“You have to give both disruptive students equal time. If not,
the first one feels ‘picked on,’ and the second one feels as
though they got away with it – that is, that you didn’t really
know what was going on.
“We will do whiney backtalk with the second student just for
the practice. Once again, let it go in one ear and out the other.
Then, we will move out as we did on the previous walkthrough.”
Practice Moving In and Moving Out: With Backtalk
Note: Walk the trainees through this scene including Moving
Out. Then have them switch roles so that everyone plays the
part of both teacher and student.
Model the “Last Hurrah”
“Teachers, I am now going to throw you a ‘curve ball.’ When you
thank the student, you will get a ‘snotty’ reply – usually a oneliner like:
‘Yeah, right,’ or
‘You didn’t help me any,’ or
‘Just leave me alone,’ or
‘Whatever.’
“The student is obviously trying to have the last word and ‘get
your goat.’ We will call this ‘snotty’ reply the ‘Last Hurrah.’
“Rather than reacting to it in some special way, let it go in one
ear and out the other. If students folded with backtalk once,
they will fold again.
“Just hang in there and watch the student work. Stay a little
longer than you normally would. You are teaching the students
that such remarks are useless in your class.
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“Our immediate objective is to stay in our cortex rather than
downshifting to the brainstem. If you feel that some additional consequence is necessary, do it later.
“For now, relax, and wait until you get a stable pattern of work.
Then, thank the student and stay down for two more relaxing
breaths. Finally, we will move out as we did before.
“Let’s play the scene as follows. We will begin with prompting
the student to turn around. Watch me as I model it for you.”
• “Teachers, you are standing at the edge of the students desk, and you take
two relaxing breaths.”
• “Students, turn half-way forward and return to work. You will give the
teacher ‘half a loaf’”
• “Teachers, put one palm on the student’s desk, and use the other hand to
motion to the student to turn all of the way forward.”
• “Students, come half-way around again.”
• “Teachers, give the students a verbal prompt to turn forward.” (“Bring your
chair all of the way around.”)
• “Students, give the teacher ‘whiney backtalk.’”
• “Teachers, move down slowly to ‘camping out in front.’”
• “Students, keep giving backtalk.”
• “Teachers, stay down and relax. Let the backtalk go in one ear and out the
other.”
• “Students, let the backtalk die down.”
• “Teachers, stay down and take two relaxing breaths.”
• “Students, return to work.”
• “Teachers, watch them work until you have a stable pattern.”
• “Students, keep working.”
• “Teachers, thank the student, touching is optional, and stay down.”
• “Students, give a ‘Last Hurrah.’”
• “Teachers, let it go in one ear and out the other. Stay down and relax.”
• “Students, return to work.”
• “Teachers, watch the students work until you get a stable pattern of work.”
• “Students, keep working.”
• “Teachers, thank the student again, touching is optional, and stay down.”
“Trainees sometimes think it is strange to thank a student who
has just ‘mouthed off.’ But, there is a good reason for doing so
aside from common courtesy. Thanking the student carries an
implied message. It says, “And we will do it my way, won’t we.’”
• “Teachers, switch with the teacher next to you and repeat the whole
sequence with the second student.”
Practice the “Last Hurrah”
Note: After walking through the sequence, have the teachers
switch students as in the previous exercise in order to give the
second student equal time. Have the second student also do a
“Last Hurrah” for added practice.
“After the teachers receive a ‘Last Hurrah’ from each of the two
students, have the teachers move out as before. Then, have the
teachers and students switch roles, and repeat the practice exercise.”
Model the “Cheap Shot”
“On this next practice exercise we will add a ‘cheap shot’ as
you walk away. It is usually a word or two muttered under the
breath, such as:
‘Big deal,’ or
‘Ooooh,’ or
‘I’m scared.’
“If you are trying to figure out what to do as classmates giggle,
you will probably overreact. We need a plan.
“Naturally, you cannot allow the student to have a mocking
‘last word.’ On the other hand, it would be nice to keep your
response cheap.
“Rather than doing anything dramatic, simply relax, turn slowly, come back to the students’ desks and hang out for a while.
Then thank the students as before and move out again. We will
call this whole routine, ‘Instant Replay.’
“Rather than being a ‘technique,’ this is simply reteaching. You
much teach the students that cheap shots are not cheap. Had
the student who gave the cheap shot kept his or her mouth
shut, you would be gone. Instead, the students will get a double dose of you from close range. You can run the price of
poker up by simply hanging out longer.
“We will start this scene with you thanking the second student
and moving out. Here are the prompts.”
• “Teachers, thank the student, touching is optional, and stay down.”
• “Students, keep working.”
• “Teachers, stand slowly and take two relaxing breaths.”
• “Students, keep working.”
• “Teachers, turn slowly to walk away.”
• “Students, after the teacher has take two steps, give a cheap shot.”
• “Teachers, relax, turn slowly, and take another relaxing breath.”
• “Teachers, walk slowly back to the edge of the desk, stand between the students and take two relaxing breaths. Then, go slowly to palms and hang
out for a while.”
• “Students, keep working.”
“Imagine that the students are trying to pretend that they are
innocent. One of them probably is, but you may not know
which one. Just hang out and kill some time.”
• “Teachers, wait until you get a stable pattern of work. Then, thank the students and stay down.”
“If you do not know which student gave you the cheap shot, do
not single out either of the students. They know that you do
not know which one ‘wised off.’ Finesse the situation by using
a collective pronoun when thanking the students (‘I appreciate your getting back to work.’)”
• “Students, keep working.”
• “Teachers, stand slowly and take two relaxing breaths. Then, turn to walk
away.”
“This time you will probably make it without a cheap shot. You
have taught the students that cheap shots are not cheap with-
out allowing yourself to be pulled into an adversarial situation.
You cannot afford to turn a deaf ear to ‘goofing off’ anymore
than you can afford to turn a blind eye to it. But, finesse keeps
the cost low for you as well as for the students.”
• “Teachers, before you engage another student, turn to face the students
you just left. Point your toes.”
“Never make a partial turn. If the disruptive students look up,
they will see someone quite willing to return.”
• “Teachers, as you begin to help the next student, buttonhook so that the
disruptive students are in your direct line of vision. Consequently, there is
no clear end to the interaction.”
Practice the “Cheap Shot”
Note: Have the teachers walk through the scene as you prompt
them. Then, have the teachers and students switch roles, and
repeat the practice exercise.
“We cannot practice all of the curve balls and weird situations
that you will encounter during a career. But, we can block out
a strategy for a few of the more predictable dilemmas. We will
trouble shoot the rest as they occur by playing a simulation
game entitled ‘Goof Off.’”
Study Group Activity Guide
Addendum H
Goof Off
Objectives
• The practice of Limit Setting
• Developing strategies for difficult to manage situations
Participants
• A group of 3-5 teachers
• The Study Group leader or a colleague serving as coach
Roles
• Teacher
• Disruptive students
• Coach
• Observers (optional)
The Play
Study Group members will volunteer to play the roles of 1) two students who
are disrupting or “goofing off” and 2) the teacher. It is paramount that the teacher
who is learning to “mean business” be made to feel safe and supported by the
group during this exercise rather than “on the spot.” Safety will be produced by
the coach carefully adhering to the process described below.
Set The Scene
The coach will describe the upcoming scene so that colleagues playing the role
of disruptive students will know exactly how and when to disrupt and when to quit.
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Setting the scene structures the performance of the disruptive students in order to
prevent them from becoming outrageous. It also protects the teacher from being
surprised. For example, the coach might say:
“In this scene the two disruptors will be ‘talking
to neighbors.’ Let’s take ‘moving in’ as far as
‘palms’ with the usual pseudo-compliance.
Then, give the teacher ‘whiney’ backtalk.
“Go to ‘camping out in front’ just to see what it
feels like. I’ll stop you when the backtalk seems
to be running out of gas.”
Model
The coach will model for the teacher exactly what to do as they walk everyone
through the scene. The coach can either take part of the limit setting sequence
exactly from Tools for Teaching (Chapters 16 and 17), or they can construct a
scene using suggestions from group members.
As the coach models, the person playing the roll of teacher walks with the coach.
Thus, the modeling provides a dry run for the teacher so that the routine will have
been rehearsed immediately prior to performance.
Prompt
During the second walk-through of the scene, the teacher and coach switch
roles. As the teacher deals with the students’ misbehavior, the coach watches closely. Through quick and precise prompting the coach can correct errors as they
occur so that they “build it right the first time.”
Prompts take the form of “stage directions” – one-liners that direct the teacher’s
actions. There is no reference to error, and there is no discussion. The coach’s
objective is to create correct “muscle memory” without being intrusive.
The teacher must make the management decisions, however. The coach must
wait for the teacher to commit to a course of action before intervening. To talk the
teacher through the performance sequence takes decision making out of the
teacher’s hands and reduces Guided Practice to Structured Practice.
Feedback
During the feedback portion of the practice sequence, the group will use the
process of corrective feedback described below in order to guarantee safety. The
feedback process has four distinct steps:
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a. Praise: The first job of the coach is to describe the strengths of the teacher’s
performance.
b. Ask the teacher how he or she experienced the walk-through: We will
always want the teacher to be the first person in the group to comment.
Typically the teacher will experience satisfaction with his or her performance due to adequate modeling and prompting by the coach. If the teacher
is aware of some deficit in performance, it is better that he or she describe
it to the group than visa versa. Usually, the teacher will also describe what
they plan to do differently the next time through due to insight they
gained from the role playing.
c. Ask the disruptive students how they experienced the scene: The real
experts in role playing are the disruptive students. The teacher may have
feelings about the performance as may the coach , but the final readout
will have to be supplied by those who were the recipients of the limit-setting. If they say it was good, it was good. And, if they say something has to
be changed, this feedback will provide much of the structure for the next
practice cycle.
The coach is, in effect, structuring a dialogue between the teacher and his
or her colleagues about how best to deal with this particular situation. In
almost all cases the net result of peer feedback is both problem solving
and confidence building.
d. Feedback from observers and group members other than those directly
involved in skill practice: Sometimes there are members of the group
who, not having a specific role to play, just observe. These observers often
notice aspects of performance that were not seen by those directly participating. Their comments can be highly enriching.
Summary
If the process of “Goof Off” is carefully adhered to by the coaches, everyone in
the Study Group soon picks up the rules of the game so that the reliance on the
coach diminishes. Soon the exchange becomes spontaneous.
Eventually the group may decide to go “free form” – to practice Limit-Setting
with scenes in which the disruptive students devise a management scenario without the teacher knowing what it is. Such free form practice can be lively and fun,
but it presumes a high level of mastery by all involved so that protecting the
teacher is of secondary importance.
Study Group Activity Guide
Addendum I
Group Problem Solving Process
The Problem Solving Dilemma
Help Must Be Quick
When teachers experience problems in using a management technique, they
must get help quickly, or the technique will be abandoned. At this point the
Study Group can be a wonderful resource if they have some basic problem solving skills.
Advice Doesn’t Help
The natural tendency of most professionals when attempting to help a colleague is to give advice. But advice doesn’t help because it places the helper into
the “expert” role and the helpee into the “dummy” role. The predictable result is
defensiveness on the part of the teacher seeking help. Soon Study Group members learn not to bring their problems to the group. The Group Problem Solving
Process is designed to make problem solving both safe and productive so that
group members will seek help from colleagues as soon as a problem becomes
apparent.
The Group Problem Solving Process
The moderator (that week’s Study Group leader) will follow the process
described in the following sections to help the Study Group utilize both the
knowledge of the teacher presenting the problem and the expertise of the group
members. The presenting teacher knows the student and the problem better than
anyone else in the group. Consequently, the teacher with the problem is the real
expert in the group. The moderator will systematically exploit that knowledge. In
so doing, the moderator will put the teacher presenting the problem at ease so that
he or she feels affirmed and supported by the group.
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Describe The Situation
The moderator begins by asking the presenting teacher to describe the student and
the problem. The moderator’s objective is to have the presenting teacher explain the
particulars of the student’s behavior in enough detail so that members of the
group can visualize what the student is doing. The moderator will begin with an
open-ended prompt such as:
“Will you please tell us exactly what Jimmy does
that is causing the difficulties?”
The presenting teacher’s initial description may leave certain areas of the student’s functioning incomplete or vague. The moderator will ask for clarification by
saying:
“Can everybody visualize exactly how this student is behaving? If not, please ask more questions until you can see the problem in your
mind’s eye.”
Describe Attempts To Solve The Problem
Following clarification of the problem, the moderator will ask the presenting
teacher to explain the various attempts at problem solving that they have tried to
date. This can be done with a prompt such as:
“What kinds of things have you tried up until
now in dealing with this problem, even though
they may not have been entirely successful?”
The presenting teacher will describe to the group his or her attempts at problem
solving in detail. These strategies usually include most of the “solutions” that
would have been offered earlier as advice by group members.
Share Critical Reinforcers
The final step in the presenting teacher’s description of the problem is to list
those reinforcers which are especially valued by this student. This knowledge is
crucial to the development of any incentive system. The moderator might say:
“What kinds of things might serve as reinforcers for Jimmy? Think of anything he would
work for on a predictable basis.”
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Group Sharing
The moderator will now utilize the group to generate additional solutions to the
problem. The moderator, however, carefully avoids opening the group up to prescribing full-blown solutions to the problem. Rather, the moderator will elicit the
sharing of experiences by asking group members to describe attempts to solve
similar problems in the past. The moderator can use a prompt such as:
“Has anybody in the group ever had a student
like this? If so, what kinds of things did you try,
even if they were only partially successful.”
There usually follows an outpouring of sympathy and experiences of equal
frustration in addition to the sharing of techniques that have shown promise.
This interaction tends to be highly supportive and rich with commiseration,
brainstorming and idea generation.
During this time the presenting teachers will often report that they already have
a solution. Simply talking about the situation and hearing from other members
of the group may help an individual to look at the problem in a new way.
The moderator is free to become more active in this portion of the meeting by
contributing anecdotes of his or her own. The moderator must, however, follow
one rule in order to avoid dampening the group interaction. If the moderator has
something to add, they must wait until last.
Group Brainstorming
Up to this point the Group Problem Solving Process has avoided the generation of solutions to the problem in the form of prescriptions. By this time in the
process, however, the presenting teacher will feel adequately understood and supported so that additional suggestions can be made with minimum threat.
Group members may have perfectly good ideas that do not come directly from
classroom experience. This is the time for such suggestions.
“Does anybody have any other ideas for solving
this problem that perhaps don’t come from
experiences that you have had in the classroom?”
With severe discipline problems, the moderator must make sure that Omission
Training has been considered before the discussion turns to the Backup System.
Omission Training is often omitted, even though it would often be the preferred
solution, because few colleagues use it on a day-to-day basis.
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Describe The Planned Intervention
The final portion of the Group Problem Solving Process is a request for the
presenting teacher to describe to the group his or her intervention plans for the
coming week. The moderator might say:
“On the basis of all that’s been said, what kinds
of things seem most helpful to you, and what
direction do you think you will take?”
Plans should be described in full detail at this time when the specifics of the
situation are clear to everyone. If the plan seems vague, the moderator may facilitate clarification with a prompt such as:
“Before we go on to another topic, let’s spend
some more time defining the exact nature of
this program so that we have the details in
mind.”
Practice The Intervention (optional)
If the presenting teacher plans to utilize Praise, Prompt and Leave or Limit
Setting to deal with a problem, they may need some additional practice or
rehearsal. At this point the moderator of the meeting would become the coach of
“Mess Up” or “Goof Up.” The moderator should be active in suggesting additional practice when it seems appropriate.
During role playing, the moderator uses one device to explicitly protect the
presenting teacher. This device is to make the presenting teacher play the role of the
student with the problem. In this way the presenting teacher can give an enactment
of the problem that is lifelike. And they will not have to play the role of the
teacher before they are sure of what to do. Once the intervention has been
“debugged,” the presenting teacher can switch roles with the person playing teacher
in order to gain mastery.
Study Group Activity Guide
Addendum J
Peer Observation Feedback
The Focus Of Sharing
Most of the sharing in Study Groups will take one of two forms:
• Sharing ideas such as PATs, VIPs and enrichment ideas
• Peer observation
Sharing Ideas
PAT Bank
Each Study Group meeting will begin with someone sharing a PAT. Rather
than explaining it, the PAT will be played by the group for 5-10 minutes, and the
person sharing the PAT will write it up as an addition to the group’s PAT Bank.
Instructional Activities
Additional sharing may include lesson plans on a given topic, ideas for interest centers, enrichment activities, teaching formats, etc. In addition, members
should share material from other workshops so that integration of skills and concepts from different programs may take place.
Peer Observation
The Feedback Vacuum
One of the greatest barriers to professional growth in education is the fact that
most teachers operate in a “feedback vacuum.” While the weaker teacher may
take comfort in their privacy behind closed doors, most teachers would rather
collaborate, share, and receive feedback. However, peer observation is a powerful tool for learning only if it is safe.
91
Observation Guidelines
The following guidelines will help make peer observation safe, comfortable
and productive.
1) Team with someone you like and respect.
2) Decide who will be:
• Teacher
• Observer
3) Plan the lesson and design the VIP together.
4) Make the observation absolutely non-judgmental and non-evaluative.
Advice-giving will be rare if the observer begins feedback with the following two agenda items:
• Tell the teacher being observed what you liked.
• Ask the teacher to tell you more about the lesson.
5) This observation process will be far more comfortable for a new teacher
if they begin by observing a more experienced teacher rather than being
the one observed.
Tools for Teaching
Discipline • Instruction • Motivation
Primary Prevention of Classroom Discipline Problems
Study Group Activity Guide
for the third edition of Tools for Teaching
Fredric H. Jones, Ph.D.
Companion to Dr. Jones’
Tools for Teaching
and the
Table of Contents
Introduction
1
Organization Meeting
5
Meeting 1:
Working the Crowd and Room Arrangement
8
Meeting 2:
Praise, Prompt, and Leave
11
Meeting 3:
Providing Visual Instructional Plans
14
Meeting 4:
Say, See, Do Teaching
17
Meeting 5:
Rules, Routines, and Standards
20
Meeting 6:
Understanding Brat Behavior
24
Meeting 7:
Calm is Strength
26
Meeting 8:
The Body Language of Meaning Business
29
Meeting 9:
Eliminating Backtalk
32
Meeting 10:
Responsibility Training
37
Meeting 11:
Omission Training and Preferred Activity Time
40
Meeting 12:
Dealing with Typical Classroom Crises
43
A:
Mess Up: Praise, Prompt, and Leave
46
B:
Mess Up: Visual Instructional Plan
49
C:
Partner Teaching
51
D:
Breathing Practice
53
E:
The Turn
58
F:
Smile Practice
64
G:
Moving In and Moving Out
70
H:
Goof Off
82
I:
Group Problem Solving Process
85
J:
Peer Observation Feedback
89
Addenda
1
Tools forTeaching
Study Group Activity Guide
Introduction
Building Study Groups
Why Study Groups?
Mastering the Specifics
Tools for Teaching is packed with specifics. If you are to master Tools for Teaching,
you will need to study it chapter by chapter. The purpose of our Study Group
Activity Guide is to provide the structure for making this study as productive as
possible.
A Little Help from Your Friends
Implementing Tools for Teaching will be a lot easier with a little help from your
friends. Going through the book with a colleague will greatly increase your comfort level as you try out new ideas in your classroom.
You will receive even more help if you form a Study Group at your school site.
The Study Group can help you perfect management skills prior to implementation in the classroom, and it can help you solve difficult management problems
as they arise.
Affordable Staff Development
With adequate structure, a brief after school meeting can become a significant
learning experience. The Study Group Activity Guide provides structure for the
practice exercises and learning activities that produce comfort with new skills.
Hopefully, working with colleagues will become a permanent part of your school
culture. The time invested in the Study Group will be recouped in parent conferences and IEP meetings that are no longer needed.
2
Study Group Content
Meeting Agenda
The Tools for Teaching Study Group Activity Guide provides structure for 12
Study Group meetings of roughly 45 minutes duration plus an organizational
meeting to help you get started. The 12 Study Group meetings will focus on the
following skill areas:
1) Working the Crowd and Room Arrangement (Chapters 1-4)
2) Praise, Prompt, and Leave (Chapters 5, 6)
3) Visual Instructional Plans (Chapter 7)
4) Say, See, Do Teaching (Chapters 8-10)
5) Rules, Routines, and Standards (Chapters 11, 12)
6) Understanding Brat Behavior (Chapters 13, 15)
7) Calm is Strength (Chapter 14)
8) The Body Language of Meaning Business (Chapters 16, 17)
9) Eliminating Backtalk (Chapters 18-20)
10) Responsibility Training (Chapters 21, 22)
11) Omission Training and Preferred Activity Time (Chapters 23, 24)
12) Dealing with Typical Classroom Crises (Chapters 25, 26)
Meeting Structure
Each Study Group meeting will contain the following:
• Focus Questions: These questions guide your reading of Tools for Teaching
and structure discussions of key concepts during your weekly meetings.
• Study Group Activities: These skill building exercises and classroom simulations provide practice of key classroom management skills.
• The Video Toolbox: When incorporating the Video Toolbox into your
Study Group meetings, these video training sessions enhance the Study
Group Activities by providing insight and visual reference from Dr. Jones.
• Performance Checklists: These outline the steps of implementing each
major skill and serve as a handy review.
3
Study Group Activities
Study Group meetings contain the same activities that Dr. Jones uses in his
workshops. These activities transform an after school meeting into a hands-on
workshop. Study Group activities range from skill practice exercises to simulations of complex classroom management situations. These exercises and simulations are described in detail in the Addenda to the Study Group Activity Guide.
While Study Group leaders can reproduce the practice exercises by studying
these Addenda, as always, a picture is worth a thousand words. In order to make
coaching as easy as possible, all practice exercises are modeled by Dr. Jones on
the Coaching Disc of the Video Toolbox.
Study Group Activity Guide Addenda
A: Mess Up: Praise, Prompt, and Leave – a simulation for practicing
Praise, Prompt and Leave with a preexisting lesson plan
B: Mess Up: Visual Instructional Plan – a simulation for practicing
Praise, Prompt, and Leave following the teaching of a lesson by a group
member using his or her VIP
C. Partner Teaching – a simple and efficient format for Say, See, Do
Teaching that is applicable to any subject area
D: Breathing Practice – a relaxation exercise that lays the foundation for
learning the body language of “meaning business”
E: The Turn – the integration of relaxation and a commitment to
meaning business that signals to students the beginning of Limit Setting
F: Smile Practice – an exercise for practicing relaxation in the face of
backtalk
G: Moving In and Moving Out – a series of exercises that build
proficiency in the body language of meaning business for situations that
range from students simply “fooling around” to nasty backtalk
H: Goof Off – a simulation for practicing Limit Setting in a wide variety of
realistic classroom situations
I: Group Problem Solving Process – an efficient problem solving format
that creates safety and comfort for group members
J: Peer Observation Feedback – a simple and supportive format for giving
feedback to colleagues following a classroom observation
4
Study Group Supplements
Video Toolbox
Any attempt to build skills must rely heavily on the visual modality. The Video
Toolbox augments Tools for Teaching by giving you a front row seat at one of Dr.
Jones’ workshops. In the Video Toolbox Dr. Jones explains procedures, models key
skills, and demonstrates skill building exercises.
The Video Toolbox contains 12 training sessions which correspond to the 12
Study Group meetings, an Overview Disc which highlights the entire Tools for
Teaching program, and a Coaching Disc which models the steps of each Study
Group activity. Also, DVD training sessions 1, 3, 4, 5, 10 and 11 include bonus
footage of Tools for Teaching at work in real classrooms. Using the Video Toolbox
will increase your meeting’s length from 45 min. to approximately 75 min.
www.fredjones.com
The Study Group Activity Guide is provided free of charge on our web site
(www.fredjones.com). We encourage you to download it and print copies for
each participant. The web site also contains a PAT Bank where teachers can
share enrichment ideas and learning games, a message board, articles by Dr.
Jones and much more.
Tools for Teaching Workshops
Dr. Jones presents three-day Tools for Teaching workshops throughout North
America to provide training in the skills of classroom management. While many
of the participants are individual teachers, over half of the participants represent
training teams from school districts or school sites. With the structure provided
by Tools for Teaching, the Study Group Activity Guide, and the Video Toolbox, training teams can reproduce Dr. Jones’ program with a high degree of accuracy after
returning from the workshop. See the “Workshops” section of our web site for
current dates and locations (www.fredjones.com/workshops).
5
Tools forTeaching
Study Group Activity Guide
Organization Meeting
Study Group Structure
Study Group Pledge
“I promise to be the kind of student that I would like my own students to be.
I will show up on time, read the assigned chapters before coming to the Study
Group meeting, and participate actively in discussions and group exercises.”
Meeting Guidelines
If you receive significant benefit from attending your Study Group, you will
keep attending. It is extremely important, therefore, that Study Groups be productive. Study Group guidelines are designed to ensure a minimum of wasted
time. They embody years of experience with such groups.
Meet Regularly
Meet on a regular weekly basis. When meetings are held less often such as biweekly, attendance tends to drop off. These meetings should be placed at the
highest level of priority by both the principal and participating faculty so that
they are never cross-scheduled with other faculty activities.
Keep the Group Small
Group size should be kept small so that each member’s concerns can be
addressed in a timely fashion. Work groups of this type are most productive when
the size is limited to roughly 5-8 individuals. If you attempt to simplify scheduling by having one large group, attendance will drop off until you have one small
group. At a given school site there may eventually be several study groups. Crossscheduling can be minimized by having them all meet after school on the same
6
day. If you have a large group attending your organizational meeting, break up
into smaller units at that time.
Start On Time and End On Time
Most Study Groups will meet after school. Do not wait for everyone to show up.
If you do, you will always start late. Keep the meetings short (45 minutes is most
common), and always end at a preset time.
Get To Work
Somebody has to be responsible for saying, “Let’s get started.” That person is
the Study Group leader for that week’s meeting. Rotate the job so that everyone
takes a turn. A simple agenda helps to get things started. For example, the meeting might begin with the sharing of a PAT.
No Complaining
We all have cares and worries that come from students, parents, and administrators. If colleagues start bringing these issues into the Study Group, it will kill
the Study Group. Colleagues who want to use group time to air complaints will
consume the first half of the meeting, and those colleagues who would rather
“get down to brass tacks” will quit coming.
No “Big Issues”
Focus on implementing Tools for Teaching. This is not a “mini” faculty meeting.
Study Group Leadership
Someone In Charge
Each meeting of the Study Group will have a designated leader. The job of
Study Group leader can be shared by all group members on a rotating basis. The
Study Group leader will be responsible for the following:
• being in charge of the meeting. The Study Group leader will begin and
end the meeting on time and be in charge of the agenda.
• being the teacher for group learning activities. The Study Group leader
will review the protocols for learning activities and simulations that are
scheduled for his or her meeting (see Addenda).
• being moderator of group problem solving. The Study Group leader will
review the Group Problem Solving Process (see Addendum I) so that he
or she can moderate group problem solving should it be required.
7
Study Group Leader Sign-up
Week
1.
Leader’ s Name
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
Preparation for Next Meeting
Study Group Members:
Read
Chapter 1:
Chapter 2:
Chapter 3:
Chapter 4:
Learning from the “Natural” Teachers
The Primary Prevention of Discipline Problems
Working the Crowd
Arranging the Room
Study Group Leader:
• Preview the next meeting’s agenda.
• Bring graph paper for everyone.
• Bring a roll of paper towels.
• If you have the Video Toolbox, see the red box on page 2 of the Video
Toolbox Handbook.
8
Tools forTeaching
Study Group Activity Guide
Meeting One
Working the Crowd and Room Arrangement
Reading Assignment
Chapter 1: Learning from the “ Natural” Teachers
Chapter 2: The Primary Prevention of Discipline Problems
Chapter 3: Working the Crowd
Chapter 4: Arranging the Room
Focus
A good room arrangement makes “working the crowd” easier. The optimal
room arrangement allows you to get from any student to any other student with
the fewest steps. You need both compactness and generous walkways. Achieving this
requires a high degree of planfulness in the spatial arrangement of your furniture.
Focus Questions for Reading
1) Traditionally we have referred to the skills of classroom management as a
“bag of tricks.” Why is it necessary to have a classroom management system as opposed to “a bag of tricks?” (pages 24-26)
2) If you were to stand at the back of a typical classroom and observe “goofing off,” what behaviors would you most often see? (pages 6-8)
3) What is the most common way in which teachers and parents deal with
these everyday disruptions? (pages 8-11)
9
4) Why must a classroom management system be comprehensive and synergistic in order to produce dramatic results (pages 15-19)
5) Describe the calculations that students subconsciously make as you move
from the red to the yellow to the green zones? How does working the crowd
“disrupt the disruptions?” (pages 30-33)
6) How does working the crowd provide “camouflage” for setting limits on disruptive students? (pages 33-34)
7) Looking at the diagrams of room arrangements on pages 41-45 of Tools for
Teaching, which pattern would work best for you?
8) If you have a classroom with work stations that cannot be moved, how could
you arrange the furniture for brief presentations to the group that would
allow you to work the crowd in at least an abbreviated fashion?
Study Group Activities
With Video Toolbox: View Session One (optional DVD Bonus)
Without Video Toolbox: Discuss the Focus Questions
Design Your Room Arrangement
Take the piece of graph paper supplied by your group leader and spend ten
minutes drawing your room arrangement.
Move Furniture
Nothing facilitates room rearrangement more than to have a few of your Study
Group partners enter your classroom and say, “Well, where do you want the furniture?” Extra hands and some friends with which to brainstorm makes the job
much easier.
Divide the Study Group into “furniture moving squads” of three or four and
make the rounds of each member’s classroom. Start by removing obstacles from
the middle front of the classroom, and then lay out your interior loop.
Have the members of the furniture moving squad sit in your desks. Unroll the
paper towel (provided by your group leader) between your colleagues’ toes and
the desks in front of them to represent a walkway. Adjust your room arrangement
until all of your walkways are wide enough to allow easy passage.
Talk to the Custodian
Before your next meeting, it might be a good idea to check with the custodial
staff so that they know what you are doing and why. They may need to help you
move cabinets or shelves. Ask them if there is anything you can do to make their
job easier in the light of your need to work the crowd.
10
Performance Checklist
• Remove barriers from the middle front of the classroom so you can bring
the students’ desks forward. Often, this simply entails moving your desk
to a corner in the front of the room.
• Bring the students’ desks as far forward as possible.
• If there is an overhead projector, see if you can place it so that it does not
occupy “the best seats in the house.” Sometimes you can turn it 90
degrees to project on a side wall. See if you can have a student operate the
overhead projector in order to free you up to work the crowd.
• Lay out your walkways so that you can get from any student to any other
student in the fewest steps. Usually the most efficient pattern of walkways
will contain a “loop” in the middle of the room.
• If you have work stations that cannot be moved, see if you can have the
students bring their chairs close to you for group presentations.
• Make your aisles wide enough so that you will not constantly be stepping
over feet and backpacks. In order to reduce obstacles in the walkways, you
may wish to have students lay their backpacks along the back wall so that
only relevant books and materials are brought to the desks.
• Make sure that students are arranged in pairs to facilitate easy interaction.
Move students until you have partner pairs that work well together.
Preparation for Next Session
Study Group Members
Read
Chapter 5: Weaning the Helpless Handraisers
Chapter 6: Praise, Prompt, and Leave – The Verbal Modality
Study Group Leader
• Preview the next meeting’s agenda.
• Review the protocol for playing “Mess Up: Praise, Prompt, and Leave” in
Addendum A of the Study Group Activity Guide.
• If you have the Video Toolbox, see the red box on page 4 of the Video
Toolbox Handbook
12
Tools forTeaching
Study Group Activity Guide
Meeting Two
Praise, Prompt, and Leave
Reading Assignment
Chapter 5: Weaning the Helpless Handraisers
Chapter 6: Praise, Prompt, and Leave – The Verbal Modality
Focus
The focus of this meeting is the giving of corrective feedback. We want to give
clear feedback in the shortest amount of time so that we can:
• begin to wean the helpless handraisers.
• regain the ability to work the crowd.
We will concentrate on the verbal modality. What do you say when giving corrective feedback to a student? How can you give students all of the information
they need and leave as quickly as possible?
Focus Questions
1) How many helpless handraisers do you have in your class? Are they the
same students every day? How much of your time do they consume?
2) What forms of dependency and “clingyness” other than handraising do
you observe in your classroom?
3) What are the limitations of long-term auditory memory that would govern
the duration of corrective feedback? (pages 58-59)
4) Why do we always tend to find the error when looking at other people’s
work? (pages 60-61)
5) Why do people tend to get defensive when they are given corrective feedback? Have you observed this outside of your classroom? Have you experienced it? When? (page 61-63)
6) Describe Praise, Prompt and Leave beginning with the relaxing breath.
(pages 63-68)
Study Group Activities
With Video Toolbox: View Session Two
Without Video Toolbox: Discuss the Focus Questions
Play “Mess Up: Praise, Prompt, and Leave”
“Mess Up” is a game that allows you to practice Praise, Prompt and Leave. The
protocol for playing this game is contained in Addendum A of the Study Group
Activity Guide.
Mess Up is a game that simulates typical student-teacher helping interactions.
During the game the group brainstorms good “Praise” and “Prompt” statements.
Then, players practice them so that fluency in giving brief and focused corrective feedback is achieved. Use the VIP of long division on page 74 of Tools for
Teaching to make things simple the first time you play.
Performance Checklist
• When you see the error, take two relaxing breaths and clear your mind.
• Take a second look at the work, and ask yourself, “What is right so far?”
• Choose two features of correct performance that would be most useful in
serving as a springboard to the prompt.
• Describe these two features in simple declarative sentences.
• As a bridge between the Praise and the Prompt, begin the transition sentence with the formula, “The next thing to do is...”
• Describe what you want the student to do next in one or two simple declarative sentences. Refer to any visual aides that are available, and mark on
the student’s paper in any way that might be helpful.
• Turn and leave. Resist the tendency to “hang around” to see how the
prompt turns out.
14
Preparation for Next Meeting
Study Group Members
Read
Chapter 7: Visual Instructional Plans – The Visual Modality
Bring
Each member of the Study Group will bring a VIP to the next meeting – something that they plan to teach during the following week.
Study Group Leader
• Preview the next meeting’s agenda.
• Review the protocol for “Mess Up: Visual Instructional Plan” in
Addendum B.
• If you have the Video Toolbox, see the red box on page 6 of the Video
Toolbox Handbook.
Tools forTeaching
Study Group Activity Guide
Meeting Three
Providing Visual Instructional Plans
Reading Assignment
Chapter 7: Visual Instructional Plans – The Visual Modality
Focus
The focus of this meeting is to:
• represent a lesson visually step-by-step.
• pre-teach the lessons playing “Mess Up: Visual Instructional Plan” in
order to trouble-shoot the VIP.
Focus Questions
1) Why is it so easy to “backslide” into verbosity after having mastered the art
of giving simple verbal prompts? (pages 70-71)
2) What is the difference between a summary graphic and a VIP? (pages 7172)
3) How does a summary graphic open the door to wallowing? (pages 71-72)
4) What are the main characteristics of a good set of plans? (page 72)
5) Who is the primary user of a lesson plan? (page 73)
6) How do VIPs aid the weaning process? (pages 75-76)
7) What are the various forms that a VIP can take? (pages 77-78)
16
Study Group Activities
With Video Toolbox: View Session Three (optional DVD Bonus)
Without Video Toolbox: Discuss the Focus Questions
Play “Mess Up: Visual Instructional Plan”
The game of Mess Up can be played at two different levels. You can use it to
practice Praise, Prompt and Leave as we did during the previous session, or you
can use it to trouble-shoot a VIP. The protocol for playing “Mess Up: Visual
Instructional Plan” is contained in Addendum B of the Study Group Activity
Guide.
Break into subgroups of 3 or 4 to once again play Mess Up. To start the game,
one of the Study Group members will teach a brief lesson while putting a VIP for
that lesson on the board along with a practice exercise. The roles for playing
Mess Up are 1) student, 2) teacher and 3) moderator. The person who supplies
the VIP always plays the role of student since he or she can best mimic the students’ errors and speech patterns.
To begin the game, the teacher turns his or her back to the student. The student
makes an error on the practice exercise that is typical for this type of assignment.
The teacher then turns around to look at the error.
After taking a relaxing breath, the teacher lists for the group the things that are
right so far. The moderator then engages the group in a discussion of the Praise
statement so that the person playing the role of the teacher, rather than being “on
the spot,” is part of group brainstorming. When the teacher and the group are
comfortable with the Praise statement, the brainstorming process is repeated
with the Prompt statement. Then, the teacher practices the entire
Praise/Prompt statement. Finally, the teacher turns his or her back to the student
to begin the next round as the student makes the next “mess up.”
Any flaw in the VIP will be revealed as you play Mess Up. Mess Up clarifies
where gaps exist in the task analysis, where additional graphics are needed and
where “chunks” of performance are too large or too small.
Performance Checklist
VIPs
• Define the performance that you want from students, and break it down
into steps. This process of task analysis is made much easier if you perform the task yourself as you analyze it.
17
• Depict performance one step at a time. Make each step visual either
through pictures, an outline or a Mind Map.
• As you play Mess Up, add or modify steps of the VIP if the group decides
that clarity can be gained by doing so.
Praise, Prompt and Leave
• Relax and give yourself a moment to assess what is right so far before
speaking.
• If you choose to utilize a praise statement (which is optional), make it
brief – one or two simple sentences.
• Keep the prompt brief and to the point. Exploit the graphics in the VIP
to answer the question, “What do I do next?” in the fewest possible words.
• See if you can make an adequate prompt with a simple sentence or just a
phrase. Beware of the natural tendency toward verbosity that we all have.
• Guard against a lengthy explanation of the VIP. A major purpose of the
VIP is to serve as a substitute for lengthy explanations.
Preparation for Next Meeting
Study Group Members
Read
Chapter 8: Say, See, Do Teaching – The Physical Modality
Chapter 9: Creating Motivation
Chapter 10: Providing Accountability
Study Group Leader
• Preview the next meeting’s agenda.
• Review the protocol for Partner Teaching in Addendum C.
• Prepare a VIP for a lesson of 10-15 minutes duration that will serve as a
vehicle for demonstrating Partner Teaching.
• If you have the Video Toolbox, see the red box on page 8 of the Video
Toolbox Handbook.
Tools forTeaching
Study Group Activity Guide
Meeting Four
Say, See, Do Teaching
Reading Assignment
Chapter 8:
Chapter 9:
Say, See, Do Teaching – The Physical Modality
Creating Motivation
Chapter 10: Providing Accountability
Focus
The focus of this meeting is to:
• practice Partner Teaching.
• get a feel for structuring a lesson as a series of Say, See, Do Cycles.
Focus Questions
1) How does Say, See, Do Teaching increase student engagement? (page
82)
2) What is the most efficient way to create comprehension and longterm memory during the teaching of a lesson? (pages 83-84)
3) Compare Say, See, Do Teaching with Bop ‘til You Drop teaching. How
does the cognitive overload typical of Bop ‘til You Drop teaching feed
into the dependency of helpless handraisers? (pages 85-86)
4) What are the advantages of structure in the teaching of a lesson? Why do
kids need structure? (page 88)
5) What methods in Dr. Hattie’s research produce the greatest benefit? How
might you best summarize his findings? (pages 90-92)
6) What are the “Suffering Costs” of innovations with an effect size of less
than s= 0.40?
Study Group Activities
With Video Toolbox: View Session Four (2 optional DVD Bonuses)
Without Video Toolbox: Discuss the Focus Questions
Practice Partner Teaching
Partner Teaching is a simple Say, See, Do format and an efficient way of making learning interactive. The protocol for Partner Teaching is contained in
Addendum C of the Study Group Activity Guide.
Since this format is so simple, it is easy to organize. And, since the partner
pairs are doing most of the work, the classroom teacher has plenty of time to
supervise student performance during each step of the lesson.
Performance Checklist
Partner Teaching
• The classroom teacher places students into partner pairs that work well
together.
• One of the partners “goes first” in playing the role of the teacher while the
other member of the partner pair plays the role of the student.
• The classroom teacher presents a step of the lesson (i.e. a Say, See, Do
Cycle) to the group.
• The classroom teacher then says, “Teach your partner.”
• The partner who “goes first” (the teacher) teaches that step to his or her
partner (the student).
• The classroom teacher then says, “Now, teach the other direction.”
• The partners switch roles and repeat the step. Consequently, each mem-
20
ber of the partner pair “learns by doing” and “learns best by teaching.”
• This process is repeated for each step of the task analysis.
• As the partners are teaching each other, the teacher can work the crowd.
Typically, the teacher’s attention is focused on the students’ work. During
a social studies lesson the teacher might simply “cruise and schmooze.”
However, during a lesson which produces “correct answers” such as math,
the teacher might check the students’ work.
• Checking work during Guided Practice opens the door to offering incentives (sponge PATs) for diligent and conscientious work.
• To offer incentives, the teacher needs to be able to check the work as it is
being done, and the students need a Criterion of Mastery.
• A Criterion of Mastery tells the students in advance how many things
(math problems, for example) have to be done in a row correctly before the
students can be excused to hand in their papers and begin the sponge
PAT (usually some kind of project or enrichment activity).
Preparation for Next Session
Study Group Members
Read
Chapter 11: Succeeding from Day One
Chapter 12: Teaching Routines
Study Group Leader
• Preview the next meeting’s agenda.
• If you have the Video Toolbox, see the red box on page 10 of the Video
Toolbox Handbook.
Tools forTeaching
Study Group Activity Guide
Meeting Five
Rules, Routines, and Standards
Reading Assignment
Chapter 11: Succeeding from Day One
Chapter 12: Teaching Routines
Focus
We will learn how to teach routines and establish high standards.
Focus Questions
1) How does Bell Work help to define the classroom as a work environment
while eliminating the time wasted by “settling in?” (pages 131-133)
2) What icebreaker will you use during the first class period of next semester? (pages 133-134)
3) In order to act like a teacher, you have to think like a teacher. Teaching
embodies the following two timeless truths:
• I say what I mean, and I mean what I say.
• We are going to keep doing this until we get it right.
How are these two timeless truths embodied in your mindset and in your
procedures while teaching a classroom routine? (pages 138-141)
22
4) In teaching routines, it is easier to have high standards than to have low
standards. How does practice, practice, practice isolate the “goof offs”
while getting the rest of the group to support you in establishing high
standards? (pages 141-143)
5) How do you plan to organize chores in you classroom? (pages 143-145)
6) How do you plan to communicate your standards and expectations to
parents? (pages 145-147)
Study Group Activities
With Video Toolbox: View Session Five (optional DVD Bonus)
Without Video Toolbox: Discuss the Focus Questions
Review the Teaching of a Routine
• Take a few minutes to reread pages 148-150 of Tools for Teaching (Training
the class to pass through the halls quietly).
• Read the protocol for teaching the classroom routine of lining up in the
Performance Checklist below.
Begin to Develop Your School Site Procedures Manual
Develop a list of basic procedures and routines that members of the group use
on a day-to-day basis. Assign a procedure to each group member. Have each
group member develop a protocol for his or her routine to bring to next week’s
meeting. Have each protocol include the following:
• Name of Routine
• Description of Routine
• What does it look like?
• What does it sound like?
• Training Procedures
• Criterion of Mastery
Performance Checklist
The following protocol can serve as a model for group members as they develop protocols for the School Site Procedures Manual. We have chosen to develop
a protocol for lining up. This is not only an extremely common procedure, but it
also logically proceeds the procedure for walking through the hall quietly that is
described on pages 148-150 of Tools for Teaching.
Name of Routine
Lining up
Description of Routine
What does it look like?
• The students will walk, not run
• They will line up in order (i.e. in the order that minimizes potential disruptions as the students walk down the hall). Consider having:
• two lines rather than one in order to place the end of the line
closer to the teacher.
• disruptive students near the front to be close to the teacher.
• disruptive students separated from each other by non-disruptors.
• a few trustworthy students at the end of the line to reduce straggling.
What does it sound like?
• The students will be quiet as they line up.
• The students will be quiet as they wait for further instructions.
Training Procedures
• Have students line up in the desired order. Have students identify the persons to their right and left as well as “landmarks” they can use to find their
spot.
• Have students take their seats, and then begin practicing lining up. Set a
goal for lining up quickly that can be easily reached with practice (for
example, lining up in 5 seconds). Begin slowly with a target of perhaps 20
seconds, and emphasize the importance of walking in an orderly fashion.
Once the students can find their places in an orderly fashion, gradually
speed up the routine.
• Make a game out of reaching your goal. Keep practicing until you reach
the goal at least twice in a row. Congratulate the class during practice as
they approach the goal.
24
“You did it in 12 seconds. That is a lot faster
than last time. Most importantly, there was no
running and no talking. Good job class.
“Now, let’s quietly take our seats, and we will
practice it again. We should get quicker every
time we do it. But, remember, walk, don’t run.
“Alright class, you may take your seats.”
Criterion of Mastery
• Practice until the class can line up quietly in five seconds or less twice in
a row.
• Tell the class that this is the standard you will expect them to meet every
time they line up. In addition, tell the class that, should the routine
become slow or sloppy, they will simply practice some more until they can
do it right before leaving the classroom.
Preparation for Next Meeting
Study Group Members
Read
Chapter 13: Understanding Brat Behavior
Chapter 15: Being Consistent – Our Thoughts
Do
Bring protocols for classroom procedures to the next meeting to be included
in the School Site Procedures Manual.
Study Group Leader
• Preview the next meeting’s agenda.
• If you have the Video Toolbox, see the red box on page 12 of the Video
Toolbox Handbook.
Tools forTeaching
Study Group Activity Guide
Meeting Six
Understanding Brat Behavior
Reading Assignment
Chapter 13: Understanding Brat Behavior
Chapter 15: Being Consistent – Our Thoughts
Focus
The focus of this meeting is to:
• clarify the meaning of consistency (Chapter 15)
• begin to develop you School Site Procedures Manual.
Focus Questions
1) Schools produce the same number of office referrals year after year. What
payoffs does Larry get for being suspended? Why doesn’t the School
Discipline Code “put the lid on” as we would hope? (pages 150-153)
2) Why must a teacher embody these rule if they expect to “mean business?”
• No means no.
• I am not going to stand here and listen to your yammering.
3) What is funny about someone saying that they are “pretty consistent?”
How do “Weenie” parents build brat behavior? (pages 173-175)
4) How can inconsistency gradually undermine your capacity to be nurtu-
26
rant? (pages 178-179)
Study Group Activities
With Video Toolbox: View Session Six
Without Video Toolbox: Discuss the Focus Questions
Develop Your School Site Procedures Manual
1) Share your protocols for classroom procedures.
2) Discuss additional routines that should be added to the manual.
3) Make copies of the protocols for each group member.
Performance Checklist
Make sure each protocol for a classroom routine contains the following:
• Name of Routine
• Description of Routine
• What does it look like?
• What does it sound like?
• Training Procedures
• Criterion of Mastery
Preparation for Next Meeting
Study Group Members
Read
Chapter 14: Staying Calm – Our Emotions
Study Group Leader
• Preview the next meeting’s agenda.
• Review the protocol for Breathing Practice in Addendum D.
• If you have the Video Toolbox, see the red box on page 14 of the Video
Toolbox Handbook.
Tools forTeaching
Study Group Activity Guide
Meeting Seven
Calm And Consistency
Reading Assignment
Chapter 14: Staying Calm – Our Emotions
Focus
We will learn:
• the importance of staying calm on the job.
• how to relax when provoked.
Focus Questions
1) How is the fight-flight reflex related to stress? (pages 159-164)
2) What is downshifting? How does it account for us saying and doing things
that we later have to apologize for? (pages 164-165)
3) What is meant by, “calm is strength and upset is weakness?” Can you be in
control of a situation without first being in control of yourself? (pages
166-168)
4) The fight-flight reflex is quick, powerful, and natural. How can you abort
the fight-flight reflex before you downshift into your brainstem? (pages
168-169)
28
Study Group Activities
With Video Toolbox: View Session Seven
Without Video Toolbox: Discuss the Focus Questions
Do Breathing Practice
The objective of Breathing Practice is to place relaxation under voluntary control so that we may remain calm in the face of provocation. The protocol for
Breathing Practice is contained in Addendum D of the Study Group Activity
Guide.
As in the workshop, we will employ a series of practice exercises that build
from simple skills to more complex skills. The breathing exercises are:
• Tension/Relaxation
• Slowing the Cadence
• Visualizing Calm
• Relaxing the Jaw
Performance Checklist
1) Relax (exhale) to begin a relaxing breath
2) Breath in slowly, and keep the breath “small.” A relaxing breath is not deep
breathing. Rather, it uses a minimum of energy as when you are resting.
3) Relax as you exhale. Rather than pushing air out, exhale with a simple,
whole-body relaxation response.
4) Check you jaw by running your tongue back along the roof of your mouth
to where you can feel the beginning of soft palate. This simply pushes
your jaw down perhaps a quarter of an inch. However, if you habitually do
this as part of a relaxing breath, you will prevent yourself from “setting
your jaw” and signalling tension and upset to the students.
Note: See Breathing Practice in Addendum D of the Study Group Activity
Guide for a detailed description of the prompting sequences used in
practice. In addition, Dr. Jones will prompt the group through each part
of Breathing Practice on the Coaching Disc.
29
Preparation for Next Meeting
Study Group Members
Read
Chapter 16: Setting Limits – Our Actions
Chapter 17: Following Through
Study Group Leader
• Preview the next meeting’s agenda.
• Review the body language for meaning business in Chapters 16-17.
• Review “The Turn” in Addendum E.
• If you have the Video Toolbox, see the red box on page 16 of the Video
Toolbox Handbook.
Tools forTeaching
Study Group Activity Guide
Meeting Eight
The Body Language of Meaning Business
Reading Assignment
Chapter 16: Setting Limits – Our Actions
Chapter 17: Following Through
Focus
We will develop our understanding of Meaning Business – the commitment,
the consistency, and the body language.
Focus Questions
1) How do students read your commitment? (pages 182-184)
2) “The Turn” is as much about commitment as it is about follow-through.
Contrast the response of a teacher who means business like Miss Haines
with a “weenie” when first seeing a typical disruption like “talking to
neighbors.” (pages 184-185)
3) Why do we focus so much time and attention on “The Turn?” How can an
effective turn save you work? (pages 185-186)
4) The students watch your body language to discriminate whether or not
you mean business. What are the key discriminative stimuli that the students read as you turn toward them? (pages 187-192)
31
5) What are the main types of pseudo-compliance as you “Move In and Move
Out,” and how do students use pseudo-compliance to cut deals? (pages
196-198)
6) In the poker game of meaning business, what are the choice points during Moving In where students either raise of fold? (pages 198-203)
7) What are the true economics in Meaning Business? How does it self-eliminate? (pages 204-206).
8) How does working the crowd combine with the body language of meaning business to create camouflage? (pages 207-208)
Study Group Activities
With Video Toolbox: View Session Eight
Without Video Toolbox: Discuss the Focus Questions
Practice “The Turn”
The protocol for “The Turn” is contained in Addendum E of the Study Group
Activity Guide. The Turn contains a series of practice exercises that add critical
features of performance one at a time such as:
• Turn in a regal fashion.
• Point your toes.
• Get a focal point, etc.
The breathing exercises from the previous meeting are integrated with The
Turn so that group members learn to begin relaxation as soon as they see the disruption. The final segment of The Turn deals with the natural tendency of students to give us “smiley face” when caught goofing off as well as our tendency to
smile in return.
Performance Checklist: “The Turn”
Begin with excusing yourself from Robert (page 199), relaxing and breathing
in gently before slowly standing and turning toward the disruptive students. The
critical features of the turn, the signs by which the student can discriminate
whether or not you mean business, are the following:
• Turn in a Regal Fashion (pages 187-188). Turn from the top down in four
parts; head, shoulder, waist, feet.
• Point Your Toes. (pages 188-190). Never make a partial turn.
32
• Get a Focal Point. (pages 190)
• Relax Your Arms (pages 190-191)
• Relax Your Jaw (pages 191-192)
• Wait for 2 Relaxing Breaths The student will either get back to work, or
they will not. You will know soon enough. Focus on passively waiting
rather than “staring them down.”
Preparation for Next Meeting
Study Group Members
Read
Chapter 18: Eliminating Backtalk
Chapter 19: Dealing with the Unexpected
Chapter 20: Coaching the skills of Meaning Business
Study Group Leader
• Preview the next meeting’s agenda.
• Review the body language for “dealing with backtalk” in Chapter 18.
• Review the protocol for “Smile Practice” in Addendum F of the Study
Group Activity Guide.
• Review the protocol for “Moving In and Moving Out” in Addendum G of
the Study Group Activity Guide.
• If you have the Video Toolbox, see the red box on page 18 of the Video
Toolbox Handbook.
Tools forTeaching
Study Group Activity Guide
Meeting Nine
Eliminating Backtalk
Reading Assignment
Chapter 18: Eliminating Backtalk
Chapter 19: Dealing with the Unexpected
Chapter 20: Coaching the skills of Meaning Business
Focus
The focus of this meeting is to practice:
• staying calm and keeping quiet in the face of backtalk.
• responding to unpredictable provocations such as a “cheap shot” as you
walk away.
Focus Questions
1) What is the meaning of, “It takes one fool to backtalk, but it takes two
fools to make a conversation out of it?” (pages 209-212)
2) How do kids get “off the hook” by switching the agenda? (pages 212-215)
3) What is your short-term response to backtalk, and how does it help you to
have an effective long-term response? (pages 217-218)
4) How is reconciliation possible as an outcome of backtalk? (pages 223-224)
5) How does extreme neediness and extreme anger alter your use of body
language in setting limits? (pages 226-228)
6) How does Guided Practice help us to confront our emotions and “grow
up” as a teacher (pages 239-243)
7) How do the findings of neuroscience inform your thinking concerning
the amount of repetition needed for learning? (pages 243-245)
Study Group Activities
With Video Toolbox: View Session Nine
Without Video Toolbox: Discuss the Focus Questions
Do Smile Practice
The protocol for Smile Practice is contained in Addendum F of the Study
Group Activity Guide. Smile Practice is a Partner Teaching exercise in which one
partner (the teacher) attempts to relax and keep a straight face while the other
partner (the student) attempts to make the teacher react. Then, the partners
switch roles.
The only way to learn to relax under pressure is to practice relaxing under
pressure. In Smile Practice we begin with mild pressure (trying to make the
other person laugh) and end with more severe pressure (backtalk). Thus, Smile
Practice is not only a relaxation exercise, but it also preparation for dealing with
backtalk, the topic of next weeks Study Group meeting.
Practice Moving In and Moving Out
It is important for Group Members to get a sense of the timing and sequence
of “Moving In and Moving Out” as described in Chapter 17 of Tools for Teaching
as a prelude to dealing with backtalk. The protocol for practicing Moving in and
Moving Out is contained in Addendum G of the Study Group Activity Guide.
The most important features to emphasize are:
• reading pseudo-compliance on the part of the students.
• continuing the body language poker game until the student “folds.”
• staying with a student prior to thanking them until you observe a stable
pattern of work as opposed to more pseudo-compliance (eyes up-eyes
down).
• thanking the student and then remaining for two more relaxing breaths.
• giving both students equal time if two students are involved in the disruption.
35
• turning toward the disruptive students and monitoring them after you
leave so that there is no clear end to the interaction.
Practice Meaning Business with Backtalk
Have the student give the teacher “whiney backtalk.” Practice Moving In as far as
“Camping Out in Front,” and then discuss when this would or would not be a
good idea.
If you have time, have the partner pairs practice responding to the “Last
Hurrah” and a “cheap shot.” Once the Group Members have a good sense of
Moving In and Moving Out complete with Curve Balls (see Tools for Teaching,
page 234), you will be ready to play “Goof Off” (see Addendum H).
Performance Checklist
Moving In
This scenario assumes a fairly typical student as opposed to a highly oppositional student. To gain a perspective on the management of atypical situations,
read Chapter 19 (Dealing with the Unexpected). To troubleshoot specific
responses to difficult management situations, role play that situation as part of
Goof Off.
• After you turn, check the knees and feet of the students for pseudo-compliance. If you do not have full compliance, you have pseudo-compliance.
Check the impulse to nag (i.e. silly talk) and walk to the student’s desks.
Begin with the biggest trouble-maker.
• Check the student’s lower body for a partial turn as he or she gets back to
work. This level of pseudo-compliance is known as “giving the teacher
half a loaf.” Lean down (one palm on the desk), and give the student a
visual prompt to turn forward and get to work.
• Check the student’s lower body for a partial turn after giving the student
a visual prompt. Counter pseudo-compliance with a verbal prompt. You
will end up at “Palms” (both palms on the desk, elbows locked).
• Stay at Palms and watch the student work until you have a stable pattern
of work. If the student checks you out with “eyes up – eyes down,” hang
in there a little longer.
• Thank the student pleasantly, and stay down at palms as the student continues working. Do not stand up until you feel that you have a stable pat-
36
tern of work. If a second student is involved, repeat the above steps.
• When both students are busy with the assignment, stand and take two
relaxing breaths as you observe them working. Then, slowly move out.
• Turn fully and point your toes toward the disruptive students and take a
relaxing breath before beginning to work with another student. If the students look up, they will see a teacher who is quite willing to return if necessary.
Responding to Backtalk
• Should you receive backtalk (usually in response to a verbal prompt),
take two relaxing breaths so that you do not react emotionally. Let the
words go “in one ear and out the other.”
• Either stay at Palms or move in to Camping Out in Front.
• Wait until the student runs out of gas. Then, wait some more.
• Direct the student back to work with a visual prompt if necessary. A verbal prompt at this point will often stimulate more backtalk.
• As you watch the student work and as you relax, consider whether any
special long-term response is called for in this situation. If not, thank the
student for getting back to work and stay down as you take another relaxing breath. Then stand, relax and move out as you normally would.
Responding to the “Last Hurrah”
• Sometimes, when you thank a student, they make an unpleasant remark
such as, “Yeah, right,” or “You didn’t help me.” etc.
• Relax and let it go “in one ear and out the other.” The Last Hurrah can
catch you off balance, but it is just more of the same old whiney backtalk.
If you keep your mouth shut, the student will usually run out of gas and
get back to work.
• Stay down and watch the student work until you have a stable pattern of
work. Thank the student again. Then, stand slowly and take two relaxing
breaths. Move out as before.
Responding to the “Cheap Shot”
• Sometimes, as you walk away from a student, they make an unpleasant
remark such as, “Big deal,” or “I’m impressed.” Obviously, the student
wants very much to have “the last word.”
• If you hear a remark, you must respond to it. In classroom management
37
you cannot turn a “deaf ear” to a problem anymore than you can turn a
“blind eye.” If you know it happened, so does the whole class.
• Stop and take a relaxing breath. There is no sudden or dramatic response
that will help you. Rather, think of your response as part of teaching the
students to treat you as you wish to be treated.
• Turn slowly, pause and walk slowly back to the edge of the students desks.
Take two relaxing breaths and move slowly to Palms. Monitor the students
until you have a stable pattern of work.
• Thank the students for getting back to work. If you do not know which
student took the “cheap shot,” thank the students collectively (“I appreciate your getting back to work.”). Then stand slowly and move out as
before.
Preparation for Next Meeting
Study Group Members
Read
Chapter 21: Building Cooperation
Chapter 22: Teaching Responsibility
Bring
The Study Group leader will ask for a volunteer to share a PAT with the group
during the next meeting. The teacher who volunteers will serve as the “PAT
Presenter” for the week.
The PAT Presenter will lead the group in playing one of his or her favorite
PATs (as opposed to just discussing it) so that the group can learn by doing. In
addition, the PAT Presenter will write up a brief protocol of the PAT that will
serve as the beginning of the group’s PAT Bank.
Study Group Leader
• Preview the next meeting’s agenda.
• If you have the Video Toolbox, see the red box on page 20 of the Video
Toolbox Handbook.
Tools forTeaching
Study Group Activity Guide
Meeting Ten
Responsibility Training
Reading Assignment
Chapter 21: Building Cooperation
Chapter 22: Teaching Responsibility
Focus
We will:
• implement Responsibility Training.
• exploit PAT bonuses.
• build a PAT Bank.
Focus Questions
1) How often should you schedule PAT for your students? (pages 262-263)
2) How do Hurry-up Bonuses train students to hustle? (pages 266-270)
3) How can the time loss condition seduce teachers into abusing
Responsibility Training? (pages 270-273)
4) What are Automatic Bonuses used for, and how do you implement them?
(pages 274-276)
5) How might you layer bonuses so that students can work for long-term
goals without giving up short-term incentives? (pages 271)
39
Study Group Activities
With Video Toolbox: View Session Ten (optional DVD Bonus)
Without Video Toolbox: Discuss the Focus Questions
Get Ready to Implement Responsibility Training
• Review the procedures for implementing Responsibility Training in
Chapters 21-22
• Review the PAT ideas contained on the website. Play academic baseball
briefly in order to learn the rules.
Share PATs
• Begin a tradition of sharing one PAT per Study Group meeting. The PAT
Presenter will teach the group one of his or her favorite PATs.
• Begin to build a PAT Bank by collecting protocols for all of the PATs that
are taught during the Study Group meetings. (For model protocols, see
examples on the website.)
• Sign-up to teach a PAT during each subsequent Study Group meetings on
the PAT Presenter sign-up list below.
Week PAT Presenter
1.
2.
3.*
4.*
5.*
6.*
7.*
8.*
* You may wish to continue meeting after you have read the book just to share PATs.
Performance Checklist
• Determine the time frame for giving PAT to your students, and build your
daily schedule around it.
• Explain PAT to your class.
• Give the class a free PAT so that they know what you mean by PAT. Use an
enrichment activity or a learning game rather than “free time.”
• Ask the group if they would like to have PAT as part of their normal classroom routine. You may have them vote on it just to increase ownership.
• Post your gift of PAT on the classroom PAT tally.
• Explain bonuses to the class so that the group can see how they are in control of the duration of the PAT. To avoid cognitive overload, you may wish
to do this the following day. Give them a tease like, “Tomorrow I will tell
you how to make PAT even longer.”
• Explain dawdling and loss of PAT the day after explaining bonuses.
Preparation for Next Meeting
Study Group Members
Read
Chapter 23: Turning Problem Students Around
Chapter 24: Initiating Preferred Activity Time
Bring
The next PAT Presenter will bring the protocol for a favorite PAT to teach the
group. Add it to your PAT Bank. Make copies for everyone.
Study Group Leader
• Preview the next meeting’s agenda.
• If you have the Video Toolbox, see the red box on page 22 of the Video
Toolbox Handbook.
Tools forTeaching
Study Group Activity Guide
Meeting Eleven
Omission Training and Preferred Activity Time
Reading Assignment
Chapter 23: Turning Problem Students Around
Chapter 24: Initiating Preferred Activity Time
Focus
We will:
• implement Omission Training.
• “piggyback” other management agenda onto Responsibility Training
using the Omission Training format.
• expand our PAT Bank.
Focus Questions
1) Omission Training is the general name given to an incentive system that
trains a person or group not to do something. How can you reinforce
someone for not doing something? (pages 286-287)
2) How does Omission Training combine with Responsibility Training to
create a powerful, cheap, and positive means of dealing with severe and
chronic discipline problems? (page 287)
3) What are the key elements of your “heart-to-heart talk” with Larry?
(pages 287-290)
4) How can Omission Training make Larry popular? (pages 290 291)
5) How do you use Omission Training to protect automatic bonuses?
(pages 293-294)
6) How might you extend Omission Training beyond discipline management to “piggyback” other management objectives onto Responsibility
Training? (pages 294-295)
7) What forms of team competition have you found most effective in your
classroom? How do you maximize the number of students participating
at any given time (pages 299-300)
Study Group Activities
With Video Toolbox: View Session Eleven (optional DVD Bonus)
Without Video Toolbox: Discuss the Focus Questions
Share More PATs
The next person on the PAT Sign-Up List will teach the group a favorite PAT.
Make sure that you play the game or do the activity for 5 or 10 minutes to get a
feel for it. Add the protocol of the new PAT to your PAT Bank. If you have time,
take turns sharing additional PATs.
Performance Checklist
• When the “big altercation” occurs, take two relaxing breaths in order to
give yourself a chance to remember Omission Training before going to
your Backup System. (The biggest problem with Omission Training is
that, since it is seldom needed, it is forgotten when the time finally
arrives.)
• In your immediate response to the provocation, particularly if Larry has
made a “big deal” out of PAT being “stupid,” acknowledge that you cannot make someone like PAT. This gives Larry some “space” and can often
diffuse the situation.
• If you cannot diffuse the situation gracefully, you may have to go to your
Backup System on the spot. If you can finesse the crisis in the short term,
make arrangements for your “heart-to-heart talk” with Larry before he
goes home.
• If, as a result of your “heart-to-heart talk,” Larry decides to meet you halfway, initiate Omission Training. Describe the new program to the class in
very simple terms after Larry has earned the first bonus minute. Thus, the
43
program is presented to the class in positive terms.
Preparation for Next Meeting
Study Group Members
Read
Chapter 25: Dealing with Typical Classroom Crises
Chapter 26: Exploiting the Management System
Bring
The next person on the PAT Sign-Up List will bring the protocol of a favorite
PAT to add to the PAT Bank. The PAT Presenter will take the first 5-10 minutes
of the Study Group meeting to teach the PAT to the group.
Study Group Leader
• Preview the next meeting’s agenda.
• Bring a copy of your school discipline code and/or the district discipline
code.
• Review the protocol for Goof Off in Addendum H of the Study Group
Activity Guide.
• Review the Group Problem Solving Process in Addendum I of the Study
Group Activity Guide. Use the protocol to solve difficult management
problems.
• Review the protocol for Peer Observation Feedback in Addendum J of
the Study Group Activity Guide.
• If you have the Video Toolbox, see the red box on page 24 of the Video
Toolbox Handbook.
Tools forTeaching
Study Group Activity Guide
Meeting Twelve
Dealing with Typical Classroom Crises
Reading Assignment
Chapter 25: Dealing with Typical Classroom Crises
Chapter 26: Exploiting the Management System
Focus
• Clarify your Small Backup Response Options and their function in preventing crises.
• Clarify your Medium and Large Backup Response Options and your use
of the decision ladder as it operates at your school site.
• Plan for the continuation of the Study Group.
Focus Questions
1) What kind of message does a Small Backup Response give to the student
who is “really pushing it?” (page 314)
2) How are Small Backup Response Options an extension of Limit Setting?
How does working the crowd camouflage not only Limit Stetting but also
your entrance into the Backup System? (pages 311-314)
3) What are the Small Backup Response options? (pages 314-317) Do you
have any other Small Backup Response options that work for you?
45
4) Why is the likelihood of the student’s folding in response to a warning a
function of your skill and consistency in Limit Setting? (page 319)
5) How does a positive approach to discipline management turn common
sense upside down? (pages 328-329)
6) How is relationship building an integral part of the behavior management in Tools for Teaching?
Study Group Activities
With Video Toolbox: View Session Twelve
Without Video Toolbox: Discuss the Focus Questions
Clarify Your Use of Small Backup Response Options
Share another PAT
Follow Through
Discuss whether or not the group members want to continue meeting in order
to share ideas and solve problems. If you do:
• select a meeting time.
• continue sharing PATs
• begin to observe in each others’ classrooms.
Follow Through Activities
Now that you have the key skills of classroom management under your belt,
you can use them to solve truly difficult problems that, until now, have seemed
to defy solution. The following three activities will facilitate problem solving by
the Study Group, and they will provide much of the structure for your group
meetings should you choose to continue working together.
Playing Goof Off
Goof Off is a simulation game that allows the group members to practice Limit
Setting with realistic situations as they unfold. Goof Off is especially effective in
helping the group map “uncharted territory” in management. With Goof Off the
group can brainstorm responses to tough situations and then rehearse the strategies in order to fine-tune them.
If you do not have time to play Goof Off during this meeting, return to it in
46
future meetings. It will provide your “advanced course” in Limit Setting. The
protocol for playing Goof Off is contained in Addendum H.
Group Problem Solving Process
The classroom management procedures contained in Tools for Teaching represent the most cost-effective procedures for managing the range of problems that
typically occur in a classroom. Extremely deviant or bizarre behavior may require
a specialized behavior management program of the type found in clinical settings. Guidelines for building such programs are contained in Dr. Jones’ book
Positive Classroom Discipline in the chapter entitled “Behavioral Modification and
Parallel Programs.” This chapter can be found online at our Tools for Teaching Web
Connection. (See Tools for School Site Management.)
Before investing the time and effort necessary for building a specialized behavior management program, however, use the Group Problem Solving Process contained in Addendum I in order to fully exploit Tools for Teaching. Have a group
member volunteer to present a problem that has been particularly difficult to
solve. Use this problem as a vehicle for becoming familiar with the Group
Problem Solving Process.
Observing Each Other’s Classrooms
It is important to begin observing each other’s classrooms as an avenue to
sharing and mastering new skills. It is virtually impossible to analyze your own use
of newly acquired skills while in the midst of teaching a lesson.
Divide the Study Group into partner pairs and set up a schedule for one partner to observe the other during the coming week. Then, switch during the following week so that partners observe each other’s classrooms during a two week
period. Then, choose new partners for the following two weeks’ observations.
Naturally, the most difficult part of partner observation is covering the classrooms of the observers. While this is never easy, “where there is a will, there is a
way.” Sometimes administrators can cover classrooms. Sometimes a substitute
teacher can be hired to cover several classrooms in a single day. And, sometimes
teachers can “double up” or use “prep” periods to cover classrooms.
It might be helpful prior to this first observation to have the partners meet to
confer on the lesson being taught. Perhaps they could plan the lesson together.
This will put the teacher being observed at ease since the lesson is a shared
endeavor. Check Addendum J for guidelines for giving feedback following a peer
observation.
Study Group Activity Guide
Addendum A
Mess Up: Praise, Prompt, and Leave
Objectives
• Practicing Praise, Prompt and Leave
• Reducing verbosity
Materials And Preparation
• A lesson plan in VIP format.
• The materials and equipment normally used to present the lesson.
Participants
• A group of 3-5 teachers
• The Study Group leader or a colleague serving as coach
Roles
• Teacher
• Student who “messes-up”
• Coach
The Play
1) The Study Group member who plays the role of teacher will supply a lesson plan in VIP format plus a sample practice exercise for that lesson. If
the group is not yet familiar with VIPs, the teacher may wish to use “long
division” from Tools for Teaching, page 74, or some other lesson familiar to
the group.
2) Participants take the roles of teacher, student who “messes up,” and coach.
The colleague who presents the VIP will play the role of student since they
are best able to mimic the errors that students make on this assignment.
3) The teacher turns his or her back to the student as the student begins the
practice exercise. While performing the first part of the practice exercise,
the student makes an error. After they have “messed-up,” they say “Ready.”
4) The teacher turns around to look at the student’s performance while they:
• take two relaxing breaths.
• formulate a Praise statement.
5) The coach says to the teacher,
“What is right so far?”
After the teacher shares his or her Praise statement, the coach says:
“Are you comfortable with it, or do you want to give it another
try?”
6) After the teacher is comfortable with his or her praise statement, the coach
says to the student:
“Is there anything else that we should mention in the praise?
This prompt triggers informal discussion between group members of the
Praise statement. If many items have been singled out for praise, the coach
will then say:
“Let’s pick one or two items to mention in the Praise statement
in order to keep it short. What would be the most useful items
to mention?”
7) After this discussion of the Praise statement, the coach says to the teacher:
“Let’s hear your Praise statement now.”
After hearing the Praise statement, if it seems verbose, the coach might
say:
“Now, say that in half as many words.”
As you can see, the coach’s job is to structure group brainstorming with a
few simple, open-ended prompts. At all times, however, the teacher is in
control. Teachers can choose what they like from the brainstorming as they
formulate their own statements.
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One of the most useful contributions of the coach apart from structuring
some simple “give and take” among group members is to say, “Now, say
that in half as many words.” Usually, the teacher can do this. In this step
more than any other, the teacher learns to replace verbosity with a simple
declarative sentence or two.
8) The coach then says:
“Now, let’s go to the Prompt statement. What exactly do you
want the student to do next?”
The coach again engages the group in some simple brainstorming. The
discussion is usually brief, but it can help the teacher to be clear and specific. Then, as with the Praise statement, the coach may say:
“Now, say that in half as many words.”
9) Finally, the coach says to the teacher:
“Now, let’s put both parts together. Then, turn around as you
‘Praise, Prompt, and Leave.’”
After the teacher does Praise, Prompt, and Leave, the coach says to the student:
“Now, do the next part of the practice exercise. After you have
‘messed up,’ say ‘Ready,’ and we will turn around again.”
10) After the student makes the next “mess up” and says “Ready,” the process
of generating a Praise/Prompt statement is repeated. After one or two
times through the group brainstorming process, the group gets the hang
of it, and the coach’s role shrinks as group members spontaneously confer
on how best to phrase the Praise and Prompt statements.
Study Group Activity Guide
Addendum B
Mess Up: Visual Instructional Plan
Objectives
• Practicing the simple verbiage of Praise, Prompt and Leave
• Troubleshooting a VIP before presenting it to students
Materials And Preparation
• A lesson plan in VIP format prepared by each participant
• The materials and equipment normally used to present the lesson.
Participants
• A group of 3-5 teachers
• The Study Group leader or a colleague serving as coach
Roles
• Teacher
• Student who “messes-up”
• Coach
The Play
1) A member of the Study Group presents:
• his or her lesson plan in VIP format to the group.
• a sample practice exercise for the lesson.
2) Participants take the roles of:
• coach
• teacher
• student
The colleague who presents the VIP will play the role of student since he
or she is best able to mimic the errors that students make on this assignment.
3) After the student presents his or her lesson, the group plays Mess Up. Play
Mess Up exactly as you did last week.
In addition to improving your skills of giving brief prompts, Mess Up
using VIPs from group members will help improve the skills of building a
VIP. Any flaw in the VIP will become evident as you play Mess Up. If a step
is not clear or if it is too big, the group will know. If a step is left out, it will
hit you in the face.
4) Mess Up allows you to “pre-teach” a lesson. This is particularly valuable
for new teachers and for experienced teachers with new curriculum since
it provides some of the experience that normally only comes from trial
and error in the classroom. In addition, Mess Up serves as an excellent
stimulus for discussions about broader aspects of the craft of teaching.
5) Study Group members can take turns teaching their lessons to the group
before playing Mess Up.
Study Group Activity Guide
Addendum C
Partner Teaching
Objectives
• Mastering an easy to use Say, See, Do format
• Making more of our lessons interactive and social
Materials and Preparation
• A lesson plan in VIP format
• Materials and equipment required by the lesson
Participants
• a Study Group member to be the classroom teacher who presents a lesson
using Say, See, Do Teaching accompanied by a VIP
• all other Study Group members organized in partner pairs who will take
turns playing the roles of teacher and student
Practice Exercises
Partner Teaching is a simple and efficient way of making learning interactive
(see page 94). In the classroom, the teacher divides students into partner pairs
that work well together. One of the partners “goes first” by playing the role of the
teacher while the other partner plays the role of the student. Then, the partners
switch roles so that every student in the class has the experience of teaching the
lesson.
One of the Study Group members (the classroom teacher) will present a lesson
to the group using a Say, See, Do Teaching format along with a VIP. After the
classroom teacher present each step of the lesson, he or she will then say, “teach
your partner.” The student who “goes first” (the teacher) then turns to his or her
partner (the student) and repeats the classroom teacher’s instruction.
Then, the classroom teacher says, “teach the other direction,” and the second
member of each partner pair becomes the teacher. Thus, during each “Say, See,
Do Cycle,” each student is taught the step twice and teaches the step once.
This format can be used for the humanities as easily as for mathematics. While
students repeat the teacher’s input nearly verbatim in mathematics, in the
humanities students typically paraphrase, brainstorm or share experiences during each step.
Study Group Activity Guide
Addendum D
Breathing Practice
Objectives
• Learning to relax
• Becoming aware of the cues for tension and relaxation that we receive
from our bodies
Materials and Preparation
• Review the “fight-flight reflex” and “downshifting” in Chapter 14 of Tools
for Teaching.
• If you have the Video Toolbox, watch Dr. Jones lead a group through
Breathing Practice in Session 7, Calm Is Strength as well as on Segment D
(Breathing Practice) of the Coaching Disc.
Participants
• Coach
• Study Group Members
Practice Exercises
The practice exercises described below contain not only prompts that guide
performance, but also the brief “asides” that normally occur as Dr. Jones leads
these exercises in his workshops. Consequently, the descriptions of the breathing
exercises contained in this addendum are more complete than the demonstration presented on the Coaching Disc of the Video Toolbox. Use the Coaching Disc
to get the feel for the exercise, and then enrich your own presentation with Dr.
Jones’ “asides.”
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Tension/Relaxation
“Relaxation is a skill. It is acquired like any other skill – with
practice, practice, practice. The practice exercises that we will
do together build the skill of relaxation one step at a time.
“First, let’s do a tension/relaxation exercise to get the feel of
whole-body relaxation. First, we will tense as hard as we can
and hold it for 30 seconds. Then, we will relax. You can feel
your body “coming down.”
• “Push your chairs back from your tables and turn toward me so that your
knees point directly at me. Put your feet flat on the floor and relax your
hands in your lap. Relax your entire body.”
• “When I say, ‘Go,’ clench your fists, press your fists against your shoulders,
press your chest against your thighs and lift your toes as far as you can off
the floor. Flex every muscle in your body as hard as you can until I say,
‘Stop.’”
• “Ready – Go!” (hold this for 30 seconds).
• “Stop! Sit up, and relax. Put your feet flat on the floor, relax your hands
and breath slowly.”
“Feel your body ‘come down’ – your breathing, your heart rate,
your muscle tension. Keep relaxing as you breath slowly.
“We will attempt to learn a whole-body ‘let down response’ that
reduces tension, heart rate and breathing rate that we can
employ at will whenever we feel stressed. Managing stress effectively is one of life’s basic survival skills.”
Slowing the Cadence
“Now, we will learn to do a ‘relaxing breath.’ It is slow and easy.
Watch as I model it for you.”
Note: Direct the cadence of each relaxing breath with a gentle
sweep of the arm the way a band leader might. The slow sweep
of your arm creates a visual prompt for the breathing cadence.
Do this with each breathing exercise.
• “First, relax to begin the cadence.”
• “Now, let the air come in.” (“A thousand one, a thousand two.”)
• “Now, relax.” (“A thousand three, a thousand four.”)
• “Now, wait.” (“A thousand five, a thousand six.”)
“As you can see, it is unhurried. We breath this way when we
are completely relaxed, perhaps even ‘dozing off.’ Do it with
me a few times so that you can get the cadence into your muscle memory.”
• “First, relax to begin the cadence.”
• “Now, breath in gently.” (“A thousand one, a thousand two.”)
• “Stop.”
“I want you to raise your hand if you took a ‘deep breath’ – if
you filled your lungs.
“You have a lot of company. At least half of any group does this.
“Now, as we take our next relaxing breath, I want you to focus
on keeping the breath small. This is not a deep breathing exercise. Rather, it is a shallow breathing exercise – slow and shallow the way you breathe when you are asleep.”
• “First, relax to begin the cadence.”
• “Now, breathe in gently.” (“A thousand one, a thousand two.”)
• “Now, relax.” (“A thousand three, a thousand four.”)
• “Now, wait.” (“A thousand five, a thousand six.”)
Note: Direct the group through a half-dozen relaxing breaths
in order to put the cadence into muscle memory.
Visualizing Calm
“Now, let’s add an element of visualization to our breathing
exercise in order to help us slow down and relax. Imagine that
you are sitting in a chair watching the late news after a long day
in the classroom. You could have gone to bed a half-hour ago,
but you wanted to hear about the big late-breaking news story
which, of course, comes at the very end of the news broadcast.
You feel tired as you watch the local news. The room is warm.
You are getting sleepy. You have trouble keeping your eyes
open.
“At this moment, you are breathing exactly as I want you to. A
‘relaxing breath’ is the way you breath when you are ‘dozing
off.’ Imagine dozing off as we continue practicing – with one
footnote. You must keep your eyes open. (Several participants
have typically been breathing with eyes closed as they ‘zone
out.’) No matter how relaxed you become, you cannot manage
a classroom with your eyes closed.”
• “Once again, place your feet on the floor, relax your hands and your body
as you exhale to begin the cadence.”
• “Now, breath in gently.” (“A thousand one, a thousand two.”)
Note: Do another half-dozen relaxing breaths with the group
to build muscle memory.
Relaxing the Jaw
“You are getting a feel for the slowness of a relaxing breath.
Next, we will focus on your jaw. Your jaw muscle is a repository
of nervous energy. When we get upset, we ‘set our jaws’ or
‘clench our teeth.’
“Unfortunately, the students can see this body language from
the other side of the gymnasium. In order to fully relax and
appear relaxed to the students, we must learn to relax our jaws
so that we may have a relaxed facial expression.
“First, stretch your jaw muscle by opening your mouth as wide
as you can, and keep stretching. Don’t do this in front of the
children.
“Now, relax your jaw and relax your face. When your face is
relaxed, you have no facial expression. Consequently, the
meaning of your facial expression comes entirely from the context. If you were reading a book, a relaxed face would have very
little significance. However, if you were a major league baseball
umpire in the middle of a ‘row’ with a manager, that same
expression would communicate volumes.
•
‘There is not a chance in this world that I will change
my call.’
•
‘I am not listening to a word you are saying.’
•
‘You are wasting everyone’s time.’
“It is important that you be able to monitor your facial expression to make sure that it is relaxed when you want it to be
relaxed. Then, you can check yourself in the middle of a class-
room ‘row’ such as backtalk. Since you won’t have a mirror
handy, I will give you a method for checking your jaw that is
invisible.
“First, place the tip of your tongue at the base of your upper
front teeth. Then, run your tongue back along the roof of your
mouth until you get to the beginning of soft palate. This pushes your jaw down slightly which keeps you from ‘setting’ your
jaw.
“Play with it a little because, of course, you can overdo it.
(Model a comically exaggerated facial expression with lips
together and jaw thrust down.) Do it several times. With practice you will begin to feel when your jaw is down so that you
have no facial expression. Eventually you can just touch that
spot with your tongue, and finally you will be able to feel your
face well enough to monitor it without doing anything.
“I will prompt you to check your jaw with the words, ‘Check
your jaw.’ We will check our jaws at the end of each relaxing
breath. Let’s add that step to our breathing as we practice.”
• “First, relax to begin the cadence.”
• “Now, breath in gently.” (“A thousand one, a thousand two.”)
• “Now, relax.” (“A thousand three, a thousand four.”)
• “Check your jaw.” (“A thousand five, a thousand six.”)
Note: Do another half-dozen relaxing breaths with the group.
Remind the group members that all of this repetition is simply
to build muscle memory.
If you still have some time in your Study Group meeting, break
into partner pairs and have some fun. Have one partner practice relaxed breathing while the other partner plays the role of
a student who is making an excuse for not having an assignment in on time. Have the first partner breathe calmly, relax
his or her face and think, “This too shall pass.”
Study Group Activity Guide
Addendum E
The Turn
Objectives
We will learn to:
• integrate relaxation with turning toward the disruptive student so that
both become a single, automatic response.
• become aware of the “fine points” of the turn which signal our intentions
to the disruptive student(s).
Materials and Preparation
• Preview consistency in the classroom in Chapter 15 and the body language of “meaning business” in Chapter 16 of Tools for Teaching.
• If you have the Video Toolbox, watch Dr. Jones lead a group through “The
Turn” on Segment E of the Coaching Disc.
Participants
• Coach
• Study Group Members
Practice Exercises
As with “Breathing Practice,” the practice exercises described below contain
not only prompts that guide the performance of participants, but also the brief
“asides” that Dr. Jones’ would give during a workshop. As always, the practice
exercises progress from simple to complex as component skills are first built and
then integrated into a whole.
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As a warm-up activity, do some “Breathing Practice” with the group for review.
A good relaxing breath is contained in every aspect of The Turn. Then model a
3-second turn and a 6-second turn so that the group can appreciate the difference.
The Beginning: To The Transition
“By the time you have turned toward the disruptive students,
you are either relaxed or you are headed for your brainstem.
As the students look at you, they will know exactly what is happening. The turn is rich with body language that signals
whether or not you mean business. We will slow down the
action so that we can master the details one step at a time.
“As we practice, I will call out each prompt at the proper time
so that you do not have to worry about getting it right. First,
watch me as I model the first part of the turn and give you the
prompts. Then, you will do it.
“Imagine that when you look up, you see a typical disruption
such as ‘talking to neighbors.’ This is the moment of truth. You
will probably want to keep teaching because the disruption is
‘no big deal.’ However, if you fail to commit, you have just signalled to everyone in the class that discipline management is
on the ‘back burner.’ (See Tools for Teaching pages 187-191.)
“We will begin by having you stand behind the chair you are
presently sitting in. Imagine that you are helping a student
named ‘Robert.’ You have turned or ‘buttonhooked’ so that
you can see as much of the class as possible thereby minimizing ‘blind spots.’
“This first time through, we will go as far as excusing yourself
from Robert and staying down as we take a relaxing breath.
Stay down until I release you with the prompt, ‘Now.’ (Model
the turn through the prompt that begins, ‘Stay down...’)”
Note: Prompts to the group will be bullets. Asides to the group
will be indented.
• “You are helping little Robert, and you have “buttonhooked” so that the
class is in front of you.”
• “You catch some “fooling around” out of the corner of your eye, and you
check it out. Eyes up to the target.” (Hold your hand up at the level of
your head to serve as a target. If members of the group are slow in looking up, practice again emphasizing that timing is important.)
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• “As soon as you see the disruption, you commit.”
• “Put your weight down, and excuse yourself from Robert.” (Have the
trainees whisper, “Excuse me Robert.”)
• “Stay down (a thousand one), breathe in gently (a thousand two), and
clear your mind (a thousand three).”
• “Now.” (Stop.)
“How many of you felt that you stayed down an extremely long
time before the prompt, ‘Now.’ (Trainees almost always report
that it seemed ‘like forever.’) Our natural tendency is to go too
fast. When we are helping a student, our mind is racing. Then,
when we see a student fooling around, it triggers a fight-flight
reflex which speeds us up even more.
“Without a clear transition both mentally and physically from
fast to slow, from instruction to discipline, we will turn too fast.
We will make at 3-second turn rather than a 6-second turn.
“As you could see from my demonstration earlier, a 3-second
turn is not particularly convincing. As a result, rather than
looking the student back to work, you will probably have to
walk over there to get results. That is expensive.
“Let’s do it again just to get the feel of slowing down as soon as
you see the disruption. Stay down after you excuse yourself
from Robert, breathe in gently and give yourself time to switch
gears both mentally and emotionally.” (Repeat the previous
practice exercise.)
The Basic Pattern
“This time we will take the turn a little further. After we have
made our transition from instruction to discipline, we will
stand slowly and turn slowly. Watch as I model it for you and
give the prompts.”
• “You are helping little Robert, and you have “buttonhooked” so that the
class is in front of you.”
• “You catch some “fooling around” out of the corner of your eye, and you
check it out. Eyes up to the target.” (Hold your hand up at the level of
your head to serve as a target.)
• “As soon as you see the disruption, you commit.”
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• “Put your weight down, and excuse yourself from Robert.”
• “Stay down (a thousand one), breathe in gently (a thousand two), and
clear your mind (a thousand three).”
• “Now, stand slowly and turn slowly toward me. Square up.”
• “Relax (exhale) and check your jaw.”
• “Take two relaxing breaths.”
• “Stop.”
“You can see why we check our jaw at the end. A lot of decisions
have taken place in a very short time.
“Always take two relaxing breathes after you turn. Wait to see
what happens next. Either the students will get back to work,
or they will not. You will know soon enough. In the meantime,
lower your blood pressure. You are not ‘staring them down.’
You are just waiting. You are in the passive mode.”
Fine Point #1: “Turn in a Regal Fashion.”
Model a 3-second turn and a 6-second turn. Ask the group,
“Which turn most resembles Queen Victoria?”
Emphasize turning from the top down in four parts – head,
shoulders, waist, feet. Have the trainees think, “We are not
amused” as they look at the students, turn, and take their relaxing breaths. (See Tools for Teaching pages 199-204.)
Repeat “The Turn” adding the prompt, “Turn in a regal fashion.”
Fine Point #2: “Point Your Toes.”
Model a partial turn and a complete turn so that the trainees
can see the difference (Tools for Teaching page 202). A partial
turn is a classic example of a mixed message which signals
ambivalence about terminating instruction in order to commit
time and energy to the discipline problem. Discuss ambivalence, mixed messages, and signal clarity in relation to The
Turn (Tools for Teaching pages 194-196).
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This might also be a good time to briefly discuss how body language “telegraphs” our intentions. Body language reveals what
we plan to do next. See Tools for Teaching page 194.
Repeat The Turn adding the prompt, “Point your toes.”
Fine Point #3: “Get a Focal Point.”
Model a 6-second turn with eyes periodically glancing around
the room as though monitoring the group, and then model
the turn with constant eye contact with the disruptive student.
Ask the group, “Have you ever talked to someone who would
not look you in the eye? Are they confident? Are they comfortable?
Repeat The Turn adding the prompt, “Get a focal point.”
Fine Point #4: “Hands Down.”
Discuss briefly the fact that, when we are upset, our hand gestures are “up” (usually waist high), and when we are relaxed,
our arms and hands are down. We will want to signal that we
are both relaxed and comfortable by having “hands down.”
Discuss and model some alternatives with the group (hands in
pockets, hands at your sides, etc.). The main advantage to placing your hands together behind your back is that it hides any
nervous gestures with the hands when you are first learning to
relax. (See Tools for Teaching page 203.)
Repeat The Turn adding the prompt, “Hands down.”
Fine Point #5: “Check Your Jaw.”
“We will add one final fine point, ‘Check your jaw.’ You are
already very familiar with this fine point. This is a feature of
The Turn that you learned during Breathing Practice. Let’s
take a moment, however, to look at it again before we practice
it.”
Note: Discuss “smiley face” and “trigger mechanisms” (See
Tools for Teaching pages 203-204.) In a nutshell, we are biologically programmed to respond with a pleasant look (known as
“greeting behavior”) when a child smiles at us. Children, not
surprisingly, learn at an early age to smile at us when we catch
them doing something wrong in order to get “off the hook.”
We call it “smiley face.”
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Consequently, relaxing your jaw does not occur in a vacuum. It
occurs in a situation in which you are looking at “smiley face.”
To master the Queen Victoria look, we will have to practice it
in a variety of circumstances.
This last fine point leads into Smile Practice (Addendum F). In
Smile Practice the trainees will practice relaxing their jaws and
maintaining the Queen Victoria look “under pressure.”
Take the group through “The Turn” one more time with all of
the critical features.
Study Group Activity Guide
Addendum F
Smile Practice
Objectives
We will practice
• relaxation in the face of mild provocation.
• relaxation in the face of backtalk.
Participants
• A group of teachers of any size divided into partner pairs
• The Study Group leader serving as coach
Roles
• Teacher
• Student
• The Study Group leader serving as coach
Game Structure
“The only way to learn to relax under pressure is to practice
relaxing under pressure. Let me describe the practice exercises.
“In each partner pair, one person plays the role of teacher while
the other person plays the role of student. Then, partners switch
roles so that everyone gets to play the role of teacher.
“The objective of Smile Practice is to give the teacher a chance to
practice relaxing under pressure. The game is played in three
66
parts representing three levels of “pressure” or provocation on
the part of the student. The three levels are as follows:”
1) The student trying to make the teacher laugh from a seated position.
2) The student trying to make the teacher laugh from a standing position.
3) The student giving the teacher backtalk (from a standing position).
Role Descriptions
Students
“The game begins on a light-hearted note with the teacher
standing and facing the student who is seated. On a signal from
me, students can do anything they want in order to make the
teachers laugh.
“Fist of all, students, this is no time to be proud. Your job is to
make your partner laugh even if you have to act like an idiot.
In addition, your job is not just to make them laugh, but to
‘crack’ them as often as you can. Make them work at relaxing and
keeping a ‘Queen Victoria’ face for the entire duration of the
exercise.
“Consequently, you must keep coming up with new material in
order to ‘crack’ your partner. If you run out of material, look
around to see what other people are doing. But, keep working!
I do not want to look up and see people breaking out of role
to chit-chat with their partners.”
Teachers
“Teachers, your job is to relax your body, relax your breathing,
and look at your partner with your best ‘Queen Victoria’ face.
When you are thoroughly relaxed, you will look bored to death
by the foolishness in front of you.
“However, relaxation is a skill with several important components. As you are attempting to relax, do the following:”
1) Get a focal point: “Teachers, you must look at your partner, but do not
actually look them in the eye. Eyes are the most expressive part of a person’s body, and we are built to respond to each other. However, you must
create the illusion of looking your partner in the eye.
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“To create this illusion, get a focal point right between your partner’s eyebrows. Use anything that is handy such as a wisp of hair, the frame of their
glasses, or simply the skin that separates the eyebrows. You will appear to
be paying attention, but you will have created psychological distance
between you and your partner so that you are less likely to react to them.
“Relaxation at this level is a game of concentration. When you have good
concentration, your focal point is about the size of a quarter, and you do
not really ‘see’ the other person. Everything outside of the focal point is
slightly blurred. Should you lose concentration, however, the focal point
will rapidly expand so that you see the other person complete with gestures and facial expressions. If you crack, it will be when you lose concentration. As an alternative strategy, you can throw the other person out
of focus by slightly crossing your eyes.”
2) Leave the scene of the crime: “If you do not occupy your mind with some
calming thought when playing the role of teacher, your thoughts will be
occupied by the outrageous behavior of your partner, and you will tend
to react. When you play the role of teacher, imagine a scene that is innately calming.
“Let’s talk a moment to find a scene that is calming (pause). You will, in
effect, be daydreaming. With practice this becomes a calming mindset
which translates emotionally into, “This too shall pass.”
3) If you lose it: “If you begin to crack-up, go ahead and laugh. You won’t be
fooling anybody by trying to ‘hold it together.’ Instead, after you laugh or
smile, close your eyes, breathe in gently, and then open your eyes as you
relax. If you lose it again, repeat the procedure until you habituate to
whatever your partner is doing.
“I don’t care if you lose it twenty times as long as you work to regain your
composure twenty times. All I care about is that you keep working. The
only way to learn to relax under pressure is to practice relaxing under
pressure.”
The Play
Make Them Laugh from a Seated Position
• “Partners, turn toward each other knee to knee.”
• “Teachers, stand, push your chair under the table, and face your partner.”
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• “Teachers, Get your focal point and relax.”
• “Students, ready...set...go!”
Note: Walk among the participants and encourage them.
Coach the teachers to relax as needed, and urge the students on
should they slack off. Let it run for a couple of minutes until it
starts to wind down, and then say:
Make Them Laugh from a Standing Position
• “Alright, teachers, relax.”
• “Now, students, you may stand in front of your partners. As before, your
objective is to make your partner laugh. But, now you have more elbow
room. You can move about and do a dance if you want. But stay in front
of your partner.”
• “Teachers, if the student should move to the right or left, react as little as
possible. Follow them slowly with your eyes, and then, if they stay there,
move your head slowly to look at them. This is the art of under-reacting.”
• “Teachers, face your partner, get your focal point and relax.”
• “Students, ready...set...go!”
Note: Once again, walk among the participants and encourage
them. Coach the teachers, and urge the students on as before.
Backtalk from a Standing Position
• “Alright, teachers, relax.”
• “Now, students, the game changes. You are no longer trying to make your
partner laugh. Instead, you will give them backtalk.”
“Anything that you have ever heard is fair game. Tell your partner that they are not being fair – that you weren’t doing anything – that they are picking on you. Tell them that their class
is boring. Get personal. This is showtime!”
• “Teachers, we will add one new skill this time around. Whatever your partner says, let it go ‘in one ear and out the other.’”
“Backtalk is not what you would call a ‘significant communication.’ Rather, think of it all as ‘baloney.’ It is just ‘blah, blah,
blah.’ If you listen to what the student is saying, it may upset
you. Instead, ‘zone out’ and think to yourself, ‘This is boring,
boring, boring.’”
• “Students, ready...set...go!”
Note: Once again, walk among the participants and encourage
them. Coach the teachers, and urge the students on as before.
After the teachers get good at relaxing with backtalk, say:
• “Alright students, let’s up the ante. Get in your partners face and shout!
‘Quit looking at me!’ ‘Get out of my face!’ Let me hear you shout. Ready
... go!”
Note: The first round usually ends in a tumultuous uproar with
people laughing at colleagues who are “letting it all hang out.”
Several minutes of loud and animated conversation typically
ensues.
Feedback
Ask the Students
After the group settles down, ask the students the following question:
“Students, how many of you felt at every level that, the longer it
went, the harder it was to keep it going? How many of you
eventually felt foolish?”
It is a revelation for participants to realize how vulnerable students make
themselves by engaging in backtalk. If the student does not get the teacher off
balance right away, their position becomes increasingly untenable.
Ask the Teachers
Ask the teachers the following question:
“Teachers, how many of you felt that, the longer you practiced,
the easier it became to relax and get in the “zone” where nothing bothered you?”
It is a revelation for teachers to realize that they can deal with backtalk in a
relaxed fashion without getting pulled into the student’s melodrama. Smile
Practice, therefore, serves a dual function: 1) practicing relaxation under pressure, and 2) preparing the teachers to understand the nature of backtalk from the
student’s perspective.
Switch Roles
For the second round of Smile Practice, have the participants reverse the roles
of teacher and student. The second round of Smile Practice is referred to as “Sweet
Revenge.”
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It is important for you to stress that backtalk does not occur until students are
instructed to do so. Without this instruction, students will often begin Smile
Practice with backtalk since they are so focused on that topic. Rather, each group
of teachers needs a chance to practice relaxation under the low threat of comedy
and silliness from both a seated and a standing position before getting to backtalk.
After repeating all of the practice exercises, conduct feedback as before.
Teachers often report that they experience backtalk quite differently after having played the student role. They report not feeling as threatened by backtalk
since they now realize that the student is taking all the chances and is doing all
of the work. As one teacher said, “As long as I don’t lose, I win. And, as long as
they don’t win, they lose.”
Study Group Activity Guide
Addendum G
Moving In and Moving Out
Objectives
We will learn to:
• read pseudo-compliance in the body language of students as we attempt
to set limits.
• wait when setting limits at a student’s desk until we get a stable pattern of
work.
• deal with backtalk from either one or two students including unexpected
events such as “The Last Hurrah” and “The Cheap Shot.”
Materials and Preparation
• Preview the body language of “Moving In and Moving Out” in Chapter 17
of Tools for Teaching as well as responses to backtalk in Chapter 18.
• If you have the Video Toolbox, watch Dr. Jones briefly model “Moving In
and Moving Out” on Segment G of the Coaching Disc.
Participants
• Coach
• Study Group Members
Background
“In order to be skillful in dealing with ‘goofing off’ in the classroom, we must become skillful at reading pseudo-compliance.
Pseudo-compliance is well known to any parent – that half-
baked minimal compliance known as giving ‘half a loaf.’ For
example, you ask your son to make his bed, and he pulls up the
covers and then looks at you as though to ask, ‘Is this enough?’
“Pseudo-compliance is one of childhood’s basic tools for getting out of work. And, it is one of childhoods basic tools for
expressing willfulness – of saying, ‘I don’t have to’ when a parent tells a child to stop fooling around. As soon as the parent’s
back is turned, the child goes right back to doing what they
were not supposed to do.
“You will see a lot of pseudo-compliance in the classroom, especially when setting limits. Students will seem to comply when
you ask them to get back to work, but when you look up two
minutes later, they are talking again. You must learn to read
pseudo-compliance when setting limits on classroom disruptions so that you can follow through until you get real compliance.
“Body language reveals intentions – it telegraphs what a person
plans to do next. You can read the students’ next move just as
they read yours. But you must first know where to look. How
can you spot pseudo-compliance?
“In this session we will practice a discipline management situation in which you have to walk over to the student’s desk in
order to get compliance (i.e. time-on-task versus talking to
neighbors). We will refer to the entire sequence as ‘Moving In
and Moving Out.’
“The practice of Moving In and Moving Out will make us savvy
in reading students’ pseudo-compliance. We will look at
Moving In and Moving Out as if it were a body language poker
game. The game is played as a series of moves. With each move
the student must make a decision, either to fold (get back to
work) or to raise (pseudo-compliance).
“If you cannot spot pseudo-compliance, you will fold (Move
Out) when you should be raising (Moving In). Let’s slow down
Moving In and Moving Out in order to follow the moves.”
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Model Moving In and Moving Out: No Backtalk
“I will first model Moving In and Moving Out labeling each
step as I go. Then we will get on our feet and do it together to
get the feel of it.
“First, lets divide our group in half. One half will play the role
of teacher while the other half plays the role of student. Then,
after we practice, we will switch roles.
“I will prompt both teachers and students so that you will both
know what to do as the scene unfolds. I will precede teacher
prompts with the word ‘teacher,’ and I will precede student
prompts with the word ‘student.’
“Students, I do not want you to ‘ad lib’ during these scenes. You
are not really role playing. Rather, you are simply there to help
the teachers practice. We are walking through generic scenes
just to get a feel for sequence and timing. If you ad lib, none
of my prompts will fit the situation.”
• “Teachers, you are helping little Robert, and you have buttonhooked so the
class is in front of you. You catch some fooling around out of the corner
of your eye.”
• “Students, look at each other as though you are talking. But, do not talk in
order to be able to hear the prompts.”
• “Teachers, check out the disruption. Eyes up to my target.”
“You see the disruption, and you commit. Lean over, excuse
yourself from Robert and stay down. Breathe in slowly and
relax. Then, stand slowly and turn in a regal fashion.”
• “Teachers, the students have not looked up. Take two relaxing breaths.
Then, say the students’ names.”
• “Students, look up and give the teacher ‘smiley face.’”
• “Students, return to work, but keep your lower bodies pointed toward each
other.”
“Teachers, you will usually get ‘smiley face.’ Do not be surprised
if the students return to work leaving the orientation of their
lower bodies unchanged. The name of this version of pseudocompliance is ‘pseudo-scholarship.’ (See Tools for Teaching,
page 208-209.)
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“As you look at them and take two relaxing breaths, you must
be able to read their body language in order to know whether
or not they are really getting back to work? How can you tell
the difference between a commitment to work and ‘pseudoscholarship?’
“If you want to know what the student’s intend to do next, look
beneath the desk at their knees and feet. If the students are
facing forward, they are probably focused on doing their work.
But, if their lower bodies are still pointed toward each other,
chances are that you have accomplished nothing.” (See Tools
for Teaching, pages 208-210.)
“When you commit to dealing with the problem and turn
toward the students, you raise the stakes in the body language
poker game. When the students gave you pseudo-compliance,
they raised you right back.They said, in effect, ‘What are you
going to do about it?’ You will have to walk over to the students
in order to deal with their pseudo-compliance.
“Beware of the tendency to open your mouth and nag in an
attempt to save yourself the inconvenience of walking over to
the students. It is time to ‘move the body, not the mouth.’”
(See Tools for Teaching, page 211.)
• “Teachers, pick the student that is the biggest trouble-maker, and walk over
to the edge of his or her desk. Stand there as you take two relaxing
breaths.”
• “Students, turn half-way forward and return to work. You give the teacher
‘half a loaf’
“Walking over to the students is your next raise in the body language poker game. Often, they will start turning around to
face forward before you have taken three steps toward them.
They were wondering if dealing with this situation was worth
your time, and you just answered their question. You said, ‘Yes’
by walking. By facing forward, they said, ‘That’s all I wanted to
know. I’m getting back to work.
“Pseudo-compliance as you stand at the students’ desks will
usually take the form of a partial turn forward. They are saying,
in effect, ‘I will give you part of what you want to see if you’ll
take it.”
• “Teachers, put one palm on the student’s desk, and use the other hand to
motion to the student to turn all of the way forward.”
“Using a visual prompt reduces the chances of backtalk since
speech is a trigger mechanism. Unless the student is a highroller, he or she will probably fold at this point. Up until now
the student could play poker by appearing not to know what
you wanted. Now they must defy you in order to raise you – a
big threshold to step over.”
• “Students, come half-way around again.”
“If the student wants to play one more round of poker without
getting into high stakes, they might give you another partial
turn – most of the way around but not all of the way around.”
• “Teachers, give the students a verbal prompt to turn forward.” (‘Bring your
chair all of the way around.’)
• “Students, come all of the way around and get to work.”
• “Teachers, put both palms on the student’s desk, and watch them work.
Stay until you get a stable pattern of work.”
“If the student is still testing to see whether or not they really
have to do what you want, you will often get ‘eyes up – eyes
down.’ The student simply glances up quickly to see if you are
still there.
“When this happens, it tells you to simply ‘hang in there.’ Just
kill time until the student stops testing and really starts working.”
• “Students, eyes up – eyes down.”
• “Teachers, after you have a stable pattern of work, thank the student.
Touching is optional. Stay down.”
“Thank the student warmly to show approval and as a ‘closure
message.’ Your mood goes from neutral to warm and then back
to neutral. Thanking the student says, in effect, ‘That is what I
wanted.’
“Sometimes students misunderstand closure messages because
they are not accustomed to common curtesy. They lay their
pencils down because they think it is all over. When you stay
down after thanking the student, you tell them that you expect
them to keep working.”
• “Teachers, move to the other student who is disrupting, and give him or
her equal time. After watching the work, thank the student and stay down
as you did with the first student.”
• “Students, continue working.”
• “Teachers, stand slowly, and take two relaxing breaths.”
“You are moving out now, but you will move out by degrees
rather than all at once.”
• “Teachers, turn and walk away. But, before you engage another student,
turn to face the student you just left. Point your toes.”
“Never make a partial turn. If the disruptive students look up,
they will see someone quite willing to return.”
• “Teachers, as you begin to help the next student, buttonhook so that the
disruptive students are in your direct line of vision. Consequently, there is
no clear end to the interaction.”
“That is as far as we will take this first walk-through. I will use
these same prompts as I walk you through this vignette.
“You do not have to worry about remembering the prompts.
Just listen and do what the prompt tells you to do. I will give
you correct timing and sequence so that you will get correct
muscle memory.”
Practice Moving In and Moving Out: No Backtalk
Note: Walk the trainees through the scene described above,
and then have them switch roles so that everyone plays the part
of both teacher and student.
“Students, sit next to each other in pairs as if you were two students engaged in ‘talking to neighbors.’ Look at each other as
though you were talking, but do not actually talk so that you
can hear the prompts. When the teacher says your name, look
up and give them smiley face.
“Teachers, bring your chair away from the students to give yourself a little space in which to walk. Pretend that you are helping ‘little Robert,’ and we will begin with ‘The Turn.’
“Here we go. You are helping little Robert, and you catch some
fooling around out of the corner of your eye...”
Model Moving In and Moving Out: With Backtalk
“This time we are going to add ‘whiney backtalk.’ Let’s just
start at the edge of the desk as though you had already walked
over.
“We will take it as far as ‘camping out in front.’ You will go
down on one elbow and get very close to the student. This is as
close as you ever get. We will do it just so that you can get a feel
for maximum proximity.
“Of course, this is not to say that you should get that close. I
would certainly not recommend it if you work at Juvenile Hall.
Any kid with a history of child abuse would freak out.
“Rather, this is just for practice sake so that you will know what
‘camping out in front’ feels like. Let me model it for you.”
• “Teachers, you are standing at the edge of the student’s desk, and you take
two relaxing breaths.”
• “Students, turn half-way forward and return to work. You will give the
teacher ‘half a loaf’”
• “Teachers, put one palm on the student’s desk, and use the other hand to
motion to the student to turn all of the way forward.”
• “Students, come half-way around again.”
• “Teachers, give the students a verbal prompt to turn forward.” (‘Bring your
chair all of the way around.’)
• “Students, give the teacher ‘whiney backtalk.’”
• “Teachers, move down slowly to ‘camping out in front.’”
• “Students, keep giving backtalk.”
• “Teachers, stay down and relax. Let the backtalk go in one ear and out the
other.”
• “Students, let the backtalk die down.”
• “Teachers, stay down and take two relaxing breaths.”
• “Students, return to work.”
• “Teachers, watch them work until you have a stable pattern.”
• “Students, keep working.”
• “Teachers, thank the student, touching is optional, and stay down.”
• “Teachers, switch with the teacher next to you and give the ‘second student’
equal time.”
“You have to give both disruptive students equal time. If not,
the first one feels ‘picked on,’ and the second one feels as
though they got away with it – that is, that you didn’t really
know what was going on.
“We will do whiney backtalk with the second student just for
the practice. Once again, let it go in one ear and out the other.
Then, we will move out as we did on the previous walkthrough.”
Practice Moving In and Moving Out: With Backtalk
Note: Walk the trainees through this scene including Moving
Out. Then have them switch roles so that everyone plays the
part of both teacher and student.
Model the “Last Hurrah”
“Teachers, I am now going to throw you a ‘curve ball.’ When you
thank the student, you will get a ‘snotty’ reply – usually a oneliner like:
‘Yeah, right,’ or
‘You didn’t help me any,’ or
‘Just leave me alone,’ or
‘Whatever.’
“The student is obviously trying to have the last word and ‘get
your goat.’ We will call this ‘snotty’ reply the ‘Last Hurrah.’
“Rather than reacting to it in some special way, let it go in one
ear and out the other. If students folded with backtalk once,
they will fold again.
“Just hang in there and watch the student work. Stay a little
longer than you normally would. You are teaching the students
that such remarks are useless in your class.
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“Our immediate objective is to stay in our cortex rather than
downshifting to the brainstem. If you feel that some additional consequence is necessary, do it later.
“For now, relax, and wait until you get a stable pattern of work.
Then, thank the student and stay down for two more relaxing
breaths. Finally, we will move out as we did before.
“Let’s play the scene as follows. We will begin with prompting
the student to turn around. Watch me as I model it for you.”
• “Teachers, you are standing at the edge of the students desk, and you take
two relaxing breaths.”
• “Students, turn half-way forward and return to work. You will give the
teacher ‘half a loaf’”
• “Teachers, put one palm on the student’s desk, and use the other hand to
motion to the student to turn all of the way forward.”
• “Students, come half-way around again.”
• “Teachers, give the students a verbal prompt to turn forward.” (“Bring your
chair all of the way around.”)
• “Students, give the teacher ‘whiney backtalk.’”
• “Teachers, move down slowly to ‘camping out in front.’”
• “Students, keep giving backtalk.”
• “Teachers, stay down and relax. Let the backtalk go in one ear and out the
other.”
• “Students, let the backtalk die down.”
• “Teachers, stay down and take two relaxing breaths.”
• “Students, return to work.”
• “Teachers, watch them work until you have a stable pattern.”
• “Students, keep working.”
• “Teachers, thank the student, touching is optional, and stay down.”
• “Students, give a ‘Last Hurrah.’”
• “Teachers, let it go in one ear and out the other. Stay down and relax.”
• “Students, return to work.”
• “Teachers, watch the students work until you get a stable pattern of work.”
• “Students, keep working.”
• “Teachers, thank the student again, touching is optional, and stay down.”
“Trainees sometimes think it is strange to thank a student who
has just ‘mouthed off.’ But, there is a good reason for doing so
aside from common courtesy. Thanking the student carries an
implied message. It says, “And we will do it my way, won’t we.’”
• “Teachers, switch with the teacher next to you and repeat the whole
sequence with the second student.”
Practice the “Last Hurrah”
Note: After walking through the sequence, have the teachers
switch students as in the previous exercise in order to give the
second student equal time. Have the second student also do a
“Last Hurrah” for added practice.
“After the teachers receive a ‘Last Hurrah’ from each of the two
students, have the teachers move out as before. Then, have the
teachers and students switch roles, and repeat the practice exercise.”
Model the “Cheap Shot”
“On this next practice exercise we will add a ‘cheap shot’ as
you walk away. It is usually a word or two muttered under the
breath, such as:
‘Big deal,’ or
‘Ooooh,’ or
‘I’m scared.’
“If you are trying to figure out what to do as classmates giggle,
you will probably overreact. We need a plan.
“Naturally, you cannot allow the student to have a mocking
‘last word.’ On the other hand, it would be nice to keep your
response cheap.
“Rather than doing anything dramatic, simply relax, turn slowly, come back to the students’ desks and hang out for a while.
Then thank the students as before and move out again. We will
call this whole routine, ‘Instant Replay.’
“Rather than being a ‘technique,’ this is simply reteaching. You
much teach the students that cheap shots are not cheap. Had
the student who gave the cheap shot kept his or her mouth
shut, you would be gone. Instead, the students will get a double dose of you from close range. You can run the price of
poker up by simply hanging out longer.
“We will start this scene with you thanking the second student
and moving out. Here are the prompts.”
• “Teachers, thank the student, touching is optional, and stay down.”
• “Students, keep working.”
• “Teachers, stand slowly and take two relaxing breaths.”
• “Students, keep working.”
• “Teachers, turn slowly to walk away.”
• “Students, after the teacher has take two steps, give a cheap shot.”
• “Teachers, relax, turn slowly, and take another relaxing breath.”
• “Teachers, walk slowly back to the edge of the desk, stand between the students and take two relaxing breaths. Then, go slowly to palms and hang
out for a while.”
• “Students, keep working.”
“Imagine that the students are trying to pretend that they are
innocent. One of them probably is, but you may not know
which one. Just hang out and kill some time.”
• “Teachers, wait until you get a stable pattern of work. Then, thank the students and stay down.”
“If you do not know which student gave you the cheap shot, do
not single out either of the students. They know that you do
not know which one ‘wised off.’ Finesse the situation by using
a collective pronoun when thanking the students (‘I appreciate your getting back to work.’)”
• “Students, keep working.”
• “Teachers, stand slowly and take two relaxing breaths. Then, turn to walk
away.”
“This time you will probably make it without a cheap shot. You
have taught the students that cheap shots are not cheap with-
out allowing yourself to be pulled into an adversarial situation.
You cannot afford to turn a deaf ear to ‘goofing off’ anymore
than you can afford to turn a blind eye to it. But, finesse keeps
the cost low for you as well as for the students.”
• “Teachers, before you engage another student, turn to face the students
you just left. Point your toes.”
“Never make a partial turn. If the disruptive students look up,
they will see someone quite willing to return.”
• “Teachers, as you begin to help the next student, buttonhook so that the
disruptive students are in your direct line of vision. Consequently, there is
no clear end to the interaction.”
Practice the “Cheap Shot”
Note: Have the teachers walk through the scene as you prompt
them. Then, have the teachers and students switch roles, and
repeat the practice exercise.
“We cannot practice all of the curve balls and weird situations
that you will encounter during a career. But, we can block out
a strategy for a few of the more predictable dilemmas. We will
trouble shoot the rest as they occur by playing a simulation
game entitled ‘Goof Off.’”
Study Group Activity Guide
Addendum H
Goof Off
Objectives
• The practice of Limit Setting
• Developing strategies for difficult to manage situations
Participants
• A group of 3-5 teachers
• The Study Group leader or a colleague serving as coach
Roles
• Teacher
• Disruptive students
• Coach
• Observers (optional)
The Play
Study Group members will volunteer to play the roles of 1) two students who
are disrupting or “goofing off” and 2) the teacher. It is paramount that the teacher
who is learning to “mean business” be made to feel safe and supported by the
group during this exercise rather than “on the spot.” Safety will be produced by
the coach carefully adhering to the process described below.
Set The Scene
The coach will describe the upcoming scene so that colleagues playing the role
of disruptive students will know exactly how and when to disrupt and when to quit.
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Setting the scene structures the performance of the disruptive students in order to
prevent them from becoming outrageous. It also protects the teacher from being
surprised. For example, the coach might say:
“In this scene the two disruptors will be ‘talking
to neighbors.’ Let’s take ‘moving in’ as far as
‘palms’ with the usual pseudo-compliance.
Then, give the teacher ‘whiney’ backtalk.
“Go to ‘camping out in front’ just to see what it
feels like. I’ll stop you when the backtalk seems
to be running out of gas.”
Model
The coach will model for the teacher exactly what to do as they walk everyone
through the scene. The coach can either take part of the limit setting sequence
exactly from Tools for Teaching (Chapters 16 and 17), or they can construct a
scene using suggestions from group members.
As the coach models, the person playing the roll of teacher walks with the coach.
Thus, the modeling provides a dry run for the teacher so that the routine will have
been rehearsed immediately prior to performance.
Prompt
During the second walk-through of the scene, the teacher and coach switch
roles. As the teacher deals with the students’ misbehavior, the coach watches closely. Through quick and precise prompting the coach can correct errors as they
occur so that they “build it right the first time.”
Prompts take the form of “stage directions” – one-liners that direct the teacher’s
actions. There is no reference to error, and there is no discussion. The coach’s
objective is to create correct “muscle memory” without being intrusive.
The teacher must make the management decisions, however. The coach must
wait for the teacher to commit to a course of action before intervening. To talk the
teacher through the performance sequence takes decision making out of the
teacher’s hands and reduces Guided Practice to Structured Practice.
Feedback
During the feedback portion of the practice sequence, the group will use the
process of corrective feedback described below in order to guarantee safety. The
feedback process has four distinct steps:
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a. Praise: The first job of the coach is to describe the strengths of the teacher’s
performance.
b. Ask the teacher how he or she experienced the walk-through: We will
always want the teacher to be the first person in the group to comment.
Typically the teacher will experience satisfaction with his or her performance due to adequate modeling and prompting by the coach. If the teacher
is aware of some deficit in performance, it is better that he or she describe
it to the group than visa versa. Usually, the teacher will also describe what
they plan to do differently the next time through due to insight they
gained from the role playing.
c. Ask the disruptive students how they experienced the scene: The real
experts in role playing are the disruptive students. The teacher may have
feelings about the performance as may the coach , but the final readout
will have to be supplied by those who were the recipients of the limit-setting. If they say it was good, it was good. And, if they say something has to
be changed, this feedback will provide much of the structure for the next
practice cycle.
The coach is, in effect, structuring a dialogue between the teacher and his
or her colleagues about how best to deal with this particular situation. In
almost all cases the net result of peer feedback is both problem solving
and confidence building.
d. Feedback from observers and group members other than those directly
involved in skill practice: Sometimes there are members of the group
who, not having a specific role to play, just observe. These observers often
notice aspects of performance that were not seen by those directly participating. Their comments can be highly enriching.
Summary
If the process of “Goof Off” is carefully adhered to by the coaches, everyone in
the Study Group soon picks up the rules of the game so that the reliance on the
coach diminishes. Soon the exchange becomes spontaneous.
Eventually the group may decide to go “free form” – to practice Limit-Setting
with scenes in which the disruptive students devise a management scenario without the teacher knowing what it is. Such free form practice can be lively and fun,
but it presumes a high level of mastery by all involved so that protecting the
teacher is of secondary importance.
Study Group Activity Guide
Addendum I
Group Problem Solving Process
The Problem Solving Dilemma
Help Must Be Quick
When teachers experience problems in using a management technique, they
must get help quickly, or the technique will be abandoned. At this point the
Study Group can be a wonderful resource if they have some basic problem solving skills.
Advice Doesn’t Help
The natural tendency of most professionals when attempting to help a colleague is to give advice. But advice doesn’t help because it places the helper into
the “expert” role and the helpee into the “dummy” role. The predictable result is
defensiveness on the part of the teacher seeking help. Soon Study Group members learn not to bring their problems to the group. The Group Problem Solving
Process is designed to make problem solving both safe and productive so that
group members will seek help from colleagues as soon as a problem becomes
apparent.
The Group Problem Solving Process
The moderator (that week’s Study Group leader) will follow the process
described in the following sections to help the Study Group utilize both the
knowledge of the teacher presenting the problem and the expertise of the group
members. The presenting teacher knows the student and the problem better than
anyone else in the group. Consequently, the teacher with the problem is the real
expert in the group. The moderator will systematically exploit that knowledge. In
so doing, the moderator will put the teacher presenting the problem at ease so that
he or she feels affirmed and supported by the group.
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Describe The Situation
The moderator begins by asking the presenting teacher to describe the student and
the problem. The moderator’s objective is to have the presenting teacher explain the
particulars of the student’s behavior in enough detail so that members of the
group can visualize what the student is doing. The moderator will begin with an
open-ended prompt such as:
“Will you please tell us exactly what Jimmy does
that is causing the difficulties?”
The presenting teacher’s initial description may leave certain areas of the student’s functioning incomplete or vague. The moderator will ask for clarification by
saying:
“Can everybody visualize exactly how this student is behaving? If not, please ask more questions until you can see the problem in your
mind’s eye.”
Describe Attempts To Solve The Problem
Following clarification of the problem, the moderator will ask the presenting
teacher to explain the various attempts at problem solving that they have tried to
date. This can be done with a prompt such as:
“What kinds of things have you tried up until
now in dealing with this problem, even though
they may not have been entirely successful?”
The presenting teacher will describe to the group his or her attempts at problem
solving in detail. These strategies usually include most of the “solutions” that
would have been offered earlier as advice by group members.
Share Critical Reinforcers
The final step in the presenting teacher’s description of the problem is to list
those reinforcers which are especially valued by this student. This knowledge is
crucial to the development of any incentive system. The moderator might say:
“What kinds of things might serve as reinforcers for Jimmy? Think of anything he would
work for on a predictable basis.”
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Group Sharing
The moderator will now utilize the group to generate additional solutions to the
problem. The moderator, however, carefully avoids opening the group up to prescribing full-blown solutions to the problem. Rather, the moderator will elicit the
sharing of experiences by asking group members to describe attempts to solve
similar problems in the past. The moderator can use a prompt such as:
“Has anybody in the group ever had a student
like this? If so, what kinds of things did you try,
even if they were only partially successful.”
There usually follows an outpouring of sympathy and experiences of equal
frustration in addition to the sharing of techniques that have shown promise.
This interaction tends to be highly supportive and rich with commiseration,
brainstorming and idea generation.
During this time the presenting teachers will often report that they already have
a solution. Simply talking about the situation and hearing from other members
of the group may help an individual to look at the problem in a new way.
The moderator is free to become more active in this portion of the meeting by
contributing anecdotes of his or her own. The moderator must, however, follow
one rule in order to avoid dampening the group interaction. If the moderator has
something to add, they must wait until last.
Group Brainstorming
Up to this point the Group Problem Solving Process has avoided the generation of solutions to the problem in the form of prescriptions. By this time in the
process, however, the presenting teacher will feel adequately understood and supported so that additional suggestions can be made with minimum threat.
Group members may have perfectly good ideas that do not come directly from
classroom experience. This is the time for such suggestions.
“Does anybody have any other ideas for solving
this problem that perhaps don’t come from
experiences that you have had in the classroom?”
With severe discipline problems, the moderator must make sure that Omission
Training has been considered before the discussion turns to the Backup System.
Omission Training is often omitted, even though it would often be the preferred
solution, because few colleagues use it on a day-to-day basis.
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Describe The Planned Intervention
The final portion of the Group Problem Solving Process is a request for the
presenting teacher to describe to the group his or her intervention plans for the
coming week. The moderator might say:
“On the basis of all that’s been said, what kinds
of things seem most helpful to you, and what
direction do you think you will take?”
Plans should be described in full detail at this time when the specifics of the
situation are clear to everyone. If the plan seems vague, the moderator may facilitate clarification with a prompt such as:
“Before we go on to another topic, let’s spend
some more time defining the exact nature of
this program so that we have the details in
mind.”
Practice The Intervention (optional)
If the presenting teacher plans to utilize Praise, Prompt and Leave or Limit
Setting to deal with a problem, they may need some additional practice or
rehearsal. At this point the moderator of the meeting would become the coach of
“Mess Up” or “Goof Up.” The moderator should be active in suggesting additional practice when it seems appropriate.
During role playing, the moderator uses one device to explicitly protect the
presenting teacher. This device is to make the presenting teacher play the role of the
student with the problem. In this way the presenting teacher can give an enactment
of the problem that is lifelike. And they will not have to play the role of the
teacher before they are sure of what to do. Once the intervention has been
“debugged,” the presenting teacher can switch roles with the person playing teacher
in order to gain mastery.
Study Group Activity Guide
Addendum J
Peer Observation Feedback
The Focus Of Sharing
Most of the sharing in Study Groups will take one of two forms:
• Sharing ideas such as PATs, VIPs and enrichment ideas
• Peer observation
Sharing Ideas
PAT Bank
Each Study Group meeting will begin with someone sharing a PAT. Rather
than explaining it, the PAT will be played by the group for 5-10 minutes, and the
person sharing the PAT will write it up as an addition to the group’s PAT Bank.
Instructional Activities
Additional sharing may include lesson plans on a given topic, ideas for interest centers, enrichment activities, teaching formats, etc. In addition, members
should share material from other workshops so that integration of skills and concepts from different programs may take place.
Peer Observation
The Feedback Vacuum
One of the greatest barriers to professional growth in education is the fact that
most teachers operate in a “feedback vacuum.” While the weaker teacher may
take comfort in their privacy behind closed doors, most teachers would rather
collaborate, share, and receive feedback. However, peer observation is a powerful tool for learning only if it is safe.
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Observation Guidelines
The following guidelines will help make peer observation safe, comfortable
and productive.
1) Team with someone you like and respect.
2) Decide who will be:
• Teacher
• Observer
3) Plan the lesson and design the VIP together.
4) Make the observation absolutely non-judgmental and non-evaluative.
Advice-giving will be rare if the observer begins feedback with the following two agenda items:
• Tell the teacher being observed what you liked.
• Ask the teacher to tell you more about the lesson.
5) This observation process will be far more comfortable for a new teacher
if they begin by observing a more experienced teacher rather than being
the one observed.
