Responding Effectively to Disruptive Student Behavior

If you do not have a behavior management plan in place, no matter how well you teach your content, you are bound to have major problems that will disrupt the learning process. Being a veteran of 7 years, I have tried many strategies for handling disruptive behavior. Some worked well, others failed miserably. This week’s resources outlined a problem-solving approach to behavior issues in the classroom. This is an approach I plan on using this year. I believe it addresses the needs of the students far better than any other approach I use.

In order to create a classroom that is conducive to learning, certain procedures and rules must be in place to provide the safe, nurturing classroom. Procedures teach responsibility, being given responsibility promotes respect. What happens when students fall short? For small disruptions I plan to present choices to students so allow them to feel power in changing their behavior (Jones & Jones, 2007). Instead of instructing the students what not to do, I will focus on giving them choices of what I would like them to do (Laureate Education, 2008). There are many incentives incorporated in our school’s new behavior plan, so I will use this fact to encourage students to act appropriately. Reminding students that there is a reward on Friday’s for students with no infractions will work wonders on a student’s distracting behavior.

The strategy I am most interested in putting into practice is Collaborative Problem Solving (Hoffman-Zak, 2007). “If children can’t do certain things, we must figure out why and help them – substituting as a ‘surrogate frontal lobe,’ for as long as they need it” (Hoffman-Zak, 2007). I have in the past ignored, as much as possible, the very disruptive student. My thinking that if I do not give attention to his behavior, he will stop. Dr. Ross Greene, founder of the Collaborative Problem Solving Institute, says ignoring these students is essentially being negligent. (Hoffman-Zak, 2007). I plan to institute the steps in Plan B of the collaborative problem solving, which includes showing empathy and reassurance towards the students emotions, defining my concern’s as well as the student’s concerns, and then brainstorming together to solve the problem (Hoffman-Zak, 2007).

This approach will be proactive rather than reactive, which is how I have tended to handle things in the past. I hope to eliminate a great deal of disruptions in my class by working with the students to find solutions to the things that are triggering the students to disrupt the environment.

References:

Hoffmann-Zak, K. (2007). Collaborative problem solving calms and educates explosive students. Teach, 12–13.

Jones, V., & Jones, L. (2007). Comprehensive classroom management: Creating communities of support and solving problems (Laureate Education, Inc., custom ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2008). Creating an effective classroom learning environment [Educational video]. Baltimore: Author.