I’ve added something new to my explanation of the Classroom Rules. It’s this little speech that I make whenever someone breaks one of the rules. If you want, you can make it into a little “elevator speech” that you should probably use AT LEAST ONCE A DAY in the first few weeks of school. The speech is used as a final flourish on the steps below, to complete a bad ass option for you in your classroom on the topic of clasroom management. Instead of memorizing it, you may wish to just print it out and refer to it when going through the steps below is not enough. Speak in a calm way, but let them hear the voice of an adult. So whenever you see or hear ANYTHING INAPPROPRIATE (usually side talking or a phone out) in the first few weeks.
Before sharing the elevator speech below, first here are the steps that I use each time a kid makes the mistake of breaking one of the rules.
- Stop teaching instantly.
- Do not speak.
- Walk to the Classroom Rules poster. (Again, the offense is usually side talk or phone, so that’s breaking rules #2 and #6)
- Look in the general direction of the offenders. Do not lock eyes with them.
- Pause for dramatic effect while projecting a calm demeanor.
- Put your hand on Classroom Rule #2 if it’s side talking.
- Say something like “Do you get it?” or simply “OK?”
- Wait for a response, which is usually in the form of a nod of the head.
- Walk to the grade book.
- Don’t open it since you are teaching.
- Write – on a separate sheet of paper (one ready for each class period) the name(s) of the offender(s).
- Explain to them using something resembling the speech below what you are doing.
- Make sure they understand how their small offense (in their minds) is not at all a small offense in your mind.
- Put a zero – after they leave the classroom – and make it the first thing you do after class so you don’t forget – in the gradebook under that day’s heading labeled “ACTFL Interpersonal Mode 1”. (So if it’s day four, and since you will definitely enter one grade per day in the first two weeks, the heading in the gradebook will be “ACTFL Interpersonal Mode 4″ or ACTFL Three Modes” or “ICR” for Interpersonal Skills Rubric or whatever on that day. The computer should be pre-set to calculate that grade as 65%. There is more on how to deal with this by dropping all grades at four weeks to give the kids a chance to “reset” their grade but I won’t go into that here.
- Go back to the card you were working on.
- When it happens again, and it will within minutes in the first week, up to thirty or more times per day, go through the same entire process again and decide if you want to give the same elevator speech when you have finished.
- This will be your main focus in your instruction in the first few weeks. Putting the hammer down now (in a calm way) obviates having to do it later.
- Don’t fail to stop and do the steps every time. Doing this – which takes about 70% of class time in the first three days and then dwindles by the third week to maybe twice a class period and by the end of two months the kids finally know who the adult in the room is.
Here’s the elevator speech that follows your writing down the kid’s name on the sheet of paper on your desk. Be sincere:
“Look. I have worked too hard at learning how to teach a language to be interrupted by my students during class. So, whenever you see me stop class – and I will stop it on a dime – and point to this rule here, that means that someone has broken a rule. The rules are connected to the national standards. They are the way I’m supposed to grade you, on “observable non-verbal” behaviors. [Explain the term and model it if you haven’t already]. So I will do what I just did and then walk over to my desk like I did just now, and you will know that you just collected a zero for the day. Now lookie here …. 65% of your grade in this class is just listening, and we’ll talk more about that tomorrow when we talk about the national standard of Communication and the Interpersonal Skill of the Three Modes of Communication that my national parent organization, the American Association on Foreign Language Teaching, requires me to follow – and I’ll show you what the Three Skills are with arm motions what I mean tomorrow so it is perfectly clear about how you are going to be graded in this class this year. So think about it – if 65% of your grade is LISTENING, does that say anything about talking or getting on a cell phone? No. And by the way if you want to use your cell phone in class, go for it. I won’t say a word. I won’t even take it from you because it’s your property. I’ll just walk over here and put another zero in the book after you leave. Your grades align with the standards so yeah use your phone if you wish but keep in mind that those daily zeros add up and you may even think it’s unfair but like I said I have to align with the standards and by the way have I told you that I have worked too hard at learning how to teach a language for someone to mess it up for me and not just for me but also for the other kids in this class who think it might be cool to learn a foreign language. You know, when your phone is out you break almost every rule on here. (Explain how). Do I make myself clear? Good! Thank you!”
NOTE: You already know this: never get into a direct confrontation with a child in class. Let the event go unless it’s bad and then in that case call for back-up. I advocate not putting the kid into the hallway. Things just go down from there. If your school has the right kind of security, call for it. If it doesn’t, let it go and get on the email or phone to a parent before you leave the building and record each call, the date, if you got voicemail, etc. – but never lock up with a kid in front of the class.