A Five-Step Instructional Guide (Great for K-6 instructors!)
By Johnette B. Miller
Step 1
Organize and decorate your classroom.
Is your classroom decorated? I mean really decorated? If you look around your room and are not personally stimulated, something is wrong. Check for sagging posters and decorations that have not been re-taped. Check for worn, unsightly bulletin boards or chalkboards that have not been covered with pleasant poster paper. Make sure student work is displayed. This should be done appealingly. For an exciting effect, paste or staple student work to colored construction paper. This looks better than tattered sheets of loose-leaf paper curling up at the ends. Use thematic artwork and bold letter headlines to draw attention to student work. For example, purchase or make a large, colorful butterfly or flower to accompany a spring poem display. Add a bold exclamation such as “SPRING FORTH!” using large letters you’ve purchased or made out of construction paper. Don’t be lazy. Make sure you have displayed a variety of work. For example, science papers, butterfly art, social studies essays, creative writing, math tests, etc.
Have you tried hanging art from the ceiling? Do this tastefully. Do not simply string clotheslines across the room to display work. This can get messy. You can hang individual pieces of string from the ceiling. Give these strings a special role. If you have twenty-six children, you can hang twenty-six pieces of string. You can attach each string, strategically, to ceiling light fixtures or panels using paperclips. For example, tie yarn or string to the end of a paperclip, then bend the paperclip into a sort of hook which can be inserted into a ceiling panel or light fixture groove. Then attach another paperclip to the other end of the yarn or string and bend a pointed end of the paperclip outward so you can attach artwork. You may want to make a precut star for each of your students. Write a child’s name in each star using neat, bold letters. Have the children color or decorate their stars or you can hang the stars as is. You can attach a star to each paperclip suspended from yarn. These strings hanging from the ceiling are very convenient. You can always have wonderful decorations suspended from the ceiling. In the spring you can attach trees or flowers, in the winter -- snowflakes, etc. You can use more mature themes or designs for older children.
Are there centers or thematic areas in your classroom? You should have individual subject displays that have substance and are organized. These should not become messy, neglected areas. Get a globe, maps, atlases, president flash cards, National Geographic magazines and related games, and create a Social Studies/Geography Center. Use your math manipulatives (counting blocks, rulers, pattern chips) to create a tempting math corner, complete with an instructional clock, flash cards, charts and number games. Do the same for other subjects such as writing, science, computing, etc. You may use these areas for weekly, structured center time, when children are assigned to centers in small groups to explore information. You will need to keep a record of who has used different centers so students get to explore different areas. Provide something meaningful for the groups to do in each center. This will take planning and creativity. Establish time limits for center activities. Centers do not have to be used in this structured fashion. You may want to use them for free time rewards or even for post-lesson enrichment for students who finish assignments early. Don’t just set them up and then let them collect dust.
Is your classroom messy and disorganized? Does your desk look like it’s encountered a tornado? Great teachers don’t have messy desks. While covering for many teachers through the years, I have found that the most wonderful teachers are wonderfully organized. So if you don’t already have your act together, get it together. A cluttered, neglected room can affect how you feel and how you teach. It can affect student behavior and how they respond to learning. Also, you cannot teach children to be organized and tidy if you’re not. If you’re having trouble in this area, use a file box, drawer or cabinet. Have a box or other container for student work that needs your attention. You may also want to keep a container or file for parent notes. Organize frequently. If you eat lunch at your desk, organize and tidy up when you’re done. You can do the same at the end of each day. Don’t let junk pile up. Keep book areas organized and tidy. Students will be eager to help with this. You must also keep good records. That means making sure children are marked absent or late. Respond to requests from the principal and meet paperwork deadlines. Also respond to colleagues regarding meetings and other important school issues.
Have an emergency lesson plan book for substitutes. Your own lesson plans may be too vague or technical for substitutes to follow. I once covered for a teacher who was kind enough to have an emergency lesson plan book. If I didn’t quite understand an activity she had planned for math, I could choose a simpler, perhaps more straightforward lesson from the book. I could do the same for social studies, reading etc. A note at the front of the book instructed me to check off assignments I used so she could keep track. A substitute folder or packet is also effective. You may choose worksheets, handouts, books and homework assignments specifically for emergency use. A substitute should be able to come in and find a journal prompt to put on the board or a math worksheet for math time.
Many teachers think tidiness and organization are a waste of time and that they should get paid more for putting up displays and keeping their classroom stimulating and presentable. I feel sorry for them. If you are teacher, give it your all. The children deserve this. Your school deserves this.
Step 2
Be well groomed and have good conduct.
A teacher should dress for success. Dump jeans, sneakers, sweats, hot pants and sleazy outfits. Choose modest professional wear. You may just get more respect from your students, peers, parents and your boss.
Be enthusiastic about teaching and about helping your school as a whole. Walking around angry or complaining shows you don’t like your job. Children are aware of this. Be nice to parents, even the ones who aren’t too nice to you. It’s your job to please them as well as provide a quality education for their kids. Have a smile for them in the morning as well as for their kids. You can smile and still be firm. If you want your students to have a nice attitude, model the behavior.
Have you evaluated your conduct lately? Watch how you interact with classroom assistants and your colleagues. Conduct yourself with professionalism. Don’t play the dating/mating game on school grounds. Don’t laugh loudly through the halls talking about things inappropriate for children’s ears. Don’t let children see you smoking and misbehaving outside with other employees. As a child I idolized my teachers. I believe this is because of the fantastic example they set for me. Remember, you are a teacher.
Step 3
Master behavior management.
How you will be expected to manage your children will vary from school to school. This is because some schools may not have a problem with unruly children, whereas some schools may be notorious for being packed with difficult kids. Rule number one is: Be firm and consistent. You cannot take on the laid-back friend role with your students without consequences. You must take charge of your classroom immediately. There must be set rules which are followed and infractions should be dealt with immediately. If a child gets out of his or her seat without permission, you must say firmly, “Do not get out of your seat without permission.” To further discourage this you may want to put the child’s name on a list kept at your desk. Show the child that you are keeping track and will impose consequences if need be. Do the same for calling out and talking during quiet times.
Having children who are seated and quiet opens up the world of education and extends the time you have for teaching. If you have a child’s name down, you can add a check for other infractions and then begin imposing consequences. For example if a child has his or her name on your list and, in addition, two checks, you may want to keep them in for recess. Three checks might call for a phone call, etc. You must be firm. If you find yourself frequently bending or changing the rules and giving chances, you are sacrificing control of your class.
Keep talking to a minimum in your classroom when the children are not working in groups. When there are group activities, encourage children to use very quiet voices and to keep their bodies in control. Many teachers expect that group time will be loud instead of demanding quiet group work from their students. Quiet group work can produce the same if not better results than noisy kids in groups who are losing control.
Encourage students to keep a book or other appropriate activity in their desks for use after assignments are completed. Discourage them from raising their hands to announce that they are done. Teach them how to use their “quiet free time” constructively.
Try to stick to a fairly consistent schedule each day. Children should receive any homework sheets and have homework copied at least an hour before dismissal time to avoid confusion. Preferably, homework should be copied some time during the first half of the day, when students are calmest and instructions can be discussed quietly without dismissal time looming. Also, if there are children that must leave early, they’ll already be prepared to do homework assignments.
Children should also pack for dismissal at least an hour before time, placing any outerwear on the backs of their chairs. This increases your chances of having a quiet, orderly dismissal. This way you have more time to encourage quiet afternoon behavior rather than focusing on too many children at the closets gathering their things. This can be achieved in a quieter, more orderly fashion by having two or three children pack up at a time while the children are completing a quiet, uncomplicated afternoon activity. This gives you optimum control of your classroom in the afternoon, a time that can be noisier and less organized than the first part of the day.
Always choose quieter, less challenging assignments for the latter part of the day. A good rule is that when you are anticipating a major transition (one that involves a higher level of movement, such as packing up or going to a special class or assembly) be prepared at least a half-hour before the transition occurs.
Remember to reward good behavior. This works best daily. Children respond more favorably to timely gratification. You do not have to go broke buying treats. A no-frills bag of treats bought weekly during grocery shopping will suffice. This is a good weekly investment. It will last if you are selective about who you reward. For example, you may reward the two children who had the best behavior of the day, or the authors of the three best writing assignments, or two students who have really improved since the previous day.
Also, you may choose to give a group reward at the end of the week. For example, a table of five children who have the most stars for the week next to their table number (posted somewhere visible) might get cookies. Group behavior contests are especially effective when you need fantastic behavior from your whole class. These are times when there may be a class visitor, an unexpected transition, or when the class is being unusually noisy. You simply walk to the group chart and look around the room in an exaggerated fashion to see which groups deserve stars. Some tables will automatically begin to clam up. You should change seats periodically to diffuse noisy areas.
Practice lining up for fire drills with your class twice a month. You might want to post consequences for fire drill infractions. Let them know that you won’t hesitate for a second to take disciplinary action when it comes to fire drills. If you avoid fire drill practice with your class, the results could be disastrous when that loud bell rings. So be prepared.
Regarding hallway behavior, carry a visible list and keep looking at your lines. This lets the children know that their hallway behavior is being carefully monitored. When you look at a child and begin to write, they’ll know whether they’re being written down for great behavior or unacceptable behavior. You must impose consequences for poor hallway behavior, such as no recess or name on a classroom discipline list. Use this monitoring strategy for assemblies as well and instruct your children that when in the auditorium they must always be sitting with their backs against their chairs. Seat children with special behavior problems in your immediate area.
Step 4
Raise writers.
Don’t skimp on writing time in the classroom. Don’t let writing become an occasional event that occurs at strategic points during a semester: before grades are turned in, before standardized tests or when the principal is coming in to observe your lesson. If you do this, you are shortchanging your students, and they could have a pitiful academic handicap. If you neglect regular writing practice, your students may face enormous challenges when advanced to the next grade. Standardized test writing prompts have been known to prompt tears instead of insightful paragraphs about a child’s family or favorite book. It is up to us, as teachers, to facilitate the steady progression of writing skills. Here’s how:
Begin your school day with a journal prompt, which has already been written on the board. Children will be able to unpack and immediately begin responding to the prompt. Journal work does not have to be a collection of sacred, hands-off manuscripts from which you have removed yourself. Treat the journal, though sometimes quite personal, as an instructional tool. This is a venue by which, if used properly and consistently, your students will become confident, wonderful writers. A daily paragraph or message to be edited absolutely cannot substitute for the much-needed, regular writing practice that the journal prompt provides. The journal prompt, depending on how devoted you are as a teacher to the art of journal writing, may indeed branch out into a lesson on grammar and parts of speech. This totally eliminates the need for tedious editing practice or daily messages bordering on irrelevancy.
Use journal time as an opportunity to observe individual writing skills. Review and correct these writings every other day or collect journals weekly. On occasion you may also have some children share as a faster way of evaluating. If children are making the same writing mistakes in their journals daily without the writing being reviewed, then journal time is not benefiting your students. You need to know what level your students are on as writers and be familiar with the areas where they need assistance. Also, when you are focusing on a particular area of study, remember to give related journal prompts. The idea is to use at least a half-hour each day to build writing confidence and skill. Use happy face stamps, stars, etc., to encourage creativity and good writing technique.
Use literature as a writing opportunity. Any time a selection or book is read in class, regardless of subject area, a response activity can be assigned to help children recall facts, boost creativity and comprehension, and build writing skills. Ask your children to retell the story, list facts using a story web, answer open-ended questions or complete a creative activity, such as writing a poem or creating their own book about the story. To create a fast book you may want to hand out two sheets of blank paper to each student. Children can place one sheet on top of the other and then fold both sheets into a book that can then be stapled. They may retell the story in their own words in one or more sentences on each blank page, depending on grade level. Students can go back and illustrate each page. The cover should include the actual title of the story read and “Retold by…” followed by the student’s name. This activity can also be done in a similar way using computers.
For another activity, children can write a paragraph about their favorite part, which can be accompanied by an illustration. Encourage your students to bring their words to life using illustrations. This fosters their creative abilities and further engages them in the assignment.
Prepare students for a response activity by discussing the story with some use of open-ended or constructed response questions. It would be a good idea to use a vocabulary word display to assist students with comprehension. Thoroughly review the story to ensure that the activities are not too overwhelming for your students.
Step 5
Use varied, effective math strategies.
You must equip your students with a variety of math strategies that will not fail them. Focusing on one strategy in the teachers guide could result in frustration (for you and your students) and student failures! Because you undoubtedly have diverse thinkers and learners in your classroom, you need to diversify your strategies. Each of your students should know, at the very least, two ways of conquering a math problem. Other students may be capable of remembering three or more strategies. This may seem like overload, but it’s not. For example, a fourth-grader who is laboring over a word problem that seemingly requires him to divide may be overjoyed when you explain that using multiplication is also an option to find the solution. Another fourth-grader might be quite comfortable with counting by 20s or 40s to solve the same problem. It would be to every child’s advantage to know how and when to utilize a strategy that will prove effective for him or her. Imagine being able to successfully reach for another strategy when a standard one is not working. For a struggling child this could be a light at the end of a dark tunnel.
Many kindergarteners and first graders are taught how to act out addition and subtraction facts to find each sum or difference. For example you may have a few students pretend to be passengers on a bus. Students getting off the bus would indicate subtraction. Students boarding the bus would mean the pupils should add. But where are all of the actors during a test? It is then when your students must reach for something more concrete, such as counting beads or a mental counting method such as “Counting On”. “Counting On,” which simply means to count forward, and “Counting Back” are important instructional strategies for teaching addition and subtraction. For example, if a child has to find the sum for 7+3, you tell her to put the greater number in her head, which is “7”, and then say that same number aloud. She will then use “3” fingers to illustrate the smaller number. She will count forward aloud, saying “8, 9, 10” as she puts up each of those 3 fingers. The last number said aloud will be 10. This is the sum. You can use the same strategy for subtraction, except the child will be instructed to count backwards instead of forward. An early-grader may also be instructed to draw pictures to illustrate and solve addition and subtraction problems. That makes four strategies I’ve mentioned so far for teaching addition and subtraction: modeling problems using actors, using counting beads, “counting on” and illustrating addition and subtraction facts on paper. You may use multiple strategies for teaching math in various grades. There are so many others, such as chart usage, buddy systems, memorization and other mental math methods that can be utilized. Remember, there’s always another way. It’s up to you to brainstorm and even customize strategies for struggling students. The miracles begin with you and the unlimited creativity I know you possess.