Yes, ladies and gentlemen….skip the clip chart to manage student behavior. Yes, yes, I know it has been around for ages. While we are at it, probably rethink the card chart as well. These strategies are all just basically the same as the good old fashioned name on the board with checkmarks. This style and strategy of management at best amounts to nothing more than public humiliation, and at worst causes excalation of behavior and possibly some ferpa concerns when misbehaving students become the topic of conversation around someone else’s dinner table.

I once had an administrator pose the question in an online forum about clip charts as part of the PBIS continuum. Lets be clear: clip charts, card charts, and any other form of management that forces a child to have their behavior status publicly demoted violates all things P in the PBIS mantra. I have seen this get tricky when schools implement PBIS partially, inconsistently, or with out full understanding of how PBIS works. This is PBIS lite. It doesn’t work, and then you hear people saying, “Eh, PBIS doesn’t work”. If you don’t have a full and comprehensive implementation that is consistent across the whole building…and that includes teachers using clip charts, your behavior data will reflect that. Clip charts and similar strategies are reactive, not responsive, and are punishment as opposed to teaching discipline.

This isn’t to say behavior issues should be overlooked, because they absolutely should not! After explicit instruction, positive reinforcement, positive redirection and correction and praise have taken place, if a behavior persists, it needs to be addressed. Families need to be brought into the problem solving conversation, and strategies and plans for support developed. The adults need to respond to the behavior by planning for intervention and support. Clip charts and other punitive measures have no place in correcting behavior and generally only shame a student, as opposed to teaching a student.

So, lets talk PBIS approved classroom management strategies that keep supporting students at the forefront, use positive reinforcement, and appropriate feedback to help ensure students are successful from day one!

Four Domains of Student Management

There are so many moving parts when it comes to classroom management! A new and inexpereinced teacher they may not realize how the four domains of classroom management work interdependently, and that often times a weakness in one will lead to problems in other areas. On the teacher evaluation instrument, these are often lumped together as ‘climate and culture’. By breaking them down and addressing individual elements of each domain we can ensure that we have proactive strategies in place to address each domain, and trouble shoot if the need arises.

  1. Classroom Design- The classroom arrangement plays a vital role in how students interact both socially and academically. An effective classroom workspace should have areas that promote individual workspace, collaborative workspaces, areas for small group instruction and whole group instruction, as well as traffic flow patterns that allow students to move around with out disrupting or distracting others. Pitfall to be aware of: Sometimes a teacher will have students working in isolation all day as a way to manage talking. A teacher that always has all students sitting in rows to manage the noise level may not have mastered expectation for interactions or learning to learn behavior. Avoid this pitfall by teaching children expected patterns of interaction for independent, partner, small group and whole group work. Provide feedback when it is observed correctly, and redirect using phrases like “What should it look like/sound like when…can we please try that again…”. Praise generouslyand publicly when kids are demonstrating expectations.
  2. Expectations for Interactions and Conduct- Classrooms (and schools as a whole) need to have a common language and explicit patterns and routines for having needs met without disrupting others; obtaining materials, using the restroom, and getting assistance from an adult are all areas where there should be a routine pattern of interaction that students use for getting the attention they need. These expectations need to be clearly communicated, modeled, and positively reinforced regularly. In addition, the adults need to be consistent with implementation for be fair and concrete. Pitfall to be aware of: often teachers take it for granted that students know how to have their needs met, and are not explicit in teaching those expectations. If the teacher just assumes that students know to raise their hand before speaking because they are in 4th grade and have been doing this for years, they will have a blurting problem. Consistency is key. I observed a teacher who allowed a student to leave his seat and interrupt her one to one conversation with another child because he had a question. A student who had been waiting with his hand up saw this and did the same thing, and then was reprimanded. The pitfall here was A.) the raise your hand and wait your turn rule was not consistently implemented by the adult when the first student interrupted and had his need met with no redirection, B.) the student that approached and interrupted the second time was reprimanded modeling to the rest of the students that sometimes it is a rule and sometimes it is not, or for some kids it is a rule and for some kids it is not, and finally C.) the student who was initially working with the teacher was interrupted twice. Avoid this Pitfall by correcting and redirecting when students do not meet this expectation. In the example I observed, the feedback I gave the teacher included a strategy for redirect for the first student: that when she sees that he is seated and ready with his hand raised, he will get her attention. If another student was also waiting for attention, clarify that they would get their turn after the first student. For a student who blurts, the response can be ignored with the reminder that ‘I am looking for students who have hands raised’ (or whatever conversational norm has been taught).
  3. Scheduling, Routines, and Organization- A predictable day promotes a student sense of safety, security and confidence in knowing what to expect next. Having the daily schedule where it is ‘time to’ do certain things like snack, centers, or clean up and having a procedure and routine for these tasks makes the day run smoother and allows students to gain autonomy. These procedures are taught and practiced and then reinforced as autonomy increases. Pitfall to be aware of: there will always be days when a schedule change happens, or something unexpected comes up. If there are not procedures and routines to getting the group back on track again, it can be tricky. I had a kindergarten teacher who never followed a set schedule, and she just did what she felt like doing. Some days she started with math, and somedays ELA. This made starting the day hard for kids becasue instead of starting the day with the materials they knew they would need, they started with a transition, and the transition lacked routine….it was chaos. Avoid this pitfall by establishing a daily schedule, have a procedure for transitions that is consistent (By table, by row), and have a system to regroup quickly if needed.
  4. Learning to Learn Behavior and Instructional Technique – Provide students with structures and guidelines for how it looks to meet expectations in various instructional settings- explicitly teach behavior for centers, partner talk, independent work, carpet time, computer work, small group work or any other instructional setting they may encounter during the school day. In addition teaching students expectations for things like taking notes or using manipulatives is wise. I have a kindergarten teacher who spends time at the begining of the year with explicit instruction on how to Journal in math that includes going to the first blank page (as opposed to opening to a random page as they tend to do), copying the date from the board, and drawing the model (ten frame, number line, shapes, numbers). Pitfall to be aware of: many teachers make the assumption that students ‘know’ how to meet expectations for partner talk or journaling or any other behavior associated with instruction. And they might. Avoid this pitfall by being clear in what it looks like to meet that expectation! This pays dividends instructionally AND behaviorally!

Set up for Success-

The DO’s

  • Start the year with modeling safe, resfectful and kind insteractions with students.
  • Review the PBIS matrix and behavioral expectations and what it looks like when expectations are met; ask students for examples of do and don’t behavior examples- remember- most of the kids had a hand in collaborating on the matrix last spring. If collaborative development of norms hasn’t taken place, make sure it does!
  • When students are not meeting an expectation, go back to what it should look like if they are
  • PRAISE, PRAISE, PRAISE with specific feedback about what you like to see behaviorially. Compliment kids who meet expectations!
  • Communicate the positive- make it a point of sending notes home, calls or dojo messages to reinforce positive behavior
  • Address inappropriate and or off task choices quickly. Remember that a repeated infraction needs to be addressed at a higher level before it becomes a habit of practice.

The Don’ts

  • Whole group consequences for isolated incidents are not effective, so DON’T do it. Address isolated discipline issues individually so you don’t damage relationships with students who consistently meet expectations.
    • If a student is talking when they shouldn’t be you could ask them if they have a question instead of “stop talking and disrupting others”, use the reminders to meet expectations, what does a four look like when…
    • If a student is messing around, ask if they need help focusing, instead of “pay attention when I am talking”
    • If a few students in a crowd are having difficulty, ask them to step aside, and address them with statement of the issue and feedback for next steps rather than addressing the whole crowd.
  • If a student requires more than a verbal correction, don’t make it public. Step aside and have a private conversation
  • Don’t overlook the small stuff, because that will become the habit of practice and will be harder to correct later- remember that the lowest form of acceptable behavior defines the culture.

Whole Class Ideas and Strategies for Positive Reinforcement

Link to free printables located here

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1 Comment on Classroom Management Strategies That Work… Because Clip Charts DON’T (free printable)

  1. Aurielle Flasschoen says:
    August 16, 2022 at 2:52 pm

    Great information! These are very effective classroom practices.