As I observed my classroom this week, I noticed how much of a difference there can be from one day's behavior to the next day's behavior. On Monday, most students were very well-behaved. Almost all of the students had a "Green Day" meaning their behavior was excellent. On Tuesday, most students were very talkative and had to change the colors of their cards since they could not stop talking. The only change that occurred between Monday and Tuesday regarding scheduling is that the students had Real Men Read in the morning on Tuesday. A man from the community comes in each week on Tuesdays and reads to the class during the Morning Meeting time. Instead of just reading the book, he likes to talk to the students a lot. It's great that he's talking with the students about reading, but he allows them to all answer at once and they talk over each other constantly. He attempts to calm them down, but they are all very excited to answer his questions and express their ideas that they keep shouting out. The classroom is chaotic during this time. The students were rambunctious for most of the day following the Real Men Read time.
It's important that students are following the classroom and school-wide rules at all times. This means that they are being safe, responsible, and respectful. When they are shouting out, they are not following the rules. It's important that the classroom remain consistent for the students to be successful, therefore, they must follow the rules at all times. This change in behavior is important to note because it's something that can be changed by constantly reminding the students to follow the rules and speaking with the gentleman about only asking students who are following rules to speak. This will make the students more likely to sit correctly at the carpet area without talking.
It seems that the change in behavior that occurs from Monday to Tuesday, may have something to do with how they start their day. When the students start out in a calm environment, they are more likely to remain calm for the rest of the day, it seems. When they are shouting out during the start of the day, they seem to be more likely to continue this behavior all day. I can understand that students are excited to tell their ideas to the man from Real Men Read, but it does not mean that they can yell answers to him.
This is a case of lack of consistency in control of students. This has happened more than one week in a row, so now students may start to think that they can shout whatever they would like during the time when the gentleman is there because they were able to do so in previous weeks. If he is more consistent with his expectations and my mentor and myself are more consistently reminding students of the rules, then hopefully they will follow them. My hope is that students will have "Green Days" regardless of who is teaching them.
These are significant changes in behavior to notice, certainly. My suggestion would be to think about how students are explicitly being "trained" to follow the rules and expectations for the classroom, including the Real Men Read time. It seems as if the students are assuming that their more rambunctious Real Men Read behavior can trickle over into the rest of the classroom behavior. Again, I think that being not only consistent but explicit about the expectations during all times in the classroom will help your students understand the expectations you have for their behavior...again, this must be made explicit and consistently reinforced...not in punitive ways, necessarily, but in ways in which students are made to clearly understand the expectations.
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