How to Deal with Chronic Misbehavers | Classroom Management

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• published: 10 Dec 2016
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Need more resources for molding young minds? THE Classroom Management Book: http://amzn.to/1FXoDpb Setting Limits in the Classroom: http://amzn.to/1Pj0iMN Classroom Management: Real-World, Time-Tested Techniques: http://amzn.to/1Q8s4JV The Social--Emotional Learning Approach Children Deserve: http://amzn.to/1L0l6p3 Classroom Management for Elementary Teachers: http://amzn.to/1FTGdKQ Watch more Classroom Management Strategies videos: http://www.howcast.com/videos/517361-How-to-Deal-with-Chronic-Misbehavers-Classroom-Management There is a five-step process that you can try that usually works for intervening with chronic misbehaviors. You keep in mind that this is not for every student. It's for the one or two students who need it the most, because it is really labor intensive for you, as the teacher, to run an intervention of this kind. So this kind of intervention has five steps. The student has to want to change, know how to change, be aware of roadblocks to the change, practice the change, and receive support for the change. So let's say that I have a student like Johnny, and Johnny's in my third grade class and he is always the last person done cleaning up after art and getting ready for the story activity that happens after. So I pull Johnny aside, maybe at recess, and I say, "Johnny, do you want to always be the last person done cleaning up and always be getting in trouble for that?" and he says "No." Alright. Number one, he wants to change. If he says yes or I don't care, then I'll say "Yeah, I hear you saying I don't care, but let's work together as if you do and see what happens." So I say, "Johnny, do you know where all the art materials go?" He says "Yeah." I say "Well, show me. Just sit at your desk and you'll put the materials in front of you and just point where do they go." "That one there, down there, over there." Great, so he knows where they go. I say, "Alright, Johnny, let's practice get up and put all the art materials away." He gets up, he puts them away, no problems, super fast. I say, "Johnny, that was fantastic and that's what I'm looking for everyday in school. So what is in the way of you being able to do that in class?," He says "I don't know." I say, "Okay, well, let's think about it. What kinds of things are happening in class that aren't happening right now?" And he eventually says 'Ricardo distracts me." "Okay, anything else?" "I don't hear you say it's time to clean up." "Okay. So with you don't hear me say it's time to clean up, tomorrow, when it's time to clean up after art, I am going to tell you first, before I announce it to the rest of the class, so you will be the first person to know. Now, if Ricardo, if he tries to distract you tomorrow, what could you do?" He says "I, I don't know." "Well, we'll think about it. What could you say to him?" "Shut up, Ricardo?" "Okay, well, that's a possibility," but we come up with other possibilities. I coach him a little. We role-play. I play Ricardo. He plays himself. The next day he has to receive the absolute minimum amount of support I can provide. That will absolutely ensure his success that first time. The minimum amount of support might mean that for five days in a row I hold his hand and I walk with him to each bin and get him on the carpet and then for five days I walk with him, but I don't hold his hand, I'm just with him. And then for five days I stand on the edge of the room, and every time he gets to a bin and puts one of the materials away he has to give me a thumbs up, so I'm still in the mix. It could be a month before he becomes autonomous with the behavior, but the slower that I remove my support, the faster he will gain autonomy with the new behavior. This is a little bit counter-intuitive, but the smaller the steps are for him to take, the quicker he can get up those steps to the top or what I want from him. At the secondary level, let's say that Johnny is a blurter. He's a student of mine in one of my periods that is just calling things out, is always disruptive, or maybe even calling out correct answers to things, but just calling out without permission and it's very disruptive. So, again, I go through the process, I pull Johnny aside, and this is really the hardest part, is figuring out when you're going to pull him aside and what you are going to say to him. And I say "Johnny, do you want to keep getting in trouble?" "I don't care." "Yeah, I hear you saying I don't care, but let's work together, as if you do." I say "Johnny, if you try your hardest not to blurt out at all tomorrow in class, how many times do you think you would blurt out?" He says, "none. But if I didn't want to, I wouldn't be doing it." Well, now, I know that's unrealistic as his teacher, so we work towards a more realistic number a