students whose behavior challenges us

Teachers know that students challenge us in a variety of ways. Knowing how to work with students who are challenges for these varieties of reasons is one of the main ways teachers consider themselves either successful or not. And this is not to be taken lightly, as 13% of U.S. teachers leave the profession every year, and many of those cite job dissatisfaction, including the challenging behaviors of students, as their reason for leaving.

There are a number of strategies to work with students when behaviors are challenging in the classroom. In Rappaport & Minahan's Cracking the Behavior Code, the authors outline strategies for work with a variety of challenging student behaviors.

Oppositional - A student exhibit oppositional behaviors have frequent outbursts, argue with or question rules, blames others for their mistakes, and maybe has tantrums.

For oppositional students, some accommodations are to modify schedules so the student can alternate between subjects she likes and those she doesn't. Arrange a quiet, alternate activity if recess is a challenge. Give open-ended, flexible assignments and assessments. Offer hands-on experiences. When interacting with an child exhibiting oppositional behaviors, focus on their strengths, avoid power struggles, avoid yes-no questions or asking "ok?" if making a request, and make indirect demands when possible. In addition, set limits that are enforceable, reasonable, clear, and simple.

Withdrawn - A child who is withdrawn, either consistently or occasionally, exhibits low motivation and interest, can be irritable, and have low energy. A withdrawn child may be experiencing depression, which is often accompanied by headaches, muscle fatigue and soreness, or stomachaches. They may be clingy with the teacher or act bored.

When thinking about accommodating students exhibiting withdrawn behaviors, teachers can support these students by setting up the child with a buddy for recess or specialists, teach experiential lessons, use students' interests in planning instruction and assessment, and foster self-efficacy. Interaction strategies that have shown to be effective include giving positive, specific feedback, reframe students' negative self-perceptions including sharing evidence to dispute those negative self-perceptions, and avoid using sarcasm. Other response strategies are to avoid over-helping withdrawn students in order to foster self-reliance and self-efficacy.

Anxious - A child who is anxious is easily frustrated, upset, or startled.  These students might have difficulty finishing work, avoid work, and frequently worry (about school as well as other areas). 

For children who are anxious, it is important to build a safe environment for their work. Anxious children appreciate frequent breaks and untimed assignments and assessments - broken into smaller chunks so they are not overwhelmed.  Meditation or calming exercises are particularly helpful rituals that can support students who are anxious, as well as teaching self-regulation strategies for what to do when they are feeling anxious. It can be helpful to be concise with directions, use activities to build self-esteem and self-efficacy, and work on building relationships within the class. In addition, avoid employing responses that reinforce avoidance such as time-outs, provide specific, positive feedback when students are self-regulating, and be explicit with the student about their anxiety and when the student is showing anxious behaviors. 

While it is late in the year, there is still time to practice new strategies when interacting with students exhibiting challenging behaviors.  What are your most effective strategies for working with challenging student behaviors?

the right questions

At the New Teacher Center annual symposium in February (great conference, btw), I learned about The Right Question Institute and the Question Formulation Technique. Since learning about it, I have used this successfully in a number of my classes, and have coached teachers to use it with their K-12 students. This is a great strategy to use to activate prior knowledge, to encourage questioning techniques, and to develop critical thinking skills.

The technique begins with a focus statement or an image. Students read the statement or view the image in class. For example, students in an ELA class might respond to a statement about a character in a common text, math students might view a graph or science students might view a picture of an X-ray, and social studies students might view a painting of a historical event. It is important that the focus is not a question, but rather a provocative statement or image that might evoke many questions from students. 

Students in small groups (or whole class, dictated to the teacher in lower grades), produce questions that are raised for them in response to the focus image or statement. Before beginning, students should identify a note taker for the group. There are four rules for students when producing questions:

- Ask as many questions as you can

- Do not stop to discuss, judge, or answer the questions

- Write down every question exactly as it is stated

- Change any statement into a question

Additionally, students should write questions that remain relevant to the topic.

Give the students a specific amount of time to produce questions (3 min, 5 min, 8 min, etc.) and then have them reread the questions. 

The next phase of the process is designed to improve questions. Students should now review the questions and identify the questions as either open-ended or closed questions. Students will need some instruction on this before they will be able to identify questions accurately. Not all students will agree on whether a question is open or closed, and that's ok! The debate is part of the process, as students are analyzing each question. Mark open-ended questions with an "o" and closed questions with a "c." 

Next, students should discuss the value of the each type of question, both in general and for the specific questions for the focus. What knowledge would they gain by answering the closed questions? The open-ended questions?

Once students have identified and debated the types of questions, students should work to change one type of question to another. Students should alter an open-ended question to be closed and vice versa. Students can discuss what knowledge they might gain from this process with those particular questions.  

Next, students evaluate the questions they have written and prioritize their three most important questions. As they narrow, they should be thinking about why they select each of their most important questions. 

Finally, students should discuss next steps: how will you use these questions? How would you answer these questions?

This process is really about supporting students in asking questions, rather than the process of answering the questions. Teaching students to be inquisitive and curious through asking questions is an important skill, one that can be well-supported with this strategy.

Try it out, and then post back here how it went!