Ideas for Classroom Management

Ideas for Classroom Management

•  Organization of space is huge
• Consider lighting, decorations, furniture, equipment/storage
• Organization of furniture
• Arrange for different activities, switch up groups of students, make materials accessible, ensure student/teacher ease of navigation, make sure it’s accessible
• Climate & Rules
• Which students get along? To what extent can you push boundaries/alter animosity?
• Consider student desires & input when creating class expectations, rules, procedures
• Make sure to make everything explicit, clear, unambiguous
• Teacher design
• Creating different activities based around MIs and DI
• Incorporate active learning
• Consider cooperative learning methods
• Positive Behaviour Supports (PBS)
• Acknowledge positive behaviours to reinforce them and avoid reinforcing negative behaviours with attention (even if corrective)
• Proactive methods include prompting, positive reinforcement, and cues
• Teaching students to reform and monitor their own behaviour can empower them and help curtail negative behaviours (consider Ms Miles teaching to knit)
• Reinforcers of behaviour
• Positive reinforcement: rewarding a behaviour to encourage its repetition
• Primary Reinforcers: edibles, sensory stimulation such as music, soft items, movement. Often used with young children learning behaviours for first time
• Secondary Reinforcers: tangible items, privileges or activities, generalized items (tokens, grade points), social opportunities (seating arrangements, etc.)

To Decrease Inappropriate Behaviour

1.       Discipline must be consistent with goal of safe & caring classroom

2.       Instructional activities must be minimally interrupter

3.       Misbehavior or not? It depends on the context

4.       Match the severity of discipline with behaviour

5.       Be culturally responsive

Addressing Minor Issues

1.       Change classroom environment; rearrange desks, students, etc.

2.       Cues & redirection: eye contact, gestures, proximity, verbal communication (inserting student’s name into question, example, etc.), response request (ask them a question, even a simple one)

3.       Ignore the behaviour; be sure to monitor class to decide if it is getting worse or going away

4.       Extinction: withholding a reinforcer (usually attention) from a negative behaviour to make it gradually decrease and stop. Must be sure that behaviour does not escalate to an unacceptable/interruptive point

5.       Establish and maintain consequences of rule violations; especially helpful if students helped develop them early on. Make sure that consequences are directly related to the issue to establish connection between behaviour and punishment

SEDL | (Formerly) Southwest Educational Development Laboratory

This site hid the acronym for their name so well that I’m still not totally sure what it stands for. Regardless, there is a section on the fourteen cognitive elements of reading that is worth a look. Having a solid understanding of these elements of reading can help when trying to teach skills for reading and comprehension to any grade or ability level. There is also a section that addresses how to assess a student’s understanding.

U of Oregon | CTL: Center on Teaching and Learning

This site has a page dedicated to the five basic elements of reading and learning to read (Phonemic Awareness, Alphabetic Principle, Fluency with Text, Vocabulary, Comprehension). Each of these sections is then broken down even further to describe in detail what each idea is as well as what it looks like when applied and why they can help when used properly.

Carnegie Mellon | Teaching Excellence Center

This website is jam packed with resources and ideas. They have sections on designing and teaching a course, which considers instructional strategies and how to teach different students (cultures, levels, socioeconomic, etc.) and touches upon inclusion. The section on technology has things from wikis and blogs to flipped classrooms, and includes digital classes and using mobile devices. There is a whole detailed section on assessment, both of the students and the teacher.

General Instructional Strategies (part 2)

This is a .pdf list of some instructional strategies, most of which are pretty common, but some that are lesser-known (to me, at least). Of the ones that were new to me were “walk-talk-look this way,” very detailed section on response notebooks (which I was only slightly familiar with), and an obstacle course. Intrigued? Read more!

Oregon Department of Education | Common Core Standards

This is a list of some instructional strategies that can be used in the classroom, some of which are actually new to me. One that sounds fun is “Stump the teacher.” Intrigued? Read more and find out!

General Instructional Strategies

This may be familiar in large part, but it’s a pdf of eleven pages of instructional strategies. There are sections for general, reading, writing, reading/writing, and speaking/listening.

IRA | International Reading Association

This is the website for the group that you can apparently become a member of; they do conferences and such. This might be a good resource to pay for if/when I can eventually afford to do so. It seems like most of the actual resources are members-only, but in a not terribly annoying way.

ReadWriteThink

This website has some really cool resources available for using reading in the classroom and for getting students thinking about what they have read. There are lesson plans for grades all the way from elementary school to high school, each focusing on grade-appropriate content. It even includes mini-lessons, which could be useful in a workshop of flipped style classroom. The strategy guides on the website have many different topics, such as differentiating, teaching writing, and using technology. There are also suggestions for professional development, both in reading and online. Printouts galore! It has student interactives that can be used in class for online activities, and even gets to their level with a list of mobile apps that can be used for a whole range of things! Go scroll through, test some!

Reading Educator

A short website with information on how to teach and implement reading across every content area. (“Every teacher is a reading teacher!”) The most substantial part is the section with different strategies for teaching vocabulary, discussion, active reading, and organization. This page also has a few resources listed for what to use for reading.

RTI CTRL Center | RTI Classification Tool and Resource Center

This site has tools to help schools and districts assess whether their attempt at implementing RTI is going well or not, and how to give it a boost either way.  It has examples of state initiatives, as well as those school/district tools I mentioned earlier.

IDEA Partnership

This website is largely focused on what they call Dialogues, or Dialogue Guides, and it’s all about how to talk about issues like assistive technology or building relationships. It has many external links, and this resource spot has a few powerful links (some of which I have also included separately).

Learning Port

This website is a large collection of research on many different topics from a (abuse and neglect) to y (youth and development). I guess they couldn’t think of anything that started with z. It really covers a lot though. I see topics from peer relationships, to expulsion, to Hispanic. This is definitely a place to go if looking for some professional research. It’s very interactive as well, as you can add a new resource to the database yourself. A huge list of other organizations is also included, and could lead to some other very helpful websites and resources.

ED.gov | Building the Legacy: IDEA 2004

This website is self-described as a one-stop resource guide for everything relating to IDEA and its implementation and laws. It is constantly updated as new ideas emerge. It has a section on IEPs that covers everything from who needs to be there and why to how and when to amend the IEP. It also features a useful section on how IDEA aligns with NCLB (No Child Left Behind). There are a ton of other topics, from implementation to laws and policies.

Center On Instruction

This website has very in depth sections on various subjects, as well as aspects of teaching. It covers literacy, STEM subjects, and teaching English language learners. There is also a section specifically on special education, as well as one for RTI. Each section includes a vast and searchable amount of resources, typically books, that can be used to learn more. There are also videos, professional development courses, and field examples of using things effectively.

**FUN FACT: The Center on Instruction is based out of Portsmouth, NH!**

For The Teachers

This website has a section dedicated to the basic principles of differentiation that could work well as a refresher or to explain to parents how it works in the classroom. The best part of this website in my opinion is this huge list of different strategies to use while teaching content. Each section addresses a different aspect of learning, such as the section on activities to get up and move, the section(s) on group work, and the section on adapting content. There is a HUGE amount of information and methods available here, so for anything strategy-related, look no further.

Understood | For Learning and Attention Issues

This website is an excellent resource to point parents of students with disabilities to. There is a section that allows them to see what it is like to have the same difficulties that their child does, which can help foster sympathy and understanding (hence the website name) and garner support at home. This can also be a powerful tool for teaching other students and teachers. There is also a customizable tip-guide that allows the parents to select things their child has trouble with, such as social skills, listening, and more, as well as their grade, and receive ideas on how to help their child. It even mentions UDL in the assistive technology section, and includes information about what rights their child has as a student. All of the language and articles are written in a very accessible way that uses a minimal amount of jargon, and explains in depth any acronyms.

Beesburg Glossary of Instructional Terms

This is exactly what the title sounds like: a whole long list of 1271 different terms about and methods for instruction. If you can’t find what you’re looking for here, then the internet probably doesn't have it.

University of Louisville | ABRI -- Academic and Behavioural Responses to Intervention

This university website has a great set of instructional videos that relate to PBIS (behavioural) and RTI (academic). It shows the ways that effective instructional practices can be used across curriculum. It includes methods such as opportunities to respond, pre-correction, and specific praise, along with seven other methods. Each one is demonstrated in a math, reading, and behaviour setting. It also features these methods in context of classroom, grade level, and student.

PBIS | Positive Behavioural Interventions & Supports

This is the go-to website for everything PBIS. If you’re new to the idea of PBIS, you might want to start on their introduction/FAQ page. If you have heard of it and are looking for a bit more information on implementing it, there’s a section on how to do so in a high school. If you’re a bit skeptical, or perhaps just curious, about how PBIS can help students, the website discusses how it can help at risk students, be implemented to curb bullying, and be used in connection with an RTI model (Response to Intervention). There’s a lot more, so click around.

Alyssa's Resource Blog

This is a blog by a fellow teacher who is working to create her own set of resources for future reference. It's very nicely organized, and since she's a history teacher, has many great tips for use in that subject area (as well as many general tips). Check out what she has!

Comprehension Strategies

Comprehension Strategies

Name	How It Works	How I Can Use It
Directed Reading-Thinking Activity (DR-TA)	1) brainstorm words associated with content; 2) predictions resulting from teacher-directed text examination; 3) read the text; 4) discuss predictions and more	This could work with a historical text, something that the students might already be somewhat familiar with.
Directed reading Activity (DAR)	1) reading preparation, vocab introduced. 2) teacher uses another activity, like above, to guide reading. 3) post-reading strategy (like ReQuest) 4) specific student needs	This is a pretty basic model of what should always be done.
ReQuest	students read passage. students bring up questions. teacher shares own questions to model.	Teaching students what kinds of questions are useful to ask will help them improve as active readers.
List-Group-Label	brainstorm words related to topic. groups combine and categorize words.	Working so hands-on with vocab words can help them to remember them later.
Question-Answer- Relationship	consider what kinds of questions are being asked. textually explicit (found in text). textually implicit (suggested from text). scripturally implicit (from students knowledge of the topic).	Helping students identify the kinds of questions they have can help them find the answers.
Cluster Strategies	visual arrangements of terms, events, people, or ideas. ex: semantic map; concept mastery map.	Visual arrangements can be very helpful to some students, and would be an excellent addition to a repertoire of vocab strategies.
Semantic Feature Analysis (SFA)	connect prior knowledge with new knowledge. a visual matrix is used to connect ideas and organize relationships.	This would help teach students how to use their background knowledge from various things to connect and understand new knowledge.
Context-Structure-Sound-Reference (CSSR)	steps to understand an unknown word. use context clue to guess word meaning. analyze structural features (root, suffix, prefix...). consider phonics/sounds. refer to something else to look it up.	I could teach this strategy as a method to figure out a word meaning without needing to look it up right away.

Decoding Strategies

Decoding Strategies

Name	How It Works	How I Could Use It
Word Identification Strategy	DISSECT: discover the context; isolate the prefix; separate the suffix; say the stem; examine the word; check with someone; try the dictionary. Uses context clues and breaks down words.	This could be useful for teaching students how to discover approximate meaning of a word they do not know in a text without needing to immediately look to an outside source.
Word Identification Strategy Training (WIST)	This isn’t actually a strategy, but a compilation of strategies that can be used. See below.
Word Identification by Analogy	Students compare unfamiliar words with known words by rhyming, pattern, etc. Ex: kick  and her to decode bicker
Vowel Variations	students learn that vowels have different sounds; go through different vowel sounds for words to see if they can say one that is familiar and identified
Seek the Part Your Know (SPY)	Students look for small, known words in larger words. Ex: abundance contains bun and dan
Peeling Off	students get rid of prefixes and suffixes and decode the base word using another strategy

Vocabulary Strategies

Vocabulary Strategies

Name of Strategy	How it Works	How I Could Use It
Learning Walls	Important words, formulas, and other key information are put into charts, posters, etc. and posted in prominent places around the room for each learning unit.	I could identify words from a current text that students may not know due to a different language style of the time. Ex: I could include the word “cuckold” when working with Shakespeare.
Sorts	Students are given a list of words and asked to sort them into groups. The teacher can allow the students to group them any way they want (open), or assign categories which each must be grouped under (closed).	I could use a closed sort as a formative assessment for teaching grammar, such as parts of speech and different kinds of clauses. I could use an open sort to get students thinking about themes or events in a reading.
Morphemic Analysis	Students break a word into syllables and identify the root word, suffixes, and prefixes in order to try to determine the meaning of the word.	I could use this in conjunction with a section on what prefixes, suffixes, and other parts of words/sentences are. I could also teach this as a decoding strategy for when students encounter an unknown word.
Weekly Vocabulary List	Students are given a small set of vocabulary that they will focus on each week. These words will relate to the current classroom content. They should have lots of time each week to become familiar with the words.	This would be an excellent way to help my students become familiar with literary terms and devices through the year. I could also use this to garner interest in what the upcoming week would hold by choosing words or phrases that will catch students’ attention.