Strategies for Student Self-Discipline
Level 5: Wraparound Support
Level 4: Somewhere Else Plan
Level 3: Life Skills
Level 2: Recovery
Level 1: Creating a Caring Community
This self-discipline pyramid designed by Villa, Thousand & Nevin (2010, p. 173) will give students the environment and tools they need to succeed.
5: Wraparound support
Holding an existentialist philosophy of teaching, I believe students’ choices have consequences; they are not bound to fail or bound to succeed. For that reason, if a student continues to struggle after intervention, I am in favor of providing support to help them make better choices. The social support that family or guardians can provide fulfill the 3rd level of the hierarchy of needs (Maslow) so students can focus with support and security on their academics.
- If lower levels of intervention have not been successful, students write up a success contract (Albert, 1996) to set firm parameters for helping them get their work done well.
- Students have a meeting with multiple teachers, administrators, and parents or guardians when they are struggling so that a team can be formed to work together to help them.
- This can be a Circle of Support (Pranis) or called a CSAT (Comprehensive Student Assistance Team) or SST (Student Support Team).
- Students and people working with them should discuss long-term ways to transform conflict, rather than just resolving one conflict once (Lederach). This might mean putting a long-term plan into place that will affect the student for the rest of the year or the rest of their time at the school.
4: Somewhere Else Plan
If education should be about student choice (Dewey) according to progressivism and existentialism, students should have a choice of a place to go if they need to, somewhere beside the main part of the classroom. Having a place to cool off might help students make better choices. It might also help some students focus more, whether on thinking about their actions and how to recover, or simply on their work.
- Students can go into a quiet room, called the Thinkery (Claassen) to think about the consequences of bad behavior.
- There, they might have an affective questions form to fill out to help guide their thoughts.
- Or they might fill out a “mood meter” (Brackett and Kremintzer... Maurer, et al) to help students think about how they were feeling at the time of the incident and how that influenced their behavior.
- Students may also use the separate room or space as a place to talk with an adult (Canter) about what happened. The adult may be a teacher. The adult may also be a parent (Curwin).
- Students may also just have a somewhere else plan to do homework so they can focus more effectively than in a noisy classroom.
- Some students with social IEPs may need a quiet space to cool off from their frustration and get re-focused.
- Even though a Circle isn't a different physical space necessarily, it's a different mental space because it's a "neutral space" (Pranis) where students can talk out issues with teachers and/or peers on an equal footing.
3: Life Skills
I believe that education should be authentic, relating to students' lives outside of school now and preparing them for their lives in the future. As an existentialist educator, I believe in the importance of student choice, and I want to give them the tools make good decisions if they choose to do so. My existentialist philosophy also relates to progressive philosophy, which holds that school should prepare students to be citizens in a democratic society (Dewey). For students to be citizens in a democratic society, they need to be prepared.
- Circle/Socratic Seminar about life skills within the classroom (Pranis) so students can learn from their peers and their teacher.
- Circle/Socratic seminar about life skills with community members such as the elderly (Pranis) to form positive relationships and help students learn from the life experiences of others.
- Give students responsibility for checking their behavior and the behavior of their peers, so they develop responsibility for their own actions and develop moral sophistication (Kohn) that they will use for the rest of their lives when a teacher is not there to remind them.
- Students get an opportunity to have leadership in the class and set the rules for themselves, teaching them life leadership skills (Kohn).
- Encourage students to praise each other when they are working in a group.
- Allow opportunities for working in a group, in general, and explain appropriate group behavior, as most students will have to do this outside of school as well.
- Teach students how to recognize their emotions and regulate them appropriately (Brackett and Kremintzer... Maurer, et al)
- Teach students to take ownership of their actions and feelings by using "I-messages" (Curwin, Claassen) to describe their states so they can receive help by advocating for themselves.
- Teach active listening (life skills): observing people, self-awareness, listening for feelings, paraphrasing, reflecting, questioning, summarizing (Claassen) by modeling and with explicit reminders.
- Have students think about long-term transformation of the way they talk about conflict (Lederach)
- Remind students that their actions have consequences, in ways other than using a reward system like treats (Wong & Wong; Kohn).
- Include authentic work in your curriculum that is relevant to students' real lives; tie your curriculum to their background knowledge after getting to know about your students through information conversation and/or a survey.
2: Recovery
Students’ choices have consequences. However, one minor mistake or misbehavior is not a reason to give up on a child. We should bring them back to attention with dignity (Curwin). Because existentialism and progressivism are centered around student learning (Kohn), it is all the more important for students to be engaged in the classroom, and recovering their engagement swiftly will allow their learning to continue.
- Remind students of expectations of behavior in a way that is dignified (Remind them of the social contract), rather than embarrassing punishments (Curwin). That might mean speaking to a student after class about improving their behavior for tomorrow, or speaking to them privately, instead of chastising them in front of the class.
- Have a class Recovery Circle that allows everyone to participate, including the person who has done harm who might want to take accountability (Pranis).
- Walk near a student who is distracted, to get their attention help them re-focus (Claassen).
- That may include tapping lightly on a student's desk to let them know you are present and see that they are not engaged, helping regain their attention.
- Ask student to look at social contract/respect agreement (Claassen)
- Give student a "look" to get them back on task (Claassen)
- Use an emotional RULER "mood meter" and blueprint (Brackett and Kremintzer... Maurer, et al) to have students check their feelings and think of healthy ways to regulate them.
- Remind students that there are negative or positive consequences for every action they choose (Wong & Wong)
- Let students talk about their feelings or "plead their case" to recover from suspected misbehavior, to prevent "wounds of compliance" (Olson) in case they are right, or at least so they feel their voice is heard.
- Allow students to check each other during the class, so that students develop moral sophistication (Kohn) by being responsible for themselves and not counting on the teacher to tell them what is wrong and right.
- Have social contract checkers at the end of the period to talk about how well they did at following the contract that day and what they could do better the next day.
1: Creating a Caring Community
Students will feel safer making choices, especially taking risks, in a safe and caring community than in a classroom where students do not know each other. It is important to create a classroom where students know each other and, as much as possible to induce, care about each other. Students who care each other can help each other in the Zone of Proximal Development (Vygotsky). Furthermore, students whose basic needs are met in terms of feeling safe will be better able to focus on learning (Maslow).
- Celebrate the first day of school! (Wong & Wong)
- Say hello and shake hands (if comfortable) at the door
- Be consistent with your behaviors as a teacher, like having a rubric (Wong & Wong)
- students like knowing what they're doing right or wrong
- Address students by name (Wong & Wong)
- Show courtesy to show you're paying attention. Say thank you, smile. (Wong & Wong)
- Have a Circle at the beginning of the year for students to get to know each other (Pranis) The Circle Process is a storytelling process. Every person has a story, and every story has a lesson to offer. In the Circle, people touch one another’s lives by sharing stories that have meaning to them” (Pranis, 2014, Ch. 1 [digital file]). Have students sit in a Circle to listen to one another to encourage vulnerability, open-mindedness, and safety in community.
- You can also play games in a Circle to build community
- Have students fill out “What I Wish My Teacher Knew” cards
- Have students write their own social contract/decide rules together (Kohn)
- including their expectations of classmates, and teachers
- Include list of consequences (“discipline hierarchy”) (Canter)
- Build lesson plans and curriculum around students' interests and creativity to avoid wounds of numbness (Olson)
Sources
Albert, Linda. (1996). Cooperative Discipline. Philadelphia, PA: American Guidance Service.
Brackett, Marc A., Kremenitzer, Janet Prickard. (2011). Creating Emotional Literate Classrooms: An introduction to the RULER approach to social and emotional learning, Port Chester, NY: Dude Publishing.
Charles, C.M. (2010). “Lee and Marlene Canter: Discipline through Assertive Tactics.” Building Classroom Discipline. Pearson.
Claassen, R. & Claassen, R. (2008). Discipline that Restores: Strategies to create respect, cooperation, and responsibility in the classroom. South Carolina: Booksurge Publishing.
Curwin, Richard & Mendler, Allen. (1999). Discipline with Dignity, Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Kohn, Alfie. (1996). Beyond Discipline: From Compliance to Community. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Lederach, John Paul. (2003). The Little Book of Conflict Transformation: Clear articulation of guiding principles by a pioneer in the field. The Little Books of Justice and Peacebuilding Series. Intercourse, PA: Good Books.
Olson, K. (2009) Wounded by school: Recapturing the joy in learning and standing up to old school culture. New York: Teachers College Press.
Pranis, Kay. (2005). The Little Book of Circle Processes: A new/old approach to peacemaking. The Little Books of Justice and Peacebuilding Series. Intercourse, PA: Good Books.
Wong, H., and Wong, R. (2005). The first days of school: How to be an effective teacher. Mountain View, CA: Harry K. Wong Publications.