“We’ve all had difficult classes where students struggle to engage, and fostering a positive and strong work environment in these classes can sometimes be difficult,” writes Andreas Katsanos, an Australian humanities teacher, in Teacher magazine. Here is a step-by-step process that he found to be quite efficient.
Step 1: Find those engaging best
“Not all students are disengaged. Start with a handful of students that are doing well and a few more who have a good day now and again. The key is to recognize and reward the positive behavior being displayed. It’s important that this acknowledgement is something that other students can also recognize.”
Step 2: Contacting home
“Choose 5 students who have done well each week or two and take the time to send an email to their families or make a phone call. This information the parents naturally share with their child, 100% reinforcing continued engagement and positive behavior in the classroom from those particular students.”
Step 3: Acknowledging those improving
“Acknowledging students who have improved is vital to spread positivity throughout the class. Acknowledging students who have improved makes these students feel that their work and behavior hasn’t been ignored. Too often poor behavior becomes the central focus in the classroom.”
Step 4: Poor behavior will happen
“Take a student with poor behavior aside and start with the question ‘How are you today?’ which would always be met with an ‘okay’ or ‘fine.’ Then follow with, ‘I’ve noticed your behavior is very disengaged today, is everything okay? If you don’t feel comfortable sharing that’s okay too.’ These conversations end with something along the lines of ‘well, we still have some class time left, what’s the best way I can support you during the lesson?’ Follow up with a supportive email sent home. When you see positive changes the following lesson – acknowledge the change and follow up with a positive phone call home.”
Step 5: Repeat
“After taking these steps, positivity spreads. Continue to select more and more students to positively reinforce and repeat the process. The more positive reinforcement you give, and the more conversations and emails you send home, your students feel that their learning and attitude is being recognized. They have achieved a higher level of engagement and their self-efficacy also has improved.
“The best part of this process is really bridging that gap between parents and teachers – it strengthens those relationships also.
“Think about the students in your class. How do you work to build positive relationships with all students? How often do you contact parents for a positive conversation about a student?”
Teacher
