Influencing+&+Responding+to+Student+Behavior

My original idea was to focus on meaningful consequences for high school students. I felt I didn't know of an effective array of consequences that actually mattered to high school students. Consequently, I felt that students more or less decided whether they wanted to behave in class in or not, that there wasn't much I could realistically enforce in the way of consequences that would get students to modify their behavior. I set out to try to develop a better understanding and list of effective consequences.

Based on a couple of sources, I realized, however, that there were two competing or complementary views of classroom discipline, depending on your perspective.
 * 1) Traditional, reactive, punitive discipline, and
 * 2) What is called a developmental, teaching, support approach

I learned that searching for "consequences" that can effectively modify student behavior was a search within the traditional paradigm of punitive discipline, i.e., punish students for behavior you don't want. This kind of focus on discipline tends to decrease attention on education (because it increases attention on discipline and punishment) and create emotional distance between students and teachers. Teachers are cast in the archetypal "angry parent" role.

Moreover, studies have apparently demonstrated that increasing punishment without supporting students by articulating expected behaviors and teaching students how to deliver them leads to increases in aggression, vandalism, truancy, tardiness, and dropouts.

Note: much of the previous paragraphs are derived from [|"Meaningful Expectations & Consequences"].

So, my perspective on "consequences" changed. I now see two broad and complementary components to effectively managing classroom behavior:
 * 1) Prevention, and
 * 2) Deterrence

Punitive punishments to deter unwanted behavior are the "consequences" I was seeking. I didn't find anything new or novel there: detention (noon, after school), suspension (in-school, from-school), Saturday school, parent communication. While the availability of these and willingness to use them is surely important, it seems to me that the kinds of things you do to //prevent// unwanted behavior in your class are just as important if not more so.

Based on Mendler's [|"Motivating Students Who Don't Care"] and readings throughout the program, this is my list of ways to prevent unwanted behavior (in no particular order):
 * Express enthusiasm for your subject/lesson -- Mendler Chapter 8. This helps motivate students, and if students are motivated they are more likely to behave appropriately.
 * Develop and teach diverse and engaging lessons -- We talked about this in the fall. I think this is one of the priniciples of effective teaching we learned about then.
 * Create a safe, constructive learning environment -- Mendler Chapter 4, "Emphasizing Effort," says that "Most students who present themselves unfavorably, whether through their lack of motivation or their inappropriate behavior, are trying to conceal their concerns about academic or performance inadequacy." We have to create learning environments in which it is not only safe to "fail" on a task but it genuine effort is also rewarded. Moreover, students need to learn about Dweck's work on fixed and growth orientations; they need to learn that intelligence or capability in whatever subject is not fixed, that through effort (with some failure along the way) they can learn.
 * Involve students in developing and enforcing classroom norms of behavior and consequences -- The idea here is to collaboratively develop norms of classroom behavior and associated consequences with the students as a class/community, so they feel ownership of the norms and consequences. Then use the social aspect of the norms to have students help enforce those norms within the class.

I hope these helps.