Make Sure Student Comprehends Directions

Make Sure Student Comprehends Directions

When counselling students about misbehaviour, make sure you break any existing communication blockages or deadlocks by making sure students understand your instructions. Use summarising techniques continually. Your aim is to make sure no misunderstandings exist. Use phrases such as, “Let me make sure I understand what you’re saying…” “We have agreed, haven’t we?” and “As I understand it…” To be effective, you must make sure the student has an accurate understanding of the issues and your expectations before you conclude the counselling session.

In Win-Win Discipline we catergorise behaviour in to 4 types, ABC&D. Doing this makes it possible to differentiate the disruptions and vary our response for each. We use ‘B’ ‘Breaking Rules’ when the behaviour does not fit into any of the other three catergories. When we work with students who constantly break the rules we have them think ‘Blooms Taxonomy’; can the children recall, understand, and apply the rules? If we can answer no to any of these questions we can go into teaching mode, teaching recall with: the rules up, make rules posters/ T-Charts, Model the Rule, we use Win-Win strategies such as ‘Expectation Reminder’. Teach and Re-teach the rules! Next we identify purpose, and get student buy into the rationale of the rule. We actively involve the children in the forming of rules (e.g. during class meetings) then have the students practice and apply the rule in new situations. We work further on understanding of rules through renaming rules, asking ‘what if’ questions, “Can you tell me why we agreed on those consequences?” etc. Now, if we get buy in we get a yes instead of a no to each of the levels.(See Follow-Ups) If the child knows, understands and can apply the rule but consciously chooses not to, we can look at the 7 positions and our response will depend on the child’s position. (We will develop this area next SAM article.)

Win-Win Discipline works so well as it is ‘Consistent focused pressure applied over time.’