Lesson plans and behavior

Hello everyone,

It's hard to separate the difference between general classroom management and pedagogy. There is a broad, gray line in which your students' behavior is a constantly fluctuating variation of how well you enforce your rules, how well you teach your class, and how well you manage your time.

After the first few weeks of school, you would normally expect your students to be in a routine that helps them behave and function easily in the classroom. If by now they aren't, you may find the reason in your planning.

There are exceptions that affect this benchmark. If you are in special ed. classes, or if you took over mid-semester, or if your students have very poor reading skills, they may take more time than the first few weeks of school. Still, the idea that your students behavior should be fixed the way you want by mid-October is a useful one to consider.

Now that we are partway into the semester, all things being normal and customary, if your students are misbehaving, you ought to look to your lesson plans for part of the reason.

This is a difficult thing to do, and you may be working on it for the next two years, but you must consider it very seriously.

Is your class rigorous enough? If it isn't, students will finish their work quickly and misbehave.

Is your class too hard? If it is, students will give up and misbehave.

Do you have long transitions between activities? If so, your students will get bored and misbehave.

Do you talk too much; is your language incomprehensible; is your scaffolding inadequate; are you condescending; is your material more appropriate for a different age group? If so, your end is predictable.

To a large extent, managing your students' behavior should be done by managing your instruction. That begins with carefully planned lessons that are tied to carefully planned units.

In the beginning of your career, you may need to plan your lessons out completely, like scripts, from the opening bell to the closing, complete with everything you will say, time limits for each activity, and planned alternate activities if you find that your timing estimate is off. Of course, you should be ready to alter the lesson on the spot if the opportunity provides for a clearer presentation, and you will likely want to alter the script a little as you go through each class, but your original plan must be detailed and specific. (Later in your career, you will know the script well, so you will be able to work from a general outline, or even brief notes. But at first, you must be detailed.)

If you find yourself, in November, going home every day saying how awful the kids are, what criminals you teach, or how unwilling they are to do anything, look first to your lesson plans. Then call their homes after school.

Jeff Combe