The Teacher’s Pocket Guide for Effective Classroom Management

Second Edition

by Tim Knoster, Ed.D.

Contents

1. So Why Should I Read This Book? 1
2. So Why Do Kids Act the Way They Do? 9
3. So How Do I Prevent Problem Behavior in My Classroom? 15
4. So How Close Should I Get with My Students? 25
5. So How Do I Go About Establishing Expectations in My Classroom? 35
6. So How Hard Is It to Use Reinforcement in My Classroom? 47
7. So Does It Really Boil Down to Classroom Climate? 63
8. So How Do I Address Inappropriate Behavior? 71
9. So What Else Can I Do? 79
10. So What if Everything I Have Tried Is Still Not Working? What Else Can I Do? 91
11. So How Do I Connect the Dots? 105
12. References and Resources for Further Reading 109

So Who Is This Guy?

Tim Knoster, Ed.D., is a professor and chairperson of the Department of Exceptionality Programs in the College of Education at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Knoster, in collaboration with colleagues, established the McDowell Institute for Teacher Excellence in Positive Behavior Support at Bloomsburg University in 2012, which emphasizes the translation of research on positive behavior intervention and support into practical application for practice by teachers in schools. In addition, Dr. Knoster has served as executive director of the international Association for Positive Behavior Support (APBS) since its inception in 2003. He has worn many hats throughout his career, including that of classroom teacher, director of student support services and special education, and principal investigator on federal projects focused on classroom and student-centered behavior intervention and support. Specifically relevant to this book, Dr. Knoster has extensive experience in providing professional development for classroom teachers throughout the United States and Canada and has been the recipient of various awards for his endeavors in this regard. He has extensively published manuscripts, training materials, and other practitioner-oriented resources concerning the linkages among research, policy, and practice in the classroom.

So How Do I Prevent Problem Behavior in My Classroom?

Your perspective, whether limited to your classroom or considered more broadly in life, directly affects how you interpret the events in your daily life. Developing perspective is a highly personalized experience. Mark Twain has been credited with saying, "It ain't what you don't know that will get you in trouble, it's what you know for sure that just ain't so." Establishing a few basic operating procedures can dramatically reduce the likelihood of inappropriate behavior occurring in your classroom.

Yet problem behavior must be immediately stopped, and the student must be redirected to act in a more appropriate manner. For example, a student who is taking materials from another student should be told by the teacher, "Stop taking John's book and answer sheet. I want you to open your own book and do your work on your own."

One of my personal pet peeves regarding classroom management comes from the term management, which implies a false notion of control, suggesting that you will manage your students as if they were merely raw material to be organized within your classroom. The nature of what can be managed has less to do with your students' behavior and more to do with how you act daily in your classroom. Developing a classroom management plan can appear daunting at first, but it helps to view classroom management as having two main themes: prevention and intervention.

Understandably, it is easy to focus on what to do after a student misbehaves, but the primary emphasis in effective classroom management is preventing problem behavior in the first place. Consider the investment of time in managing student behavior: 80% should be spent on preventative approaches. This so-called 80-20 split (80% prevention to 20% intervention) is widely accepted in professional literature.

Three Principles of Practice

1. Rapport
2. Clear Expectations
3. Reinforcement of Expected Behavior

These three approaches may be visualized as a three-legged stool of prevention in which each component is interdependent on the presence of the others to support student behavior effectively. Rapport becomes a byproduct of your collective endeavors in the classroom. Establishing a classroom environment conducive to learning is enhanced by clear behavioral expectations. Instead of focusing only on rules, identify three to five broad expectations. For example: Be Respectful, Be Responsible, Be Safe.

Establishing clear and precise behavioral expectations fosters social competence in all your students and helps in creating a roadmap for behavior, allowing students to have some degree of control over their success in your classroom. Reinforcement serves as one of the three cornerstones of prevention, and it is crucial to help students develop appropriate behavior by being clear on expected behaviors and catching them being good. Rapport, expectations, and reinforcement are essential building blocks of effective classroom management.