Description of Reality

Right! After my last very negative post I am determined to be more upbeat.

Natalie, this one's for YOU!!

Today I tried out some of the ideas and strategies of Mr Bill Rogers, behaviour management consultant extraordinaire. The most effective one was the DOR (Description of Reality).

As teachers most of us find ourselves using language like
"Will you please be quiet?"
"What are you meant to be doing?"
"Why are you talking?" or just
"Will you please stop talking?"

Have you spotted the error in these common expressions? They're all questions! they invite an answer!!! Now this is precisely what we don't actually want. If they answer it invariably descends into an argument or at best a discussion which takes time away from what the class is meant to be doing. Bill suggests using instead a 'description of reality' such as
"You're talking at the same time as I am"
"You're not on task"
"You're out of your seat"
"You are talking across the classroom"
or, my favourite and the most useful today
"You're interfering".

This simple change in communication made an enormous difference in my classroom today. Chiefly, even though I still had to send the same two people 'out', I did not come out feeling exhausted!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A miracle.

The two who got sent out are part of a statistic Bill describes. He maintains that 60-70% of your class will actually co-operate and want to learn. The remaining 30% comprise an element which can be managed through the strategies he describes (25%) and another group who will not respond to anything. (5%) These guys are the persistent behaviour problems and require individual behaviour programs.

My two are part of that small group. The rest of the class are glad when they are sent out. :-) in fact I have to be careful the class don't victimise them from the word go
"Just send them both out now Miss and do us all a favour."

The other tip from the maestro was the repetitive DOR without allowing them to get a word in.
"You're out of your seat..uh..you're out of..uh..you're out of your...uh...you're out of your seat" etc etc Each 'uh' represents an attempt by the recalcitrant to butt in and make some excuse or engage you in discussion. Basically you keep it up and eventually they give up! It works!! One had to be escorted outside as I kept up the "You're shouting across the class..." but she left and I was able to re-enter and regain the class's attention quite quickly. Yessssss!

So stay tuned to see if I can 'keep it up' and to see if we get an overall improvement in class behaviour.