Week 9: Classroom and Behaviour Management

Classroom and Behaviour Management 26/11/2013

Our Lesson Plan this week: Lesson Plan


'It's frustrating for learners who want to learn to be in an environment behaviour and management issues'

Managing the Learning Environment and Behaviour

We had a group activity, the whole class divided in groups of 4 and used a few minutes to discuss and write down on Post-It notes topics relevant to classroom management. This was our groups list:

Then all the Post-It notes were collected and redistributed randomly to generate another activity, where our groups were looking at others Post-It notes and making notes on how to manage a particular area of classroom behaviour or aspect of the learning environment. The particular topic our group had to address was 'Mobile Phones'.
We made bullet point notes on classroom management methods/options:

This process had us thinking deep and hard. True too, there was also a rather abrupt realisation of just how serious and important this topic is to success in teaching. We had a discussion on Behaviour Theories: (a) Behaviourist  (b) Humanist -- see image

We then put together a list of factors, we as teachers are responsible for managing. It's not completely comprehensive, as we basically came to the conclusion that as teachers we are pretty much responsible for everything.

Classroom Management cont..

Geoff Petty. (2004). Classroom Management. In: Nelson Thornes Teaching Today. 3rd ed. Cheltenham: Nelson Thornes. 101.

Difficulties in the classroom usually start before the lesson has even started, they are inherent in the lesson plan. Therefore, your lesson plan needs to create effective lessons. Above, 'Petty' refers to this as the bridge from chaos to order:

• Effective Lessons
• Good Organisation
• Good Rapport (teacher/student relationships)
• Effective Discipline (almost impossible unless the first three conditions are satisfied)

'Experienced teachers don't deal with problems, they prevent them from occurring'. If the lesson plan is effective then the lessons will be also. 'Petty' mentions that the first of the above points must not be overlooked, the rest will follow, though given the repetition for emphasis 'Petty' uses with the Noun 'Confidence', suggest to me we need a good measure of it. It stands to reason then, that a thoroughly prepared lesson plan will engender confidence.

Bill Rogers

Top Ten Ideas from Bill Rogers

Part of our lesson plan included a image of a large white square, or you could say a piece of white A4 paper, with a tiny black dot in the middle. Eg:

The black dot here represents the negative. The white area represents the positive. The purpose of this is to illustrate what we focus on and to keep things in perspective.

We also viewed a couple of Videos by Bill:

The Mobile Phone:

Settling the Class:

One aspect mentioned by Bill Rogers and also addressed by Geoff Petty is: Proximity. Petty again drills in to us the need for confidence and then illustrates two extremes of scale:
Geoff Petty. (2004). Classroom Management. In: Nelson Thornes Teaching Today. 3rd ed. Cheltenham: Stanley Thornes. 97.

Formal authority is sustained by non-verbal methods. Standing up straight, shoulders back, giving orders with a confident tone, even if you are nervous or flustered don't let it show. Authority is conveyed principally with body language. The effectiveness of your authority is increased, not by shouting or anger, but by:

• Proximity
• Eye Contact
• Posing Questions

We also discussed ABC or Antecedent - Behaviour - Consequences. It is suggested by behaviour psychologist that inappropriate behaviour is triggered by a situation they call the antecedent. Behaviour can be changed by changing either the antecedent or the consequences, or both.

Week 8 Learning differences and Inclusive practice with Amanda Redmayne

Learning differences and Inclusive practice:

This topic introduced us to an array of conditions centring around:

• Dyslexia
• Autism
• Asperger's Syndrome (A subgroup of the Autistic spectrum)
• Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
• Dyspraxia
• Dysgraphia

Specialist teacher Amanda used an excellent practical lesson to put across the importance and complexity of this sessions subject. It became clear that there exists a huge variety of conditions, over a very broad spectrum of evident symptoms, most with considerable overlap. Amanda used a Cluster Map to break things down, with open discussion of the individual points. Here is a copy of the printed information we were working with......

Later we broke in to random groups of 4 to discuss the following questions:

1. What have you learnt from this session?
2. Explain how you could adapt your teaching and learning activities to meet the needs of all learners.
3. Consider one resource that you currently use or have seen being used in your teaching context and discuss how you could make it more inclusive.
4. How will tonight's session affect your future practice?

Our group of 3 made notes on the above as follows:

1. That there is a huge variety of learning differences. I/We now feel more aware of them and see the need to be alert to them, with a view to meeting the individual needs of learners through inclusive practice. That it could be necessary to professionally assess individuals.

We reassembled as a complete group and openly discussed the main points. Some of these were written on the white board:

Week 6/7 Planning to Meet the Needs of Learners

Planning to Meet the Needs of Learners

This weeks Lesson Plan

Schemes of Work:

The scheme of work will be a Long Term Plan

Eg: Term, Semester, Year....

That is planning for the whole program

Important to schemes:

• Cover the criteria
• Meet the Course requirements
• Clear Progression
• Assessment of Learning
• Identify resources
• Achievable Targets

Pitfalls:

• Repetition
• Getting Sidetracked

During the lesson we did a practical session on writing a Scheme of Work (SOW). We were divided in to groups and this was our group: SOW Activity

Recap on Outcomes:

SMART: Focus on learning not just doing...

'Most people have difficulty in writing objectives at first, tending to think in terms of what the teacher will do rather than what the student will learn. The crucial point is that the outcomes precisely describe observable learner performance, shifting the focus on to what the student will be able to do as a result of the learning, and away from what the teacher will do.'

See also: Aims/Outcomes

Geoff Petty (2004). Teaching Today. 3rd ed. Cheltenham: Stanley Thornes. 393-394.