Impulse Control

Clear Expectations

It is possible to create a classroom culture that is both structured and accommodating of students with varied behavioral and academic needs. To achieve this, a teacher should make clear to the classroom all expectations, goals, and consequences. Visual cues posted around the room, such as a list of five positively stated class rules, or a child-specific reminder taped to a student’s desk will constantly reiterate class expectations. Likewise, posting student progress in earning a reward on a behavior chart can serve as a useful reminder of progress made so far. Making clear to students the consequences of not meeting the expectations, and follow-through on the part of the teacher, is essential.

Engagement

Keeping students engaged in the lesson and quickly redirecting them back to it can increase students’ focus as well as reduce the occurrence of unrelated behaviors. Giving students more opportunities to respond, such as using response cards that require all students to answer a question simultaneously, allows teachers to check in with the whole group quickly. Also, getting students actively involved in their learning can help maintain engagement. By giving students more options, such as what topic they choose to study, or in what order they prefer to complete assignments, they may be willing to take on more ownership of their learning.

Positive Reinforcement

Most teachers recognize the importance of positive reinforcement in classroom. However, this powerful strategy remains underutilized as a tool for classroom management. All students exhibit appropriate behaviors [Page 402]most of the time. Therefore, teachers can find some ways of praising students for meeting classroom expectations, while also ignoring less impactful instances of undesirable behavior. Positive reinforcement should be delivered in the moment, at a high rate, and with an enthusiastic tone. Specific strategies for positively reinforcing appropriate behavior include classwide or individual reward systems, including teachers giving verbal praise when students earn points, but may also include helping students to delay gratification as they work toward a longer-term goal.

Point-based systems should always be designed so that students will be successful and so that even when the target behavior is that of only one or a few students, the whole class can partake in the reinforcer. A system in which points are earned for a classwide goal only when one particular student meets expectations can be a valuable tool for building relationships between the target student and his or her classmates. As participants in the efforts to help a particular student who has been behaving inappropriately, the other students in the room can learn both to ignore inappropriate behaviors and to encourage and share in the success of appropriate behaviors.

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