Classroom Management

Mr. Everett teaches a class of first-grade students with very mixed ability levels. Based on the flexible grouping model, what would be the most appropriate way to group students?

A mix of homogeneous and heterogeneous groups of varied sizes.

According to B.F. Skinner, what is an example of a positive reinforcement?

A reward is offered; a desirable behavior increases.

What problem would be least appropriate to utilize a student-teacher contract as a solution?

A student punches another student out of frustration on the playground. **this should be escalated and dealt with according to district and campus policy**

A teacher gives a sticker to a second-grade student with an emotional disability each time he uses polite words or raises his hand. At the end of the day, he can trade in his stickers for a prize. What behavioral strategy is the teacher using?

A token-reward system.

What is not a requirement when developing cooperative group work?

All students must have their own supplies. **having enough supplies for all groups is important, but learning to share resources in one of the benefits of group work**

What strategy best ensures a teacher will establish clear behavior guidelines?

Allow students to participate in the creation of classroom guidelines. **more likely to understand and follow them, as there is a sense of ownership among the class about the guidelines**

During class, some students are assigned to work at centers, others independently at desks, and the remaining students that need remediation are in a small group. The teacher wants to ensure that all students are on task and able to complete work in the complex learning environment. How can the teacher set up the classroom to best accomplish this goal?

Arrange the small group in a corner with the teacher so that the teacher is facing the classroom and can periodically scan the room. (NOT Set up barriers with bookshelves to separate the work centers, the independent desk work area, and the small group to prevent distractions)

An at-risk student has had multiple absences and tardies over the past month. What is the most appropriate way to help this student?

Ask the student if there is something preventing them from being at school and offer resources to overcome the obstacle. **helps the student learn to identify the problem and resources to solve it**

During a science lab, students are misusing materials intentionally. To determine if the behavior is content-related, the teacher should:

Ask the students questions to connect the lab to concepts taught in class. **will refocus the students and help the teacher understand if the behavior is content-related - do the students not understand what to do, or are the deliberately misbehaving**

A second-grade teacher would like to help her students develop their interpersonal skills. What activity would be best suited to meet the teacher's goal?

Assign a project in which each student has a specific role to fulfill for the group. **requires students to successfully work together to meet common goal, which requires interpersonal communication skills**

Within a classroom, a teacher is planning to use ability-grouping for math instruction. To minimize potential negative effects, the teacher should:

Be willing to rearrange groups based on their specific learning needs. **flexible groups keep students from viewing one group as better than others and grouped based around the activity** (NOT have set groups with neutral names to ensure there is not an indicator of level because they can still determine the level of each group with neutral names)

A teacher works with the student to develop a plan that outlines expected language and behaviors, consequences for inappropriate language and behaviors, and rewards for demonstrating appropriate language and behavior. The plan that is developed is individualized for this student. This strategy is an example of what?

Behavior contract. **developed for the student and outlined rewards and consequences**

Students finish a task a different times and the students who finish early start chatting with one another at their desk as they wait for their classmates to finish. After 10 minutes, when all the students have finished, the teacher reviews the answers. What training might the teacher benefit from?

Classroom time management. **teacher should begin reviewing the answers after most students have finished the task. The students who have not finished can stop where they are to review**

The teacher notices her class is much more engaged with the content during the activity but has difficulty defining roles within groups and working collaboratively. In a future lesson, what should the teacher do?

Create roles within groups and have the class create group norms before beginning. **teacher is building a framework for successful social interaction among students which can lead to positive peer relationships**

What has been proven to promote a child's sense of safety and security?

Creating a predictable daily routine.

A teacher has chosen to group students homogeneously. What might the teacher be trying to achieve in grouping the students in this way?

Differentiation to work on a skill. **best way to focus on the lesson on the area in which each student needs the most practice** (NOT collaboration toward a shared goal because heterogenous groups are more commonly used when collaborating towards a shared goal)

A first-grade class is working outside in the school garden, and the teacher notices most of the students want to work on the same five plants. Many students are starting to argue and take garden tools away from each other. Which of the following approaches should the teacher take to increase students' interpersonal skills?

Engage students in a class discussion about possible solutions for their disagreements. **help the students learn to work together and develop their interpersonal skills** (NOT put students in groups and assign each group to a different section of the garden because the key word was interpersonal skills)

Carmen is a third-grade student who routinely answers the teacher's questions without being called upon by the teacher. This is detrimental, as other students are not given the ability to participate because of Carmen speaking out of turn. What is the best option to ensure Carmen develops the patience to wait to be called upon by the teacher?

Establish a consequence for each time Carmen speaks without being called upon and consistently enforce the consequence. **Carmen needs to be aware she is not in charge of the class and that she needs to be respectful of her peers. Establishing a consequences conveys to Carmen and the class that such behavior is not acceptable** (NOT discuss with Carmen the importance of class participation and her role in allowing her peers to participate in class because it places her in a position of authority over the other students, as she can dictate when the students participate and when they do not)

Second-grade students are placed in heterogenous groups. Teacher notices that when she does this, the same students always take control and do the majority of the work. What can the teacher do to stop this from happening?

Give clear roles and responsibilities to each student in a group. **good way to manage student behavior in groups and ensures that everyone in the group has a clearly defined job**

A teacher overhears a conversation between two children during center time. J'Mari: "I don't want you to play with me!" Emily: "But I want to play with the blocks too!" In this situation, what should the teacher do?

Give options to the two students, such as playing in different areas of the center or choosing a collaborative activity together. **teacher is engaging the student's executive functioning skills and helping them grow in their social/emotional skills**

Following an exploratory science activity outside, a prekindergarten teacher transitions her class into center time. The students are having issues with sharing, begin arguing, and are moving constantly from center to center. What strategy can the teacher use to redirect her classroom?

Have all of the students pause what they are doing and quietly review the expectations for center time. **teacher is modeling appropriate volume and providing effective group management**

Before the start of her first year of teaching, a sixth-grade teacher with multiple class periods decides to survey her peer teachers for ways to organize her classes so that appropriate routines and procedures are effective during group work. The experienced teachers offered several suggestions. What would be the best way to address this important need?

Have desks put together in groups of six, and provide labeled color-coded baskets in which each class period is to submit their assignments. **best answer choice since it sets the tone for collaborative learning and the expectations for behavior from the beginning** (NOT place group supplies in a centralized location in the classroom because it makes it appear that students are not expected to bring their own supplies. If a teacher provides the materials at the beginning of the year, students will expect this to be the norm)

According to Maslow's theory of the hierarchy of needs, a person cannot achieve a sense of belonging without first:

Having their safety needs met.

Specific, teacher-assigned roles would be most effective for elementary students working:

In lab groups.

What does group work in the classroom not do?

Increase student feeling of autonomy.

A teacher finds that much of class time is spent responding to student requests for bathroom breaks and asking students to quiet down. These interruptions disrupt the classroom routine and take time away from instruction. What could the teacher do to ensure her instructional time is not lost to these interruptions?

Instruct students to use and follow nonverbal cues. **point to a bathroom sign before getting up to leave the room & teacher turning off the lights to signify that class needs to quiet down can be used to limit class disruptions and manage time more effectively** (NOT allot specific times in the class period for breaks because this also takes away from class time)

In planning a morning schedule for kindergarten students, what guidelines should the teacher take into account?

Instructional activities should be balanced between allowing students to be active during instruction and requiring students to be still and listen.

The student's teacher has chosen to reward the student for raising her hand but does not provide a reward on each occasion when the student raises her hand. What is this an example of?

Intermittent reinforcement.

A seventh- grade teacher decides to create a system where each disciplinary infraction results in the class earning a checkmark. If, at the end of the week, the class has below a certain number of checkmarks, they receive a class-wide reward. This classroom management strategy is likely to be a success because:

It creates an incentive for students to behave to meet the approval of their peers. **this will cause students to hold each other accountable; students at the seventh-grade level have a high desire to conform to their peers and if their peers wish to obtain a reward, they will not want to be singled out in a negative way for hindering their peers' goal**

Which of the following expresses how a behavioral theorist views learning?

Learning occurs as a result of processing information and making associations between stimuli and responses.

A first-grade teacher spends much of the first week practicing routines and procedures. Part of the practice is learning specific behaviors for transitioning between activities. What is the primary goal for this routine?

Maximizing time on-task for the class throughout the year.

Mr. House has a behavior board in his second-grade class. At the end of the day, students get a 1-5 (5 being the best) score based on their behavior for the day. If the student has 23 points or higher at the end of the week, they will earn a reward; if they have less than 23 points, they will not. What theory does this technique reflect?

Operant conditioning. **developed by Skinner

A kindergarten teacher notices students are very animated and have difficulty settling down after lunch and recess. What step could the teacher take to help students refocus for instructional time?

Play calming music for students while they lay their heads down on their desk. **this provides an accommodating setting for behavior expectations and refocus them on classroom instruction**

What situation is a teacher using proximity as a preventative measure for classroom management?

Preferential seating assignments for students easily distracted or off task. **this is a preventative measure allowing the students to be placed near the source of instruction** (NOT standing near two students talking because that is reactive rather than preventative)

What responses would be best to manage minor incidents of inappropriate classroom behavior in a ninth grade classroom?

Preventing problems before they occur, if possible, and immediately addressing any incidents. **a teacher should seek to establish control in a classroom by preventing incidents before they happen** (NOT praising students who are engaged in appropriate behavior whenever another student is observed engaged in negative behavior because this type of reaction works well with elementary students but is unlikely to have the same effect on high school students)

A first-grade teacher writes out the daily class schedule on the board and places large pictures of the activity next to it. By displaying the schedule, the teacher is:

Providing all students with a means to independently prepare for transitions and activities.

A student has been acting silly and disrupting class lately. She needs frequent reminders to be on task and it is impacting her academic progress. What is the most appropriate first action in response to these behaviors?

Setting up a student-teacher conference. **allows the student to reflect on the impact of their behavior before there are more severe consequences. Also allows the teacher to determine the causes of the behavior**

What classroom practices best models Eric Erikson's behavioral theory?

Students are given differentiated assignments that allow them to succeed often. **focused on individuals accomplishing tasks during different phases in life (Stages of Development)**

A teacher often uses flexible grouping with her second-grade class. What reasons might the teacher choose to group her students homogeneously for a task?

Students differ in their preferred method of accessing content (e.g. reading, listening, watching videos, etc.).

What describes a significant problem that will result from a teacher failing to establish a classroom routine at the start of each class?

Students will have difficulty focusing on learning at the beginning of class. **consistent classroom routine increases engagement**

A kindergarten teacher observes the following conversation between two students at the kitchen center. Marcus: (Loudly) Hey! I was playing with that! Jose: You have some food. I want this pot! Marcus: I was here first! You're stealing. I'm telling! Jose: (Yelling) You're mean and I'm not your friend anymore! What step should the teacher take to alleviate this situation?

Teach students how to talk calmly and agree on what to play together. ** teaches students to develop their negotiation skills and learn how to resolve the problem on their own in the future**

On the first day of class, Mrs. Patterson wants to ensure she creates the best classroom environment for her third-grade students. One of the first things she should convey to the students is:

The classroom rules and procedures, letting them know she expects each student to follow the rules.

How might a teacher create an inclusive, safe, and orderly learning environment for all students?

The teacher should design collaborative group and team building activities to promote a learning environment inclusion for all students so they feel a sense of belonging and safety.

What is the greatest educational benefit of using collaborative learning groups and active learning activities in the classroom?

These methods address a variety of learning styles and allow students to take ownership of their learning.

Students in Mr. Miller's class are given stickers for high grades and positive behavior, while they lose recess time and must redo poor work or practice better behavior if needed. This is an example of which theorist's ideas?

Watson. **learning theory is based on rewards and punishments (Behaviorism)**