First, please begin our session by writing a reflective paragraph (with good grammar) of your last few weeks using the Love and Logic Enforceable Statements. Begin by writing the three you have been using and discuss your successes and challenges with them. End your paragraph by discussing whether or not you will you keep these three as is, revise them, or try three new statements?
For a review of popular Enforceable statements, go here: http://www.loveandlogic.com/documents/turn-your-word-into-gold-school.pdf
Please add your reflective paragraph as a comment to this posting!
My three enforceable statements that I was working on were:
ReplyDelete1. I will help you (or call on you) when you raise your hand and wait patiently.
2. What a bummer OR sounds like a personal problem to me.
3. I will allow you to sharpen pencils/use the bathroom when I am not in the middle of a lesson.
It has been a great opportunity to focus on three enforceable statements. It has really caused them to start becoming more natural and comfortable in using them. For the first one, hand raising and blurting is still a huge issue in the classroom. Students get so excited to share that they totally forget they need to raise their hand. They also will be speaking as their hand is raised, before they are called on. When I use this enforceable statement, they all quiet up and do as expected. This has prevented me from getting too frustrated and from things getting out of control. Because this is still an issue, however, this is an enforceable statement that I would like to keep.
My second enforceable statement has been the hardest for me to actually do. Students come up to me all the time unprepared and needing some kind of materials. Especially with the pencil problem, I want students to have the materials they need to do the work, but it is so disruptive when they come up needing a pencil. To solve this problem, I am going to have a can of fully sharpened pencils next to the pencil sharpener and another can of pencils that need to be sharpened. I will have all the materials out that students need so they don't have to ask me. Then, I am going to change my enforceable statement to "What can you do about that?" This way, they will know that I have empowered them to be the solution and get what they need.
This new enforceable statement also goes along with #3. Since they have never been taught the routine to not sharpen pencils at inopportune times, I am going to be part of the solution with that one. I think they have gotten the hang of the bathroom one more, however. They will really only ask to go once the lesson has been taught and they have work time.
Therefore, I want to come up with another enforceable statement. My students complain A LOT when I give them directions, and it really is distracting and bothersome. When I hear a student complain, say "I don't get it" (which happens a lot!), or "it's too hard," I want to say "I want to see you walk across the stage in 7 years, this is to get you there."
Today my students and I had a huge talk about behavior. I told them about the GRPS statistic that only 50% of them are graduating high school. They got really upset about it, and it was very effective for them to see how much I care and why I am doing what I am doing. This enforceable statement will be a great way to remind them of why they are doing what they are doing and why they need to try their best. I also came up with this tagline today "I want you to do YOUR best and be honest, not to do THE best and be dishonest." I think this one is going to come up too!
In summary, here are my three enforceable statements that I will continue or start to work on:
1. I will help you (or call on you) when you raise your hand and wait patiently.
2. What can you do about it?
3. I want to see you walk across the stage in 7 years, this is to help get you there.
1. I will continue with the lesson when everyone is looking at me and not talking.
ReplyDelete2. We will walk down the hall when everyone is in line, looking forward, and not talking.
3. I will call on tables to line up once it is quiet.
These are the three enforceable statements that I have been using for the past few weeks in my classroom. It wasn't difficult to start using these statements because myself and my MT already used similar phrases. We use "I'm going to wait until it's quiet" in many different situations where the students are talking and we want them to stop and listen. Because of this, my students responded really well to me using these kind of statements more often. When I would say one of these, my class would quiet down very quickly, and if it wasn't, then they would start to remind each other what they should be doing. One struggle with this was that many of my students started taking on the role of "shh-sher" and rule enforcer. This ended up making the classroom even louder and more chaotic than it was originally. I had a short talk with my students about how I appreciated that they wanted everyone to follow the rules, but that I would be the one "enforcing rules" from now on and to just worry about their own behavior.
Despite the fact that these worked well, I do want to add one to help students follow directions. Basically, I have a problem in my classroom where I will have just finished explaining something, and five kids will come up to me and say "What are we supposed to be doing?" or "I don't get it". To try and combat this, I want to start using the enforceable statement, "Ask your table". Nine times out of ten, they are the only person at their table that doesn't know what to do, so I know that table mates will be a good resource to find the information they are looking for.
I also have many students who are not confident in solving their own problems or figuring things out on their own. I want to use a phrase like "What could you do?" or "What are you going to do about it?".
I will keep you all posted!
1. We will go to lunch/recess when you are quiet
ReplyDelete2. How can you solve that problem?
3. That's a bummer
4. I will continue teaching once you're quiet
Using enforceable moments has allowed me to talk at a normal volume when I become frustrated. It has also given me a chance to keep the volume of the classroom at an overall lower volume because I am not raising my voice to have students be quiet. For the first enforceable moment I have used in while in the hallway with the students or before coming in from recess. Its been going very well and the students have reacted well to it. Once I make the statement, students will tell their peers to stop talking. A challenge I do have with this statement is connected to students asking their peers to stop talking to loudly. I remind them that it makes more sense to just worry about their own voices and their peers will catch on.
The second statement has been helpful because many of my students tattle on their peers about things that are not important. I have been forgetting to use this statement, but when I do it sounds a lot better than when I say, “stop tattling” or “I don’t want to hear it.” Statement two may be more successful if I were to use it when students ask me if they are doing their work right. This statement may make more sense when connected to tattling if I said, “When you come up with a solution, let me know.” As I am reflecting on this statement I’ve realized that it is connected to statement three. I’ve been using statement three when students come up to me tattling on their peers. It may be more successful if I were to repeat it to my students until they’ve moved on.
Finally, the fourth statement has been the most used in my classroom. During the morning activities I’ve been successful with this statement as the students come in excited for the day. It has been a learning experience for me because I may have to repeat this statement about three times before the students are all quiet. It has been challenging more me to keep a neutral tone when saying this statement.
All in all these statements have been helpful as I grow as an educator. I will use the following statements:
- I will continue teaching when you are quiet
- Once you are quiet we will leave for lunch
- That’s a bummer. What should you do about it?