by John Killelay.
Fortunately, I rarely use ‘the book’ now, however I have been driven to it by a very challenging year 10 class. Many of you will know the sort. A low ability group, a great number of students known for their behaviour across the school and far more personality clashes than anyone would like.
I have taught the group for nearly 2 years now, and it’s like an attendance dependent rollercoaster. I can guarantee what the behaviour, and therefore the progress will be like as soon as I’ve checked the register before the lesson (a habit I need to get out of). I feel like no matter what approach I tried, it was ineffective, as the following lesson different students were absent, so the entire dynamic shifts. Battling persistent lateness, arguing and calling out, as well as more serious incidents and mainly teaching in the afternoon it felt like it’s was a failure waiting to happen each time they lined up outside.
I have, for this reason, begun using what the students are now calling ‘the book’. It’s an exercise book, nothing fancy by the way.
I now start every lesson by recapping my absolute minimum expectations, the main issues I have in that class. Students as a whole are reminded that failing to meet any of these expectations will result in going in ‘the book’. Simply put, whatever the behaviour infraction, I will pause the lesson temporarily, walk to my desk, and write down the students name, the level of sanction, and the reason, whilst reading it aloud to the student. This helps when recording later on PARS, and having discussions with parents & Heads of Houses.
All year I have recorded sanctions on the whiteboard, but this has had minimal effect as students feel like I will just rub it off or forget why each phase was given, and then use this to argue out of a situation. Because ‘the book’ makes poor behaviour so intrusive on the whole lesson, in that I stop the learning briefly to explain each and every sanction, students are very rapidly starting to raise their standards and meet my expectations.
Opponents to the idea may argue that stopping the learning for each sanction has a detriment on all students around, however, as time passes I predict the use of ‘the book’ will need to be less frequent, and as such will impact greatly over time. I would sooner lose a few minutes of learning time now than major quantities of time every lesson for the next year.
The idea is nothing new, it was shared with me during my PGCE year, but it has had nothing but a positive impact on the learning environment and progress in the classroom with this group. I encourage you to give it a go with your most challenging groups and see how you benefit from it.