Accountable Behavior for Upper Elementary Classrooms

At the end of each year, one of the many things that I reflect upon is my behavior management. Last year, I finally said goodbye to my behavior chart and though I was so nervous to do so, it actually went really well. I created some easy Behavior Punch Cards and actually found them very successful, but throughout the year, I took notes on what I could improve the following year. With the new school year less than two weeks away, I began to make some changes. I now feel I have an even better plan in place as I prepare for my thirteenth year of teaching!

I believe that the key components to successful behavior management include student accountability and parent communication. It was with these in mind, that I came up with the following changes:

Change #1: New Behavior Cards With the behavior punch cards, the only person assessing the daily behavior of each student was me. However, I'm teaching fifth grade. That means that my students are old enough to understand expectations and assess themselves based on these expectations. My new cards reflect this, as I've added a 1-5 rating scale with definitions for each rating, and I've added two scales, one for the teacher, and one for the student. Students will be marking their behavior at the end of each day. I will then mark their behavior after they leave so that they can see how our scores compare when they return the next day.

You might be wondering how much paper I will be going through. The answer: not very much. There are two of these cards per page and I laminate them. At first, I thought I'd have to use cardstock and laminate, but I actually didn't. Laminating a regular piece of paper is just fine. I give each student a skinny expo and a baby washcloth (4 in a box for $1 at the Dollar Store) to keep in their pencil box with their card. I'm thinking I will need to make a new card each month, but that remains to be seen. It may be that some students need it replaced sooner than others, and some take such good care of theirs that they never need it replaced at all! I do like the idea of changing out the colors monthly, though. I did my first ones in my favorite color!

Change #2: Tracking Behavior Last year, I felt like students weren't held that accountable for their daily behavior because they'd look at their punched/unpunched card, understood they had a good or bad day, rarely approach me to talk about why they didn't get a punch, and then just move on. Now, I'm all for starting the next day with a clean slate, but I also want my students to be working towards having good behavior each and every day. I decided to create a daily log where students will record the date, their score/rating, my score/rating, and their total points for the day (their score + mine). I also created a section where they have to explain differences between scores. This is the accountability piece I really wanted, where students will have to reflect on their choices and explain why our scores did not match. I'm hoping that this will be increase our chances of communicating about their actions and discussing what they can do differently as they start a new day. These will be kept in a folder and will be a part of their morning routine as they enter the classroom each day.

Changes #3 & #4: Monthly Reflection & Improved Communication to Parents The last thing that I wanted to improve was the way that parents are kept in the loop on communication. I created a monthly behavior report to tackle this. Now, let me be clear for any newer teachers, when behavior is out of control, referrals are written, students are sent to the office, and parents are contacted that day. However, I think that all students should be responsible for tracking and sharing their behavior with their parents from month to month (and in some cases, week to week). If their behavior has then wonderful, then they have something to celebrate, if it has been inconsistent, they have something to discuss, and if it has been awful, this is also something that you have to support you in future conferences with parents or meetings with administration. You'll notice that the top part of this report includes their points, the maximum points possible, the number of days, and then their average points per day. (Bonus points for a little practice with mean here! Younger students could just use a calculator.) For me, I see the goal as the average goal, not the total points, mostly because you are always going to have absences and so an average points per day in attendance makes things a whole lot easier for everyone. 

Now, do I think that every child should have an average of 10 every day? No, I'm realistic. But I'd also have a long discussion with any child who attempts a goal lower than an 8, maybe a 7 in certain situations. I don't believe that I should lower my expectations, and I don't believe my students should, either. 

These will obviously be sent home at the end of each month for parents to review and sign. When they are returned, I will keep the monthly reports and logs in each student's file. Again, this is an important piece of data for future conferences and meetings. When you have a student who is troublesome and a meeting is set-up, everyone wants data. Doing these monthly reports means you will always have behavior data on file if and when it is needed. I've also created weekly behavior reports in the same format for those who need it. 

I'm feeling very good about the changes I've made. I think what I like most is that it puts more responsibility on my students and requires them to think about the choices they've made. I'm very excited to give it a try in less than two weeks! 

If you're interested in grabbing these, I do have them listed in my store. Click on the picture below to check them out.

2

My New Plan for Positive Behavior in the Classroom

I'll admit it. I'm one of those people who was still using a behavior chart in my classroom when school ended in June. I even talked with my teammate about how much I hated it before we started the year last year. She agreed. But when we put our heads together, we still couldn't come up with an alternative.

Why do I want to go away from the behavior chart? Rather than explain this and not do it well, I will point you in the direction of my friend Nikki from Teaching in Progress. Her post Why I Will Never Use a Behavior Chart Again really opened my eyes to the negative impact a behavior chart can have on our students. Her post is not new, so I even felt guilty last year that I was implementing it again, but in fifth grade I needed some way to track student behavior and hold students responsible for their actions, so I had trouble figuring out what could replace it and also avoid having a negative impact on my students.

So this summer seemed like the right time to come up with a new plan for positive behavior in my classroom. To be honest, I've actually never really had bad behavior. I've had some normal, chatty fifth graders, but I am very clear with my expectations and this results in very little behavior problems. In fact, at one point last year, I jokingly laughed that the behavior chart had become more of a decoration in my room than anything else.

I first had to consider what it was that I wanted to get from my behavior chart and then decide what it could be replaced with that would give me the results I was looking for. It came down to the need to track behavior and provide students with an incentive for making great choices in their daily behavior. I remembered using punch cards many years ago with younger students and started to consider how I might use these instead of the behavior chart.

Here's what's great about punch cards:
1. They are not posted on the wall so students do not have to worry about being embarrassed in front of all of their friends. I bought pencil boxes for each of my students, which is where they will keep their monthly card. At the end of each day, they simply leave their pencil boxes on top of their desks and after dismissal, I go around and punch the cards of all students who made positive choices in their behavior, including the ones who maybe had a rough start to their day, but turned it around. No one knows how many punches each student has unless the student chooses to share that number with their classmates.

• If you are concerned about whether you might remember who you spoke to and who you didn't, avoid writing it on the board. Instead, get a small notebook to discretely record student names in during a down time like lunch or prep time. Then you can return to the notebook at the end of the day, add names, and cross off the names of any students who turned their day around. 

2. I can see which students are struggling with behavior quickly and easily. If Henry doesn't get any punches for the entire week, then it's time for me to give his parents a call to discuss this. I can keep track of and stay ahead of these students to work with them, as well as their parents, to find ways to fix the problem now, rather than later. I suggest holding on to the cards in student folders from month to month as they will be helpful if you end up needing to bring data to an IEP meeting or child study.

Click on the picture above to see these in my store. I found the adorable paw print puncher in the scrapbooking section of Michael's! 

At the beginning of each month, we identify how many school days we have. I give students the cards I've created, each of which has 23 days, and have them cross off any extra days if the month we are on has less than 23 days, which will happen. When we have figured out how many days they are responsible for, each child sets a realistic goal for their behavior. If Devon has a rough home life and occasionally has a rough day or two, he might be realistic and say that his goal is to get a hole punch on 18 out of 20 days. I urge students to have high, but realistic expectations for their behavior, as I have high, but realistic expectations for their behavior, too.  

---->After I wrote this post and started my year, I came up with another brilliant idea for those months that don't have 23 school days. Instead of crossing off the extra days, do double punch days! Think about those tough days (Fridays, assembly days, days right before holidays) and tell your students that morning that if their behavior is fantastic, they'll get two punches that day! 

Again, I understand that some students might have a rough morning and turn their day around in the afternoon. As long as they ended on a positive note, and did not get sent out of the room to the office, I will still give them a punch on their card, but they have to really turn their day around. I make this clear to my students from the start. 

So, of course, your natural response is...So what? Why do your students care about these punch cards? How do you get them to "buy in" to wanting that punch on their card each day?

In my classroom, students earn tickets for behavior, as well other actions throughout their day. These tickets can earn them classroom coupons, which they love. At the end of the month, students get one ticket for each hole punch they received and if they have a full card, they get 10 extra tickets. This way, everyone is being rewarded and no one is getting anything different from the other, aside from the number of tickets, of course. In my eyes, it's a win, win! 

I'm looking forward to trying the punch cards with my new group that starts on Thursday. I'm thinking they are going to love it! Here's the classroom reward coupons that I use with my class. Click the picture to view them in my TpT store! 

Behavior management can be one of the hardest parts of teaching, but when you set clear expectations and you don't lower those expectations, you'll set yourself up for success year after year! It's all about student buy-in and part of that buy-in comes from knowing that their will be positive consequences for their positive behavior.

Until next time, enjoy every second of the summer that you have remaining. My first day is in just five days!! Where did summer go?

0

Setting Clear Behavior Expectations for a Successful School Year

I still remember my first teaching position. I took over a fifth grade class at the end of April. April 26th, 2005 to be exact. To say it was a challenge would be a giant understatement. I'm going to be honest, the first day, I just focused on breathing. I was completely overwhelmed and really had no idea how I was going to add structure to a class who had clearly gone without structure for the majority of their year. After a very chaotic first few days in which I felt quite defeated and had zero control of the class, I went home and wrote down all of my expectations for them. I then thought about how I would present them to the students since standing in front of the room and telling them my rules had clearly not worked. I began to work up different scenarios that my students could engage in, which would allow them to be a little silly, because I needed them on my side, but would also allow me to show them what my expectations were. I went in the next day and started our day by passing out different scenarios of bad behavior. The students acted them out and after each one, we discussed why the behavior was not correct, and then the students reenacted the same scenario with the correct behavior.

Ladies and gentlemen, it worked. The difference between day #1 and day #2 were night and day and every day after that was far better than the first. To be honest, even I was surprised. I learned something extremely valuable that day, that there is serious power in setting clear expectations.

So how hard is it to set clear expectations? Maybe harder than you think. If you consider my story, it wasn't that I didn't tell my students my expectations on the first day. I did. But I didn't show them. Sure, I stood there and talked "at" them about what I wanted them to do, but did I engage them in the conversation? No. Did I ask for their opinions on it? No. Did I involve them in the process of setting these expectations? No. What was different in my second attempt is that I did all of those things.
I not only engaged my students, but I asked them to show me the wrong, identify the right, and show me the appropriate behavior. We then had a huge discussion about what THEY learned and WE listed the classroom expectations that would make THEIR year a success. I made it about THEM, not me. At no point did I alienate them from the process. And you know what? It worked then and it continues to work.

So my advice?
1. Make students feel involved in the process.
2. Allow students to model expected behaviors. This will set the tone for your entire year, so you want the students to be engaged.
3. Write your rules together. Post them in the room after all students have added their signature to the rules that they helped you to create.
4. Present the rules not as a because the teacher said so, but instead as a you have to because you want to learn each day. Make it their non-negotiable, and then make it yours.

Keep in mind, clear expectations aren't just about the first day, they are about holding students responsible for following them every day, and being consistent. If you are not consistent with your expectations, your students won't be consistent with their behavior.

I'm including a freebie pack that includes 15 of the behavior scenarios that I've used and were created by a former colleague and I. They cover a number of different areas of the school (assemblies, hallways, cafeteria, etc). I've also added recording pages for students to use during and after they've completed their scenarios. I hope that this will be helpful as you kick off your new year. These are also great to pull out as a refresher after the long winter break, or if you find yourself taking over a classroom at the end of April, like me! :-)

1

Fifth Grade Back to School Tips Blog Hop and Giveaway

I’m very excited to join other fabulous 5th grade teachers to offer this Back to School Blog Hop! We wanted to do this hop to provide you with some back to school tips to start the year off right. We also wanted to do a little giveaway to help stock you up for the upcoming year! So hop around, get some great advice, some fabulous resources, and enter to win our terrific giveaway!

Here's a few tips for a successful year and a couple of resources to get you going!

Parent Communication

Communicate with parents often. As teachers, we have a zillion things going on and sometimes the last thing that we want to do is sit and make phone calls after school. But we don't want to avoid parents or make fall conferences the first time we communicate, especially if you have concerns. On the other hand, do not make your only contacts about concerns. I make time once per week for positive phone calls or emails, where I contact each parent once a month to share something positive that their child has done. Parents love it, but students might love it even more because they are usually rewarded in some way when their parents receive that call. I keep a chart of parent names and the times that I call/email for positive behavior separate from my contact log for behavior/concerns. That way I know that I've had at least one positive contact with each parent once a month. It does take some time out of your day, but it also makes a huge difference.

Now, just to piggyback off of that for a minute, I highly suggest phone calls for any concerns. You do not want to say something in an email that could come back to haunt you. Email can easily be misinterpreted and used against you. The best communication is a conference, but since that's not always possible a phone conversation will accomplish a lot more than an email and spare you the possibility of being misunderstood.

You can download a generic log that I made below.  I am also including a parent communication information sheet that I ask parents to fill out on back to school night. I keep them in a binder together so that everything I need to make contact is in one place.

Classroom Rewards

Now that I've had almost a decade in the classroom, I've had a chance to consider rewards and the cost of certain rewards. My students earn tickets for various actions in the classroom. They used to put those tickets in for raffles of prizes I picked up from the Dollar Store, all cheap little things, any gifts I didn't want, junk really, but I was spending a lot of my money keeping it stocked up. Two years ago I came across the idea of classroom coupons. What a money saver! Now my students use their tickets to purchase coupons. The most popular one? Stinky feet! My fifth graders love to take their shoes off, but I do have a "must have socks on" policy, no bare feet in my classroom! There are tons of great sets out there, but I created my own 5th grade cards with my 6 favorite ones in case you'd like to use them.  During the first week, I usually decide on a fair price (number of tickets) for each one. For example, the gum coupon might be 25 tickets, while lunch with the teacher is 100, and stinky feet could be 40. The amount you set should be reasonable and achievable. I think my first coupons were purchased around the 4th week last year. 

Behavior Management

A little respect goes a long way. I have had exceptional students in terms of behavior and it hasn't always been easy to achieve, but it's worth the hard work. I've often been told that behavior management is one of my strongest areas. When people ask me how I do it, I give them two words: respect and consistency. I give clear expectations that are high, yet reachable. I hold my students to those expectations consistently. I am not terribly strict, but I hold students responsible for misbehavior consistently. I am constantly talking to my students about the decisions that I make for them. I can be heard asking, "Is that fair?" several times a day. I make it clear that I respect them and care about them, and that their learning is the most important focus of each day. I share stories with my students, I laugh with my students, I get to know my students, and I am kind to my students. I truly believe that they behave because they give me what I give them.  If you create a positive learning community where students (and teachers) can make mistakes, share stories, learn together, and grow together, then you have the recipe for success!

Keep Hoppin'!

Now it's time to hop on over and visit the creative and awesome Wise Guys from Creativity in the Common Core Classroom, but before you hop over, make sure you enter our giveaway at the bottom of this post!

GIVEAWAY ALERT! GIVEAWAY ALERT!

Our group of bloggers has put an awesome pack of goodies together to help one lucky winner start their year off with a bang!

Enter below:  

a Rafflecopter giveaway

1