Purpose
The purpose of this tool is to establish a structure around a student who is unable to maintain control over his/her behavior.
Examples
Every day in classrooms across the country some student is unable to control his/her own behavior. As a result, he/she will present a problem for the classroom teacher when lessons are taking place. For instance, the student may tease or interfere in a student’s work, may daydream, may be text messaging, may be making noises etc. For some students, this may be a pattern of behavior that they are unaware of since they lack self-monitoring skills. For others, it may be a release of tension, a lack of concentration, or the need to be the center of attention.
What May Not Work
For many students with internal control issues, what will not work in cases like this is setting boundaries from a distance through verbal directions. The greater the distance between the teacher and the student, the weaker the command and desired outcome will be. For students with internal control issues, asking them to stop from a distance is like asking running water from a faucet to shut itself off.
Try This
What you will need to do without skipping a beat is to work your way around the room while teaching until you are at the desk of the student who is having difficulty setting his/her own boundary. Placing your hand on his/her desk while teaching, will help in refocusing the student and center him/her back on the lesson. However, in cases where the student has a pattern of internal control issues, you will want to move him/her close to your desk so that when you move to proximity teaching you do not have far to go.
Purpose
The purpose of this technique is to limit the behavior of students who try to negotiate everything.
Examples
There are times when the behaviors of certain students are exhibited by the need to negotiate everything you say or request. These students have difficulties internalizing boundaries and attempt to set boundaries of their own. This need usually stems from feeling out of control, since the more out of control a student feels, the more controlling he/she becomes. The need to control comes from vulnerability, anxiety or the fear of not knowing how to deal with things that are not predictable. Therefore, in the students’ minds, these fears or anxieties can only be relieved if everything is predictable. However, the problem comes in because they feel that controlling everything will make things predictable and life does not always allow that to happen. Students with this behavior pattern will constantly say things like, “Why can’t I”, or “Can I do this instead” or “Don’t I get a choice”.
What May Not Work
What usually does not work is giving in to the demands, requests or negotiations of controlling students when you have established what you need to be done. While these students can be very aggressive, convincing or assertive, they are still trying to control the environment. If you give in, you will be reinforcing the student’s belief that they can control you and other things in his/her environment and as a result reinforcement will increase the frequency and intensity of such negotiation. You will then find yourself becoming very angry at the student who you will see as more powerful than you. However, keep in mind that it is not “Look what he is doing to me”, but rather, “Look what I am allowing to happen.”
Try This
We must be sensitive to the feelings that are present and motivate this need to control on the part of the student and try to direct it in a more positive manner. What we should use instead is what we call a forced choice technique. In this technique, the student who is trying to negotiate is offered two options, both of which are acceptable to you. It is sometimes preferable, especially if you know that a certain student has this pattern, to initiate the forced choice technique before he/she tries to negotiate. Choosing either one of your options will be fine, but the student feels he/she is making the decision. A forced choice technique basically says to the student, “You can do this or you can do that. Which one do you prefer?” or “You can do this before lunch or after lunch, which one do you prefer”? Again, the emphasis is on the forced choice. If the student says neither, then you say, “If you do not choose one of these, then I will choose for you, but I’d rather see you make the decision.”
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