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Management/Procedures

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(From Teacher's Net) Harry and Rosemary Wong

The Three-Step Approach to Teaching Classroom Procedures

Explain.  State, explain, model, and demonstrate the procedure.

Rehearse.  Rehearse and practice the procedure under your supervision.

Reinforce.  Reteach, rehearse, practice, and reinforce the procedure until it becomes a student habit or routine.

The reason that many teachers cannot get students to do things is that they just tell the students what to do.  All procedures must be rehearsed and reinforced.

As you teach each procedure, understand the importance of why you are doing what you are doing.

1. An effective teacher knows how to organize and structure
   a classroom for maximum engaged time for learning.
   
2. The teacher is responsible for organizing a well-managed
   classroom where students can learn in a task-oriented environment.
   
3. The most important thing a teacher must provide is CONSISTENCY.
   Classroom practices and procedures must be predictable and consistent.
   
4. A smooth-running classroom develops when the teacher has the
   ability to teach procedures.

What If You Don’t Even Know What a Procedure Is?

First, if you do not organize and structure your classroom, the students will organize and structure the classroom for you.

Second, a study that spanned 50 years and looked at 11,000 pieces of research determined that the number one factor governing student learning is classroom management.

Therefore, if pilots have flight plans, and
Coaches have game plans, and
Executives have business plans, then
Effective teachers must have a Classroom Management Action Plan.

What If the Students Do Not Follow the Procedures?

Understand the following:

Behavior is caused.
Discipline is learned.

Many discipline problems in the classroom have nothing to do with discipline.  They have to do with the failure of students to do what they were supposed to do because the teacher never taught the procedure to the classroom.  The teacher then incorrectly calls this misbehavior.  Often, it’s the failure to teach the procedure that caused the behavior problem to occur.

Discipline is a very positive word.  People who are disciplined stick to their diet, their exercise program, and their piano rehearsal.  Successful students have good, disciplined study habits.

So, what do you do if someone does not follow a procedure—or what a teacher incorrectly calls misbehavior?

Stand in front of a mirror and practice over and over again, with a firm, but loving voice,

And what’s the procedure, please?
And what’s the procedure, please?
And what’s the procedure, please?

The next time you see someone not doing what should be done, very calmly walk up to the student and say,

And what’s the procedure, please?

Discipline yourself to do this the next time you see something that needs to be done.

A short video on classroom management for middle school, also applicable to elementary: 

Differentiating Learning Experiences for Your Students

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