PLE #3: Productive Learning Environments

I think that I speak for most of our class when I say that creating an environment that is conducive to learning seems like a huge challenge. There obviously needs to be some kind of classroom management system in place to keep things running smoothly, but disciplining a student definitely isn't one of my favorite things in the world. It's like eating your vegetables when you're a kid-- you know that you have to do it, but no one really wants to.

I'm currently observing in a kindergarten classroom, and I absolutely love her classroom/behavior management system. Her classroom theme is frogs, and their behavior chart is a pond. Each day, the students start out in the mud and can work their way up the pond. They earn bonus stickers or super bonus stickers for good behavior throughout the day. They get to put their stickers on their frogs and move them up through the layers of the pond. If they've reached the lily pad, then they've been well-behaved all day. They can also jump their frogs back down the chart if they misbehave. My mentoring teacher's list of classroom rules is short, but effective. Students know what is expected of them, but the rules aren't unnecessarily strict (or too lenient, either). I think that implementing a classroom management system similar to this would be a great way to create a learning environment that is conducive to learning.

Click here or here to read some NEA articles on effective classroom management. Both of these articles gave me good ideas for creating a productive learning environment.

Elementary Education Case Study:
You engage your third grade students in cooperative learning activities at least twice a day, changing heterogeneous group members once every four weeks. You have agreed upon routine procedures that your classroom community uses within their small groups, including the roles and responsibilities of group members. Lately you have noticed that one small group always seems to have difficulty grasping material and completing their project in an acceptable manner. You observe this group carefully and find that Lisa seems to be the catalyst for their problems. She gets angry with others if she does not get the job she wants and refuses to do her part in contributing to the group’s learning. She constantly interrupts others in her group. She does not pay attention when her group prepares for class presentations.

After looking at this case study, it seems like ignoring Lisa's misbehavior is not an option. Her misbehavior is affecting everyone in the classroom, and it needs to be addressed in order to avoid further problems. I would start the intervention continuum by speaking with Lisa privately so that I could better understand why she is refusing to work with her cooperative learning group. Once I had a better understanding of the issue at hand, I would use I-messages and if-then statements to explain why her misbehavior is inappropriate. I would try to teach her some self-regulation strategies to keep her from interrupting others in her group and provide her with some sort of extrinsic reward when she works appropriately within her group. If this still didn't stop the misbehavior, I would set up a meeting with both Lisa and her parents/guardian to discuss how we could all work together to ensure that her behavior improves. Hopefully Lisa's behavior would have improved significantly by this point, but if it had not, I would plan and implement some sort of systematic intervention to keep her on the right track.

This video on classroom management was really helpful and gave me some great ideas for creating a productive learning environment.