Communications Question

From the First Days of School Book, read chapters 14-15, pages 113-130.  Write a 2 page synopsis for each chapter.  Include the following from each chapter:

For Chapter 14:  Key Idea, Succeeding and Failing with First Request, Arrangements verses Assignment

For Chapter 15: Key Idea, Starting the Daily Assignments, Schoolwide Procedures

******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks*******
THE FIRST DAYS OF SCHOOL
HOW TO BE AN EFFECTIVE TEACHER
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks*******
HARRY K. WONG
ROSEMARY T. WONG
Some people go into teaching because it is a job. Some people go into teaching to make a difference. We are
pleased to share with the teaching profession our contribution to making a difference.
HARRY K. WONG PUBLICATIONS, INC.
www.EffectiveTeaching.com
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks*******
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks*******
Dedication
Dedicated to my father and mother,
Who wanted me to be a brain surgeon.
I exceeded their expectations.
I became a scholar and a teacher.
—Harry K. Wong
Dedicated to Mr. Frederick McKee,
My first principal, whose evaluation of me said
I needed better “classroom management” skills.
Thank you for telling me I needed to improve my skills.
I did. It worked!
—Rosemary T. Wong
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks*******
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks*******
Copyright © 2009 by Harry K. Wong Publications, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication or any related materials referenced herein may be stored in a
retrieval system, transmitted, reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording, or otherwise, or be the basis for any derivative works, without the prior agreement and written
permission of the publisher.
ISBN: 978-0-9764233-1-7
Library of Congress Control Number: 2008903342
Executive Producer: Rosemary T. Wong
Graphic Design Team: Heidi Heath Garwood, Nancy Roberts, Mark Van Slyke
Production Team: Jean Bong, Tim Chen
Editorial Team: Eric Gill, Megan Pincus Kajitani
Harry K. Wong Publications, Inc.
943 North Shoreline Boulevard
Mountain View, CA 94043-1932
Telephone: 650-965-7896
Facsimile: 650-965-7890
Internet: www.EffectiveTeaching.com
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks*******
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks*******
Contents
About the Authors
Unit A
Basic Understandings _The Teacher
The successful teacher must know and practice the three characteristics of an effective teacher.
Chapter 1
Why You Need to Succeed on the First Days of School
Chapter 2
What Is an Effective Teacher?
Chapter 3
How You Can Be a Happy First-Year Teacher
Chapter 4
How to Close the Student Achievement Gap
Chapter 5
Why You Should Use Proven, Research-Based Practices
Unit B
First Characteristic _Positive Expectations
The effective teacher has positive expectations for student success.
Chapter 6
Why Positive Expectations Are Important
Chapter 7
How to Help All Students Succeed
Chapter 8
How to Dress for Success
Chapter 9
How to Invite Students to Learn
Chapter 10
How to Increase Positive Student Behavior
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks*******
Unit C
Second Characteristic _Classroom Management
The effective teacher is an extremely good classroom manager.
Chapter 11
How to Have a Well-Managed Classroom
Chapter 12
How to Have Your Classroom Ready
Chapter 13
How to Introduce Yourself to Your Class
Chapter 14
How to Arrange and Assign Seating
Chapter 15
How to Start a Class Effectively
Chapter 16
When and How to Take Roll
Chapter 17
How to Maintain an Effective Grade Record System
Chapter 18
How to Have an Effective Discipline Plan
Chapter 19
How to Teach Students to Follow Classroom Procedures
Chapter 20
How Procedures Improve the Opportunity to Learn
Unit D
Third Characteristic _Lesson Mastery
The successful teacher knows how to design lessons to help students achieve.
Chapter 21
How to Create an Effective Assignment
Chapter 22
How to Test for Student Learning
Chapter 23
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks*******
How to Assess for Student Learning
Chapter 24
How to Enhance Student Learning
Unit E
Future Understandings _The Professional
The teacher who constantly learns and grows becomes a professional educator.
Chapter 25
How to Be a Teacher-Leader
Epilogue
How to Develop a Culture of Effective Teachers
She Succeeded on Her First Day of School
Photo Credits
Appendices
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks*******
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks*******
About the Authors
Who are Harry and Rosemary Wong?
They are teachers.
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks*******
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks*******
Unit A
Basic Understandings _The Teacher
The successful teacher must know and practice the three characteristics of an effective teacher.
Chapter 1
Why You Need to Succeed on the First Days of School
Your success during the school year will be determined by what you do on the first days of school.
Chapter 2
What Is an Effective Teacher?
The beginning teacher must become proficient in the three characteristics of an effective teacher.
Chapter 3
How You Can Be a Happy First-Year Teacher
The beginning teacher must perform the full complement of skills while learning those skills.
Chapter 4
How to Close the Student Achievement Gap
The effectiveness of the teacher determines the level of student achievement.
Chapter 5
Why You Should Use Proven, Research-Based Practices
Effective teachers use proven, research-based practices that are employed by thousands of other teachers.
Unit A is correlated with Part 1: “The Effective Teacher” in the DVD series The Effective Teacher.
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks*******
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks*******
CHAPTER 1
Why You Need to Succeed on the First Days of School
THE KEY IDEA:
Your success during the school year will be determined by what you do on the first days of school.
Success on the First Day of School
Successful teachers have a script or a plan ready for the first day of school.
What you do on the first days of school will determine your success or failure for the rest of the school
year. Knowing how to structure a successful first day of school will set the stage for an effective classroom
and a successful school year.
College professor Douglas Brooks videotaped a series of teachers on their first day of school. Looking at the
recording afterward, he made a startling discovery. The ineffective teachers began their first day of school by
covering the subject matter or doing a fun activity. These teachers spent the rest of the school year chasing
after the students.
The effective teachers spent time organizing and structuring their classrooms so the students knew
what to do to succeed. He wrote his findings in an article, “The First Day of School.” (Brooks, Douglas M.
(May 1985). “The First Day of School.” Educational Leadership, pp. 76–78.)
The most important thing to establish in the first week of school is CONSISTENCY. People want to know
exactly what they are getting and what will be happening. Students do not want surprises or disorganization.
Consistency prevents them from asking, “What are we doing today?”
Students want a safe, predictable, and nurturing environment—one that is consistent. Students like wellmanaged classes because no one yells at them, and learning takes place. Effective teachers spend the first two
weeks teaching students to be in control of their own actions in a consistent classroom environment.
Effective teachers teach classroom management procedures that create consistency. Their classrooms
are caring, thought-provoking, challenging, and academically successful. A well-managed classroom is the
foundation for learning in the classroom. Therefore, Unit C in this book may be the most important for you to
read and implement as you start the first days of school.
Effective teachers have lesson plans and procedures that produce student learning. Unit D in this book
will walk you through how to get your students to achieve.
Click to read the Sidebar story: Hand in the Work
Please read this link about Going Beyond information
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks*******
Effective Teachers Script Their First Day of School
A coach scripts the first 10 to 20 plays of a football game. A wedding coordinator has a plan or agenda for the
sequence of events at a wedding. Likewise, an effective teacher is ready with a script or classroom
management plan on the first day of school.
Diana Greenhouse, a teacher in Texas, says, “What an incredible first year of teaching this has been. When I
look back at all I accomplished, it takes my breath away. My students learned and I loved every minute of
teaching.
“And it all started with that very first minute of the first day. I started the school with a PowerPoint
presentation of my classroom management plan.”
Kazim Cicek, a teacher in Oklahoma, says he spent his first three years in the profession as a warrior. The
students fought him and he fought them. Then, four days before the start of his fourth year—one that he did not
want to start—he heard Harry Wong speak at a preschool meeting and had a “light bulb moment.” Over a long
weekend, he created a PowerPoint presentation of his classroom management plan.
At the end of his fourth year he said, “The wish I wished my students was also given to me. I, too, had a
wonderful year.”
Today, he is a very happy and successful teacher.
Click to read the Sidebar story: teachers.net
Click for GoBe folder information: Classroom Management Plans
Student achievement at the end of the year is directly related to the degree to which the teacher
establishes good control of the classroom procedures in the very first week of the school year.
The effective teacher establishes good control of the class in the very first week of school. Control does
not involve threats or intimidation. Control means that you know (1) what you are doing, (2) your classroom
procedures, and (3) your professional responsibilities. It is very reassuring to your students that you know
what you are doing.
There is overwhelming evidence that the first two to three weeks of school are critical in determining
how well students will achieve for the remainder of the year.
You must have everything ready and organized when school begins. Your success during the school year will
be determined by what you do on the first days of school.
Click to read the Sidebar story: Don’t Be a Pal
Effective Teachers Produce Results
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks*******
The subtitle of this book is “How to Be an Effective Teacher.” Effective means “to effect,” “to produce
results.”
When you interact with people, such as a plumber, salesperson, dentist, or lawyer, you expect that person to
be effective—to produce results. Likewise, the effective teacher is someone who can produce learning.
To be effective, a person is firstly proficient. Proficient refers to someone who continually acquires
knowledge and skills to, in turn, be able to teach effectively.
PROFICIENT: possessing knowledge and skills
EFFECTIVE: to produce results
The EFFECTIVE teacher IMPACTS lives.
The Four Stages of Teaching
There are four stages to teaching, yet many teachers never progress beyond the Survival stage. (Ryan, Kevin.
(1986). The Induction of New Teachers. Bloomington, Ind.: Phi Delta Kappa.) The purpose of The First
Days of School is to get you out of stage two, Survival, and on to the third stage, Mastery, so you can be the
difference in the lives of your students.
The Four Stages of Teaching
1. Fantasy
2. Survival 3. Mastery
4. Impact
Stage 1—Fantasy. Many neophyte teachers have the naïve belief that to be a successful teacher, all they need
to do is relate and be a friend to their students. They rarely talk about standards, assessment, or student
achievement. Entertaining students with activities is their concept of teaching.
Stage 2—Survival. Teachers in the Survival stage have not developed instructional skills as explained in Unit
D. They spend their time looking for busywork for the students to do, such as completing worksheets,
watching videos, and doing seatwork—anything to keep the students quiet. Student learning and achievement
are not their goals; they teach because it’s a job and the paycheck is their Survival goal.
Stage 3—Mastery. Teachers who know how to achieve student success employ effective practices. These
teachers know how to manage their classrooms. They teach for mastery, and have high expectations for their
students. Effective teachers strive for Mastery by reading the literature and going to professional meetings.
Student learning is their mission and student achievement is their Mastery goal.
Stage 4—Impact. Effective teachers make a difference in the lives of their students. These are the teachers to
whom students come back years later and thank for affecting their lives. To make an impact on your students,
you need to use effective teaching practices, which is the subject of this book. A student learns only when the
teacher has an appreciable impact on the student’s life. When you reach this stage, you have gone beyond
Mastery; you have arrived as a teacher.
When you reach the Impact stage, you will return to the Fantasy stage—and fulfill your fantasy or dream of
making a difference in the lives of your students. You’ll also become a teacher-leader and live a happier life
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks*******
with a sense of pride and accomplishment knowing that you are contributing to the profession.
Impact
Teachers universally say they go into teaching to make a difference.
You more than make a difference.
You ARE the difference.
Click to read the Sidebar story: It’s Never Too Late
Effective Teachers Impact Lives
Teachers who are proficient and effective are more capable of impacting the lives of students than
teachers who are not proficient and effective.
The effective teacher knows how to bring the class to order quickly, explain rules and procedures, find out
important information about the students, and let them know what to expect in the coming days. The next
chapters will teach you these skills.
Relationships are created in an effectively run classroom. There is a trusting relationship between an effective
teacher and the students. Finding out about the students is important in an effectively run classroom.
You were hired to impact lives. You were hired not so much to teach third grade, or history, or physical
education, as to influence lives. Touch the life of a student, and you will have a student who will learn history,
physical education, even science and math, close the windows, staple all the papers, and turn cartwheels to
please you.
The beginning of school is critical. What you do in the first days of school to affect the lives of your
students will determine your success the rest of the year.
THE EFFECTIVE TEACHER
1. Uses a script to organize the class the first week of school.
2. Continually acquires knowledge and skills.
3. Produces results.
4. Impacts and touches lives.
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks*******
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks*******
CHAPTER 2
What Is an Effective Teacher?
THE KEY IDEA:
The beginning teacher must become proficient in the three characteristics of an effective teacher.
The Effective Teacher
The Three Characteristics of an Effective Teacher
1. Has positive expectations for student success
2. Is an extremely good classroom manager
3. Knows how to design lessons for student mastery
There are three characteristics of an effective teacher, and they apply to all teachers. (Good, Thomas
L., and Jere Brophy. (2007). Looking in Classrooms. Needham, Mass.: Allyn & Bacon, pp. 8, 9, 12, 47, 71,
and 301.) These characteristics are known, and you can easily learn how to be a very effective teacher.
Teaching is a craft, a highly skilled craft that can be learned!
What works in a kindergarten classroom or a high school classroom also works with modification in any
other classroom.
The teacher with an ineffective classroom is constantly looking for activities to grab the students’ attention.
They are eager to present their lessons, do their exciting activities, and share their wonderful knowledge. But,
none of these techniques will be successful until you become skilled in the characteristics of an effective
teacher. Teaching is not covering chapters or doing activities.
It’s not what you put in; it’s the outcome you get from the students.
Every one of us is both a student and a teacher.
We are at our best when we each teach ourselves what we need to learn.
Research consistently shows that of all the factors schools can control, the effective teacher has the greatest
impact on student achievement.
Decade after decade of educational innovations and fads have not increased student achievement. The only
factor that increases student achievement is the significance of an effective teacher.
Positive Expectations
Positive expectations, sometimes called high expectations, should not be confused with high standards.
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks*******
Having positive expectations simply means that the teacher believes in the learner and that the learner
can learn.
The belief in positive expectations is based on research, which demonstrates that the learner will produce
what the teacher expects the learner to produce. If you believe a student is a low-level, below-average, slow
learner, the student will perform accordingly because these are the beliefs you transmit to the student. If you
believe a student is a high-ability, above-average, capable learner, the student will perform at that level
because these are the expectations you transmit to the student.
It is essential that the teacher exhibit positive expectations toward all students. Unit B discusses ways to
convey positive expectations and explains the importance of positive expectations, an attitude that benefits the
teacher and the student, as well as the overall classroom environment.
Classroom Management
Classroom management consists of the practices and procedures that a teacher uses to maintain an
environment in which instruction and learning can occur. For this to happen, the teacher must create a wellordered environment.
Discipline has very little to do with classroom management. You don’t discipline a store; you manage it. The
same is true of a classroom. Unit C explains how to manage a classroom, applying the principle that a wellordered environment leads to an effective classroom. The effectiveness of such an environment is the
result of how well the teacher learns the skill of managing the classroom.
Click for GoBe folder information: Close to a Miracle
Click to read the Sidebar story: Students Work Without the Teacher Present
Lesson Mastery
Mastery refers to how well a student can demonstrate that a concept has been comprehended, or
perform a skill at a level of proficiency, as determined by the teacher. Unit D explains how to teach for
mastery.
When a home is built, the contractor receives a set of blueprints from the architect. The blueprints specify the
degree of competence that will be acceptable. The inspector who periodically checks on the construction
always looks at the blueprint first and then checks the workmanship to see if the work has been performed to
the degree of competence specified.
Well-Ordered Environment + Positive Academic Expectations = Effective Classroom
Teaching is no different. To teach for mastery or competence, an effective teacher must do three things:
1. Know how to design lessons in which a student will be able to learn a concept or a skill to a goal or
standard.
2. Know how to deliver the instruction to teach to the goal or standard.
3. Know how to assess and provide corrective action for learning so the student can master the concept or
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks*******
the skill.
Student success in the subject matter of the class depends on how well the teacher designs lessons and
checks for mastery.
THE EFFECTIVE TEACHER
1. Exhibits positive expectations for all students.
2. Establishes good classroom management techniques.
3. Designs lessons for student mastery.
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks*******
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks*******
CHAPTER 3
How You Can Be a Happy First-Year Teacher
THE KEY IDEA:
The beginning teacher must perform the full complement of skills while learning those skills.
The First Year Can Be Successful
Here’s the biggest secret to teaching success: Beg, Borrow, and Steal!
It’s really not stealing. It’s really research and learning. You walk into the classrooms of effective teachers,
look around, and if you see something that you think might help you, say, “Gimme, gimme, gimme.” There are
many veteran teachers who will be happy to share with you and help you.
We are in a community of equals, not a community of experts. We are members of a common community. Don’t
be afraid to ask and learn. Through mutual support and sharing, we improve our profession.
Your first day of teaching will be an exciting, anticipated event but very frightening at the same time. Yet you
can succeed if you learn how to be effective on the first days of school.
Click to read the Sidebar story: The First Year of Teaching Is the Most Crucial
Teacher Education Will Not Have Prepared You
The schools of education are not to be blamed. No one ever said that education ends with a college degree.
Some people enter teaching by way of an alternative certification route. Regardless, the best teachers are also
the best students. Good teachers are continually improving themselves by going back to college; joining
professional organizations; attending conventions, conferences, and workshops; participating in staff
development meetings; and working cooperatively with others on the staff in collegial support networks and
learning communities to improve student achievement.
Student Teaching Will Not Have Prepared You
Your master teacher is not to be blamed. No one ever trained your master teacher in what to teach you. Few
student teachers enter teaching with any experience in what to do on the first day of school. Typically, the
master teacher started the class and then turned the class over to the student teacher. Thus, most student
teachers enter the teaching profession with no training and no experience in what to do on the first day of
school.
The First Year of Teaching Can Be Frightening
1. Teacher education will not have prepared you.
2. Student teaching will not have prepared you.
3. The district may not have prepared you.
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks*******
4. Yet, you will be expected to perform immediately.
Some Districts Have Induction Programs to Prepare You
In teaching, entry into the profession can be sudden. In the business world, new employees receive
comprehensive training from day one, allowing them to gradually gain knowledge, experience, and
responsibility until retirement.
Have you ever wondered why your seemingly problem students do so well at a local store or fast-food
restaurant? Restaurants such as McDonald’s and Domino’s Pizza have sophisticated training programs to
prepare workers before they face the public. Go behind the scenes at any place of business and you will see
workers in training reviewing videos, reading instruction manuals, and learning various aspects of their jobs.
Effective districts and schools, likewise, have a training or comprehensive induction program for all
newly hired teachers.
Regretfully, in some schools, newly hired teachers are merely given a key to a room and told to go teach,
leaving you to
Figure it out yourself. Do it yourself. Keep it to yourself.
The beginning teacher is expected to assume the same tasks and responsibilities as the most seasoned
teacher on the staff.
What will really prepare you for teaching in your district is an organized new teacher induction program.
Induction is a structured multi-year program that will train and support you as you become an effective
teacher. To learn more about induction, go to NewTeacher.com and read many of the articles on the website.
Also, read New Teacher Induction: How to Train, Support, and Retain New Teachers. (Breaux, Annette, and
Harry K. Wong. (2003). New Teacher Induction: How to Train, Support, and Retain New Teachers.
Mountain View, Calif.: Harry K. Wong Publications, Inc.)
Attention New Teachers: If you are a new teacher looking for a teaching job, you need to ask if the
district has an induction program. Do not sign a contract until you ask. Districts with induction programs
care that you succeed. This entails more than simply giving you a mentor.
Effective districts want to help their newly hired teachers succeed. They offer induction programs that begin
before the first day of school and may extend for several years thereafter. Induction is more than orientation,
mentoring, or evaluation. It’s the training a district gives to bring out the teacher you are meant to be. Please
do not be so naïve to think that you can succeed on your own without help.
Click for GoBe folder information: 10 Questions to Ask
You Will Be Expected to Perform Immediately
When you become a first-year teacher, you will be an equal with all the other teachers. You will have the
same students they teach, you will teach from the same curriculum, and you will have the same administrators.
You will have the same duties and responsibilities as all the other teachers.
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks*******
Yet, you will be expected to be perfect on the first day of school and then get better each year. You can
do it, but you will be able to do it better if your district puts you through an induction program and you
recognize that becoming an effective teacher is a never-ending learning process.
You will be expected to perform your full complement of duties immediately while learning them at the
same time.
Education is not a product; it is a never-ending process. The purpose of this book is to give you some
insight, ideas, and choices about how to start your first days of school. Note the word, “choices.” The quality
of the choices you make today will dictate the quality of your opportunities tomorrow.
There are no pat answers in education, no simple answers, no quick-fixes, no sure model, no foolproof
methods. There are teachers, who become effective because they make teaching a profession and not a job.
They continue to learn, and from their fund of knowledge they make choices about each appropriate
strategy they should use.
Your whole life is ahead of you, and it can be filled with happiness and success. If you want positive results
from your professional career, know that your colleagues are your best resource.
Work in a collegial manner with your colleagues.
Associate with and learn from positive mentors and coaches.
Join a professional organization.
Continue to learn through classes, workshops, conferences, professional meetings, books, journals, CDs,
DVDs, the Internet, and advanced degrees.
Click for GoBe folder information: Websites
You now have the rest of the school year and your professional years ahead of you to truly enjoy. You can be a
happy, successful, and exciting teacher.
Inside Every Great Teacher there is an even better one waiting to come out.
Click to read the Sidebar story: You Can Have Any Job in Education in Three to Five Years With a Raise
in Salary of 25 Percent or More
THE EFFECTIVE TEACHER
1. Works cooperatively and learns from colleagues.
2. Seeks out a colleague who serves as a role model.
3. Goes to professional meetings to learn.
4. Has a goal of striving for excellence.
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks*******
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks*******
CHAPTER 4
How to Close the Student Achievement Gap
THE KEY IDEA:
The effectiveness of the teacher determines the level of student achievement.
The Importance of Effective Teachers
The greatest asset of a school is its people.
School does not begin until the teacher walks into the classroom. It is the teacher—what the teacher knows
and can do—that is the most significant factor in student achievement. The more effective the teacher, the
more successful the students.
The Difference Between an Effective Teacher and an Ineffective Teacher
There’s only one difference: The ineffective teacher is simply not doing what the effective teacher is doing.
Do what the effective teacher is doing, and the ineffective teacher will be effective—instantly.
Successful teachers are innovative planners, exceptional classroom managers, adept critical thinkers,
and competent problem solvers. Successful people MAKE themselves do the things unsuccessful people
will not do.
Ineffective teachers look for busywork to kill class time. They are survivors. They whine that nothing useful
ever applies to them, fully expecting others to tell them what to do.
The effective teacher is a creative teacher—one who can think, adapt, and implement. Effective teachers
steal from the best and learn from the rest. They look at the resources available to them and reorganize
those resources to work toward a goal.
Effective teachers are problem solvers. They analyze, synthesize, and create materials to help students learn.
A true professional and effective teacher is a learner who learns along with the students.
Here are some observations on the importance of effective teachers:
The most effective teachers can produce 9 months or more of learning, essentially a full year, than
ineffective teachers. (Rowan B., R. Correnti, and R. Miller. (2002). “What Large-Scale Survey Research
Tells Us About Teacher Effects on Student Achievement.” Teachers College Record, 104, pp. 1525–
1567.)
Teacher expertise accounts for a greater difference in student performance—40 percent—than any other
factor. (National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future. (November 1997). Doing What
Matters Most: Investing in Quality Teaching. NCTAF, 2100 M Street NW, Suite 660, Washington, D.C.
20037, p. 8.)
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks*******
Students who have several effective teachers in a row make dramatic achievement gains, while those
who have even two ineffective teachers in a row lose significant ground. (Sack, Joetta. “Class Size,
Teacher Quality Take Center Stage at Hearing.” Education Week, May 5, 1999, p. 22.)
Teacher quality accounts for more than 90 percent of the variation in student achievement. (National
Commission on Teaching and America’s Future, p. 9.)
The single greatest effect on student achievement is not race, not poverty—it is the effectiveness of the
teacher. (Rivers, June C., and William L. Sanders. “Teacher Quality and Equity in Educational
Opportunity: Findings and Policy Implications.” Presented at the Hoover/PRI Teacher Quality
Conference, Stanford University, May 12, 2000, p. 4.)
As teacher effectiveness increases, lower-achieving students are the first to benefit. (Sanders, William L.
(1996). “Cumulative and Residual Effects of Teachers on Future Student Academic Achievement.”
University of Tennessee Value-Added Research and Assessment Center, p. 7.)
Click to read the Sidebar story: Quality Teaching
Teachers Want Success
It’s the teachers and their instructional practices—not the curriculum programs or a change in the school
structure—that improve student learning. Teachers do not want programs; they want achievement for their
students.
Programs do not produce achievement; teachers produce student achievement. Money is much better
spent training and developing teachers than for buying one program after another. Educational leaders know
that what matters most is whether schools can offer their neediest students good teachers who are trained in
effective strategies to teach strong academic knowledge and skills.
Click to read the Sidebar story: Successful Teachers Come in All Subjects and Grade Levels
Click for GoBe folder information: Stories of Successful Teachers
How to Improve Student Achievement
The ineffective teacher affects little, if any, growth in students. The effective teacher, even in an ineffective
school, produces improved student learning and increased student achievement.
Imagine the student is achieving at the 50th percentile and the student is placed in one of the following
situations. After two years, Robert Marzano’s research concludes the following:
If the student has an ineffective teacher in an ineffective school, student achievement will drop from
the 50th percentile to the 3rd percentile.
If the student has an ineffective teacher in an effective school, student achievement will still drop to the
37th percentile.
However, if the student has an effective teacher in an ineffective school, student achievement will rise to
the 63rd percentile.
It’s the teacher. It’s the teacher. Consider that we have average teachers in average schools. That’s fine.
But, if teachers and administrators can only slightly improve their effectiveness each year, there will be
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks*******
monumental gains in student achievement over the collective years.
These gaps in achievement exist when groups of students with relatively equal ability do not achieve in school
at the same levels. Extensive research can be found on how to close the achievement gap. Schools that work
on closing the achievement gap maintain these characteristics:
Keep a laser focus on learning for all students.
Maintain a “no excuses” attitude.
Use research and data to improve teacher practices.
Involve everyone in improvement processes.
Persist through difficulties and setbacks.
Celebrate accomplishments.
(National Education Association. (2006). Closing Achievement Gaps: An Association Guide.
Washington, D.C.: National Education Association (NEA), p. 19.)
The achievement gap can be closed with a school of average to above-average teachers, but the school
and the teachers must work together on improving student achievement.
A student who has an outstanding teacher will remain ahead of her peers for at least the next few years. A
student with an ineffective teacher will not be fully remediated for up to three years—even if that student has
effective teachers.
The quality of the teacher, in any school setting, is the most critical component for IMPROVING STUDENT
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks*******
ACHIEVEMENT and closing achievement gaps.
Click for GoBe folder information: The Miracle of Teachers
We Are Teachers
What teachers do is a miracle. Teachers accept all children from every imaginable situation and care for
them, nurture them, and teach them. You are to be thanked for choosing such a noble profession.
The units in this book on positive expectations, classroom management, and lesson mastery will prepare you
for your career as an effective teacher. It will be an exciting journey.
Click to read the Sidebar story: That Noble Title Teacher
THE EFFECTIVE TEACHER
1. Uses effective practices focused on student achievement.
2. Is an innovative planner and exceptional classroom manager.
3. Is an adept critical thinker and competent problem solver.
4. Represents the greatest asset of a school.
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks*******
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks*******
CHAPTER 5
Why You Should Use Proven, Research-Based Practices
THE KEY IDEA:
Effective teachers use proven, research-based practices that are employed by thousands of other
teachers.
The Research Process
People who know what to do and people who know how to do it will always be working for those who
know why it is being done.
Research is the process of critical thinking and problem solving employed by thousands. It is this ability that
sets humans apart from all other living things. Research is simply the use of the human mind to seek answers
or, as some would say, to search for the “truth.”
Research is not something only scientists do. Businesspeople do research; so do baseball players, chefs,
plumbers, lawyers, dentists, artists, and actors. Students, when they write term papers, do research. To search
and search and search, over and over again. That is why it is called re-search.
Click to read the Sidebar story: The Research Process
It May Be Dangerous to Teach as You Were Taught
Unfortunately and erroneously, many teachers teach as they were taught. Many teachers teach as their
academic college professors taught them, thinking that’s the way to teach. No education professor,
administrator, staff developer, or teacher at a workshop has ever said that the model of teaching presented in
the box on the next page is the way to teach. Yet, many teachers think this is teaching.
Regrettably, many teachers also succumb to teaching according to the latest fad, philosophy, or political
agenda, never asking for the research evidence of its success. This is why Richard Elmore of Harvard
University says, “Most decisions made in education, especially in urban schools, are made for the benefit of
the adults—not the children.”
Teachers who work in learning communities represent the greatest research asset in a school. What they learn
is the greatest asset of the educational system, and it is to be shared.
Teaching is a profession, and like all professions, its members must learn new knowledge and skills
continuously. Becoming a truly accomplished teacher is a journey, not a destination. A professional teacher
will still be “learning to do it better” the day she or he retires.
Ineffective teachers talk more about the gimmicks and games they are trying to find to “keep the kids
quiet.”
Effective teachers talk more about the research they constantly look for to improve the achievement of
their students.
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks*******
Always remember, student achievement and success are why teachers teach; our research successes
are to be shared for the sake of the students.
Click to read the Sidebar story: This Model of Teaching Has NO Research to Support It
Research Improves Student Achievement
Theme parks know when and where to send more food vendors. Airlines know how much to price each flight.
Stores know your buying patterns. They use what is known as business intelligence or BI in industry terms.
There is software that harvests data, trends, and information to help businesses make decisions.
Schools do the same. They harvest student data to improve student achievement.
Led by Superintendent Joe Kitchens, the Western Heights School District in Oklahoma has seen math and
reading scores increase up to 48 percent over a four-year period.
Using software systems that mine student information, teachers have almost immediate access to their students’
scores at any given time. Data drives teaching, learning, and continuous improvement in this diverse district,
where 75 percent of the students qualify for free or reduced-price meals.
The research data allows teams of teachers to review and determine “how best” to prepare lessons for
students who need differentiated instruction. Teachers know exactly where the child needs help, or has
potential to excel.
The lesson-planning program software and benchmarking process both allow sharing among teachers. The
staff uses data to improve student achievement.
Western Heights has taken the Oklahoma standards and aligned them with its own benchmarked tests, which
the teachers and administrators created at higher levels than the state tests.
Using research data, they have broken down skills sets for each child by subject and level. The faculty shares
this data to improve teaching and learning. This sharing of research data is their formula for student
achievement. That’s success.
Click to read the Sidebar story: The Four Beliefs of an Effective Teacher
Click to read the Sidebar story: Western Heights School District’s Keys to Success
Click to read the Sidebar story: Educational Research That Applies to Every Teacher
Click to read the Sidebar story: When Should You Ask Questions During a Video
Click for GoBe folder information: She Stopped the Video Frequently
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks*******
Click to read the Sidebar story: Research on Improving Student Achievement
“Research cannot and does not identify the right or best way to teach, nor does it suggest that certain
instructional practices should always or never be used. But research can illuminate which instructional
practices are most likely to achieve desired results, with which kinds of learners, and under what
conditions.”
_Myriam Met
(Source: Cawelti, Gordon (ed.). (2004). Handbook of Research on Improving Student Achievement.
Arlington, Va.: Educational Research Service, p. 3.)
THE EFFECTIVE TEACHER
1. Understands the research process.
2. Uses proven, research-based teaching practices.
3. Uses research data to improve teaching and learning.
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks*******
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks*******
Unit B
First Characteristic _Positive Expectations
The effective teacher has positive expectations for student success.
Chapter 6
Why Positive Expectations Are Important
Your expectations of your students will greatly influence their achievement in your class and in their lives.
Chapter 7
How to Help All Students Succeed
The more the school and the family are joined as partners in educating young people, the greater the children’s
chances for success.
Chapter 8
How to Dress for Success
The effective teacher dresses appropriately as a professional educator to model success.
Chapter 9
How to Invite Students to Learn
There must be people, places, policies, procedures, and programs working together to invite people to realize
their fullest potential.
Chapter 10
How to Increase Positive Student Behavior
The heart of education is the education of the heart.
Unit B is correlated with Part 2: “The First Days of School” and Part 8: “Positive Expectations” in the DVD
series The Effective Teacher.
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks*******
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks*******
CHAPTER 6
Why Positive Expectations Are Important
THE KEY IDEA:
Your expectations of your students will greatly influence their achievement in your class and in their
lives.
Humans Have a Success Instinct
There is absolutely no research correlation between success and family background, race, national
origin, financial status, or even educational accomplishments. There is but one correlation with success,
and that is ATTITUDE.
All living things live to survive. They spend their entire day instinctively seeking food and shelter and
escaping predators.
Humans have a success instinct. This is what makes humans different from all other living things. They want
success, and they strive for their success potential. You can accomplish anything with students if you set high
expectations for behavior and performance by which you yourself abide.
The Two Kinds of Expectations
Positive or high expectations
Negative or low expectations
Positive and Negative Expectations
Knowing what you can or cannot achieve is called EXPECTATION. An expectation is what you believe will
or will not happen.
Positive Expectations
An optimistic belief that whoever you teach or whatever you do will result in success or achievement. If you
expect to be successful, you are constantly alert and aware of opportunities to help you be successful.
Examples of Positive Expectations
“What we achieve comes from how we work together.”
“I believe that every child can learn and will achieve to his or her fullest potential.”
“I am a good teacher, and I am proud that I am a professional educator.”
“I am always learning and that is why I enjoy going to conferences, workshops, and professional
development meetings.”
Results of Positive Expectations
The odds are that what you want to happen will happen if you expend energy to make it happen. Therefore,
predispose yourself to realize success personally and among the people you deal with, such as your students.
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks*******
Click for GoBe folder information: She Was the Turning Point in My Life
Negative Expectations
A pessimistic belief that whoever you teach or whatever you do will not work out or will fail. Why bother to
do anything or teach anyone at all? If you expect to fail, you are constantly looking for justification and proof
of why you have failed.
Examples of Negative Expectations
“You don’t understand the culture where I teach.”
“These kids just don’t want to learn.”
“They can’t read; they can’t spell; they can’t sit still; they can’t behave.”
“Professional development meetings are boring; conferences have nothing to offer to me.”
Results of Negative Expectations
The odds are that what you expect not to happen won’t happen if you expend energy to ensure that it doesn’t
happen. Therefore, do not predispose yourself to realize failure personally and among the people you deal
with, such as your students.
It takes just as much energy to achieve positive results as it does to achieve negative results. So why
waste your energy on failing when that same energy can help you and your students succeed?
Expectations Are Different from Standards
Expectations should not be confused with standards. Standards are levels of achievement. Teachers who
practice positive expectations will help their students reach high standards.
Example: “This will be an exciting class, and you are going to have the most memorable year you have
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks*******
ever had; as a result, you will do very well.”
Teachers who practice negative expectations will prevent students from reaching high standards.
Example: “No one in this class will earn an A. I will make the work too hard for you to do.”
People are molded more by the depth of their convictions or expectations than by the height of their
intelligence. Success involves converting people, not to your way of knowing, but to your way of feeling.
People can refuse words, but they cannot refuse an attitude or an expectation.
Expectations
Give your students more than they expect, and you will get back more than you ever expected. Student
success is limited only by adult expectations.
The Classic Research on Expectations
The classic research on expectations was done in the 1960s by Robert Rosenthal of Harvard University and
Lenore Jacobson of the South San Francisco schools. (Rosenthal, Robert, and Lenore Jacobson. (1968).
Pygmalion in the Classroom. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.) They fed erroneous information to a
group of South San Francisco elementary school teachers and watched the teachers make the results come true.
In the spring of the preceding school year, the students at Oak School were pretested. When school began that
fall, the researchers and the administrators told the teachers they were special teachers who were to be part of
a special experiment.
They were told, “Based on a pretest, we have identified 20 percent of your students who are special. They
will be ‘spurters’ or ‘bloomers’ and are a designated group of students of whom greater intellectual growth is
expected.”
The names were really selected at random, but the teachers were led to believe that the status of being special
children was based on scores on the pretest, the Harvard Test of Inflected Acquisition, a fictitious test.
“As a special reward for your teaching excellence,” they were told, “we are going to give you this
information, but on two conditions:
1. You must not tell the students that you know that they are special.
2. You must not tell the parents that their children are special.
“Thus we expect and know that you will do extremely well with these special students.”
Eight months later, all the students were tested again, and a comparison was made of the designated special
students and the undesignated students, as measured by IQ scores. The results showed a significant gain in
intellectual growth for the 20 percent who were designated special in the primary grades but no significant
gains to the undesignated students.
The administrators brought the teachers in, showed them the growth results of their students, and congratulated
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks*******
them on their spectacular success with their students.
The teachers said, “Of course, we had special students to work with. It was easy, and they learned so fast.”
The administrators and researcher said, “We’d like to tell you the truth. The so-called special children were
picked at random. We made no selections based on IQ or aptitude.”
“Then it must have been us,” said the teachers, “because you said we were special teachers selected to be part
of a special experiment.”
“We need to tell you something else, too,” replied the researcher.
“All the teachers were involved in this experiment. None of you were designated special over any other
teacher.”
Click to read the Sidebar story: Teachers Get What They Expect
This was a perfectly designed experiment. There was only one experimental variable—EXPECTATIONS.
1. The expectations of the administrators toward the teachers were stated explicitly. “You are special
teachers, and these 20 percent of your students are special students who show potential for intellectual
growth. Thus we expect and know that you will do extremely well with these special students.”
2. The expectations of the teachers toward the students were conveyed implicitly and were unspoken.
Because the teachers believed they had some very special students in the school, their body language,
personalities, and attitudes influenced their teaching and expectations of their students.
As the researchers stated, “The results suggest rather strongly that children who are expected by their teachers
to gain intellectually in fact do show greater intellectual gains after one year than do children of whom such
gains are not expected.”
Click to read the Sidebar story: Development
Following the original study, many additional studies have been undertaken. Some have been able to replicate
the findings, while others have not. Regardless, educators and parents are very keen in the power of
expectations to affect student outcomes.
Students tend to learn as little or as much as their teachers expect. Teachers who set and communicate
high expectations to all their students obtain greater academic performance from these students than
teachers who set low expectations.
(Source: U.S. Department of Education. (1986). What Works: Research About Teaching and Learning.
Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, p. 7.)
What parents and teachers convey to young people in their formative years as expectations will influence
young people to achieve accordingly.
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks*******
Your expectations of your students will greatly influence their achievement in your class, in their lives,
and ultimately in the world.
Click to read the Sidebar story: The Two Most Important Groups of People for Young People
THE EFFECTIVE TEACHER
1. Has a statement of positive expectations ready for the first day of school.
2. Creates a classroom climate that communicates positive expectations.
3. Conveys positive expectations to all students.
4. Has a personal attitude of high expectations.
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks*******
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks*******
CHAPTER 7
How to Help All Students Succeed
THE KEY IDEA:
The more the school and the family are joined as partners in educating young people, the greater the
children’s chances for success.
Celebrate the First Day of School
The most important day of a person’s education is the First Day of School, not Graduation Day.
If school does not begin with the proper, positive expectations, there may not be a Graduation Day. The Class
of 2009 failed to graduate 1.3 million students, or one student dropping out of school every 27 seconds.
(“Analysis Finds Graduation Rates Moving Up.” (May 31, 2011). Education Week.)
For some students, graduation is not a day to celebrate a joyful sense of accomplishment. Rather it is a day to
mock respect, act stupid, make fun of the educational system, show disrespect to parents and teachers, and
engage in wild parties that make you wonder if any educating ever took place.
The proper day to celebrate in all the schools of a country is the First Day of School.
Celebrating the First Day of School must become a tradition of all educational systems. This day of
celebration must include everyone associated with and interested in the education of the future citizens of the
world. In addition to everyone at the school site, the celebration should include parents, the business
community, and the neighborhood. It is important that students see that everyone is interested in helping them
all succeed.
The more the school, the family, and the community are joined as partners in the cause of educating
young people, the greater each child’s chance for success.
Welcome Them to School
Just as you go on a vacation with high expectations, students come to school with high expectations, also. They
come to get an education, meet friends, participate, have fun, study, and learn. Their entire day revolves
around school and their friends. It is an exciting time in their lives.
Therefore, the personnel of the school should extend greetings to the students before they come to school and
upon their arrival. Everyone should be involved in planning the students’ welcome to the school. “Everyone”
means administrators, teachers, classified staff, district personnel, parents, and the business community. The
successful education of young people is an interrelated, community team effort.
How to Welcome Them to School
Organize a First Day of School celebration.
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks*******
Stand at the bus stop and welcome them on the First Day of School. Wave and smile like it’s Aunt Mabel
whom you have not seen in 14 years and her airplane has just pulled up to the jet bridge.
Stand at the front entrances of the school. Have at least one greeter at every entrance so no one will fail
to receive a warm, friendly welcome.
Bring out the school band to play at the curb or near the entrance.
If you don’t have a band, have a group of students and teachers assembled to bring a welcome smile on
the First Day of School.
Hang up a banner welcoming students to school.
Distribute a school newspaper extolling the virtues of the school and the wonderful school spirit of the
teachers and the students.
Have guides in the hall. Hang up directional signs to help students get to their classrooms.
Have your name and room number clearly visible on the classroom door along with your personal
greeting of welcome.
Let the first message spoken over the public address system be one of welcome and positive expectations
for the school year.
Click for GoBe folder information: First Day of School Celebrations
We must TEACH and SHOW our students—
1. That we can be responsible for one another.
2. That school is a place to gain knowledge.
3. That school is a place to give and receive love.
4. That school is a place to become successful.
Click to read the Sidebar story: You Will All Succeed
School is not a place where students come to listen to lectures, fill in worksheets, and endure boredom. Nor
is it a place reserved for those who can tolerate the drab and dirty look of many schools.
School is a concept wherein students are welcome to learn and enhance the quality of their lives without fear
of intimidation or harm, guided by hospitable and caring people in a clean and orderly environment.
School is not a place; school is a concept.
Click to read the Sidebar story: Haughton High School Welcomes You
There is no greater gift one human being can give another than the opportunity to learn and grow in a loving
and nurturing learning environment.
THE EFFECTIVE TEACHER
1. Helps organize a First Day of School celebration.
2. Plans a classroom welcome for the first day.
3. Ensures the mental and physical well-being of all students.
4. Creates an environment for all students to succeed.
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks*******
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks*******
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks*******
CHAPTER 8
How to Dress for Success
THE KEY IDEA:
The effective teacher dresses appropriately as a professional educator to model success.
You Are Treated as You Are Dressed
You do not get a second chance to make a first impression.
Interviewers tell us they make an initial judgment on an interviewee in 20 seconds. Salespeople know they
have seven seconds to make an impression. Effective teachers know that the clothes they wear and the
smile that dresses their face are the first things students see when they are greeted at the door.
Make no mistake, we judge others by their dress, and they judge us, too. It may not be fair. It may not be right.
But people tend to treat other people as they are dressed.
It’s common sense. You will be treated as you are dressed. A salesperson sees two shoppers approaching,
one appropriately dressed and the other inappropriately dressed. You know very well who will get immediate
and better service.
How much credibility would a bank have if the teller who processes your paycheck was dressed in jeans and
wore a T-shirt emblazoned with the slogan “Poverty Sucks”?
In an ideal world, it would be wonderful to be accepted for ourselves alone, not for our appearance. In the
real world, however, our all-too-visible selves are under constant scrutiny.
Dress Perception
As you are dressed,
so shall you be perceived;
and as you are perceived,
so shall you be treated.
Always dress better than your students. If you do not care about yourself, why should the students care
about you?
The fact is, most people think that the cover is the book, the box front is the cereal, and the leather jacket is the
person. We all make judgments. We look at someone and judge status, income, even occupation.
It is not what is but what is perceived that counts.
You Are a Walking, Talking Advertisement
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks*******
“Give an elementary student three days, and the student will mirror you. Give a high school student ten
days, and the student will mirror you.”
_Charles Galloway
This may be a superficial world, but it is the way the world works, so saying that something is superficial will
not make it go away. You are much better off making your dress work for you than allowing it to work against
you.
The key is looking professional, not just looking good. The advantage of looking professional is that it
keeps you from self-destructing in the first few seconds, before your students make any hasty
judgments about you.
The effective teacher dresses appropriately as a professional educator to model success. The important
word is appropriately. We often see signs like this one:
One of the reasons we have schools is for students to learn what is appropriate. Young people learn what is
appropriate in society by looking at their adult role models. Your dress, your actions, and your words are
what young people will take to be appropriate.
By the end of the first or second week, the entire class will have taken signals from you as to how they should
behave for the rest of the school year.
We are walking, talking advertisements for who we are. We are walking, talking advertisements for who we
believe we are as professional educators.
Yes, ties take time to tie and sometimes get uncomfortable.
However, a tie tells everyone you meet, “I respect you, my job, and myself, and I’m willing to take the
time to show it.”
When you walk into class late, you have just made a statement. When you walk into class late with a can of
soda or a cup of coffee in your hand and a scowl on your face, you are making a statement.
When you walk into class early—when you’re standing at the door with a smile and an extended hand of
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks*******
welcome, the assignments are on the chalkboard, the room and materials are ready, and there is a positive
classroom climate—you are making a statement.
When you allow teasing in class, you are making a statement. When you refuse to tolerate teasing in class, you
are making a statement. The statement that you make influences how the students will behave and
achieve in class. And how students behave and achieve in class will determine your success as a teacher.
Every time you act, you validate who you are.
The experts tell us that teenagers get their values from their friends. That’s true to the extent that there is a
values vacuum to be filled. It is imperative that the parents get there first. New teachers get their values from
other teachers. It is imperative that there exists a school or district induction program coupled with a coaching
program staffed by dedicated, professional, role-model teachers to influence new teachers.
Click to read the Sidebar story: Even as a Substitute Teacher
Dress for Respect
Clothing may not make a person, but it can be a contributing factor in unmaking a person. Whether we want to
admit it or not, our appearance affects how we are perceived and received in definite ways. Clothing has
nothing to do with students liking a teacher. But clothing definitely has an effect on students’ respect for a
teacher, and respect is what a teacher must have if learning is to take place.
Research reveals that the clothing worn by teachers affects the work, attitude, and discipline of students. You
dress for four main effects:
1. Respect
2. Credibility
3. Acceptance
4. Authority
The effective teacher uses these four traits as assets in relating to students, peers, administrators, parents, and
the community. If you have these four traits, you have a much greater chance of influencing young people to
learn than someone who lacks these four traits.
You can be sure that students notice how their teachers are dressed, in the same way they notice the
appropriateness of their own and each other’s dress.
Kids see their parents go to work each day, dressed in business attire or institutional uniforms. Then they
come to school and observe the attire of teachers—professionals who are considered middle-class
intellectuals with college degrees, competent people with teaching credentials. You can see why the teaching
profession has a difficult time gaining respect and credibility.
You can also see why some teachers have great difficulty reaching and influencing students—and if teachers
cannot reach students, no teaching or learning will take place. Not only are these teachers unable to reach
students, but they also leave school at the end of the day frustrated over their own inadequacies. These
inadequacies are evident in how they dress. For when you select your clothes each day, you are making a
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks*******
statement about yourself to the world.
Make no mistake about reality. Teachers have a responsibility to encourage learning, and learning begins by
gaining and keeping the respect of students. Your respect begins with your appearance.
Click to read the Sidebar story: Could Not Believe What I Saw
Click to read the Sidebar story: Clothing Choices
If you are appropriately dressed, students will comment when you look nice, and if something is out of place,
they will tell you because they know that you are a person who cares about yourself. But if you consistently
come to school inappropriately dressed, they will not say a word because they surmise that if you do not care
about yourself, they need not care about you. Dress appropriately because it is very important to know that
people care about you.
When people care about you, they will respect you, learn from you, and buy from you. And as a professional
educator, you are selling your students knowledge and success for the future.
Click to read the Sidebar story: You Dress Where You Want to Be
Click for GoBe folder information: Dress for Success
Preparing Students for the World
What does it mean to dress appropriately? You expect your students to use appropriate English, write papers
using an appropriate form, and display appropriate behavior and manners. Right? Then you understand about
appropriate dress.
It is universally agreed that one major function of schools is to prepare young people for tomorrow’s world.
Yes, the world, not a particular city, state, or country. We live in a competitive, global world economy
where people work for companies that are international in scope. It is likely that many of your students
will work for a company that will have offices all over the world.
If you want to succeed in the world, you must think globally.
If we are to prepare students for tomorrow’s world, we need to know the world. If you do not know the
world, take some time to do some research. Stand at a major airport and watch passengers disembark from
American Airlines, Lufthansa, and Singapore Air Lines.
Then go to the business district of a large city and observe the dress of the people—the executives, store
owners, salespeople, and support service people. And speaking of support people, have you ever noticed that
the school secretary almost always comes to school more appropriately dressed than a lot of the teachers?
Having observed the world, after you have dressed in the morning, look at yourself in the mirror before you go
to school to face your students, all of whom will see you as a model of success in tomorrow’s thriving world.
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks*******
Ask yourself these three questions:
1. Would a real estate agency hire you dressed as you are?
2. Would McDonald’s allow you to hand food to a customer dressed as you are?
3. Would you have confidence sending your loving child, grandchild, godchild, niece, or nephew to school
to be taught by a teacher dressed as you are?
Even criminals have a clear sense of the nonverbal messages people give out. In an eye-opening experiment,
groups of convicted muggers were shown videos of people walking along the street. Overwhelmingly, the
muggers picked people who walked slowly, with stooped shoulders, who looked helpless, disheveled, and
downtrodden. They rejected people who walked erect, purposefully, and confidently. These latter people
conveyed the message that they were in control of their lives.
Your dress announces to the world whether you care or do not care about yourself. The entire public can
read this message. As a teacher, which of the two statements do you make?
1. I am one of a group of poor, underpaid, slovenly, dour, and unappreciated people.
2. I am one of a group of professional, proud, devoted, dedicated, responsible, and appreciated people.
This message is also conveyed to your students at your school, as well as to the administration and your
colleagues, many of who find the very casual dress of many educators totally unacceptable.
People in sales, management, and leadership training will all tell you the same thing. By how you behave,
you convey to the world a message of who you are and what you expect of life.
THE EFFECTIVE TEACHER
1. Comes to work appropriately dressed.
2. Comes to teach dressed for success.
3. Is a role model for students.
4. Thinks and acts globally.
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks*******
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks*******
CHAPTER 9
How to Invite Students to Learn
THE KEY IDEA:
There must be people, places, policies, procedures, and programs working together to invite people to
realize their fullest potential.
Invitational Education
Effective teachers have the power and the ability to invite students and colleagues to learn together
each day in every class.
The parents of 25 out of 30 students came to Back-to-School Night! Cindy Wong, a teacher in San Jose,
California, sent an invitation home with each of her students. She also had her students copy a letter and leave
it on their desks, along with a paper crane and a personal letter for their parents. They were so excited to tell
their parents about a “special” surprise awaiting them. Some parents explained that their children said they
just had to come to get their presents! This resulted in 25 out of 30 students being represented at Back-toSchool Night.
Click to read the Sidebar story: Parent and Student Letters
Cindy Wong then asked each parent to write a note to his or her child and leave it on the desk. The students
couldn’t wait to come to school the next day to find their surprises on their desks. What an invitation!
The Basis of Being Inviting
The basis of being inviting is building relationships.
The effective teacher builds relationships with the parents. Invite parents to be partners in unleashing the
potential of their children. Refer back to Chapter 7 to see how schools invite parents and children to school
before the first day of school.
The effective teacher is deliberately inviting. We all like to be invited to go shopping, to attend a party, to join
a group. Most of us have the common courtesy to greet people at the door, exchange pleasantries when
introduced to others, and offer food or drink to a visitor. These are all obvious, expected, and practiced.
These same concepts should be practiced in the classroom at all grade levels.
Walk around and see if your classroom is inviting. What’s a student’s or visitor’s first impression?
Is the door clearly marked?
Are welcome and information signs posted?
Are signs written in jargon?
Is the first assignment clear and understandable?
Are there clues that show you care for young people?
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks*******
The effective teacher is committed to seeing all people as able, valuable, responsible, and possessing
untapped potential in all worthwhile areas of human endeavor.
The person who is asked or complimented is INVITED. The person who is not asked or complimented is
DISINVITED. This concept was formulated by William W. Purkey and is known as invitational education.
(Purkey, William W., and John Novak. (1996). Inviting School Success. Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth; Purkey,
William W., and Betty L. Siegel. (2003). Becoming an Invitational Leader. Atlanta: Humanics Trade Group.)
Click to read the Sidebar story: Why Was I Not Invited?
Click to read the Sidebar story: Success Is Easy
I have come to a frightening conclusion.
I am the decisive element in the classroom.
It is my personal approach that creates the climate.
It is my daily mood that makes the weather.
As a teacher I possess tremendous power to make a child’s life miserable or joyous.
I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration.
I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal.
In all situations it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated, and a
child humanized or dehumanized.
Haim Ginott,
Teacher and Child. (1976).
Avon Books.
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks*******
Even the outside of the classroom door contributes to creating a welcoming, invitational atmosphere.
You Are a Significant Person
Invitational education states that all individuals have significant people in their lives. These include
teachers, leaders, mentors, colleagues, bosses, parents, relatives, coaches, administrators, spouses, and close
friends. Everyone is special.
Students are influenced more by the depth of your conviction than the height of your intelligence. The goal is
changing students, not to your way of thinking, but to your way of feeling.
Students can refuse words, but they cannot refuse an invitational attitude.
The invitational messages that are extended exist in the minds of the significant people who influence
the lives of other people.
Effective teachers have the power and the ability to invite students and colleagues to learn together each
day in every class. Attentiveness, expectancy, attitude, enthusiasm, and evaluation are the primary forces
behind a teacher’s being inviting or disinviting. These are the characteristics that significantly influence a
student’s self-concept and increase or decrease the probability of student learning.
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks*******
Click to read the Sidebar story: Special Value
“You are important to me as a person.”
This is the message that we all need to convey to our students and our colleagues every day.
Every teacher, every professor, every educator ought to spend time in a kindergarten or first-grade class each
year just to look at and feel the excitement there. Children get excited about everything in the world. All the
world is their stage, and there is nothing they cannot do, even though they cannot read, write, or spell. Yet they
are ready to do anything you want them to do.
Then look at their teachers. They know their charges cannot read, write, spell, or even speak correctly. Some
of these students do not even know how to eat, use the bathroom, or hang up their jackets without help. Yet
these teachers do not complain that they have a bunch of low achievers. Instead, their classrooms and their
demeanors sparkle with invitational attitudes toward learning, treating everyone as high achievers.
Click to read the Sidebar story: Everyone Is a VIP
Click to read the Sidebar story: If Only the Finest Birds in the Forest Dared Sing, How Quiet the Forest
Would Be
The Four Levels of Invitational Education
There are four levels of invitations that are issued to students. These levels can determine your effectiveness
as a teacher.
1. Intentionally Disinviting. This is the bottom level at which a few curmudgeonly teachers operate. They
deliberately demean, discourage, defeat, and dissuade students. They use expressions like these:
“Why do you bother coming to school?”
“I’ve only given one A in the 16 years that I’ve been teaching.”
“You will never amount to anything.”
And they never smile.
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks*******
2. Unintentionally Disinviting. Some teachers are oblivious to the fact that they are negative people. They
feel that they are well-meaning but are seen by others as chauvinistic, condescending, racist, sexist,
patronizing, or thoughtless. They make comments like these:
“I teach only students who want to learn.”
“If you don’t want to learn, that’s your problem.”
“These people just don’t have the capacity to do any better.”
“I was hired to teach history, not to do these other things.”
And they keep their arms folded when interacting with students.
3. Unintentionally Inviting. These are the “natural-born teachers.” Such teachers are generally well-liked
and effective but are unaware of why they are effective. They are usually affable, and this characteristic
often hides the fact that their students may not be learning to their fullest potential. These teachers are
sincere, they try very hard, and we generally like to have them as friends. They offer remarks like these:
“Aren’t you sweet!”
“Charge! Let’s go, team!”
“That’s neat.”
“Just try harder.”
And they bubble with excitement.
4. Intentionally Inviting. Intentionally inviting teachers have a professional attitude, work diligently and
consistently, and strive to be more effective teachers. They have a sound philosophy of education and can
analyze the process of student learning. Most important, they are purposively and explicitly invitational.
They know what it means to be invitational, and they work at it. They say things like this:
“Good morning. Have a great day.”
“If you try this, you’ll be sensational.”
“I know that someday you will be the best at…”
“Would you like to help me?”
They also use the proper emotion at the appropriate time.
Effective teachers know how to open the door and invite their students to learn.
When you apply the power of POSITIVE EXPECTATIONS and INVITATIONAL EDUCATION, you
become a very powerful and effective teacher.
Click for GoBe folder information: You’re Invited
THE EFFECTIVE TEACHER
1. Has an inviting personality.
2. Creates an inviting classroom environment.
3. Works at being intentionally inviting.
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks*******
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks*******
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks*******
CHAPTER 10
How to Increase Positive Student Behavior
THE KEY IDEA:
The heart of education is the education of the heart.
Five Significant Concepts
When you look at truly effective teachers, you will also find caring, warm, lovable people.
Effective teaching is all about teacher-student relationships. The easiest way to build relationships with
students is to use a well-managed classroom where students are on task, allowing you to spend one-to-one
time with them. Students, parents, teachers, everyone thrives on connections.
Students need role models. Students need heroes they can look up to—someone to connect with—and that
someone can be a teacher. The success of a person’s journey through life can be influenced by the significant
people with whom we make connections. Significant people understand and use five significant concepts that
help people achieve whatever they want in life. These concepts are addressing a person by name, saying
“please” and “thank you,” smiling, and showing care and warmth.
The Five Significant Concepts
That Enhance Positive Expectations
1. Name
2. Please
3. Thank You
4. Smile
5. Love
Address Each Student by Name
Effective salespeople employ a very simple but valuable technique. They find out your name, introduce
themselves to you, and then use your proper name every 7 to 10 sentences when they talk with you. Why?
When you address someone by name, you are treating that person with dignity and respect.
Your name is very important. It identifies and dignifies you. Other people in the world may have the same
name as yours, but as far as you are concerned, you are the only person in the world with your name. It is a
name that you can easily hear called above the din of a crowd. And when you hear your name, you pay
attention. Salespeople know this when they use your name. You pay attention. You pay attention because you
are important!
Effective teachers use names, especially when they want a student to do something or behave in a certain way.
When you address a student, use the student’s name.
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks*******
Use a student’s name in a friendly, respectful manner. Never address a student in an angry or condescending
tone. This is a put-down of a person’s identity and dignity.
Pronounce the student’s name correctly. A person’s name is precious and personal. It is that person’s
property. It is imperative that students hear the correct pronunciation of names. Failure to do so will tell the
students they do not have to respect each other’s names and as a result can tease, mock, and make fun of each
other’s names.
When you use a person’s name, you are saying to that person, “You are important. You are important enough
for me to identify you by name.”
When you use a person’s name, you are saying, “I care enough to know who you are.”
People in our culture are starved for attention.
The average child receives an estimated 12 minutes of attention each day from his or her parents.
By age 18, most Americans have spent more time in front of the television than they have with friends or
parents.
The average adolescent spends more than three hours alone every day.
Loneliness is the number one problem of the elderly, many of whom are afraid to venture out of their
homes or apartments.
The Carnegie Foundation surveyed 22,000 teachers.
90 percent said that a lack of parental support was a problem at their schools.
89 percent said that there were abused or neglected children at their schools.
69 percent stated that poor health was a problem for their students.
68 percent reported that some children were undernourished.
100 percent described their students as “emotionally needy and starved for attention and affection.”
Say “Please,” Please
Cultured, polite people can be identified by their manners. The heart of courtesy is respect for persons.
Courtesy and respect convey a message that says, “I am paying attention to you.” The neglect of
courtesy leads to the collapse of community and this can be seen in ineffective schools and classrooms where
people demean one another.
People who neglect to say “please,” even when speaking to children, are teaching impressionable youngsters
that it is all right to bark orders and to run roughshod over the dignity of others. The youngsters may not react
or respond, but they resent the lack of courtesy implicit in such treatment.
When you fail to say “please” and couch your request as an order, you are slowly chipping away at that
person’s freedom and dignity, and many of our children come to school, having been yelled at all day and
night, with none of their freedom and dignity intact.
When you say, “Would you please get me a bottle of glue?” it is in fact shorthand for saying, “If you please—if
it gives you pleasure—get me a bottle of glue.” You are asking the person not only to help but also to feel
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks*******
kindly toward you. “Please” is an acknowledgment of that kindness. When you say “please,” you are in effect
saying, “I respect you and your kindness and your worth as a human being.”
Kindness begins with the word please.
Cultured, polite, and well-mannered people automatically use the word please. They have learned
appropriate behavior.
Repetitive use of the word please is important if a child is to learn to use the word please in his or her
life.
Please is usually used when you ask someone to do something for you. Thus the most effective way to
use please is to precede the word with the person’s name, as in “Trevor, please…”
Consider adding the word please to instructions on your worksheets, assignments, and other papers that
you distribute in class.
Click to read the Sidebar story: Repetition Is the Key
I Really Appreciate What You Did, “Thank You”
You really cannot use please without using thank you. The two just go together. Not using the two together
would be like having a knife without a fork, a belt without a buckle, a letter without an envelope. When you
say “thank you,” you are acknowledging that someone did something kindly for YOU and not because you
ordered THEM to do it.
“Thank you” says to others that you appreciate their effort and kindness. If you have expectations that
students will work hard and will learn to be kind, then saying “thank you” is your way of acknowledging they
have been kind and diligent and that you appreciate what they have done for you.
Thank you is the perfect transition; it paves the way to the next request, lesson, activity, or task in class.
It makes whatever you want done next much easier.
The most effective way to use thank you is to use it with the person’s name: “I truly appreciate what you
did. Thank you, George” or “George, I truly appreciate what you did. Thank you.”
Consider adding the words thank you to instructions on your worksheets, assignments, and other papers
that you distribute in class.
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks*******
Click to read the Sidebar story: Please, No “No Problem.” Thank You!
A Smile, the Frosting on the Cake
If you truly want to achieve maximum effectiveness when you use a person’s name and say “please” and
“thank you,” SMILE. It requires no effort and is even easier than frowning. Smiling uses far fewer muscles
than frowning and hence is less tiring to do. But like using please and thank you, smiling is a behavioral trait
that is learned.
A smile is like that sprig of parsley on the dinner plate, the extra pat on the back when a job has been done
well, or the extra hug that says, “I really love you.” It’s the frosting on the cake, the little lagniappe that sets
you apart. It communicates three things:
1. You are a person who knows the ultimate of hospitality and graciousness.
2. You have that little extra bit of polish or panache that marks you as a cultured person.
3. You feel good about yourself and want others to feel good about themselves, too.
Click to read the Sidebar story: Our Business
A smile is the universal language of understanding, peace, and harmony. If, indeed, we want the next
generation to have a world of peace and understanding, we need to teach its sign—a smile.
A smile is the most effective way to create a positive climate, to disarm an angry person, and to convey the
message, “Do not be afraid of me; I am here to help you.”
There is no need for a great big smile; a controlled, slight, disarming smile is all you need.
Accompany the smile with the name of the person.
As you smile and speak, use momentary pauses. This is called timing. Every performer knows that the
key to delivering a speech, telling a joke, or giving a performance is timing. This is the pregnant pause
before speaking an important or emotional line or the punch line.
“A smile is a light to tell people that your heart is connected with theirs.”
Lynn Birdsong
Howard County Public Schools, Maryland
Technique for Smiling, Speaking, and Pausing
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks*******
Step 1. SMILE. Smile as you approach the student, even if your first impulse is to behave harshly toward the
student.
Step 2. FEEDBACK. Observe the reaction to your smile. Are you receiving a smile in return, or at least a
signal that the student is relaxing and receptive to your approach?
Step 3. PAUSE. (Timing, timing.)
Step 4. NAME. Say “Nathan” with a slight smile.
Step 5. PAUSE.
Step 6. PLEASE. Add “please,” followed by your request. Do this in a calm, firm voice, accompanied by a
slight, nonthreatening smile.
Step 7. PAUSE.
Step 8. THANK YOU. End with “Thank you, Nathan” and a slight smile.
Example:
Nathan, please stop talking to Joey and get to work on your assignment. Thank you, Nathan. (Slight smile.)
Practice this in a mirror, over and over again.
It All Adds Up to Love
Only two things are necessary for a happy and successful life: being lovable and being capable. The
effective teacher never stops looking for ways of being more and more capable.
Click to read the Sidebar story: There Will Never Be a Shortage of Love
When you look at the truly effective teachers, you will also find caring, warm, lovable people. Years
later, when students remember their most significant teachers, the ones they will remember most are the ones
who really cared about them. Effective teachers know they cannot get a student to learn unless that student
knows the teacher cares.
Ineffective teachers think all they have to do is offer a product, as in “I was hired to teach history” or “I was
hired to teach third grade.”
Effective teachers offer more than a product; they offer a service, too. Effective teachers can help
students learn as well as enhance the quality of their lives. They offer this service consistently because
they are practicing this same belief on themselves as they increase their own effectiveness in life.
The sincerest form of service requires no money, no training, no special clothes, and no college degrees. The
sincerest form of service comes from listening, caring, and loving.
Click to read the Sidebar story: Notes in a Lunch Box
Love is the reason for teaching. It costs nothing, yet it is the most precious thing one can possess.
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks*******
You don’t need to tell all the members of a class that you love them, but you certainly can show it. If you
choose to be a significant and effective person in a student’s life, you must demonstrate your care and love
both implicitly through your body language and explicitly through what you say.
When significant people use significant words and actions, they increase the likelihood of eliciting
positive behaviors from other people. Thank you for being a positive role model for your students.
Click to read the Sidebar story: Teachers Do It All
Click for GoBe folder information: We’ll Stand Behind You
“Love is life…And if you miss love, you miss life.”
_Leo Buscaglia
THE EFFECTIVE TEACHER
1. Addresses people by name.
2. Says “please” and “thank you.”
3. Has a controlled, disarming smile.
4. Is loving and caring, lovable and capable.
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks*******
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks*******
Unit C
Second Characteristic _Classroom Management
The effective teacher is an extremely good classroom manager
Chapter 11
How to Have a Well-Managed Classroom
The effective teacher is able to organize a well-managed classroom where students can learn in a taskoriented environment.
Chapter 12
How to Have Your Classroom Ready
Teachers who are ready maximize student learning and minimize student misbehavior.
Chapter 13
How to Introduce Yourself to Your Class
Right or wrong, accurate or not, your reputation will precede you.
Chapter 14
How to Arrange and Assign Seating
Arrange seats for the students to accomplish what you want them to accomplish.
Chapter 15
How to Start a Class Effectively
Have an assignment ready and posted when the students enter the classroom.
Chapter 16
When and How to Take Roll
Simplify the roll-taking process so it does not take away from instructional time.
Chapter 17
How to Maintain an Effective Grade Record System
A grade record book must show the results and progress of each student at all times.
Chapter 18
How to Have an Effective Discipline Plan
Have a discipline plan and then work the plan.
Chapter 19
How to Teach Students to Follow Classroom Procedures
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks*******
A smooth-running classroom is based on the teacher’s ability to teach procedures.
Chapter 20
How Procedures Improve the Opportunity to Learn
Student learning improves in a well-managed classroom.
Unit C is correlated with Part 3: “Discipline and Procedures” and Part 4: “Procedures and Routines” in the
DVD series The Effective Teacher.
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks*******
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks*******
CHAPTER 11
How to Have a Well-Managed Classroom
THE KEY IDEA:
The effective teacher is able to organize a well-managed classroom where students can learn in a taskoriented environment.
The First Thing You Need to Know
Classroom management overarches everything in the curriculum.
Possibly the Most Important Unit in This Book
We have identified the single most important factor that governs student learning. In a study reviewing
11,000 pieces of research that spanned 50 years, three researchers determined that there are 28 factors that
influence student learning and placed them in rank order. (See the chart to the left.) The most important
factor governing student learning is Classroom Management. (Wang, Margaret, Geneva Haertel, and
Herbert Walberg. (December 1993/January 1994). “What Helps Students Learn?” Educational Leadership,
pp. 74–79.) Thus, Unit C may be the most important unit for you.
Click to read the Sidebar story: 28 Factors
The least important factor is the demographics of the student body. That is, race, skin color, gender,
national and religious background, and the financial status of the family are the least important factors that
determine student achievement.
So, once and for all, let’s stop using the demographics or culture of the students as an excuse for the
lack of achievement.
How you manage the classroom is the primary determinant of how well your students will learn. The
First Days of School is based on the following research findings:
Effective teachers have three characteristics:
1. They have classroom management skills.
2. They teach for lesson mastery.
3. They practice positive expectations.
(Good, Thomas, and Jere Brophy. (2007).
Looking in Classrooms. Needham, Mass.: Allyn & Bacon, pp. 8, 9, 12, 47, 71, and 301.)
Classroom management skills are of primary importance in determining teaching success.
(Emmer, Edmund T., Carolyn M. Evertson, and Murray E. Worsham. (2003). Classroom Management
for Secondary Teachers. Boston: Allyn & Bacon; Evertson, Carolyn M., Edmund T. Emmer, and Murray
E. Worsham. (2006). Classroom Management for Elementary Teachers. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.)
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks*******
The number one factor governing student learning is classroom management. (Wang, Haertel, and
Walberg.)
The first day of school is the most important day of the school year. Effective classroom management
practices must begin on the first day of school.
(Brooks, Douglas. (May 1986). “The First Day of School.” Educational Leadership, pp. 76–79.)
Based on these findings, this is a statement of dignity for the teaching profession:
It is the teacher—what the teacher knows and can do—that makes the difference in the classroom.
Effective Teachers Manage Their Classrooms
The fact that you know how to cook a steak does not make you a successful restaurateur. For that, you need to
know about accounting procedures; federal, state, and local regulations; sanitation laws; union agreements;
and worker and customer relationships. How to cook a steak is the last thing you need to know. The first thing
you need to know is how to manage the restaurant.
The fact that you have a college degree in English does not make you an English teacher. The first thing you
need to know is how to have a well-managed classroom and then in Unit D, how to deliver the instruction and
assess for student learning.
Effective teachers MANAGE their classrooms.
Ineffective teachers DISCIPLINE their classrooms.
Students want a well-managed classroom more than the teachers do because it provides them with security in
the classroom that is CONSISTENT. There are no surprises and no yelling in a classroom where everyone—
teacher and students—knows what is happening. Consistency comes from implementing procedures and
routines.
Nothing will send kids into orbit faster than letting them suspect that their teacher is disorganized.
Disorganized teachers think only about presenting lessons, lectures, worksheets, videos, activities—never
management. And when classrooms aren’t managed, they become chaotic and less productive.
Therefore, the most important thing a teacher can provide in the classroom during the first week of
school is CONSISTENCY. Classroom practices and procedures must be predictable and consistent. The
students must know from day to day how the classroom is structured and organized. If they break a pencil
point, they know what to do. If they are tardy, or they need help from the teacher, or they must walk down the
hall, or they need to move from one activity to another, they know what to do. There is no yelling of
instructions.
Think back to Chapter 1 and the student from the high-poverty school in an at-risk community who said,
“I like coming to this school because everyone knows what to do. As a result, no one is
yelling and screaming at us, and we can get on with learning.”
The key word in the student’s statement is “do.” In an effective classroom, the students are responsible for
doing the procedures organized for their learning. In an ineffective classroom, the teacher is constantly
concerned with student behavior.
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks*******
“The aim of education is to provide children with a sense of purpose and a sense of possibility and with
skills and habits of thinking that will help them live in the world.”
_Alice Waters
Click for GoBe folder information: The Edible Schoolyard
What Is Classroom Management?
Classroom management refers to all of the things a teacher does to organize students, space, time, and
materials so student learning can take place.
Brophy and Evertson say, “Almost all surveys of teacher effectiveness report that classroom management
skills are of primary importance in determining teaching success, whether it is measured by student learning or
by ratings. Thus, management skills are crucial and fundamental. A teacher who is grossly inadequate in
classroom management skills is probably not going to accomplish much.” (Brophy, Jere, and Carolyn M.
Evertson. (1976). Learning from Teaching: A Developmental Perspective. Needham Heights, Mass.: Allyn &
Bacon.)
Classroom management skill includes the things a teacher must do toward two ends:
1. Foster student involvement and cooperation in all classroom activities
2. Establish a productive working environment
A well-managed classroom has a set of procedures and routines that structure the classroom. (See
Chapters 19 and 20.) The procedures and routines organize the classroom so that the myriad of activities that
take place there function smoothly and stress free. These activities may include reading, taking notes,
participating in group work, taking part in class discussions, participating in games, and producing materials.
An effective teacher has every student involved and cooperating in all of these activities and more.
Unit C will help you accomplish the dual goals of fostering student involvement and creating a productive
working atmosphere so you can be a very effective teacher. In an effective classroom, there is structure that
provides for an environment conducive to learning. The students are working; they are paying attention; they
are cooperative and respectful of each other; they exhibit self-discipline; and they remain on task. All
materials are ready and organized; the furniture is arranged for productive work; and a calm and positive
climate prevails.
Click to read the Sidebar story: Too many teachers do not teach.
Characteristics of a Well-Managed Classroom
You expect a department store to be well managed. When asked what that means, you would probably list
some of these characteristics:
The store: Its layout, organization, and cleanliness
The merchandise: Its display, accessibility, and availability
The staff: Their management, efficiency, knowledge, and friendliness
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks*******
You could probably do the same for a restaurant, an airline, or a doctor’s office. In fact, you have probably
said more than once, “If I ran this place, I would do things differently.”
Well, since you run a classroom, what is it that you do? It is called classroom management, and the
characteristics of a well-managed classroom are well known. Unit C is devoted to getting you up to speed as
quickly as possible with everything you need to know about how to get your classroom running and organized
for student success.
The Characteristics of a Well-Managed Classroom
1. Students are deeply involved with their work, especially with academic, teacher-led instruction.
2. Students know what is expected of them and are generally successful.
3. There is relatively little wasted time, confusion, or disruption.
4. The climate of the classroom is work-oriented but relaxed and pleasant.
(Emmer, Evertson, and Worsham; Evertson, Emmer, and Worsham.)
******ebook converter DEMO Watermarks*******
Click to read the Sidebar story: It Works So Well, It’s Scary
A Task-Oriented and Predictable Environment
A well-managed classroom has a task-oriented environment where students know what is expected of them
and how to succeed. According to research, most students will make better achievement gains in a wellmanaged classroom.
A well-managed classroom has a predictable environment. Both teacher and students know what to do and
what is supposed to happen in the classroom. Because you have chosen to manage the classroom environment,
you should be able to close your eyes and not only envision learning taking place but also know why it is
taking place.
It is the responsibility of the teacher to manage a classroom and to ensure that a task-oriented and
predictable environment has been established.
THE EFFECTIVE TEACHER
1. Works on having a we…

Calculate your order
275 words
Total price: $0.00

Top-quality papers guaranteed

54

100% original papers

We sell only unique pieces of writing completed according to your demands.

54

Confidential service

We use security encryption to keep your personal data protected.

54

Money-back guarantee

We can give your money back if something goes wrong with your order.

Enjoy the free features we offer to everyone

  1. Title page

    Get a free title page formatted according to the specifics of your particular style.

  2. Custom formatting

    Request us to use APA, MLA, Harvard, Chicago, or any other style for your essay.

  3. Bibliography page

    Don’t pay extra for a list of references that perfectly fits your academic needs.

  4. 24/7 support assistance

    Ask us a question anytime you need to—we don’t charge extra for supporting you!

Calculate how much your essay costs

Type of paper
Academic level
Deadline
550 words

How to place an order

  • Choose the number of pages, your academic level, and deadline
  • Push the orange button
  • Give instructions for your paper
  • Pay with PayPal or a credit card
  • Track the progress of your order
  • Approve and enjoy your custom paper

Ask experts to write you a cheap essay of excellent quality

Place an order