Transformative Classroom Management Webinar #11 of 12 Succeeding with Challenging Students Virginia Department of Education Office of School Improvement

Transformative Classroom Management Series Series of Twelve Sessions Facilitator and Participant Guide Clips of Skills in Practice Other Resources Virginia Department of Education Web site

VDOE Guidelines for Uniform Performance Standards and Evaluation Criteria for Teachers Offers professional development for Performance Standard 5: Learning Environment

Transformative Classroom Management (TCM) Professional Development Series 1.Data shows Transformation Classroom Practices Increase Achievement 2.Moving up the Function Continuum 3.Classroom Environment and Social Learning 4.Creating Clear and Effective Classroom Expectations 5.The Technical Management of a Classroom 6.Motivating Students to Learn 7.Creating a Class Social Contract and Logical Consequences 8.Implementing a Consequence and Dealing with Power Struggles 9.Instruction – Assessment - Management Connection 10.Facilitating Effective Cooperative Learning 11.Succeeding with Challenging Students 12.Creating the 1-Style Classroom

Purpose The purpose of the eleventh webinar is to: 1.Understand the nature of many of the most challenging student issues 2.Become skilled at dealing with those issues in a way that makes us more hopeful, sane and effective, and promotes growth and behavior change for the student

Presenter - John Shindler Dr. John Shindler is a Professor of Education at California State University, Los Angeles, and the Director of the Alliance for the Study of School Climate.

Today’s Agenda 1.Welcome and Reflections from Webinar ten 2.Make sense of Level IIb Problems 3.Understanding the “Gap” 4.Negative Identity 5.Reality Therapy 6.Reflections and Activities (See TCM Guidebook)

Level of ProblemDescription Level I (i.e., your role plays) Students do things that reflect unconscious mistakes, bad habits, laziness, bad judgments. They are not serious, but if ignored will grow. Level lla (i.e., our power play discussion) Students consciously violate rules and expectations (rejects the social contract). Level llb (our focus) Student exhibit a pattern of deeply conditioned dysfunctional behavior such as a negative identity or a chronic bad habit. Level III (described in Ch.14 TCM) Student come to us with organic problems with attention or emotional control. Levels of ProblemsLevels of Problems

Students who become comfortable with a habit of disruptive, aggressive and/or anti social behavior tend to maintain that pattern as they move through the grades. Therefore, if we do nothing, these patterns do not change themselves. Why Care?Why Care?

Your Experience Think about a student who you felt brought a deeply conditioned behavior into a classroom (yours or someone else’s). What was the nature of the problem? What was the intervention taken by the school personnel at the time?

Students who experience a GAP between what they want, feel, and the way they view the world versus what they see as what the teacher is offering. Students who have developed a “Negative-Identity” Pattern. Students who have become accustomed to externalizing their responsibility. Making Sense of Level llbMaking Sense of Level llb

To succeed with Level IIb types of problems, we need to take on an intentional, proactive and positive mindset. Therefore we need to begin by doing the following: Stop owning the student’s behavior and/or taking it personally. Avoid self-limiting labels such as “bad students” or “behavioral problem.” When we label the student (even mentally) we reinforce the idea that problem is a fixed condition. We make a challenge into a plight and go from being a teacher to a victim. Approaching Level IIb ProblemsApproaching Level IIb Problems

Acknowledge we do have the ability to change the pattern or at least get things moving in the right direction if we are systematic and consistent. We need to let go of our resentment, and fatalistic thinking that is common in these situations. Instead, we must take positive action. Action is the antidote to despair. Let go of assumptions that negativity, punishment, passive- aggressiveness, or projecting disappointment are doing anything but making things worse. Look the student in the eye and send these messages: a) we like them and believe they can do better; b) what they are doing is going to change; and c) it needs to change ASAP. Avoid relying on external authorities to solve the problem. Approaching Type IIb ProblemsApproaching Type IIb Problems

Sometimes students experience a “gap” between the way they view things and the way that we do. It is like a generation gap. The main gaps look like: –An unsatisfied student –A minimalist student –A student who sees the teacher as the enemy Gaps that Keep us DisconnectedGaps that Keep us Disconnected

To bridge each of these gaps we will need to 1) Bring awareness to the existence of the gap, and 2) Make a connection – close the gap Bridging these GapsBridging these Gaps

The teacher’s agenda is not satisfying to the student in terms of what the student feels would meet his/her needs. These needs may not be desirable or healthy, or those that we would ultimately like to satisfy (i.e., familiar forms of stimulation like TV & internet, cell phone, emotional/ego dramas, addiction to instant gratification, etc.), but they define the world of the student – or at least the student’s mental world. Gap type - UnsatisfiedGap type - Unsatisfied

Doing the minimum. Some students are very comfortable with a fixed ability pattern (Dweck, 2000), and are resistant to any efforts to think about work outside that pattern. They see tasks as things to get “done” rather than opportunities to learn. They will make statements such as, “do we need to do this?” “this is for points, right?” “I’m OK, I’ll do it later.” They have gotten comfortable essentially turning schoolwork into something that they need to do. Gap type – MinimalistsGap type – Minimalists

Occasionally some students adopt a mindset that the teacher is the enemy to some degree. To them, the teacher may represent a different generation, ethnicity, gender, value system, class, etc. There may or may not be anything that you have done to justify this perception, but it does not have to based in reality to be real to them. As a result they find ways to penalize the teacher, often in the form of poor performance – “I will punish you by my failure.” Gap type – Teacher as EnemyGap type – Teacher as Enemy

Student Attempts + or - behavior Positive behavior = ignored Negative behavior = gets attention Student chooses more negative behavior Other students’ perceptions help create an “image” for the student Negative Identity PatternNegative Identity Pattern

Student Attempts + or - behavior Positive behavior = ignored Negative behavior = gets attention Negative Identity Pattern What is reinforcing the negative behavior at this first stage of the pattern?

Alone or in your group, for your given negative-identity type, identify the external triggers that may reinforce and/or activate the student’s pattern. Your description is in your webinar guide. Group Exercise: Identifying what is keeping the pattern in place.

Student Attempts + or - behavior Positive behavior = ignored Negative behavior = gets attention Student chooses more negative behavior Other students’ perceptions help create an “image” for the student Negative Identity Pattern: Stage 3Negative Identity Pattern: Stage 3 At this third point of the cycle, what does the student need, and conversely what will undo our efforts? We will likely need to think in terms of shaping and encouraging new behavior and self-perceptions.

Student Attempts + or - behavior Positive behavior = ignored Negative behavior = gets attention Student chooses more negative behavior Other students’ perceptions help create an “image” for the student Negative Identity Pattern: Stage 4 At this last point of the cycle, what does the student need, and conversely what will undo our efforts? We will need to help the class encourage new behaviors in the student and support his/her new identity.

Creating Individualized Student Behavioral Contracts (Glasser) 1.Establish connection to student 2.Focus on the behavior 3.Get student to accept responsibility for his/her actions 4.Help student evaluate his/her behavior 5.Have student develop a plan 6.Promote commitment to the plan 7.Follow-up and follow-through

Upcoming TCM Webinars The final webinar in the series provides an explanation for how to create the student-centered classroom community or 1-Style Classroom. 1.Data shows Transformation Classroom Practices Increase Achievement 2.Moving up the Function Continuum 3.Classroom Environment and Social Learning 4.Creating Clear and Effective Classroom Expectations 5.The Technical Management of a Classroom 6.Motivating Students to Learn 7.Creating a Class Social Contract and Logical Consequences 8.Implementing a Consequence and Dealing with Power Struggles 9.Instruction – Assessment - Management Connection 10.Facilitating Effective Cooperative Learning 11.Succeeding with Challenging Students 12.Creating the 1-Style Classroom

References Glasser, W (1975) Reality Therapy: A New Approach to Psychiatry. New York: Harper and Row. Shindler, J. (2010) Transformative Classroom Management. Jossey- Bass. San Francisco, CA