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Patrick Smith Chapters 10-13 Reactions Chapter 10 I like Marshall’s general concepts for motivating students to be responsible. The strategy of setting clear goals, empowering students to reach them, and getting them to do the right thing on their own is great. My problem with what Marshall has to say is the same problem I have with the majority of the behavioral theories we’ve gone over so far. They all involve giving students choices in order to teach them to practice self responsibility. I really think that all of these theorists miss a prerequisite step when they immediately jump to this choice based behavioral modification line of thought. In order for students to make intelligent and responsible choices they first need to be taught right from wrong. Even if the choices provided are limited, without a foundation for good decision making, the practice of providing choices in order to help children behave responsibly is pointless. The rest of the chapter was all lists of things which I hate. Some of the things in the list were good and some I thought were bad. By this I mean that while all of these things sound great some of them are a little too idealistic. While being positive is a great way to motivate, it is not a theory or strategy to promote correct behaviors. Boo to this chapter. Chapter 11 This is the best chapter that I have read so far on how to establish classroom discipline. I think that Seganti and I’s philosophies of discipline are very similar. From his list of messages to the students to the messages he has for teachers, I keep hearing things that make so much sense to me. I just want to quote some of the ones that I really like; “We are not equals in the classroom.”, “you need to understand that self esteem does not come from messing around in the classroom”, “a good education is the primary reward they get for their efforts.” This guy just speaks my language. Even the way he says to go over the rules you are implementing in such a specific way really makes sense to me. Also, his message on being manipulation proof sounds like a great way to end misbehaviors quickly. I think I like this chapter most because it places the teacher in an authoritative role and this how I think it should be. Students are provided the privilege of going to school; they should therefore respect the teachers that are there to help them to learn. This is the best chapter in our textbook so far. Chapter 12 Due to the fact that this chapter deals with multiple theorists strategies to manage misbehavior it is difficult to give you one cohesive reaction. I will pick out some highlights and give you my reactions to them. Hingsburger: His theories make sense when you apply them to students with special needs but for students who are just bad I don’t think they work. Covey: His theories were made for adults not children/students. If this was a business or sales class we would read Covey but this isn’t. Ginott: I think that students are smarter now than when Ginott wrote his stuff. They will take advantage of you if you give them too much. Nielson and Lott: ??? huh… way too touchy feely … booooo Glasser: This guy is one of my favorites. He is all about the pre-emptive strike. If you are not boring then students will not misbehave, even the bad ones. That’s enough about that chapter. Believe me I read all of it, but the other theorists do not warrant a reaction. Chapter 13 The title of this chapter says it all. Isn’t this what our whole class is about? Civility and respect are what the majority of students are lacking and that is the reason for misbehavior in the classroom. Forni gives us some great attributes of a person that is civil and polite and his theory on teaching it is pretty simple. By being civil ourselves other people will naturally follow our example. Borba’s idea of attacking the main misbehaviors that damage character and seven virtues of goodness were great points; but I couldn’t find a method for enforcing these things in what was written in the chapter. Gossen’s discussion of self restitution and the restitution triangle is really interesting. I do think that it is not hat practical because it seems like it is very time consuming though. This chapter seemed really short and thrown together to me. Chapters 6 - 9 Reactions Patrick Smith 2/09/2011

Chapter #6 Reaction I understand the Wong’s are all about procedures and clearly written rules, but this chapter did not need to be a bunch of lists. This was one of the most boring things I ever read. That being said I do like the idea of establishing a routine early and ingraining it into the students. A routine would definitely help in keeping a classroom organized and distraction free. I feel like this sort of classroom management style is almost like a preemptive strike. If everyone know the rules and what to do they will stay on task and therefore no one will have the opportunity to misbehave. I think that this is a great starting point and could be used in conjunction with phase one of Morrish method compliance. Together they would set the stage to you could go on to teach kids how to behave.

Chapter #7 Reaction

I think that the most helpful part of this chapter was the list of major problems that happen in classrooms. Jones’ focus on how not to waste time is something that we should pay more attention to. The things he goes over that waste time seem to be dead on to me too. A lot of this chapter related back to Wong and how you should establish a routine. I really liked the section about physically proximity and body language. I do have to say that breathing techniques go a little far for me though. Keeping students actively engaged is an easy thing to say to do but I think that in reality you will never get everybody fully engaged. I also think a lot of that has to do with your own personality rather than asking the students what interests them and incorporating it. You should be in touch enough to know what the students are into. The whole say, see, do thing does not seem very innovative to me. I’m pretty sure that all teachers pretty much do it. As far as incentives, I think that if you offer incentives that are “genuine” like he says students aren’t doing work for the right reasons, they are just trying to get little rewards.

Chapter #8 Reaction

This chapter’s best point was that you should focus on quality teaching. I especially liked the part about useful work when Glasser talked about quality teaching. If you relate things to a skill that is useful I feel like students will be more likely to want to learn it and it will stick with them longer. I also liked when he talked about asking the students to do their best. You would think that they obviously would but when I think back, or even look at the work I do now, a lot of times you just do what you need to too get by. Having the students re-evaluate and improve their work through ‘SIR’ seems like a good way to get them to go beyond the normal level they would. I do think that you still have to grade things though. Glasser gets into discipline and how he students need to be involved and I am not sure if I agree with that. I’m more of the opinion that you have to set up general rules about behavior from the start and enforce them with fair punishment. All of the section on the seven deadly habits and connecting habits seemed like common sense to me. This chapter was a little boring.

Chapter #9 Reaction I have to say at this point that all of these theories seem to run together because they all incorporate things from each other. Once again I liked all of the talk about structure and rules but calling them agreements and working them out with students put students on the level with teachers. Putting the students on the level of the teachers erodes authority and without authority there would be chaos. That’s a little dramatic but I am sure you get the point. Another thing about Kagan that throws me off is all these different positions that a student might be in. You have to identify this position and then correct it with the right structure. They slip in there at one point that there are over 200 structures. I am not saying that his theories don’t make sense what I am saying is that there is too much detail to follow naturally in a classroom. A lot of what he talks about seems to be common sense to me again.

Chapters 2-6 Reactions Patrick Smith 1/26/2001

Chapter #2 Reaction I felt like this chapter included a lot of things that we all already should know, but don’t take the time to think about enough. Some of the breakdown of behaviors and interests by age was interesting because of how specific they got rather than just separating students into primary and secondary. All of the lists also had certain things in them that I would not have thought of before. For example in the lists of needs dignity and hope would not have come to mind. Another section that was useful was the one on what students need and want in teachers. I liked that this section listed things that were good attributes in teachers along with things that students don’t want teachers to do. All of the information on how race, gender and socioeconomics create different behaviors was interesting but I don’t think that it got specific enough. Without specific examples on how to work with these students it is hard to really grasp what they are trying to say in the chapter. All together I felt like this chapter had a lot of good information but, it was presented in a kind of bland and dry manner.

Chapter #3 Reaction I have to start by saying that when I was reading this chapter I could not believe how many different types of NBB’s there were. Just finding out what they all were and some of the symptoms for each one kept this chapter extremely interesting. What also made this chapter much more appealing than chapter two were the scenario sections. When reading I also found myself thinking that the reason chapter two was so dull is because they were talking about your everyday kind of student behavior. Chapter three was more of what I was expecting. One thing that really troubled me in reading this though was how there was an emphasis on things like remaining calm when students insult or threaten you. In the last scenario when the teacher is talking about how they position themselves so that the student isn’t blocking the door I was really surprised. The whole section on rage was another part where I was totally blown away. This chapter really opened my eyes to some of the challenges that different behaviors pose to teachers. I just can’t believe that these behaviors exist in schools and wonder why they do now when they didn’t back when I was in school. This chapter was really interesting both because of the subject manner and the use of those scenarios.

Chapter #4 Reaction I’d like to start by saying that there was way too much information in this chapter packed all together. Each of these theorists/researchers/ scientists could have had their own chapter dedicated just to them. I think it is really funny that teachers relied on the shaping and reinforcement methods of B. F. Skinner. The original experiments for those ideas were performed on lab rats. Teaching in that way seems to me about the most boring thing that you could ever do. The students are too smart to be taught that way as well. I also found that a lot of the theorists in this chapter seemed to be very liberal. There seemed to be a lot of “let’s look past this incident and try harder next time” kind of thinking. Everything seemed geared at not upsetting the students. While I understand that upsetting people can sometimes turn them against you or what you are trying to say you still have to point out when someone is doing something wrong in order to correct them in my mind. My favorite part of this chapter was on Jacob Kounin. That was because his section was all about keeping students interested and presenting things in a smooth was so that students wouldn’t really have time to misbehave. The whole withitness thing really intrigued me. Thinking back on the teachers that I liked the most they all seemed to always be on their ‘A’ game and know what was going on in their classrooms. As a whole this chapter was kind of dull mainly because they crammed too much into it.

Chapter #5 Reaction When I read this chapter I immediately thought of how school worked back when I was in it. I graduated high school in 1997, but every time I tell someone about my school experiences they say it sounds like I went to high school in the 50’s. The administrators, teachers and principals in my district must have read everything this guy wrote. Maybe it’s just because I grew up out in Pittsburgh and we are more old school out there, but all of the things that Morrish says make complete sense to me. When reading chapter four I thought that all of the theorists seemed liberal and just a little too idealistic. Morrish seems like a realist who wants to deal with discipline in a real way. Assuming students will make the right decision if we present them with options is one of the worst things that we can do. Kids do not come into school knowing right from wrong so it needs to be taught. If it is not understood the first time it needs to be taught again and again until it is understood. What is even better about Morrish’s method is how in the end it leaves students with the ability to decide what is right on their own. The phases of compliance, teaching how to behave and managing choices seems to be the most logical way to bring about behaviors that are acceptable. Morrish’s system of consequences also seems like a realistic way to reinforce what behaviors are acceptable. Chapter #6 Reaction I understand the Wong’s are all about procedures and clearly written rules, but this chapter did not need to be a bunch of lists. This was one of the most boring things I ever read. That being said I do like the idea of establishing a routine early and ingraining it into the students. A routine would definitely help in keeping a classroom organized and distraction free. I feel like this sort of classroom management style is almost like a preemptive strike. If everyone know the rules and what to do they will stay on task and therefore no one will have the opportunity to misbehave. I think that this is a great starting point and could be used in conjunction with phase one of Morrish method compliance. Together they would set the stage to you could go on to teach kids how to behave.