Classroom Climate

Grouping Students for Instruction

Technical Support

Support Personnel

Physical Setting

 

 

Establishing a positive classroom climate enhances academic achievement and helps to promote appropriate classroom behaviour.

Classroom Atmosphere

• Foster a classroom atmosphere of trust, cooperation, empathy and risk taking.
• Model positive attitudes, respectful behaviour, helpful conversation and constructive actions.
• Do not permit ridicule, sarcasm, or superiority to exit in your classroom.
• Promote healthy relationships and value all students.
• Give students opportunities to share their experiences and learning with each other.
• Help others to view to your students positively and to treat them well.
• Use humor.
• Use a variety of instructional strategies and activities to maintain student interest in learning and to accommodate student differences.
• Teach problem solving, conflict resolution and/or social skills.
• Show students how to build on strengths and compensate for weaknesses.
• Model and teach students to accept and learn from mistakes.
• Emphasize improvement rather than perfection.

Classroom Management

• Establish a classroom Discipline Plan
  • Involve students in creating and establishing guidelines for acceptable behaviour.
  • Student input promotes a sense of ownership, increasing the likelihood of following the rules.
  • Student participation draws attention to personal iner values and control that promotes selfregulation of behavior.
  • Encouragement of student opinion regards students as moral thinkers and problemsolvers who value and respect others.

 

• Steps in Developing a Discipline Plan

• Compose a collective list of no more than five or six expectations, stated positively. (E.g. "Be on time." is more effective than "Don't be late."
• Encourage clear, concise and sensible contributions to the list. (E.g. "Bring your things to class." is more specific than "Be prepared."
• Brainstorm and compile student's views about reasonable and logical consequences for the purpose of maintaining firmness with fairness and not solely for punishment.
• Post the list in a prominent place. Commitment to the plan may be enhanced by inviting the students to sign an individual copy of the plan..
• Revisit and revise the plan as needed.
• Acknowledge students who demonstrate positive behaviours.

Useful Strategies

• Disruptive behaviours
  • When students consistently speak out of turn, use inappropriate language or otherwise disturb classroom activities:
  • Speak to the student privately to reinforce expectations and consequences.
  • Use proximity or eye contact to engage the student when in a large group.
  • Use "timeouts" as a time for selfreflection.
    
    
• Defying Authority, Arguing
  • Avoid confrontations
  • Reinforce positive behavior
  • Provide the student with leadership opportunities such as tutoring or coaching younger students.
  • Apply consequences consistently.
    
    
• Compulsive behaviour
  • Work with the student to develop a method for selfmonitoring.
  • Set up a private signal between you and the student where they are to stop and think before acting.
  • Provide positive reinforcement for appropriate behavior.
  • teach the student to use selftalk to slow down impulsive reactions to situations.

 

• Physically aggressive behaviour

• Speak to the student in private to decrease peer attention which may escalate the behaviour
• Discuss the reason and limits of tolerance of aggression with the student.
• reinforce the idea of the right to personal space.
• Try to determine the cause of the aggressiveness.
• Provide opportunities for positive ways for the student to get attention and status in the school setting.
• Be firm and unemotional when meting out consequences.
  
  
• Defensiveness
  • Draw attention to the positive aspects the student's behaviour or work first.
  • Use a problem solving approach rather than a blaming approach.
  • Avoid overreacting to the student's behaviour.
  • Provide the student with choices so that they accept some responsibility for the solution to the problem.

 

• Attentiveness

• Place student in an area of the classroom where there is a minimum of distractions.
• Seat student near good role models which may have a positive effect on the student.
• Develop a private cueing system which reminds the student to attend to the task.
• Develop an awareness of the student's preferred learning style and plan adaptations to accommodate the student's needs.
• Break time periods into smaller blocks of time or vary the activities to increase attention span.
• Provide a student evaluation sheet at the beginning of the assignment or tasks so the student can see how he is evaluated and can check of components for an assignment as they are completed.
• Pair the student with a peer.
• Teach active listening strategies.
  
  

Organizational Skills

• Organizing materials

  • Provide direct instruction to the student on skills required to manage instructional materials.
  • Encourage the use of color coded folders or notebooks or one main binder to organize notes for classes.
  • At the elementary level designate specific storage areas where student materials are put for safe keeping between classes.
  • Encourage older students to develop a list of materials needed for each class and post it in their lockrs.
  • Encourage the use of a pencil case or box that is large enough to hold required materials.
    
    
• Completing assignments
  • Break longer tasks into smaller steps with due dates for the various stages of the task or assignment.
  • Make sure the students understand the expectations of the assignment.
  • Display visual aids around the room that show end examples of products and processes fro students to model.
  • Use personal planners or homework books.
  • Monitor progress frequently and keep parents informed about assignment expectations and ways they can help their child at home.
  • Maintain a classroom calendar of assignments and due dates in a prominent place in the classroom that the student can refer to when needed.
• Working independently
  • Establish clear time lines.
  • Talk through steps necessary to complete the task.
  • Break the task down into manageable parts.
  • Provide models of the completed task so the student has an idea of what the completed project might look like.
  • Take advantage of the student's personal productive time during the day.
  • Praise successful experiences to build confidence and selfesteem.
  • Use contracts.

Positive classroom climates that foster a sense of belonging provide an environment which encourages risk taking, allows for cooperation, acceptance of the individual, encourages divergent thinking, promotes appreciation of others, practises empathy, and recognizes the unique contributions that each student make to the group is an effective learning environment.