Choices & The Disruptive Child

We discussed the topic of "choice", "making choices" and even touched upon 'Teaching Good Behaviors". In this discussion of good behaviours, it was pointed out to not focus on one child for praise. "Johnny does it like this, very good. Do it like Johnny has done." Make a point of 'sharing the wealth' or sharing the praise amongst your entire class. I think it also important to note that while calling individuals out on their good work can potentially display favouritism, punishing children as a group is not effective either. Punishing an entire class for the behaviors of a select few can create the same animosity as rewarding a single child all the time.

This conversation got me thinking about one of my own personal fears of teaching in a classroom .... classroom management and disruptive behaviours. When children make bad choices, or choose to not participate, engage or even cooperate in their own learning, what do we do as their teachers? Exclusion or revoking privileges can work sometimes, but it rarely treats the issue at its source. How do we guide children to make good choices? How do we engage children in learning in a way that they are actively choosing to learn and participate?

In the ted talk below, Olympia Della Flora discusses her experience with an especially disruptive child and her solutions. Her response was something that our program has talked about at great lengths so: engaging interest. She decided to find out why this student was so disruptive and what resources were available to better tackle his specific issues and needs. 

By channelling this 6-year-olds interest in helping other students and allowing him time and space to manage his emotions, he improved his behaviour dramatically. D, who has a younger brother, enjoys helping other younger students so Olympia assigned him a role as a kindergarten helper. D was able to make better behavioural choices and even help his kindergarten friends improve in their own reading and writing. They also learned that he was having issues in his home life and so the transition from his home environment to school was stressful. So, they allowed him extra time to collect himself before starting school. 

Choices and behaviours can be managed in many different ways but it seems that the most effective ways to guide good choices stem from differentiated learning that is focused on the students interest. Take what they enjoy, and turn that passion into a productive form of learning.

Keegan@NU