Behaviour and Relationships

When I first started teaching there was an old saying “Don’t smile until Easter” Those days have gone but the sentiment remains good practice.  Establish your routines, build your relationships, create and sustain your expectations. We have spent the first week doing just this. This week we look at Positive Framing as a context for our strategies to develop high expectations.

Establish Your Expectations

We should have these already well established. Review them and make sure the students are clear on them.

Affirm positive response first

Always look for the person meeting your expectation first and affirm their actions before identifying students not responding in the expected manner. This reinforces the message about the behaviours you want.

Frame Correction as Positive Reinforcement

Instead of saying “stop talking and turn around” you say “I’d like you both to looking this way and listening thank you”. Nearly all corrective statements can be framed positively

Give the benefit of the doubt

Instead of engaging with accusations and denials, skip apportioning of guilt and emphasise what you want to happen. “Louise, I need you to focus on the task now, thank you” and the student argues “but I wasn’t talking, I’m not disturbing anyone”.  Here is the opportunity to give the benefit of the doubt and skip to your outcome. “Oh Ok, maybe you weren’t but I need you to really focus and complete this work now”

Assume Confusion over Defiance

Another form of positive framing is to feign confusion instead of issuing a challenge. “I wonder if this group did not quite hear the instructions”.  When a group is off task and they need to be redirected.