Correction Procedures

Clarifying Responses to Misbehavior

            There are four different types of misbehavior that teachers should be able to identify amongst students. These types of misbehavior are known as early-stage, awareness type, ability type, and attention-seeking behaviors.

            New or infrequent behaviors that occur that are not defined within a teacher’s classroom rules are identified as being early-stage misbehaviors. One way to handle this type of misbehavior is through speaking with the student about how and why this particular behavior is inappropriate in class.

 Awareness type misbehaviors often get misinterpreted as behaviors that students seem to be willfully engaging in and are aware of. This is often, however, not the case. It is important that when students are engaging in this type of behavior that teachers help students learn what the behavior is that needs to be corrected and how to correct it. It is important when teaching students how to correct misbehaviors that teachers make their expectations of students clear and easy to understand. Teachers can also choose if they wish to give students who frequently misbehave incentives for good behavior.

            Ability type misbehaviors occur amongst students who are unsure of or unable to produce what the appropriate behavior is for a given situation. It is important when assessing, creating, and implementing a correction procedure for this type of misbehavior that teachers know and understand the individual student’s problem solving abilities. If the teacher believes that the student is in fact capable of managing their misbehavior then a correction procedure will be put in place. This will also begin with informing the student about what behavior is inappropriate, why, and tools to fix it. If the teacher does not believe the student is able to correct their own misbehavior then it is important for teachers to determine any environmental factors or triggers that influence the misbehavior. If a teacher is able to identify this then it is important for the teacher to figure out how to eliminate these misbehavior triggers for the student.

            Misbehavior that students engage in to satisfy a need for attention is identified as attention-seeking misbehavior. It is important to remember with this type of behavior any type of correction procedure given to the student could in fact encourage the misbehavior to actually continue. A way to eliminate this type of misbehavior is through ignoring the students when they are involved in these types of attention-seeking behaviors. Another way to eliminate attention-seeking misbehavior is through given the student attention when they are involved in any type of positive behavior. This will help reinforce within the student that positive behaviors are rewarded and negative behaviors have consequences.

            Two types of misbehaviors that can be acted out by a student are early-stage and attention-seeking misbehavior. An example of what an early-stage misbehavior would look like is when a student on the fourth day of school back talks to you after you have reminded him to remain on task during a lesson. If you do not have a rule for back talking and this is the first instance where the student has behaved this way, you can simply correct the student by saying that this type of behavior is not appropriate and will not be tolerated within your classroom. An example of an attention-seeking behavior would be when a student is continuously complaining throughout an assignment. This student is looking to get the teachers attention and the best way to handle this type of situation is simply to ignore the behavior and to give attention and praise to the student only when they are modeling good behaviors such as time on task, working quietly, or helping their neighbor with their assignment.

            There are many different classroom-based consequences that teachers can use within a classroom when correcting and eliminating misbehavior. Some examples are redirection, verbal reprimands, signals, and precorrection. Two classroom-based consequences that I plan on using within my classroom are redirection and signals. Redirection within my classroom will consist of me guiding my students who are misbehaving back to behaviors that are appropriate for school. When redirecting students you do not usually verbally reprimand them, you instead direct them to the desired behavior you are wanting from them. Signals within my classroom will be used for students who are unaware that they are misbehaving. For example if a student is talking during silent reading time I will simply walk by their desk and point to their book. Another example of a signal is by simply making eye contact with the student who is misbehaving.