Positive Reinforcement

Positive reinforcement is more important to classroom management than consequences, in my opinion. Don’t get me wrong, there is certainly a place for the turned card and the parent phone call, but I believe that positivity begets positivity. Because of this, I want to spend a few hundred words discussing the behavior management strategies in my school and classroom.

The most important thing to remember according to Smith (pg. 2), is that “what may be extremely motivating for one student may be entirely useless for another.”   That’s why teachers must have many different routes to travel as far as their behavior management.  Here is my typical mental process when I need to discipline students.

A closer view of this diagram is included at the end of the blog.

In my class, I use a lot of token reinforcement which, according to Smith (pg. 1) “involves awarding points or tokens for appropriate behavior. These rewards have little value in themselves but can be exchanged for something of value.” So you will see a few examples of this below.

Here are a few examples of what I would do in specific situations.

Misbehavior

1)      A female student isn’t working. She isn’t bothering anyone, but she is sitting in silence and creating origami stars out of paper.

For this student, I need to act quickly, but I do not need to address it aloud. I’d walk up silently. If she didn’t change her behavior, I’d tap her desk quietly. When she looked up, I would take the paper then tap her class work.

2)      A male student is taking the pencils off other student’s desks and breaking them. He has just snapped a pencil during math.

For this student, I need to address it immediately. I’d tell him, in a quiet but firm tone, to put it down and clip his card. I would then give the other students a problem to work independently. If he did not comply, I would tell him that he needed to do what I asked, or he would face further problems. If the student continued to refuse, he might end up with a write up or phone call home.

Appropriate student behavior.

1)      A female student is on task, working hard to complete her assignment in spite of some quiet chatter around the room.

I would walk up and place a paw-sitive slip on her desk and when she looked up, I would give her a smile or nod to show her that I approved of her behavior. I might then walk around with a few paw-sitives held very obviously in my hand, looking for more students who were on task to encourage other students to improve their behavior.

2)      A male student is waiting as the class line as they return from specials. As the class enters the room, the student in front of him drops her backpack and he stops to help her pick them up.

When we enter the classroom, I would say to the class that I saw a student being an exemplary model employee. I would then say what he did and add give him a bonus slip he could use to buy something from the class store. This might get him a no homework pass or a physical object.   

Here are examples of positive student reinforcement; school-wide and class-wide.

Resources

Smith, K., (n.d.) Positive Reinforcement... a proactive intervention for the classroom. Retrieved from http://www.cehd.umn.edu/CEED/publications/tipsheets/preschoolbehavior/posrein.pdf