You have likely read the myriad other essays by teachers announcing the end of the clipchart as behavior management system (this one by a journalist summarizing several teachers' thoughts, is the most succinct and comprehensive one I've read). Here is mine. I write it less as an argument to the reader than as a promise to myself, and by extension, to my students. From the outset of my teaching career, I was opposed to using clip charts or stoplights or color cards. The masters in teaching program I trained in taught the importance of building a community within a classroom, one that honored students' humanity and modeled the more just world that they would go on to create beyond the schoolhouse doors. But I also--like most new teachers--was very bad at setting and reinforcing limits. And when I couldn't reinforce limits that I'd allowed students to stretch and bend and break, I got angry, I yelled. I pleaded. I tried complicated reward systems that I couldn't possibly maintain. At the same time--like most new teachers--I got some great advice, and built up my skill-set, and got better, if not actually good, at managing my students' behavior. And I continued to learn about, and believe in, ways of building up students' intrinsic motivation to be part of the classroom community (especially the Responsive Classroom approach), although I struggled to consistently apply those methods. In 2015 my husband got into law school, so we moved to Connecticut. The literacy coach at my new (current) school mentored me. She helped me reflect on the (lack of) consistency and predictability in my classroom, to set priorities around student behavior and to triage in the interest of the class as a whole. I am very grateful for her coaching. She also insisted that I implement a clip chart. She truly believed that a clip chart would help my students, and even though I didn't believe it, I knew that what I was doing wasn't working. And maybe it did help that group; it certainly helped me impose more order, which had been lacking, and which children need. From October, 2015 through February, 2018, I used the clip chart. These were the positives:
Last week I read Kids First From Day One by Christine Hertz and Kristine Mraz, and I decided I was done doing something that ran directly counter to my ideals. Kids First is a great book, if not a revolutionary one. It collects and summarizes most of my beliefs about teaching, gives some concrete suggestions for how to realize them, and then points the reader to further resources. Here is some of what Kristi & Christine say about building community vs. classroom management: To our thinking, more traditional classroom management moves may seem effective in the short term, but carry long term cost...For too long, schools have emphasized management over instruction-based community building. This works on the assumption that children know how to act as part of a community and choose to do so, or not to do so. In our experience, this is a false assumption. Children show us what they understand constantly, and what can look like misbehavior is most likely a child's best approximation of the skill we are asking for: listening, sharing, problem solving, and so on. And when it is not a child's best approximation, it is usually a child trying to tell us something we aren't hearing any other way... (81) To build a habit, you need to build a neural pathway. Sometimes you need to deconstruct an old neural pathway (I am angry so I hit) before building the new one. Punishment does't really play a role in that cycle. (83) So, I am done with the clip chart.
I told my students that they were mature enough to notice for themselves whether their actions were helping our classroom community or doing damage to it. I reminded them that we know so many ways to solve problems, and that we will keep working on them. I let them know that I still needed them to move my clip. On the front of their folders, where the behavior calendar used to go, my paraprofessional taped a letter explaining those ideas to parents, adding that I would be in more direct (calling and texting) contact about irresponsible behavior. Because even when we had the clip chart, we were, as a community, doing so much of the work that Kristi & Christine and the Responsive Classroom authors describe. We practiced how to solve problems with words, we used reflection pages to decide how to make better choices, we collaboratively wrote charts giving advice for what to do in tough situations. We practiced routines that have gone awry, we set and reflected on goals that will help us grow our brains as much as we can. That is the work that has helped my students to be better community members and more conscientious human beings. That is the work that we will continue. That is the work I believe in.
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AuthorI'm Ms. Howland. I teach first grade in Spanish and English in a transitional bilingual model. Click any photo to learn more!
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