Consequences don't motivate challenging students.

I have given my fair share of consequences to students as an educator over the past 14 years. Rarely, have these been effective at changing the behavior of our most challenging students. Most students with challenging behaviors have been challenging throughout their entire school experience, and yet we continue to impose consequences without teaching them the skills to not be challenging.

A consequence is a common method used to control student behavior. When a student does something that is undesirable, we often let them know through a consequence that the behavior was inappropriate. Consequences work for most kids in school, because most kids have the skills to do well. If our philosophy is, “kids do well if they want to,” then when a kid doesn’t do well, we believe he or she doesn’t want to. Adults often think this is a motivation issue for challenging kids and we need to make the kid want to do well. Consequences rarely motivate challenging students.

As you read this, you might be thinking if we don’t hold challenging students accountable, then how will we prepare them for the real world? I would argue that we aren’t preparing them for the real world if a consequence is our only method to teach them how to behave. We have to teach them the skills to handle different situations and manage their emotions in a productive way. This involves collaborative problem solving between the adult and student. It doesn’t involve imposing adult will, because this is usually ineffective when dealing with challenging students. Kids do well if they can. A kid will do well if he or she has the skills to do well. I am not suggesting that we get rid of consequences, because they have their place in schools. I am merely suggesting that we teach challenging students (a small percentage of the student population) the skills to do well. Using only consequences will not prepare them for their future. We need to identify when challenging behavior typically occurs, what skills are they missing, and teach them the skills that are needed to be successful.

Differentiation is a successful means of reaching a student’s academic needs, why not differentiate based on a student’s behavioral needs as well?

I recommend Lost at School by Ross Greene if you are interested in approaching behavior differently in your school and classroom.

You should read: The Book Whisperer

According to a recent poll by the Associated Press, the average adult read four books in a year. One quarter of those surveyed did not read a book at all. This is a concerning statistic to me. How can we promote literacy to our youth if we are not reading ourselves?

Why are adults not reading more?

Unfortunately, many of the causes may occur at a very early age. We set the stage for a lifelong reader as soon as they exit the womb. Reading to them as an infant through preschool is important to their literacy development. Children begin to develop early language and literacy skills long before they begin talking.

As children get older and enter our formalized school systems, how do we (educators, parents, and support staff) encourage or hinder the development of a lifelong reader? Donalyn Miller, a former classroom literacy teacher and author, recommends embracing reading as a lifelong pursuit and not just a collection of skills for school performance (2009). Take a minute and reflect on how often your child reads for enjoyment. Is their reading only associated with school tasks? This is something we as parents and educators need to reflect on. Reading shouldn’t only be something children do for school, a student’s motivation to read should go beyond school tasks.

We know that interest level is very important for all ages of readers. I think we have all picked up a book at some point in our life and struggled through it, or even quit reading it. Interest level is a touchy subject and challenging to implement. There are literary works that many educators would say are extremely important for all kids to read. The challenge is that not all kids are motivated to read the required text. If students are only reading the classics, then they may never have the opportunity to investigate their own reading interests, and therefore never develop into the reader they could have been.

“Reading has become schoolwork, not an activity in which students willingly engage outside of school” (Miller, 2009, p. 121). 

Miller (2009) recommends schools provide time for independent reading within the classroom and that we should allow students free choice over what they want to read. Whole-class novels take considerable instructional time and no one text can meet the needs of all readers. Fluent readers will speed through, while lower readers may struggle through the text. Each level of reader may end with different levels of comprehension based on their reading level. Some alternatives to whole-class novels are: reading the book aloud to students, or share-read, where students follow along and read silently with the teacher. Both of these methods allow the student to spend their mental effort on comprehending the text.

I think Miller has a valid argument and schools should consider a balance of time spent on reading associated with school tasks, and time spent on independent reading. At the end of the day, when their school experience has completed, we want students to develop into adult readers. Not an adult or child who only associates reading with tasks associated with school.

If you haven’t read The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller, I highly recommend it. There are many strategies embedded in the text that help teachers create a more literacy rich environment.