Thursday, December 26, 2013

Classroom Management


Over the past few weeks, I have been reflecting on the advice given by Marzano's chapter on classroom management. There are three areas that I have been working on. Through the grid below, I will let you know the goals that I had, how I tackled those goals and the results that I saw.

Goals Strategies Results
Stay Consistent with Daily Routines On the whiteboard I always list everything that will be done throughout the day. I made a point to stick to that list as much as I could. I was also very observant of the order that I wrote it in. I tend to shove too much into the day. Some of my students become overwhelmed. Last week I made sure that I was teaching with quality over quantity. The students of mine, who read the schedule daily, loved that we were following the schedule how it appeared on the white board. They are very observant and find comfort in a daily schedule. I also felt more relaxed at the end of the day when I wasn’t trying to rush them through something that was added sporadically. They are already totally overwhelmed with the holidays, so sticking to the plan helped with classroom behaviors.
Set Classroom Goals Timed Test Meetings – I met with all of my students before their weekly timed test to go over their past score/time. We talked about their goal for the next timed test.
Writers Meeting – I met with each students after they had written their sloppy copy for their Holiday Traditions paper. We talked about ways to explain the RDF a little more and found some grammar errors that could be fixed.
These meetings gave each one of these lessons/assessments a purpose. I feel that my students just, “do the work” without thinking about the importance of the activity most of the time. They enjoyed the individual time that they spent with me and I felt that they tried harder on the final writing project and timed test. After the timed test, I could see them counting their problems to see if they had actually met their goal. It did take a large chunk out of my day to have these meetings, but I think that they were worth it.
Set Expectations I set up a behavior plan for one of my students who struggle to follow classroom expectations and who also struggle with respecting his classmates. The first week went ok, but the following two weeks were a struggle. He did fine in the areas that were set up on the plan and moved his behavior struggles to other times within the day that were never problems before. Almost every student struggles with behavior right before winter break, so this was not the right time to set up a plan for him. I will make changes to his plan after break.

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