Recent Changes

Chapter 7
I agree with all that was said. This chapter does emphasize the importance of establishing those many routines I take for granted by the end of the year. It is especially important at the primary level, as this is the first school experience for many kidos. They really benefit from repeated exposure/emphasis to routines and procedures. I remember when we first started guided reading at the K level, and tried to implement it early in the first marking period. It was not as effective as it has been now that we wait till all center routines are firmly established (mid Oct.). Same goes for writing. It is much more effective to start a writing program after most of the other daily routines/schedules are in place. It may seem that I'm behind the first week or two curriculum wise, but it pays off the rest of the year. They don't call teachers patient for nothing!

Overall Book Talk
I agree that this book would be good for first time teachers!! It was easy to read! I enjoyed our face to face meetings as well!!

Chapter 8
I love this chapter!!!! It proves everything that we have been discussing!!! We need a school wide behavioral plan that everyone is on board with, understands, and uses. We need school wide consequences along with room consequences! I alos liked the think time room! I used to use a neighbor teacher for something like this. We could send students back and forth to eachother's rooms to remove them from our rooms, but to keep them close so they could come back once their time out was over! They would have to fill out a form about their behavior before they were allowed to come back. I know we have discussed writing in the past as a form of discipline, but this chapter shows that it is commonly used.

Chapter 7
I liked this chapter because it reminded me that it is very important to go over everything in detail and to take my time and really explain things and demonstrate them over and over. After 10 years of teaching, sometimes I find myself rushing through this on the first day because I am tired of saying the same thing over and over, class after class. So, it reminds me to slow down and how important this is!

Overall Book Talk
I enjoyed this book. It should be a must read for all new teachers. I liked the easy to read format of the chapters and although the research got overwhelming, it's nice to know we can backup what we are doing and saying with research.

Nice Job Anita, thanks for all your hard work!

Chapter 8
I think this chapter reinforces (with research) what most of us know about school wide discipline. I have already quoted this chapter to "the powers that be" and will be having another discussion soon! I thought the bulleted list on page 105 was interesting. I think we've all had the "He's not my student" syndrome at some point! It's easy to do, but with the PSWB plan we've implemented K-8 it had definitely minimized those occurances. I think we've done a great job identifying and using ecological interventions. We still have a way to go to enforce appropriate consequences for misbehavior. Consequences that are meaningful and logical and involve the home seem to be the most effective. I agree with the statement that consisitency is the greatest obstacle in school wide programs.

Chapter 7
I feel that this chapter was a lot of common sense, but I have also learned that you shouldn't assume things, so I'm guessing that is why Marzano has included it.

Laura hit on everything I highlighted on the first 2 pages of this chapter. If you do not take the time to establish the routines and procedures within that first week or two, you'll spend more time being frustrated and have more silly disruptions that require redirections than are necessary. I think at times we all feel the need to jump into the curriculum and speed through our teaching manuals making it to that "Sept." place marker before the end of Sept. to ensure we are keeping pace and getting through our material. However I think what I liked most about this chapter is that it backs up (with research) what we all already know about how important it is to take the first "6 days" to explicitly teach expectations and procedures so you will gain more time throughout the year due to less behavioral issues.

Chapter 6
For me, the parts I liked best in this chapter are just what you have touched on. I think that it is important that we explicitly teach students how to be responsible for their actions/behaviors. I liked the vignette and illustration on pg. 90 where it walked students throug what to do when they recognize the bad feelings starting to arise. (Another point, teaching children how to recognize this! It's important, but not necessary part of the curriculum... I love the idea of adding that to class meeting time!!!) For many students, especially primary, it's too difficult or time consuming to re-read rules, expectations, consequences, etc. even if they are posted. The little poster serves as a quick pictoral reminder of what to do. I loved that idea.

I also am going to ditto Lynn and Laura about the "self-defense". I like the idea. I know that writing is not and should not be a punishment, but I don't think that the way it is presented here (or even how most of us have used it) is in a "punishing manner". I think that it helps not only tell the story from all "perspectives" but also serves as a think-time process. Sometimes I think that teachers (maybe just me) will listen to a "story" about what happened in a disagreement or behavioral issue involving more than one student and then decide which "story" is true based on which student has a better track record. Reading this chapter and thinking about the self-defense made me think about how even adults can "perceive" the same situation completely differently. Does this mean that one adult is lying and the other telling the truth? Not necessarily... Sometimes it is the case that they are telling the truth from their perspective. Somewhere in the middle of the perspectives is probably the actual "truth" of the situation... Just something else to ponder.

After relecting on situations we all come up with ideas for how to better handle something. I think kids should be taught how to do this as well. I really liked those aspects of this chapter the most.

Chapter 7
I love that they hammer the point home that "in effectively managed classrooms, teachers had firmly established management routines by the sixth day of class." That should be all that is going on the first days of school is drill and practice of routines and procedures. Remembering that there is a difference between rules and procudures, rules should be addressed, but procedures should be practiced until they become routine. This is the piece that many new teachers fail to do. The repetition of the first weeks can be mind numbing, but it is so worth the pay off! I liked the "freeze" activity in the vinette on page 101. The kids would love this and it checks for understanding. I often used the first week as a practice week for rules. After I explained the color chart or whatever system I was using, the first week would be a free week. Meaning, colors were changed, but consequences were discussed rather than enforced. This gave the students a chance to get the feel for what I was looking for behaviorally without fear of punishment right away.

Chapter 6
This chapter shows the importance of teaching the students that they are responsible for their behavior. As a society, we are failing in this area. Students are often ill prepared for the real world consequences of their actions and are full of excuses. I also agree with the idea that we need to provide them with the strategies to be in control. The "self-defense" form is great for that. I know at the elementary level, it has been discouraged by administration, but I still feel it has great value. I liked some of the added questions on page 84 and I think part of the key to using this is to rewiew and debrief this form with the student. This should not be a 30 minute lecture about the rules, but a 1 minute discussion of what the student could do differently and what their role in the situation was. On page 85, I liked the point about establishing with the parents and student that the student's behavior is a problem not just for you but for the entire class and for the student. And to stress that you are not there to punish, but to help the student succeed academically & behaviorally. Like Lindsay said earlier, I also like the banner on page 90. It would be a good thing to incorporate into class meetings...hmmm, I think I have a new lesson ;0