Technique 39: Do It Again

(Part of chapter 6: Setting and Maintaining High Behavioral Expectations)

This technique is simple to describe: have students repeat a task until they master it.  The author is talking about getting K-12 students to "line up, come in quiet", etc. -- i.e., behavioral responses in the classroom.  More examples include

• transitioning from one classroom to another
• tracking the speaker
• giving a Call and Response
• moving from one activity to another in the classroom.

Seven reasons repeating a less-than-perfect behavior works are: it shortens the feedback loop; it sets a standard of excellence, not just compliance; there is no administrative follow-up; there is group accountability; it ends with success; there are logical consequences; it is reusable.h -- i.e., you can Do It Again and Again until the behavior is perfect.

It is important to be positive: "Let's do better!"  A result of Do It Again is that it can change attitudes.  

Asking a low-energy class to repeat something with enthusiasm (especially, and critically, while modeling those attributes yourself) can start to be a self-fulfilling prophesy. (p 193, 194)

My response:

In my college classroom I don't have problems with students having to make transitions between classrooms, activities, etc.  But, I do have problems with students not doing, with enthusiasm, the activity that I ask them to do.  I think Do It Again could help.  If it is true that repeating a Call and Response until it is done enthusiastically actually gets students enthused, then I must try it!

Technique 38: Strong Voice

(Part of chapter 6, Setting and Maintaining High Behavioral Expectations)

Some teachers have "it" -- a commanding presence in the classroom that students respect.  Others don't have "it" and students know it and take advantage of the teacher at every opportunity.  One thing that helps a teacher move toward having "it" is Strong Voice.  Having Strong Voice includes:

• Economy of Language: "Fewer words are stronger than more."  If you use fewer words, students learn that you have chosen them carefully, and they are not to be ignored. "When you need to be all business, be clear and crisp.  And then stop talking." (p 183)
• Do Not Talk Over: If what you are saying is really important (and it should be), then don't tolerate others talking at the same time.  Instead, stop talking -- perhaps mid-sentence -- and wait for everyone's attention.
• Do Not Engage: Don't allow distractions to let you wander from the topic at hand.  The author gives an example where a student is bothering another student.  Instead of stopping to try to figure out "who started it", give the student specific instructions on what to do himself, and then get back to business.  In this way, you don't allow a student's complaint about another student to hijack the classroom.
  
  Another good example of this is when students shout out an answer to a question directed to another student.  Instead of acknowledging whether the answer that was shouted was correct or not, remind the student that you are asking the question of another student.  Then, get back to business.
• Square Up/Stand Still: "When you want to express the seriousness of your directions, turn, with two feet and two shoulders, to face the object of your words directly." (p 187)  Do not do other stuff while giving important directions.  E.g., do not hand back papers, while describing the next assignment.  If you do, you indicate through your body language that the instructions for the next assignment are not that important.
• Quiet Power: If you sense that you are losing control of a classroom, instead of (naturally) raising your voice, lower it and speak more quietly.  Then, students will have to strain to listen.  If you raise your voice, you are yielding control of the classroom to the students.

The author has a few pages (p 188 - 190) about using a "formal register" when delivering important instructions/content to the students.  The formal register involves:

• standing up straight
• holding your body symmetrical
• looking directly at the classroom
• chin up
• hands behind back
• standing still

When you are in your "formal register", you mean business.

My response:

I do some of this pretty well, and other parts not so well.  There are times when I assume a formal stance to deliver important content.  I'm sure there are other times where I'm flying all over the classroom.  (I do tend to get excited!)  

I know that I tend to talk loudly -- almost all the time.  I've been trying to vary the volume a bit.

I don't have many problems with students distracting me.  These are college students.  They tend to just try to go to sleep if they don't care...

Technique 37: What To Do

(Part of chapter 6, Setting and Maintaining High Behavioral Expectations)

The technique means "Give directions clearly."  Doug Lemov claims

Some portion of student noncompliance -- a larger portion than many teachers ever suppose -- is caused not by defiance but by incompetence: by students' misunderstanding a direction, not knowing how to follow it, or tuning out in a moment of benign distraction.

To overcome this, the instructor must give clear, useful guidance.

The first good point is that we need to give positive instructions -- not negative ones.  Tell a student what behavior is correct, not what behavior is wrong.  E.g., saying "Don't get distracted" doesn't tell the student what to do.  A second good point is that we need to be specific.  Saying "Pay attention" is vague.  It is better to tell the student exactly what to do.

Directions need to be specific, concrete, sequential, and observable:

• Specific: Tell the student exactly what to do.  Instead of "Pay attention", say, "Put your pencil down, and keep your eyes on me."
• Concrete: "Put your pencil down and keep your eyes on me" involves very concrete instructions.
• Sequential: tell the student exactly what steps to do, in what order.
• Observable: given instructions for which you can observe compliance or non-compliance.

An important point is the What To Do allows a teacher to distinguish between incompetence and defiance. If your commands are clear, then failure to do them can only be attributed to defiance.  If your commands are not clear, then perhaps the student just doesn't know how to carry them out.  In that case, you, the teacher, is at fault.

If you decide that the student is defiant, then you need to deal with it swiftly -- with consequences.  It is important to distinguish between these two situations and deal with each appropriately, so that the students doesn't feel like your reactions to noncompliance are unpredictable.

If students don't understand your specific, concrete instructions, then the teacher can break the instructions down into even smaller steps.

My response:

I don't generally have problems with defiance in my classroom, but I do have problems with incompetence.  And, I am sure I have mistaken the two in the past.  I am sure that I've told students to work on solving a programming problem, or answering a hard question, and then I've interpreted their lack of activity to defiance, when in actuality it was incompetence.  That's my fault.

Technique 36: 100 Percent

(Part of chapter 6, Setting and Maintaining High Behavioral Expectations)

This technique can be summed up very easily: 100 percent of the students must comply with directions given in your classroom.  Your authority in the classroom must be not subject to interpretation, situation, student, etc.

You can enforce this without being a bully.  The best teachers find ways to

finesse their way to the standard with a warm and positive tone.  They are crisp and orderly; students do as they're asked without ever seeming to think about it.  Yet the culture of compliance is both positive and, most important, invisible.  (p 168)

It is important for everyone to comply with a teacher's instructions so that 1) compliance is the norm, and non-compliance is not; 2) compliance does not make some student feel like he/she is trying to act like the teacher's pet; 3) the students all do the activity that is going to help them learn the material and excel.

There are three important principles:

1. Use the Least Invasive Form of Intervention: if a student is non-compliant, then an intervention is necessary, and should be done quickly.  Using the least invasive form works best.  The author lists these interventions from best (least invasive and most efficient) to worst:
• Nonverbal intervention: make eye contact with the student, or teach from the students side. (this way you don't interrupt your own teaching)
• Positive group correction: a quick verbal reminder to all students of what is expected of them right then: "We're following along in our books." or "We're tracking the speaker."
• Anonymous individual correction: again, a quick verbal reminder to all students, but being more explicit about the non-compliance.  E.g., "Two people are not tracking the speaker."
• Private individual correction: go to the students desk and quietly ask them to comply.
• Lightning-quick public correction: when absolutely necessary, use this technique, but make it quick and try to make it positive. "Back row, I need to see your eyes.  Thank you."
• Consequence: when all else fails, you have to apply a consequence for non-compliance.  When you do this, be unemotional, quick, and decisive.
2. Rely on Firm, Calm Finesse: be firm, calm, and unemotional.  Stress the universality of expectations.  Use language that emphasizes the expectations are not personal.  E.g., "That's not how we do it here".
3. Emphasize Compliance You Can See: don't just ask for students' attention.  Instead, ask to see their eyes.  Or better, ask to see their pencils down and their eyes.  If you do this, then a student has to "go farther" to not comply.  Also, don't allow students to comply marginally.

My response:

This can be a real problem in the college classroom (a fact that still surprises me)!  In one case, I needed to have everyone's attention to emphasize a really important point.  I could not get everyone to stop what they were doing so that they were paying attention to me.  It took me 5 minutes to get everyone's eyes on me!  (I should have had everyone put their hand (or hands) up in the air -- there is less ambiguity then about compliance.)

Also, I've had classrooms in which I ask the students to pair up to discuss something, or write some code, and while most students did it, others just simply ignored me.  I've had to stop the class and chew them out!

So, I think I do this pretty well, but not as well as I could.

Introduction to Chapter 6: Setting and Maintaining High Behavioral Expectations

This chapter deals with techniques on how to get students to behave correctly in the classroom, thus allowing them to do their best.  As the author says, "all of the techniques in the first chapters of this book won't serve you very well if you can't establish high behavioral expectations." (p 167)

Technique 35: Props

(Part of chapter 5: Creating a Strong Classroom Culture)

A Prop is a class-wide "shout-out" -- acknowledgement of a student giving a great answer (or, even, asking a great question).  A Prop has to be given crisply, quickly, and enthusiastically.  The instructor says something like, "Two claps for David" and the response is two claps, quickly, and then it is done.

The Prop has to be enthusiastic, with the whole class participating.  It must be fun and lively to be effective.  The author also suggests that it can evolve -- if students develop a Prop into something else, that's fine, as long as it remains fun, quick, and effective.

The author suggests a bunch of ideas, most of which are pretty silly: A hitter -- the class pretends to hit a baseball out of the park; A hot pepper: students hold up an imaginary hot pepper, dangling it above their mouths, then pretend to bite it, and then make a sizzling sound.

My response:

I like being a bit silly in class, and I think my class enjoys it, too.  But, the author's suggestions are a bit much.  I've tried doing something where the class puts its arm up in the air and then lowers them quickly, saying "Whoosh!", like these same students do at a basketball game, but it didn't work.  Probably takes too long to setup.

I'm going to try this instead: "He/she shoots, he/she scores!  And the crowd goes wild!" and then the class makes a crowd cheering noise.  We'll see how that works...

Technique 34: Seat Signals

(Part of chapter 5: Creating a Strong Classroom Culture)

"The bathroom is the last bastion of the unconverted." (p 161)  In this technique, the author suggests having certain signals defined so students can ask to go to the bathroom, sharpen their pencil, etc.

Not applicable to college.