Classroom Management Plan – Part 2 – Determining the Need For Behavior Plans

In case you missed my original post on my classroom management system, you can find it here to get up to speed.  I know my system seems a little complicated, but I’m trying to prevent poor behavior choices from becoming habits.  I’ve had students before who are very good at learning from their mistakes, and only needed consequences for each type of behavior choice once or twice all year, but ended up having consequences pretty often for a wide variety of problems.  I’ve also had students who are careful to walk the line between “unacceptable behavior, but not quite bad enough to go to the principal.”  THAT is why I don’t use a clip chart type of plan where kids can clip down and back up in the same day.  (I understand that tons of teachers swear by their clip chart, but it just doesn’t work for me.)

While I was at school the other day, I grabbed my classroom management notebook with last year’s data.  Here’s what I found in analyzing it:

• The overall average for number of times a student was given consequences each quarter was 3.
• For individual students, the average number of times they were given consequences each quarter ranged from 0 to 9 times, but very few students had more than 3 consequences each quarter.
• The students who averaged 4+ consequences per quarter really did need to have extra support in at least one area of their behavior.

Please keep in mind as you read on that this is what I plan to use in my classroom this year.  If it helps you, I’m glad, but these aren’t hard and fast rules to live and die by.  In fact, it’s entirely possible that I’ll end up having so many kids on behavior plans that I’ll feel the need to change my rules at some point.  Just like anything else, you use as much information as you can to create a plan, but in the end, it’s really trial and error.

I’ll be going with a 3 strikes rule for a particular problem before starting a behavior plan.  After the 3rd time we’ve had the same type of problem in a marking period (we use quarters), that student and I will sit down and create a behavior plan as immediately as possible.  I will make a general plan, and tailor it as needed to each students.  Parents will be informed of my general plan at the beginning of the year, and when their child has consequences for the same type of problem twice, I’ll suggest that they review my general plan.  At that point, if they would like to have a conference to help set up a behavior plan in case it needs to take effect, I’m willing to do that, or they can just email any input they have on the situation.  I don’t want to exclude parents from the process, but I also want to take action as swiftly as possible.

If a student has consequences a total of 5 times in a marking period, s/he will start a behavior plan.  We will only address one behavior when starting a plan (the one they’ve had the most consequences for, or the one that’s the most disruptive to their or their classmates’ learning), but if additional behaviors need to be added to the plan, they will be added one at a time, every 2 weeks.  I want to make sure they have time to practice the most pressing behavior problem and have some success with it before adding to the expectations when they were already struggling.

While a student is on a behavior plan, it only covers the particular behavior(s) that student is getting extra support for.  If the behavior plan is for finishing homework on time, all other behavior choices will follow the usual system unless another behavior gets to the point that s/he needs a behavior plan for it.

What do I mean by the same type of problem?  Just how specific do I get when I mean the same?  Below is a list of the headings I used in my behavior notebook last year.  At the time, I just added a different heading as needed.  For this year, I’ve combined a couple that ended up being nearly the same thing

• No homework
• Not using work time wisely
• Playing inappropriately/using tools inappropriately
• Not following directions
• Disrespectful (teasing, being unkind to others, etc.)
• Physical violence
• Problem during enrichment class
• Taking other people’s belongings without permission
• Calling out/lack of self-control
• Lying
• Inattentive/not participating in class

I don’t generally give verbal warnings, but I don’t give consequences every single time I ask a student to stop doing something either.  I have a hard time remembering whether I’ve already given a verbal warning, and some actions don’t make sense to give a warning.  I try to remember to give warnings for talking out, not paying attention, not using work time wisely, and not following directions, but it isn’t guaranteed. Whether I give a consequence or a friendly reminder depends on a lot of factors, just as sometimes other teachers will sometimes tell a student to flip a card, pull a stick, clip down, etc., and sometimes, for the exact same behavior choice, they won’t.

To give a clearer picture of how my classroom management plan works, here’s an example.  Student A has not turned in homework twice.  The first time he walked laps at recess for 2 minutes, the second time for 4 minutes.  He also has had to walk laps for not following directions 3 times.  The first time he walked laps at recess for 2 minutes, the second time for 4 minutes, and the third time for 6 minutes. With that third time that he didn’t follow directions to the point of having a consequence, he simultaneously fit the criteria for needing a behavior plan for having the same problem three times and for having 5 consequences in a marking period.  Because I want my behavior plans to be focused and get some positive results before adding another component, the only behavior the plan will focus on is following directions.  Out of the two behavior choices, it is both the more frequent problem, and the one most likely to negatively impact his learning.  Using the plan generated by his parents and I once he got to the point that he had consequences for not following directions twice, the behavior plan becomes effective at the beginning of the next school day.  For a problem like not following directions, I would divide the day into blocks that make sense for how our day flows.  For each block, he can earn a stamp/sticker/hole punch/etc.  We will start with relatively low standards, but each and every time he does not follow directions, it means that he has not earned his stamp for that block.  I might even make tally marks for the number of times it happens in each block so that we know how severe the problem really is, and so he doesn’t think, “This time block is already ruined, why bother trying?” After 2 weeks of the behavior plan, assuming he has had some success, I would add an additional plan to help with having homework done on time.

Tags: behavior plan, Classroom Management, classroom set up, first grade