Classroom Management Plan

Establishing a Positive Learning Environment:

I believe there are two key factors to establishing a positive learning environment.  The first is role modeling, and the second is a set of consistent rules.

Role Modeling:

To allow students to feel safe in a classroom it is important to provide an environment where students can ask questions and make mistakes.  Therefore, it is important that a teacher encourage questions as much as possible by saying things like "It is good when you ask questions, because for every student who asks a question there are usually another ten who have the same question but are too afraid to ask."  It is also important to allow students a chance to make mistakes when called on to answer a question in class and to give them some help to find the right answer rather than quickly moving on to the next student (especially in slower classes).  This lets students know that making mistakes is all right and is the first step in learning.

Consistent Rules:

Most secondary schools have a reasonably well written school handbook with rules about respecting fellow students, teachers, etc.  In most cases, the best way to give students a consistent environment is simply to follow these rules.  That way the students know what to expect and you have the weight of the school behind you.

Most schools will have a day when sections of the handbook are covered in each class - and this is a good opportunity to quickly mention what sections are of particular importance to you.  For instance, there is a section in the Sheldon handbook that states that Sheldon High School will create responsible citizens who:

1. Respect self, others and all property.
2. Demonstrate the qualities of honesty and integrity in school, community, and home.
3. Positively contribute to group oriented social and academic environments, etc...

Encouraging Student Collaboration:

It is important to create an environment where students are encouraged to help each other, since instruction from fellow students can be a great supplement to instruction from a teacher (especially with something as abstract as math).

Get to Know You Exercises:

To help with this goal, students will be assigned to do some short "get to know your fellow student" exercises at regular intervals.  For instance, on the first day of class each student will be asked to create their own seating chart of the class.  This may be done just by copying down names from a master chart on the overhead - but even this should help with name retention and familiarity and give students a tool for communicating with each other.  Additionally, students may be asked to write some piece of information down about the students in their immediate vicinity (such as "name a food that you both like") that will require some communication to complete.  The seating chart exercise could be repeated each time the seating arrangements are changed (which would generally be after the end of each 2 week unit) and should take less than 15 minutes as part of the warmup exercise.

Collaborative Work:

The amount of collaborative work given will depend at least partly on the level of the class.  Slower paced classes may be given a collaborative assignments as often as once a week.  Faster paced classes may only get such an assignment as part of the study period before finals or midterms since these assignments tend to take the place of a regular lecture day.

One collaborative assignment that seems to work fairly well is the "group quiz."  For this assignment, groups of 6 students or so work together on a quiz.  Each student must write down their own work on their own paper, but only one paper will be chosen randomly from the group and the group will receive the grade from that paper (and the paper must show work).  This encourages students to make sure everyone has the right answer together with the work to get the answer.  Teams are chosen by the teacher so that each group has equal representation of the fastest and slowest students.

The downside to this kind of exercise is that some students will let others do all the work.  However, there is a good chance that even under these cases the "slacker" student may pick up some things.  Still, the downside is big enough to keep such work down to no more than once a week or so.

Home Communication:

Being that I am fairly expert at using the web, I plan to maintain a website for my classes.  The website will contain such items as an assignment calendar, links to sites to get help with homework, my powerpoint slides, some sort of a weekly message to students, etc.  Optimally, I would also like to give parents feedback on grades via a program like e-grades, which allows parents to view their children's grades on the web.  It would be my policy to update these grades at least once a week.  Additionally, at student/parent request I should be able to print out hard copies of these grades for parents without internet access.

Other home communication will be via email on an as necessary basis (or via phone if email is unavailable).  Since I will have the website and e-grades, I don't really envision making "your student is doing great" phone calls to 150 sets of parents every term.  However, I would like to add short, personal comments to students e-grade reports if they are supported.

Standard Layout:

Desks will be placed in groups of two, facing the front of the classroom.  This is a good compromise to encourage collaboration between pairs of students while avoiding the excessive socializing inherent in larger groups of students placed to face each other - as is common when trying to make groups of four students.

Partners will be changed between units, which typically last 2 to 3 weeks.  Initially seating will be alphabetical by last name to help the instructor to organize handing back papers, etc.  Later seating selections will be done by the instructor to try to place slower students together with students who might be able to assist them.

Later in the school term if the students have demonstrated that they stay on task during class then they will have the opportunity to request seating partners - which will be granted if at least one of the partners is performing well in the class (but not if both are performing poorly).  This privilege will be subject to revocation for the entire class if staying on task becomes a problem (thereby bringing peer pressure to bare on the issue).

Collaboration Layout:

On days when students will be doing collaboration exercises (like group quizes), the desks may be arranged in groups of 4 to 6 to facilitate collaboration (see above).

Additional Layout:

In lower level classes, it is helpful to have a desk or table available near one front corner of the class to place students who are excessively socializing.  I have observed a highly effective teacher who used this desk both as a deterent to socializing and as an effective way to deal with students who were distractions to the class.  However, the teacher should be careful to not attach extra stigma to this desk to avoid the appearance of a "dummy corner" or such.  It should be simply be refered to as an area to work away from "distractions."  For instance "Chris, you seem very distracted today.  Maybe you should work at the front desk for a while."

The Teachers Aide (if there is one) should be placed at the back of the class to act as a second set of eyes against off task behavior such as text messaging.

It is also important to avoid a layout in front of the classroom where there is a "barrier" between the front of the classroom and the students.  This tends to create a situation where the teacher is discouraged from walking out among the students.  Therefore, there should be at least a couple of feet inbetween each table and desk up at the front to allow room to walk between them.

The overall goal of the classroom procedures is to keep the students engaged in doing math.  In particular, it is important to keep periods of direct instruction relatively brief, with frequent opportunities for students to apply what has just been presented towards doing actual math problems - usually with immediate feedback on whether they have done the problems correctly.

Daily Warmup:

When time permits, every class will be started with a "daily warm-up" exercise.  This puts the students immediately to work on doing math while giving the instructor a chance to take care of classroom mechanics like taking roll and handing back homework.  The warm-up exercises will be put up on the projector when the students enter the classroom, and they will know that they are responsible for completing the problems within a set time after class start.  The warmup exercises may or may not be graded, depending on the type of problems (some may just be introductory material that they may have to guess at a bit) and whether or not the students are making a serious effort to do them when they come into class.  In any case, they will know that any one of the warm-ups may be graded without prior warning.

Homework Review:

As students come in, students will have an opportunity to "vote" for which homework questions they want reviewed by putting problem numbers up on the board (or putting a check by the problem to second a vote).  The instructor will use the results of the vote to select 2 to 4 problems to be done on the whiteboard.  Students will then have an opportunity to volunteer to do a problem on the board for extra homework credit, with priority given to volunteers who have not already volunteered during that unit.  The instructor will review each student's work on the board and use it as an opportunity to do some reteaching as necessary.

In general, students will grade each other's homework.  Since assignments may be long, students will be asked to grade only selected problems which will be unknown until the papers are traded for grading.  On a random basis the homework will be reviewed by the instructor, and if there was cheating on the grading to give a friend unearned point, then homework points will be deducted from the grading student.

On some homework assignments the students will be given an answer key so they can check their own work as they go (especially on unit review assignments before the test).  These assignments will only be graded for completion.  Also, all homework will have the answers to the odd problems in the back of the book.  Students will be highly encouraged to check their work against these answers to see if they are on the right track.

Direct Instruction:

As much as possible, direct instruction will be done from powerpoint slides.  There are a couple of reasons for this:  First, my writing is not that great, and slides will be more readable.  Second, using slides allows the instructor to get away from the whiteboard and/or the overhead projector and gain proximity with the students to help quell side talking without interrupting instruction.

During direct instruction, the students will be randomly chosen to answer questions related to the material.  This helps keep the students on task and helps the teacher assess their understanding.  Also, after every 10 to 15 minutes of instruction the students will be asked to perform a "try this" problem, where they perform problems related to the small chunk of material just covered.  The instructor will go out into the class at this time to check progress and give assistance.  An interesting management tool at this point is to assign students who got the problem right as "checkers", who will go to other students and see if they got the problem right as well.

In Class Homework:

It is preferable to have as much time in class for the students to do homework as possible - especially in lower level classes where it may be unrealistic to expect most of the students to actually do much homework at home.  In particular, the last bit of review homework before a test or a quiz will generally be done in class to give students maximum chance at doing the work and getting help if they are lost.

Special Procedures:

Bathroom Passes - Students will be given two bathroom passes at the start of each school quarter.  Students may use these whenever they choose to go to the bathroom.  If they do not use the pass, it may be turned in at the end of the quarter for extra credit.  If for some reason they do not have a pass, they may choose to exchange evergency bathroom time for time spent in class after school.

Teacher work - Whenever possible, extra teacher chores like taking attendance, handing back papers, etc. will be performed while the students are busy with other tasks.  In particular, the class warm-up period is an excellent time for this.

Contextual Factors:

In my current classroom, I am dealing with the following contextual factors:

Broad range of abilities - Some of the students in my current Algebra II class have arrived at this point by the most direct route.  That is, they took Algebra I in eight grade, Geometry in ninth, and then Algebra II.  However, perhaps a third of my students have taken a slower route to Algebra II, including several students who are taking Algebra II for the second time or who have had to repeat some of their prior classes.  The Algebra II repeaters are actually doing quite well, but some of the students who are taking this class for the first time but who struggled in past math classes are having a pretty hard time.  In particular, it seems that some of the students who repeated their last class in summer school are having a really rough time.  My math department suspects that some of the summer school teachers are "giving grades away" without the proper rigor in the instruction.

402s - We have one student in our class with a 402, and he is sometimes given extra time on the longer tests.  However, if he is given the extra time he manages to get Cs on his tests.

ESL - We have several students in our class who are ESL students (English as a Second Language), but they have already tested out as FEP (Fully English Proficient).

Teacher Activities:

In general, top level planning of math units should be done in coordination with the rest of the math department since there is really little point in every individual teacher redesigning the wheel.  In the department where I am student teaching, all homework assignments, tests, and finals are generated at the department level and used by each teacher covering a particular subject, and I think this system makes sense.  This planning is always done with an eye towards covering state math standards.

It is still up to the individual teachers to decide how to present material (lots of powerpoint slides in my case) and to prepare lectures.  I believe in making use of as much publicly available teaching material as possible, and where I have to generate my own material it will be my policy to make it available on the web to anyone who wants to build on what I have done.  Additionally, I plan to keep my calendars and daily agendas available on the web for student/parent use as well - as well as keeping the daily agenda updated on the white board.

Student Activities:

Students will be responsible for tracking daily homework requirements and for turning in assignments when required.  Students will have a chance to redo homework to increase their score if they made an honest attempt the first time.

When students return from absenses, they will have as many days to turn in homework as the number of days they were absent.  It is the student's responsibility to fullfill this requirement, and the teacher will not be making special reminders once they are told of the rules.

Assessment of Student Understanding:

Assessment of student understanding will occur through a variety of means:

• In class Q&A - During lecture, the students will be asked questions pertaining to what the next step would be in solving example problems.  To make sure that these individual assessments are representative of the class, in maybe half of the cases the students will be picked randomly (via index cards for instance).
• Warm-up Problems - Warmup problems can be graded or not, depending on the material presented and whether the students need the extra motivation of a grade to do the work.  Most often, the warmup problems will address key points from the prior lesson, and if the students indicate trouble on these problems this presents an opportunity for a quick reteach prior to presenting new material.
  
• Homework - Most days there will be homework, and the homework will be graded.  Additionally, students will be able to indicate before class which 3 or 4 homework questions they want reviewed in class.  This gives an indication on what kinds of problems they were having trouble and allows an additional review of difficult material.
  
• Quizes - Most units will have a quiz about midway through the material.  This allows the students and the teacher to identify problems areas prior to the finish of the unit.
• Final Review - Before each unit test, there will be a homework assignment devoted to reviewing the material for that unit.  Generally the students receive the answers with the review assignment so they can self-assess where they are failing to answer correctly.
• Unit Test - The unit tests constitute the primary formal assessment of student learning and make up almost half of the final grade.
• Mid-term and Final - These compose about 20% of the students final grade and measure how well they have retained the material presented throughout the term.

Rules/Expectations:

The primary rule of conduct will be that all school rules will be enforced - including rules related to being tardy, keeping cell phones put away during class, and maintaining respect towards fellow students.  I believe if a teacher gets a reputation for enforcing the normal school rules rigidly, that this helps them establish a reputation for holding the line and discourages students from testing the teacher in other areas.

The second rule of conduct will be no talking while the teacher is talking.  This is necessary to allow students to hear what the teacher is saying so that they can learn what is being presented.  It is also part of the general school rule of showing respect to others.

The final rule is to try to learn and to do the problems assigned in class - and to get help if you are having trouble.

Positive Consequences:

Class Participation and Assisting Fellow Students - At the end of each unit, students will have the opportunity to nominate on the whiteboard fellow students who have helped them in class for a reward.  If a student receives at least 2 nominations, they will have a chance to get either a special sticker or a piece of candy as a reward.

Students will also have an opportunity to earn participation points for activities like doing problems on the board, etc.  Participation points will be equivalent to extra homework points.  For classes which require more classroom management, it is possible to extend participation points into other activities like "sitting quietly" etc. - although it would be my default preference to not expand this system any more than necessary for the given level of class.

Positive Emails and Phone Calls - While sending positive emails and phone calls to all students can be fairly prohibitive timewise, sending them out to parents of students who are showing improvement in behavior can be worthwhile - especially if the parents have been called in to help with negative behavior previously.

Negative Consequences:

Disruptive Behavior - First consequence will be a warning.  If this does not stop the socializing, one or more of the students involved may be moved to another desk.  If a particular student is being frequently disruptive, he/she may be asked to spend the rest of the period at the front desk.  A referral may be a last resort measure if the student is defiant towards specific instructions - but should be avoided as much as possible since it removes the student from any possibility of learning and adds work for the school administration.

Not Working- In general, if a student is not working then there will be an escalating series of interventions to try to get them to do the work.  The lowest level of intervention may be a casual private request in class for them to "get to work."  The next level of intervention may be to ask them to stay after class to ask them why they are not working and to warn them of further consequences of not working.  The final level of intervention will be to contact a parent to tell them that their child is not doing the required work (also, coaches can be contacted if the student is an athlete).  If this final intervention does not work, it can be repeated, or the student can be given detention.  In general, suspension (on or off campus) should be avoided for this case because it is counter productive to suspend a student to try to get them to learn (as opposed to removing a disruption, where it may make sense in extreme cases).