Teach Consequences Like You Teach Procedures [Episode 157]

Emily  0:37

Hey there. Thanks for joining us. Today we are sharing our best teacher approved tips for teaching students about warnings and consequences and sharing some highlights from episode 102. Why don’t you kick us off, Heidi.

Heidi  0:49

Now that we are all back in the classroom, or we’ll be shortly, it’s time to talk about everyone’s favorite topic, disruptive students. Yay.

Emily  1:00

No, no, no, of course, we are not cheering for that, because it’s terrible. Such a hassle. Kids are disruptive at the most inconvenient times. In the middle of a lesson, one kid keeps making sarcastic answers to your questions. Oh, what do you do? That drives me crazy. It’s not really practical to shut everything down, get all the other students busy on something, and then deal with the problem. You need, something you can rely on in a tough moment, that’s when a signal comes in handy.

Heidi  1:26

I taught my students that if they were being disruptive, I’d catch their eye with my best teacher look and hold up my index finger. That was their warning. If they couldn’t get it under control after that, I made eye contact again, held up two fingers and then pointed to where they needed to move to have a little break.

Heidi  1:44

I love the idea of a dedicated time out space, but I really just didn’t have room for that in my classroom. Instead, I had students move away from the group. So if we were at the rug, they moved back to their desk. If we were at our desks, they moved back to the small group table. I just needed them in a place where their disruptions were minimized.

Heidi  2:02

And if that didn’t solve the problem, well, in that case, I would make eye contact again, hold up three fingers and point to the door. They were supposed to go stand outside the door until I could come chat with them about what needed to change. Usually, they could join the group after that. Sometimes they would have to go work in another room, and occasionally they might have to go work in the office.

Emily  2:24

Besides keeping calm with your patented teacher look, which we talked about in episode 155 if you need a refresher, the key to making a signal effective is that you can use it without explanation. If you hold up a finger as a warning, you don’t want to have to stop and say, remember, this is your warning. If you continue making disrespectful comments, I’ll have to move you to a part of the room where your behavior is less disruptive, because that little speech would defeat the whole purpose of having a signal.

Heidi  2:51

That’s why it’s important to teach and practice your behavior signal, just like any other procedure, you want students to be able to respond as soon as you bust out the finger, not that finger, the other one.

Emily  3:04

And besides helping kids remember the steps involved, we want to take some of the sting out of receiving this consequence. As much as we tell students it’s not a bad thing, they’ll still feel like it’s a bad thing if it’s not just an unremarkable part of your classroom routine.

Heidi  3:18

We really want this to feel as low key as possible, as students are embarrassed, this might escalate their behavior. So we keep it super chill. One way to keep it chill is to give everyone a chance to experience the 123 warning. That way they can see firsthand that they’re not in trouble and we’re not mad. We’re just helping a student get control in a difficult moment.

Emily  3:39

On the second or third day of school, or whenever you introduce this routine, stick with the four, tell try tally and talk steps. When we get to the try step, normally, you have a volunteer or two model for the class and then have the whole class try. But this procedure doesn’t work with everyone trying it once.

Heidi  3:57

With almost any other routine that the whole class can’t try it once, something like bringing in the recess bin or being line leader, I’d probably recommend letting the example of a couple kids be good enough for the try part of teaching that procedure. But with this, we really want everyone to experience it, so that no one feels singled out when it happens for real. So we’ve got to adapt.

Emily 4:20

I definitely start with a few models. Choose your most energetic students and ask them to ham it up. And when the student is throwing her pencil on the floor, give her your calmest teacher look and hold up your index finger. When that doesn’t stop, hold up two fingers and point to the back table. And when she’s at the table, you can ask her to either continue acting up, hold up three fingers and point to the door or ask her to calm down and then wave her back to join the group.

Heidi  4:44

Repeat that with a couple volunteers, and then you might want to move locations. Let kids see how this works when the class is sitting at the rug but the kid in the back won’t stop playing with his neighbor’s hair. Or let kids see how this works when you’re sitting at your small group table and they’re around the room doing centers and the girl goofing off has to go back to her desk to work.

Emily  5:02

We want to be able to deploy that 123 consequence any time it’s needed. Once you’ve tried it in different settings, start going down the rows or going table by table, to give everyone the chance to get one, two or three for behavior.

Heidi  5:15

Normally we wouldn’t recommend going in order through the class, because it will decrease your student engagement. Kids are going to check out until it’s close to their turn. But in this case, we are thinking of your high anxiety sweethearts. Even the thought that they might need a consequence from their teacher is already giving them heart palpitations. We don’t want to also give them ulcers by making them wonder when the trap is going to spring on them.

Emily  5:40

If you remember our model for engagement, we’re keeping kids from tipping into overwhelm by increasing the structure. In this case, the structure is a predictable order for deciding whose turn it is to practice this routine for consequences.

Heidi  5:54

After you’ve taught this procedure, make sure you use it as soon as it’s needed so the steps for what to do are still fresh in everybody’s mind.

Emily 6:01

Your procedure for giving warnings and consequences may be different than the one we’ve shared, but whatever procedure you use, make sure to teach it so all your students know what to do without feeling the sting of embarrassment.

Heidi  6:13

And keep listening to our replay from episode 102 where we share strategies for managing other classroom behavior problems.

Heidi  6:22

As teachers, our goal is to create an ideal classroom, or as ideal as this possible in the real world. Let’s be realistic, but we are always trying.

Emily  6:33

To us an ideal classroom is one that bolsters the social, emotional, behavioral and academic development of all the students, so not much.

Heidi  6:43

Child’s play. And that’s why classroom management is so important. Effective classroom management is how we create a classroom that nurtures well rounded development.

Emily  6:54

A lot of teachers think they have a management plan, when what they really have is a consequences plan. If your class is struggling with unwelcome behaviors, it might be because your management plan leaves you stuck doling out consequences instead of managing behavior.

Heidi  7:11

We think of positive classroom management as having three pillars. The first pillar is prevent management problems.

Emily  7:19

So our previous episode was all about ways to prevent problems from occurring in the first place. Which is our favorite way to manage behavior, is just prevent those problems from the beginning. If the problems don’t happen, you don’t have the hassle of managing them. So make sure you go back to Episode 101 for 10 ways to prevent problems in your classroom.

Heidi  7:39

Our second pillar of classroom management is to plan for management problems, and our third pillar is predict management problems. No matter how good we are at preventing the problems, some are still going to crop up, so it’s important to have a solid plan for how to handle them.

Emily  7:56

In today’s episode, we’re talking about your plan for dealing with those management problems, and next week, we’ll share our best tips for predicting the times when your regular management plan isn’t going to be strong enough to handle the problems that will arise.

Heidi  8:10

And you definitely don’t want to miss that, especially as you’re heading into the craziness of the holiday season. Yep, so make sure you’re subscribed to this podcast so you don’t miss any of our holiday management tips and tricks.

Emily  8:23

But that’s next week. Today, we’re all about planning for how to manage the daily hiccups that happen when we work with children.

Heidi  8:30

And the first step in that plan is remembering that we are working with children. They are still figuring out how to be human, and it’s our job to support that figuring out. So the basis of any positive, effective classroom management plan is believing that there are no bad kids. All kids are good kids, but some of them just need a little extra support, or a lot extra support.

Emily  8:55

I’m not gonna lie, there have been a couple kids in my time that have tested me to my very core on that belief, still not entirely convinced that their purpose on this planet wasn’t to push every one of my buttons every day.

Heidi  9:09

And that does raise the point that what we’re talking about today is general classroom management. If you think of the RTI pyramid of instruction that I’m sure we’ve all seen it a faculty meeting.

Heidi  9:22

We have the base of the pyramid where all students are getting quality classroom instruction. Then we have the middle tier of kids who need some extra support in order to progress. This would include interventions like small group instruction or reteaching groups. And then you’ve got that top tier of the pyramid, that’s for the very small group of students who need significant support in order to progress. And we can actually see a similar pyramid when it comes to classroom behavior.

Emily  9:50

Yeah, so 80 to 90% of your students, your general classroom rules and consequences will be enough for them, but every class has got a few special little souls. Some of those kids need a little extra support, and some need specialized, intensive support.

Heidi  10:06

Unfortunately, the number of kids in that top group seems to be growing, and at the same time, schools seem to be offering fewer and fewer resources for helping teachers deal with those severe problems.

Emily  10:18

We are sensitive that this is the reality a lot of teachers are struggling with right now, and if that’s you, please know we see you and we’re cheering you on.

Heidi  10:27

However, for this episode, we are focusing on the base of that pyramid, the management plan that supports most of your students. The tips we’re sharing today won’t solve all of your behavior problems, but if they manage 80 to 90% of them, you will have more time and energy to address those more severe issues.

Emily  10:46

So what is included in the base of our management pyramid? First, we have all of the things we talked about in last week’s episode that prevent problems. We effectively manage the classroom space, we lay out clear procedures and hold kids accountable for meeting our expectations. We use teaching techniques that keep kids engaged in lessons.

Heidi  11:06

Once we’ve done what we can to prevent problems, we need a productive way for dealing with the problems that still occur. If we rely on a system that requires us to catch and punish every misbehavior, all we’re doing is wearing ourselves out. Relying on punishment isn’t teaching students how to be better.

Emily  11:27

Nope, it’s just teaching them not to get caught. That doesn’t reduce the number of behaviors we have to deal with. It just makes the kids sneakier at misbehaving those little rascals.

Heidi  11:37

A better alternative is a management system that teaches self control. If kids have self control, they are choosing to follow directions rather than relying on us to coerce them into following directions. That cuts down on misbehaving, but it also frees us from wasting time and energy on punishments.

Emily 11:56

And how do we teach self control? First, we teach strategies that empower students to make good choices. And second, we teach accountability.

Heidi  12:05

So let’s talk about how you can teach strategies that empower students to make good choices. When you clearly teach your procedures and routines, you’re teaching students how to make good choices, explaining and practicing the steps of each routine teaches students exactly what’s expected of them.

Emily  12:22

If you want some support in clearly teaching your procedures, make sure to check out our procedures and routines resources that use our tell, try tally, talk method and it walks you through each step of the process.

Heidi  12:36

Another way to teach strategies is to teach students how to recess.

Emily  12:42

Is that like Ken when students their only job is recess?

Heidi  12:47

They would like that if that were their only job. And obviously kids know how to play. But as you know, five minutes on the playground will show you they don’t always know how to play at recess or make good choices.

Heidi  13:00

Disagreements over rules erupt into physical fights. Kids are climbing on top of the monkey bars no matter how many times you tell them to get down. Basketballs are being thrown like dodgeballs. Some kids are bored and causing problems. Some kids are lonely and they’re counting the minutes until recess is over. All kids need strategies for how to behave at recess.

Emily  13:20

One of our favorite tips is to teach specific recess games so kids have more options of what to do during recess. We talk all about that in episode 92 if you want to go check that out.

Heidi  13:32

We also want to teach the skills needed to function in the classroom: how to work in a group, how to listen, how to disagree politely, how to include someone who is left out. You need a dedicated time for teaching positive behavior skills.

Emily  13:47

The second part of our system of self control is to teach accountability. This is where rules and consequences come into play.

Heidi  13:55

Rules allow us to create a classroom where everyone thrives. And effective classroom rules are more than just a list of do’s and don’ts. Rules are guiding principles that remind students how they should be. If we want students to follow the rules, one of the most important things we can do is involve students in creating our class expectations.

Emily  14:17

If you’ve used Guided Discovery to introduce your classroom tools, you know how powerful it is to involve students in generating the standards they’re expected to follow. Leading a discussion about how your class is going to use scissors or glue means students have a clear understanding of what’s okay and what’s not okay, and it helps them be more mindful and willing to comply.

Heidi  14:37

If you are not yet familiar with Guided Discovery, go back to episodes 21 and 75 where we walk you through all of the reasons that we love Guided Discovery and how to use it with your own students.

Emily  14:51

Another way to empower students is to involve them in generating your class rules. Responsive Classroom has a great system for this. If you have The First Six Weeks of School book, they walk you through the process, but if you don’t have the book, they have a blog post with helpful information, and we’ll link to that in the show notes.

Heidi  15:07

I love the Responsive Classroom method. Emily and I both used it every year. So on the third day of school, we would start talking about our hopes and goals for the year with the kids. We spent a couple of days on that, and then I would pull the kids in for a discussion. We looked at our list of goals, and we talked about what we needed to do to make sure that we could reach those goals.

Heidi  15:31

I loved having such a positive way to start the discussion about rules. It helped set the standard that I’m not waiting to catch them being bad. Instead, the message was that we all have a responsibility to follow the rules so that everyone is protected.

Emily  15:48

And you can do this at any point in the year. If you feel like you want to reframe your students attitudes about rules, you could do this now. You can do it in November or February or May.

Heidi  15:59

And even if you have school wide rules that you’re expected to implement, you can still make this activity work for you. Maybe instead of making rules, tell your students that you’re making class agreements or norms or standards or a code of conduct, you could even call it your class constitution. This process of coming together and agreeing to certain behaviors is so powerful, it’s definitely worth adapting to make it fit your needs.

Emily  16:26

And it’s so good for building your classroom community, too. Rules are always more effective if students understand the reason behind them and the behaviors that go with them, and when students help create them, they’re even more willing to follow them.

Heidi  16:27

As part of our rules discussion at the beginning of the school year, I made sure we talked about what it looked like and sounded like if we were following that rule. But that really has to be an ongoing conversation. All year long we want to reference our rules maybe before heading into the lunchroom, you remind students of the rule to be kind, and then you ask them to tell you what they’ll do at lunch that day to be kind.

Emily  17:03

It’s also helpful to have a set time to discuss class problems and have students suggest solutions. Maybe at morning meeting, you can point out that there was a lot of roughhousing at recess yesterday. You can ask students to suggest ways they can keep each other safe. Then they’re the ones responsible for the solution, instead of making it something only the teacher can solve.

Heidi  17:24

These clear and consistent conversations about rules become even more important when a rule is broken. Having a positive framework around rules helps kids see accountability as a way to fix a problem and not a punishment for messing up.

Emily  17:38

We want kids to understand that mistakes are a welcome part of the learning process, even when we’re learning how to behave, kids forget or slip up or feel the need to test the boundaries. So when rules are broken, our management plan needs to rely on accountability, not shame.

Heidi  17:55

Logical consequences are a way to turn a misstep into an opportunity for growth. Instead of punishing kids for breaking a rule, we help them fix the problem they caused.

Emily  18:07

It might sound like consequences, quote, unquote is just another term for punishment, but the two responses are very different. Punishment uses external controls like fear or shame to ensure compliance. Logical consequences help children regain self control and learn how to reflect and improve.

Heidi  18:26

So growing up, our elementary school had the management system of writing your name on the board and then you’d have to add a check mark for each additional offense. Over the years, I might have had to add a check mark for, you know, scribbling on my desk or not coming in when the recess bell rang, or calling my teacher Mrs. Poo Poo Head, all real examples from my sketchy past that earned me check marks.

Emily  18:52

Oh she’s she was a problem child, guys.

Heidi  18:54

I said, Mrs. Poo Poo Head under my breath, but she hurt me anyway. And she’s like, What did you call me? And then I just said it louder, so.

Emily  19:03

You earned that check.

Heidi  19:04

Yeah, I did. But those check marks weren’t related to the harm I caused, so they weren’t really solving the problem.

Emily  19:10

Nope, I definitely, usually got my check marks for talking.

Heidi  19:13

Can’t understand that at all.

Emily  19:16

On the other hand, logical consequences are always related to the specific behavior and there are three main types. The first one is, you break it, you fix it. This is used when something is broken or a mess is made.

Emily  19:28

Maybe Zara accidentally crashed into Miguel in the lunchroom. Now his tray is on the floor. Even if the harm is unintentional, the consequence is taking responsibility for fixing the problem. Maybe the teacher could coach Zara to check if Miguel was okay, and then help clean up the spill tray and get Miguel a new one.

Heidi  19:45

You break it, you fix it would have been a good consequence for my scribbling on the desk, but it can also apply to hurt feelings. In this case, it’s important to talk to the child who is harmed away from the other child to learn what they need in order to restore the relationship.

Heidi  20:02

Maybe they need an apology or promise not to do it again. In severe cases, maybe the hurt runs so deep that the child who is harmed will never feel safe around the other child again. The hard lesson about consequences is sometimes we can’t take back what we did.

Emily  20:18

The loss of a privilege is another logical consequence. This comes into play when students forget or defy a rule.

Heidi  20:25

So if your students are leaving the class library a sloppy mess every day, maybe the consequence is losing the privilege of choosing their own books for a few days.

Emily  20:35

Or if students can’t play a math game without getting out of control, a logical consequence would be having to put away the game and do independent worksheets instead.

Heidi  20:44

The loss of the privilege needs to be tied to the expectations that aren’t being met. So when I didn’t come back to class when the recess bell rang, a logical consequence would be missing the next recess or maybe only being allowed to play on the blacktop near the door so I couldn’t ignore the bell next time.

Heidi  21:01

Losing the privilege of sitting next to my friends at lunch would be a punishment, not a consequence, because my problem had to do with recess and not lunch.

Emily  21:09

The key to making the loss of a privilege an effective consequence is making sure that you reteach your expectations before reinstating the privilege. Before letting you have free reign at recess, your teacher could have reminded you what to do when you hear the bell. This makes sure there’s no misunderstanding about the expected behavior.

Heidi  21:29

If you have a student who’s being disruptive, maybe they’ve called their teacher an unfortunate name, they might need a little break or a timeout. And this is the third type of logical consequence.

Emily  21:41

This one gives students a chance to calm down and regain some self control. Everyone needs these sometimes. Some teachers have designated spaces in their classroom for students to take a little break and then they can rejoin the group when they’re ready.

Heidi  21:54

Unfortunately, sometimes behaviors escalate to the point of needing outside support, but with the foundation of a strong management system in place, you can prevent most problems from becoming that severe.

Emily 22:07

A positive classroom management system includes plans for preventing behavior problems, planning for the problems that will still crop up, and predicting where problems will arise in the future.

Heidi  22:19

When you’re making a plan for how to address the problems that still crop up, make sure you are dedicating regular time to teaching strategies that empower studnets to make good choices.

Emily  22:30

And make sure you have a plan for clear, easy to implement consequences. Logical consequences, like you break it, you fix it, losing a privilege or taking a break, teach students how to act responsibly in or out of the classroom.

Heidi  22:43

We’d love to hear how you handle rules and consequences in your classroom. Come join the conversation in our teacher approved Facebook group.

Emily  22:52

That’s it for today’s episode, and this is our last tips episode for the summer. Thank you for joining us. We hope you’ve heard lots of useful takeaways, and that you’ll join us for even more teacher approved tips in our regular Monday episodes.

Heidi  23:05

If you enjoyed this episode or any of our other episodes, we would love it if you shared it with a teacher friend who might enjoy it as well. Recommendations are the best way to help our show reach new listeners.