Transcript Library Behavior Management

STUDENT BEHAVIOR MANAGEMENT
ESTABLISHING DISCIPLINE
in the school library
Sandy Patton
Teacher Librarian, National Board Certified
Lakewood High School
Long Beach Unified School District
[email protected]
Janice Gilmore-See
District Librarian & Learning Resources Specialist
La Mesa-Spring Valley School District
[email protected]
What isn’t taught in TL preparation programs … and
expected of our paraprofessionals with no training?
Behavior Management & Discipline
A set of activities by which
WHO? the librarians, paraprofessionals, and/or
visiting teachers
GOAL? promote appropriate student behavior
and eliminate inappropriate student behavior;
CONTRAINTS? while still developing good
interpersonal relationships and a positive
socio-emotional climate in the library
HOW? by establishing rules and procedures to
maintain an effective and productive library
environment.
Sandy’s example ~ sharing things
that work:
1. Make up a seating chart
2. Read Miss Nelson is missing (I wore a character TShirt with "Miss Viola Swamp is Watching You" on it)
3. Explain the system (stars, happy faces, and checks)
tied to the citizenship grade on the report card.
Besides the assigned seating put in boxes for:
"Miss Viola Swamp is watching you in the Library Media Center"
1. Be polite and show respect.
2. Help each other to learn.
3. Work quietly.
4. Use time wisely.
5. "Six legs on the floor."
When Miss Viola Swamp is pleased:
When Miss Viola Swamp is not
amused:
Star = Found a book quickly an is reading quietly.
one check = Warning
Happy face = Good library behavior.
two checks = Sit down, no books.
three checks= Out of the library
today.
Feedback for the teacher
Today's Class Behavior was:
Poor
Good Better
Best
Book selection__________________________________________
Activity________________________________________________
Today's activity was_____________________________________
Students who went to see the nurse:
______________________________________________________
Students who needed to use the bathroom:
1
2
3.
4.
At the top of the seating chart I wrote
DAY ____________ TIME____________ Teacher____________
Room____Grade____
BENEFITS
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Just picking up the clipboard changed behavior
Teacher knows that TL is on top of it by dismissal
procedure
Feedback to teacher so follow up can occur; ie: citizenship
grade, students at the nurse or restroom
Students with good behavior got recognized
Activity line was important to let the teacher know what
lessons had been done ~ a little PR never hurts
Challenges library vs. classroom
 Students
may come with the
baggage of their teacher’s
system (or lack thereof)
 Limited time to train routines
 Becoming the babysitter - the
dump and run
 Teachers that undermine
How, with these obstacles, can
librarians …
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Create more of the desirable behavior
Get rid of the problem behavior
Have positive and caring interactions with
students and teachers
Be structured, organized, and efficient
Create a library in which kids feel welcomed,
valued, befriended, useful, challenged,
respected, and physically and psychologically
safe
DISCIPLINE IS
– enticement
– guidance
– direction
– positive
recognition
• praise
• thanks
• rewards
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Discipline results
in:
change for the better
– motivation
– compliance
– cooperation
– production
– positive bonds
DISCIPLINE IS NOT
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an iron-handed
approach:
– controlling
– demeaning
– berating
– punitive
– coercive
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Attempts to force
compliance result in:
superficial compliance
– alienation
– less motivation
– resistance
Discipline and the school librarian

Why should school librarians care about
discipline problems?
– Number one reason for poor evaluations
– Source of career-related stress
– Reason for leaving the profession
– No formal training in managing student
behavior puts you at a disadvantage with
classroom teachers
– Makes the library unpleasant to visit and
discourages use
Why?
Reasons why we see more misbehaviors …
Things we can (try to) control…
Boredom Irrelevance of curriculum Poor teaching
and things we can’t
–
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–
–
–
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abusive/poor parenting
cultural differences & racial tensions
decay in family structure & values
access to drugs, alcohol, and weapons
brain chemistry (ADD/ADHD, OD, SED & medications)
poverty
pop culture (song lyrics, video games, 2.0, talk shows, exposure to sex
& violence)
– meteorology (rain, sunspots, phases of the moon)
– environmental factors (chemicals, radiation, food additives, fast food,
obesity, lead poisoning)
– my personal favorites (Elvis Impersonators, Aliens, the Devil … )
The
Four StagesManagement
Classroom
Strategies
–Stage 1: The Shiny New School Librarian
–Stage 2: Shell Shock
–Stage 3: Discipline Dictator, Master Shusher
–Stage 4: The Skilled and Caring
Behavior Manager, or… I give up!
Top 10: Tenets of Student Behavior Management
10. Treat students with dignity and respect
9. Your relationship with students is long-term,
but generally intermittent … teachers
relationships are short-term, but deeper and
consistent
8. Watch teachers that have good discipline emulate them and ask them to mentor you
7. Be firm and consistently enforce rules ~
beware of having pets
6. Model tolerant, patient, dignified, and
respectful behavior ~ earn a reputation as
even tempered and hard to rattle
5. Use the least intrusive interventions first
4. Use the school-wide character program know it and use the same language as the
rest of the school
3. Never give up on a student
2. Catch kids being good - a lot
1. Every time you resort to referring a problem
to someone else - you lose the force of your
authority
Effective School Librarians
 Maintain an upbeat, enthusiastic, and
positive outlook.
 Express high, but realistic, expectations.
 You must be energetic and excited!
 If you dwell on the negative, you’ll find
yourself in a downward spiral rather
quickly.
 Possess a sense of humor.
The Plan
Poorly planned activities, routines, transitions, and
groupings lead to poorly behaved students
Structure, structure, structure.
Have a plan ready for as many situations as you can
anticipate.
 Be ready to engage the students the minute they walk in
for scheduled visits.
 Start visits with direct instruction: a story, book talk or
lesson
 Have procedures in place for common individual or group
“drop in” visits that are occurring simultaneously so that
it doesn’t distract you.
 Keep extra supplies ready
 Follow satisfactory completion of work with a preferred
activity (meaning what the student would choose); could
be selecting books, using the computers, or reading
quietly
The Plan
– Make rules specific and clear.
• The rule about rules ~ Rules must avoid
being so rigid that they violate dignity or
common sense, or prevent personal growth
and self-regulation
– Some librarians make a “catch all” rule.
• “Respect yourself, materials & equipment,
and others while using the library.”
The Plan
Know that there is a difference between a Code of Conduct
and Areas-Specific Rules
STEP 1: Post the Code of Conduct
–
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–
–
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Safety Gentle reminder - that doesn’t look safe
Honesty Gentle reminder - the truth will come out
Responsibility Gentle reminder - you’re responsible for …
Integrity Gentle reminder - Are you doing the right thing?
Courtesy Gentle reminder - Are you showing consideration
for others?
The Plan
STEP 2: Set up rules specific to the
library
– Limit yourself to 3 - 6 rules
– Avoid restating rules that are school
wide regulations and expectations
– State rules in a positive manner
– Don’t post and forget
Sample Library Rules
You must have a pass to use the library
during class hours.
2. RESPECT the books & equipment, the
faculty, and each other
3. Keep the library gum free Ask for a piece of wax paper if
1.
you’d like to save it for later
4.
Keep the stacks and computer lab food and
drink free Place your food or drinks on the cart next to the circulation
desk or on a study table so that you may retrieve them when you exit the
library
More Sample Library Rules
5. Keep it to a dull roar
6. Clean up after yourself and push in
your chairs
7. Let us re-shelve the books
The Plan
 Rules viewed as “stupid” are the least
likely to be followed.
 Rules without relationships lead to
rebellion.
 Our society’s premise is that education
trains people to think and understand,
not to follow blindly.
The Plan
STEP 3: List reasonable and appropriate
consequences in sequential order.
– You will get a formal reminder
– You will be reseated
– You will be excluded from activity
– You will be asked to leave the library
-------------– Over the line behavior may require immediate
assignment of detention, referral to the VP, and/or
contact of parent.
Sample consequence statement
Consequence: Blatant disrespect will
result in expulsion from the library and,
in some cases, a call to your parents
and/or an office referral.
 Make, post, and review activity-specific
Therules
Plan
in positive terms (do rules vs.
don’t do rules).
 Make bathroom rules.
 Make behavior in the hall rules (both
trips)
 Make using the computer rules
 Special facility rules (work room, behind
the circulation counter, cabinets with
student materials, etc.)
Sample Specific function rules
Computer use:
 You must have your school ID to use the
computers.
 During school hours, computers are for
academic purposes ONLY. Using class time
to check your personal email or play video
games are not academic purposes.
 Leave computer settings alone.
PRINTING:

If it’s your own work, it’s free.
If it’s a web page or article for homework, it’s 5 cents per page.
(I will check with your teacher, so save yourself some money
and take notes.)
If it's an article off the web that you should take notes on, it's 10
cents a page. (Just use the "email" button and send it to
yourself)
If it’s junk off the web, it’s 25 cents per page.
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Color prints are 50 cents per page.
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Overdue Fines
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Overdue fees are .01 cent per day once the three day grace
period ends.
The lost book fee is the cost of the book.
Unpaid library fines that exceed $1.00 will restrict you to a 1
book check-out limit ~ paying your fine will remove the
restriction.
All library fines of $1.00 and less will be eliminated at the end of
each trimester.
The Plan
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Devise consequences for rules
violations.
– Consequences provide reassurance
that the librarian is the protector of
physical, psychological, and
educational well-being.
– Consequences should make sense.
Sample consequences
Fine options:
1. You can pay them off in increments—Skip the
Pepsi and pay a dollar toward your fine.
2. You can work it off— Cleaning duty in the
library pays $2.00 per hour in credit toward
book fines.
3. Replace the book—Purchase a replacement
copy of the lost/missing book and bring it in to
the librarian. Hardcover = Hardcover Paperback = Paperback or Hardcover
4. Or Pay the fines in full.
Remember, we are the ultimate
behavior manager in the library … but
not the only one
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Self-monitoring - A student helps regulate his
or her own behavior
Peers choosing person to reward
Peer pressure – group or class gets a reward
Student helpers
Teachers know their students and what works
in their classrooms
QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Skills and Practices
Teach routines
Don’t expect them to “know how to behave” or read your mind
 Tell them the skill.
 Show them the skill.
 Actively practice the skill in a role-playing situation.
 Provide feedback.
 Teach the use of appropriate adaptive skills.
 Use teachable moments.
You’ve been successful when routines become automatic and
students naturally use replacement behaviors to solve their
own problems
Skills
Practices
- Transitions
Skillsand
and
Practices
Prepare students for the transition (don’t
surprise them)
 Explain expectations for the transition.
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– Students wearing green, quietly stand up, walk
over put your equipment away, and go stand in
front of your teacher.
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Use closures to ease transition back to their
classrooms (don’t send students back to their
teacher wound up).
 Minimize transitions by setting a time limit,
counting down
Understand why students
misbehave?
–Attention
–Anger/Revenge
–Power/Control
–Avoidance of Failure
–Failure to meet basic needs
Skills and Practices
What is a skill deficit?
 Recognize a skill deficit and teach the replacement
behavior.
• Every acting-out behavior is due to a skill deficit.
• Always remember: They do not know better!
 People use the most effective tool they have.
 The maladaptive skill has worked repeatedly
in the past and will be exhibited until it no
longer works ~ and an adaptive skill is
learned as a better tool
 The longer the maladaptive behavior has
been in place, the harder it is to extinguish
QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Skills and PracticesAddressing
anger/revenge
 Provide multiple outlets.
 Sometimes people who feel angry need a place to vent.
 What happens in time-out is o.k. as long as nobody gets
hurt and no property is damaged.
 Set parameters without confining, cornering, or
boxing-in.
 Mind individuals’ personal space.
 Teach personal space and boundaries.
 Physical: one arm’s length away.
 Verbal: quiet voice, acceptable language.
Skills and Practices
 Make yourself available.
 You must be trusted and respected before
relationships can develop and lasting
change take place.
 Make a leading statement, then wait for the
child to approach you.
 “You seem upset about something. Let me
know when you’re ready to talk about it.”
 “We need to talk about what happened in
class today. Think about it for a few
minutes, then we’ll talk.”
Skills and Practices
Addressing Need for Attention
Best Practice: Reward positive behaviors.
Why? Recognizing and rewarding appropriate
behaviors increases the likelihood that they
will occur again
How? The objective is to start with tangibles,
move to social rewards, and eventually to
intrinsic motivation.
 Tangible ~ edibles, “goodies”, bookmarks
 Activities ~ computer time, choice of seats, first
in line
 Social ~ smile, attention, physical proximity,
verbal praise or recognition in front of peers
 Intrinsic ~ motivated individuals are the most
successful.
Skills and Practices
Need for Attention
 Plan to ignore.
 Ignore: “See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.”
 Effective ignoring extinguishes behavior that functions
to seek attention.
 Attention sustains behavior, positive and negative.
 Studies show that teachers attend to negative behavior
twelve times more frequently than they attend to positive
behavior.
 Use proximity praise for youngsters near them who are
doing the correct thing.
 Use proximity control with younger students who are
avoiding work or attempting to gain something besides
attention.
Skills and Practices
Need for Attention
• Not receiving rewards can create
resentment.
• Creates contests; pits kids against kids.
• Self-esteem becomes dependent on
approval of others.
– Avoiding pitfalls:
• Pair material reward with social recognition.
• Pair material reward with verbal recognition.
• Ask for child’s self-evaluation.
• Link praise to positive actions/efforts.
• Express expectations for continued positive
behavior.
• Prepare children for positive feedback.
Skills and Practices
Need for Attention
 Address negative behavior that cannot be
ignored.
 Attend to people exhibiting positive
behavior first.
 Pause.
 State the rule.
 Ask for a solution.
 “Take care of it.”
 Wait.
 Reinforce the positive behavior.
Skills and Practices
Addressing control
– Choice or direction
• “Do you choose to sit down at the table or
on the story carpet?”
• “You can work independently or with your
team - your choice.”
• “You can choose to check out 1 nonfiction
book and 1 audiobook or 1 magazine and 1
fiction book.”
• Be succinct.
– Avoid lecturing, nagging, interrogating,
moralizing.
Skills and Practices
Addressing control
Admit mistakes
 Sometimes adults are at fault.
 Say, “I was mistaken. I’m sorry.”
 Modeling positive behavior teaches
children the expected behavior.
 Admitting mistakes gains respect.
Skills and Practices
Need for Attention kills and Practices
 Attention is one reason children act out.
 An old, melted candy bar is better
than no candy bar.
 If you’ve never had a fresh cold candy
bar, you don’t know the difference.
 Understand extinction burst and be
ready to work through it.
 A behavior that has been sustained with
attention will increase dramatically
before extinguishing, once attention has
been withdrawn.
Skills and Practices
Need for Attention
 Make the problem behavior ineffective.
 Make it impossible to get the old, melted
candy bar.
 Make the problem behavior inefficient.
 Make the cold, fresh candy bar more
attractive than the old melted one.
 Make the cold, fresh candy bar more
accessible than the old melted one.
Skills and Practices
Fear of failure
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Encouraging effort instead of
correctness promotes positive
outcomes.
– Persistence
– Learning from experiences
– Thinking
– Taking chances on challenges
– Support of others
Skills and Practices
Addressing Fear of Failure
 Going to the library is a fundamentally
enjoyable activity - unless you can’t
read
 Make problem behaviors irrelevant
 Provide appropriate activities that
preclude escape-avoid behavior
 Offer interesting activities that preclude
inappropriate attention-seeking.
 Are you boring them - do they see what
they are learning as irrelevant?
Skills and Practices
 Shape the desired behavior.
 Start by rewarding partial positive
behavior.
 Reward even small steps in the right
direction.
 Incorporate the Premack Principle.
 Offer more desirable activities to
follow completion of less desirable
activities.
 “Mannequin” behavior has no lasting
value.
Skills
and Practices
 How much skill does it take to teach it to a
mannequin?
 How much skill does it take for a mannequin to
learn?
 How much value does the skill have if a
mannequin can do it?
 Examples: Shut up! Stop talking! I don’t want to
hear a peep out of you! Be still! Don’t you move
a muscle! Stop running! Wipe that smirk off
your face!
Skills and Practices

“Mannequin” behavior has no lasting
value.
 Remind them of the behavior you want to
see, not the behavior you do not want to
see.
 “Work on the task while seated at your table,” vs.
“Do not get up from your seat.”
 “Listen and follow directions,” vs. “Don’t talk.”
 “Walk,” vs. “Stop running.”
Skills and Practices
 Offer choices.
 Think “win-win.”
 Redirect attention to a desired activity.
 Offer an activity that teaches or measures the
same skill, but through a different activity, in a
different setting, or at a different time.
 Everybody works harder on activities they have
chosen and in which they are vested.
– Avoid “if-then” ultimatums; try “when-then”
contingencies.
 Avoid power struggles.
 Power
struggles
result when children are
Skills
and
Practices
given “win-lose” scenarios, i.e. “I win; you
lose.”
When a student is misbehaving, using increasingly
more severe punishers as in a confrontation of wills,
often leads to worsening student behavior and more
animosity.
Using just the negative consequence path is the dark
side (don’t go there)
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Punishment consequences by severity: Verbal warning, LOI
grade adjustment, assignment, community service, phone call,
referral, parent conference (there are many others)
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Interrupt the chain and have a one on one conversation or try
another intervention
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Classroom Management
Strategies
– Build your “rep.”
• Show concern for students.
• Converse with students outside the
classroom.
• Use expressive and receptive humor.
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Once you send a student out of your
room for someone
else to deal with, you
Abdicating
Power
have abdicated power.
– Now the students know that you are not in
charge.
– Now the principal knows that you are not in
charge.
– You have lost your right to be involved in the
resolution.
• You have no right to complain about the
consequences for yourself or the student.
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The EXCEPTION: Certain actions are over the line
and require same-day follow up to administration and
documentation.
–Threats, sexual harassment, physical confrontation
Strategies
Modify the library environment.
– Preferential seating
• close to you, but in the middle of students
with good self-control
– Move furniture and displays
– Vary modalities of lessons
• How much time is lecture?
• Web quests or individualized interactivity
• Using overhead, SMARTboard, videos,
manipulatives
– Allow the students to eat, drink, or chew gum
responsibly.
Classroom Management
Strategies
Use non-verbal prompts and cues.
– Thumbs up
– OK
– Wink
– Pantomime
Library Management
Strategies
– Provide choices and variation.
– Use timers for games, such as “race
the clock.”
– Use soft background music without
lyrics, such as classical music.
– Allow standing, walking, and
changing seats as long as the child
remains on task.
Good teaching Strategies
Make lessons interesting.
– Give an overview first.
• Tell them what they will learn and why it is
important to their lives.
– Intersperse activities with lecture.
– Use the students’ interests, strengths, hobbies, in
assignments.
– Be enthusiastic.
– Use concrete objects, overheads, etc.
– Incorporate movement.
TRY THIS
Put 100 pennies in your left pocket.
– Every time you make a positive remark,
move a penny to the right pocket.
– At the end of the day, you should have
100 pennies in your right pocket.
– Move a penny from the right to the left
for every negative remark! (If you punish
students by taking away rewards earned, this will help
you experience punishment from their point of view.)
Classroom
Management
Secret Student
– Tell the class you are watching the behavior of a
Strategies
particular student(s).
– Write down the name(s) on a piece of paper and
hide it.
– At the end of the activity, reveal the name of the
secret student(s).
– If the secret student(s) was well-behaved, they win
a pre-determined award.
– You might “cheat” if a student who is normally not
well-behaved exhibits good behavior during the
observation period so that you can catch him being
good.
Classroom Management
Award chart
Strategies
– Make an award chart in grid format.
– Some of the awards are social, some are
tangible. Some are small and some are
large.
– Cover each square with a removable
sticker.
– Students earn the privilege of choosing
squares and uncovering awards.
Classroom Management
Raffle Tickets
Strategies
– Distribute raffle tickets throughout the
day for good behavior.
– Be generous with the tickets, being
mindful of rewarding the targeted
students when they are behaving well.
– At the end of the class/activity/day/week
draw for one or several awards.
Tools
QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Grouping Pencils
 Yacker Tracker
 Signs & Posters
 Noise Makers

QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
QuickTi me™ and a
decompressor
are needed to see thi s pi ctur e.

IfDoyour
not: horse dies, DISMOUNT!
– say things like, “We’ve
– stay on the horse.
always ridden our
– switch riders.
horses this way.”
– move the horse to a
– model people who ride
new location.
dead horses in different
– use a stronger whip.
ways.
– tighten the cinch.
– complain about the
– try a new bit or bridle.
state of horses today.
– blame the breeding.