Whole Class Behavior Goals- Open House week

I did not track talking a lot this week because first off, our schedule was way different than normal because of Open House related projects. Also, having tons of school work come out and go up on the walls did not help the kids behave very well. In addition, normally Open House comes at the end of May, just a week or two before school is over. So many students have already switched into summer mode... way too early.

I knew that something needed to be done to help keep them in check, mostly for my own sanity.

I decided to extend the goal setting behavior to the whole class. I had every student write up three behavior goals for themselves at the beginning of the day, and then try their best to achieve those goals that day. They could choose from any number of goals that I listed on the white board in the morning or they could choose their own.

Overall, I think it was a really effective way of getting the class to think about their behavior in the same way that the writing assignment did without having to have them spend the day doing writing assignments.

On a side note, I tried a control for the behavior writing assignment, where they had to write on something else just to see if it was having to sit and write that kept them calm and quiet or actually the assignment itself of reflecting on their behavior. It was the topic... when they were writing about something else, they were all loud and talkative, and I had to keep refocusing them, much like I did in the beginning of the year.

I liked the behavior goal idea so much that I had them reassess their goals for the next day, and they could change them or keep them the same, with good success both days.

For my one phonics lesson that I did track during the Open House week, I pulled out all the stops. It was my second day of the behavior goal cards in the morning, I also had my "problem" students use the behavior contract cards, and I also said that I would choose two winners of the people who talked out the least to receive five class dollars. Oh, and we were really close to getting the rest of our pasta for our popcorn party, and I told the class that if overall they were good, they could earn it during this lesson (they did manage to earn the rest of it).

It was a very effective strategy. During the whole phonics lesson (which was a very typical lesson in every way) there were only 13 times that anyone talked out. My focus students did exceptionally well on this day as well: J, B, D, and G all did not talk out at all, R and T only talked out once. N continues to struggle, and talked out 3 times.

N has been struggling a lot lately. One day was because he didn't have his medication, but even on days with it, it seems that he has lost his self control completely. I am not sure what the best solution for this is. I have talked to his mom about it too, and she feels that he is not really trying his best to control himself. It seems that no amount of motivation is really working for him at this point, but it does definitely give me a place to focus on.

R has been doing exceptionally well as a contrast. I made him an island, where instead of being part of a 4 person team to be able to earn points, he can earn them on his own, and the other three members don't have to worry about him doing the right thing to earn points, which helps them as well. The great thing is that when he was part of the team, the two ( him and the rest of the team) were always arguing, because the times when R was ready, they weren't, and when they were ready, he wasn't. I separate them into two separate point earning entities, and they are BOTH doing better, even winning sometimes.

I had talked about differentiating for the focus students, where each has a different technique that I had tried in the past. But one thing that I have to remember about the classroom is feasibility. Having one student working for his goal, another for money, and another for a class competition I think is too difficult to set up and maintain.

I think the biggest benefit of my last phonics lesson on behavior is that it differentiated without extra work on my part. The students who were motivated by goals had the goals that they had written down in the morning to guide them. The students who were motivated by the behavior contracts, and charting their own good behavior had that tool available to them. The students who were motivated by the desire to earn the 5 dollar prize/ the competition had that strategy as well. I do recall that part of differentiating is simply giving them the choice. This phonics lesson did just that, gave them the choice in what would motivate them and I can't be sure which was the effective portion for each student... but at the end of the day, does it matter, since most were quiet?