Chapter Three- Establishing a Structure in the Classroom

Structure and organization help students to become self-directed learners. But this does not come naturally to most students. Teachers must explicitly teach the structure of the classroom. Try to envision this classroom that the authors give as an example:

"When you enter the classroom, you hear a steady hum of activity. At first you don't see the teacher; she is sitting and talking with one of several small groups of children working on a variety of math activities at tables arranged in different areas of the room. Each group has three to four children and they seem intent on the materials they are using together. Children are talking in lively voices about what they are doing, explaining their ideas, giving directions, asking questions, challenging one another, and laughing. You sit down near one group of four children using geoboards and rubber bands. "Tell me something about what you are doing," you say. One child immediately volunteers: "We are finding out how many ways we can make different shapes. Look, we've made triangles, squares, and diamonds," he says, pointing to each one. Another child adds, "and I've made a hexagon. I know because it has six angles and six sides." you then ask, "How did you know what to do?" A third child explains, " We had a meeting and talked about different shapes we knew. Then each group got different things to use. We got the geoboards, that group got popsicle sticks, over there they have tangrams. Look around and you'll see." Just before you leave, the teacher calls the children together in the meeting area so each group can report on what they have did and what they learned."

So, what would we see and hear in your classroom? To some, this classroom might seem noise and not have structure.... but what do you think? Are the kids on task? Do they have a predictable routine? Are they learning? SURE!!!

Chapter Two- Part Six- The School as a Community

The authors end this chapter by challenging you to share the idea of a classroom community with your entire school! Sometimes it only takes one teacher to start a project with other classes that can benefit the whole school. Some ideas might be: school beautification, family projects, community service, etc..

To close this chapter, I want to share another item from my inservice with Judy Jablon. This training was for supervisors and she gave us a checklist for things to look for in a "Classroom Community"

Teachers:

• use children's names, smiling, and modeling respectful interactions
• set up a meeting area large enough to accommodate all the children sitting in circle (so they can see and hear each other)
• hold daily class meetings throughout the day for different purposes (e.g. to start the day, facilitate transitions, lessons, and to get closure at the end of the day)
• teach and reinforce specific problem solving strategies
• teach friendship skills (using modeling, role-playing, and social coaching)

Children:

• take turns, share, and give and receive help
• engage in cooperative learning and peer coaching
• show respect for the environment and other people
• solve social problems and resolve conflicts
• converse and interact during work times and class meetings

I hope this list helps you think about your classroom and ways to improve. For my national board friends, I hope you can see connections to your entry on your own classroom community. If you have questions or would like to discuss this chapter, leave a comment!

Whitney

Chapter Two- Part Five- Promoting Social Problem Solving Skills

You probably have been given a nice character education program to use at your school? Where does it fit in the standards-based curriculum? Does it get 5 minutes a day? 5 minutes a week?
The authors make a case that if you spend more time being proactive by teaching social problem solving skills, you will have less disruptions and can spend more time on lessons!
We need to teach problem-solving skills more than ever now. So, how do we incorporate it into the curriculum?
Problem-solving is not learned in a quick, five-minute lesson. It is a process learned over time by continual practice. Modeling is the key. It is important for you to model handling anger. You can teach it as needed with individual groups of students or use class meetings to discuss conflict resolution, feelings, social skills, etc..

The authors give some steps to helping children handle conflicts among themselves:

1. Help children calm down
2. Identify the problem
3. Generate Solutions
4. Evaluate solutions and choose one
5. Implement and evaluate the results
6. Encourage children to resolve conflicts on their own
7. Provide a place in the classroom to calm down

Again, this will takes lots of modeling by the teacher to work through problems all year long. You may also need to address conflicts that involve the entire class through a class meeting. Allow the students to generate a plan to solve the problem and give feedback on results.

I shared with you the link for Dr. Becky Bailey's Conscious Discipline. She uses brain research and her own research to give some great ideas on solving problems with children.

Check out these other links to social skill curriculums:

Al's Pals- http://www.wingspanworks.com/educational_programs/about_als_pals.php

Character Counts- http://charactercounts.org/

Please post a curriculum or activities that you use to teach problem solving and conflict resolution. Just hit the comment button under this post!

Whitney