classroom management assignment pdf

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Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning

Classroom management.

Take a moment to think back to your time as a student and recall some of your favorite courses.  Very likely, those courses were well organized, assignments were clear, lectures and classroom discussions were focused and interesting, and the professor conveyed a passion for teaching and compassion for the students.  How can you create such an environment in your own courses?

Effective classroom management entails meticulous planning but also a readiness to switch gears and move away from the script when necessary; it requires firm control but also a willingness to relinquish that control to take advantage of a teachable moment; it requires leadership but also a sense of compassion and understanding of your students.

Behavior Management ≠ Classroom Management, Education Week

Effective classroom management begins with strong organizational skills—preparing your materials carefully, practicing with the technology, and getting a sense of how to best organize and move around in the room, but that’s not where the planning ends. Consider these techniques as you develop your classroom management style:

Begin to establish an effective environment on the first day of class First impressions are extremely important in setting the tone for the rest of the semester, so plan your first class carefully:

• Introduce yourself. Explicitly state the way you would like to be addressed.
• Consider offering an ice breaker to relax students and encourage interaction.
• Teach something; immediately begin to engage students in the course.
• Take class time to review the syllabus and emphasize important aspects. In fact, use the syllabus to begin building student engagement even  before  you meet with students by ensuring that it articulates learning outcomes, class format, and expected behavior.  During those first few hectic add/drop weeks, students appreciate an instructor who clearly and concisely presents a course overview.
• Expect some students to come in late. They’re getting lost, too!
• Consider setting community rules (e.g., regarding phones, laptops, talking, sleeping, eating, late arrivals, and early departures) with the students; they will appreciate the democratic approach.
• Start learning names right away; anonymity discourages student engagement.  Using props (name cards, photos, index cards), taking attendance (but remember that UConn policy prohibits grading attendance), and handing back papers and homework can help you to connect a name with a face.

Refer to First Day of Class for more information on first class activities and learning students’ names.

Interact with students regularly Consistent interaction will help ensure rapport and reduce classroom management issues:

• Greet students as they enter the classroom
• Chat with them for a few moments—Consider opening class with a brief casual conversation about a current event or something interesting from the homework
• Intersperse lecture with discussion, group work, or video segments to encourage involvement and help students connect the content with real-world events and issues
• Ask questions (giving plenty of wait time) and respond to student comments
• Make eye contact with as many students as possible during class

Be ready to respond to challenges The best way to avoid challenges in the classroom is to anticipate the possibilities ahead of time and plan accordingly.

What will you do if students consistently arrive unprepared? Students spend only about half the time preparing for class as faculty expect. When faculty expect students to study more and arrange class to this end, students are more productive (National Survey of Student Engagement, 2004).

How will you handle disruptive students? Frequently we hear instructors lament the poor behavior of students in the classroom. UConn instructors are not the only ones who are noticing declining classroom courtesy (Schneider, 1998). This decline in courtesy and civility is resulting in frustration for instructors and students alike, reduction in student learning and student retention (Seidman, 2005).

Feldman (2001) characterized four general types of classroom incivility:

• Annoyances;
• Classroom terrorism;
• Intimidation of the instructor; and
• Threats or attacks on a person or person’s psyche.

These four types of incivility range from arriving to class late (annoyances), to monopolizing classroom time with personal agendas (labeled as classroom terrorism by Feldman), to threatening to go to the department chair with complaints or give negative course evaluations (intimidation), to threats of physical violence or even physical attacks. The impact of each of these types of incivility on learning varies greatly but all of these types of incivility can disrupt the learning process.

Be proactive. When it comes to promoting classroom civility, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Expectations for behavior should be included in your syllabus, presented on the first day of class, and revisited as necessary. Along with elaborating on your expectations, the consequences for violating these expectations should be specific and consistently explained and enforced. UConn’s standards should also be included so all students are aware of university policies and what is expected from them as citizens of the university community.

Be specific. Contrary to what you may think and hope some college students have not learned how to behave appropriately in the classroom. Therefore, it is necessary to provide very specific expectations. Rather than telling students to “be respectful,” provide them with examples. Can students disagree with the opinions of others? Can they ask questions while you are lecturing? Can they record your lecture? Alternatively, must they express their dissenting viewpoint or ask questions in accordance to certain expectations? If so, explain what those expectations are expectations.

Be in control. By studying university policies and thinking through possible problems you can develop a plan of action. Although you cannot anticipate all occurrences, you can develop plans that will help in many different instances. Whether the incivility was something you addressed in your syllabus or some type of unexpected incivility, typically, immediate action is necessary to demonstrate that you have control of the classroom. The specific action taken will depend upon the infraction. UConn provides information on student conduct on the website for Community Standards . Incivility should be carefully documented along with how you handled the situation and the student’s response.

Be a model. Your own behavior serves as a powerful representation of how you want students to behavior in the classroom and treat you and their classmates. You cannot demand respectful behavior from students if you are not respectful of them.

How can you encourage students to become engaged? It can be difficult to determine why quiet students are not contributing: Are they shy or introverted by nature, do they suffer from anxiety or depression, or are they simply unprepared? Here are a few ways to tease out discussion:

• Give weekly quizzes, reflection papers or homework: Many students come from a test-laden, grade-driven public school experience, so they may not think that ungraded assignments are important. Connecting preparation to even a minimally graded assignment may dramatically increase students’ motivation to do their homework.
• Clarify concepts and help with problem solving: If you work with material in class, acknowledging students’ ideas and offering valuable feedback, students will come to expect that they need to be prepared.
• Grade class participation: Ask your students to help establish participation expectations in the class, and then grade their contributions to discussion using a rubric, clickers, or other methods.
• Flip the classroom: Instead of using class time to lecture on the reading, establish an expectation that students must read or watch an online lecture before class in order to complete a classroom exercise (which may include group work, a case study, problem-solving, etc.).
• Make expectations clear: Set ground rules for discussion, set criteria and indicators for participation, and model those behaviors. If students appear unaccustomed to discussion, provide scaffolding by assigning roles or specific techniques (Brookfield, 2011).
• Call on students by name: When students sense that they are anonymous, they may not feel compelled to speak; show them that you are aware of them and interested and respectful enough to learn their names.
• Respond positively and encourage elaboration: Learn to reply to student comments in a way that encourages participation. For example, students are more likely to participate when they do not feel threatened in class, so instead of saying, “No, that’s wrong,” you might ask a question that leads students to discover the error on their own. Acknowledge comments by repeating or rephrasing parts and commenting on them directly.
• Introduce active learning exercises: Students who feel too on-the-spot to contribute to whole-class discussion might flourish in small groups, role plays, etc. When possible, offer a variety of ways for students to participate.
• Give think time before expecting students to respond to questions: Some of our best thinkers simply need a little time to collect and articulate their thoughts. Give 10, 15 or even 30 seconds for students to answer tough questions, all the while making eye contact with them (showing that you will wait for an answer). Or ask them to take a few minutes to jot down notes and then ask what they came up with. You can also try think-pair-share exercises: After thinking and jotting notes, students discuss their responses with a nearby peer before sharing with the class.
• Show your enthusiasm: Students will participate more often if their instructors engage actively in the discussion and show that they genuinely value participation.

The first step to getting students engaged is to get them to actually show up for class. Please see our tips on improving student attendance .

Should you post your lectures, slides, in-class materials, etc., online? Weigh the pros and cons, decide on a strategy and then stick with it: Posting class materials can save time, give students more opportunities to interact with the material, and make information accessible to everyone. On the other hand, posting may reduce attendance and class interaction, and it appears to encourage a passive approach to learning. Tips: Remember…Engage, engage, engage!

Don’t let down once the course gets underway. 

• Arouse students’ curiosity
• Convey your passion for the subject
• Make course material relevant
• Assign challenging but achievable tasks
• Give students some control over their learning
• Be available to meet students before and after class and during office hours

Articles referenced above:

Feldman, L. (2001). Classroom civility is another of our instructor responsibilities. College Teaching, 49(4), 137-141.

Schneider, A. (1998). Insubordination and intimidation signal the end of decorum in many classrooms. The Chronicle of Higher Education, (March 27), A12-A14.

Seidman, A. (2005). The learning killer: Disruptive student behavior in the classroom. Reading Improvement, 42, 40-46. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/  docview/62148142?accountid=27975

Berger, B.A. “Incivility.” American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education 64 (4), 2000. Available at: http://archive.ajpe.org/legacy/pdfs/aj640418.pdf

Carbone, E. "Students behaving badly in large classes." New Directions for Teaching and Learning 77, 1999. Available at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/tl.7704/abstract

Flaherty, C. “How not to lose control of a class.” Inside HigherEd; May 2015. Available at: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/05/26/seasoned-educators-weigh-not-losing-control-class

Galbraith M.W. and Jones, M.S. “Understanding incivility in online teaching.” Journal of Adult Education 39(2); 2010. Available at: http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ930240.pdf

Knepp, K.A. “Understanding student and faculty incivility in higher education.” Journal of Effective Teaching 12, 2012. Available at: http://www.uncw.edu/jet/articles/Vol12_1/Knepp.pdf

McKinney, M. “Coping with ‘Oy Vey’ students.” Inside HigherEd 2005. Available at: https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2005/12/19/coping-oy-vey-students

Stewart, M.S. “Cropping out incivility.” Inside HigherEd 2011. Available at: https://www.insidehighered.com/advice/a_kinder_campus/stewart_on_creating_a_more_civil_campus_environment

Tiberius, R., and Flak, E. "Incivility in dyadic teaching and learning." New Directions for Teaching and Learning 77, 1999. Available at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/tl.7701/abstract

Additional resources:

Bain, Ken (2004). What the Best College Teachers Do . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

McGlynn, A.P. (2001). Successful beginnings for college teaching: Engaging your students from the first day of class . Madison, WI: Atwood Publishing.

McKeachie, W. J. and Svinicki, M. (2013) McKeachie's teaching tips : Strategies, research, and theory for college and university teachers. (14 th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

Silberman, M.L. (1996 ). Active learning. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

20-Minute Mentor Tips

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• Teaching Your Course
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9 Chapter 9: Assessment and Classroom Management

Guiding Questions for Chapter 9

• What key terms are associated with assessment and classroom management?
• How do teachers assess student learning, mastery, and achievement?
• How do teachers provide a safe, healthy, and productive learning environment?
• What important principles will guide your assessment and classroom management decisions?

Introduction to Assessment

We begin with a brief history of assessment. . .

Teachers seek basic answers about seemingly simple questions: To what extent have students mastered the lesson, unit, or course objectives? Yet, formulating a plan to answer those questions involves a series of complex decisions.

In this section we introduce you to the purposes, types, terms, and principles of assessment.  In the following section, you will learn about some basic assessment strategies.

Purposes of Assessment

In education, we assess for a variety of purposes. Here are some of the more important purposes of assessment:

• Instructional Purposes
• To diagnose student learning  prior to instruction
• Provide feedback to students
• Make decisions about the curriculum
• M ake decisions about instruction
• Set high expectations
• Public Accountability State testing
• Student Accountability Grading
• Student Placement

Types of Assessments

Teachers choose from a variety of types of assessment.

• Paper and Pencil Assessment (e.g., essay, multiple choice, short answer, fill in the blank, true/false, matching, rearranging, and ranking)
• Performance Assessment (e.g., rubrics, checklists, rating sheets, notes, diaries, story completion and logs)
• Portfolio Assessment

Classroom Level Assessment

Most teachers construct their own assessments–a challenging task.

Read: Fox, Dennis. 2000. “Classroom Assessment Data: Asking the Right Questions.” Leadership 30 (2): 22–23.

Principles of Assessment for Teachers

Finally, every teacher operates from some set of  principles that guide their assessment decisions. Years ago, I committed to paper the principles that guide my assessment decisions.

Dr. Vontz’s Principles of Assessment

• Clearly explain to students how they will be assessed and the criteria that will be used.
• Vary assessment strategies.
• Assess students often.
• Think of assessment as another learning opportunity for students.
• Assessment should clearly align with objectives.
• Assessment decisions should be made with individual students and classes in mind.
• Set high standards for students.
• Assess authentic tasks.
• Help students to become proficient at self-assessment.
• Do not test trivia!

Read: Gathercoal, Paul. 1995. “Principles of Assessment.” Clearing House 69 (September): 59–61.

Terms of Assessment

Teachers, like other professionals, use a particular language to describe various aspects of their work. Some of the most common terms associated with assessment are defined below.

• Assessment . The process of finding out what students know and are able to do—the emphasis is on what is happening now (e.g., to what extent can students write the ABC’s correctly?).
• Evaluation . The process of comparing what is with what ought to be , which normally involves a value judgment (e.g., can students write the ABC’s with no mistakes?).
• Test . A systematic procedure for sampling some aspect of human behavior.
• Measurement . The process of obtaining a numerical description of the extent to which an individual possesses some characteristic.
• Norm-referenced Tests . The results of norm-referenced tests are used to compare one group of students with another group (e.g., Missouri students at grade eight compared to students across the United States at grade eight or I.Q. tests).
• Criterion-referenced Tests . The results of criterion-referenced tests are used to evaluate the extent to which each student’s achievement has met some standard or criteria (e.g., 85% correct).
• Formal Assessment . The formal techniques (e.g., paper and pencil tests, performance assessment, portfolios) teachers use to judge the extent to which students are achieving learning outcomes or objectives.
• Informal Assessment . The informal techniques (e.g., observations, group discussion, questioning, individual conferences) teachers use on a daily basis to judge the extent to which students are achieving learning outcomes or objectives.
• Formative Assessment . This type of assessment is conducted to diagnose learning difficulties and to plan instruction (e.g., a pre-test at the beginning of the year to assess student knowledge of early United States history).
• Summative Assessment . This type of assessment is concerned with evaluating the extent to which students have achieved.
• Authentic Assessment . Assessing students’ ability to perform real world or authentic tasks.
• Scoring Rubric . A rating scale that describes student achievement in relation to some task.  Rubrics are used assess students and to clarify instruction.

Assessment Example

Read: Ende, Fred. 2014. “Every Assessment Tells a Story.” Science Scope 37 (5): 32–37.

Overview of Assessment Strategies

Let’s time travel again: What types of assessments do you recall in elementary, middle, and high school? College? What kinds did you like? What kinds did you find frustrating? What were some of the issues with assessments? Did you always try your best on every assessment? Some more than others? Why?

Back to the present…in your field experiences, notice the types of assessments your cooperating teachers use? To what levels of success?

Let’s examine some of the types of assessment that are available for you to use in your classroom:

No Assessment

Sometimes an activity or lesson does not merit assessment. Perhaps this is because it is connected to another activity that will be assessed, or perhaps it involves something that simply cannot be assessed.

Informal Teacher Observation

At the very least, teachers are always watching and attempting to gauge the extent to which students understand, are engaged, and so on. While these observations will not be reflected in the grade book, they will help shape the instruction and assessments to follow.

Credit/No Credit

Some assignments are not worthy of a critical assessment for quality, but some kind of value must be attached in order to get students to complete the work. Many teachers, therefore, assign credit/no credit status, and award a minimal number of points (e.g., five or ten) for the adequate completion of the assignment. It is usually necessary to provide some sort of standard for students to understand what is required to achieve “credit” (e.g., “show me you took the assignment seriously”).

Self Assessment

The practice of having students assess their own work. Often this is done before the work is submitted for more formal assessment by the teacher.

Holistic Scoring

Holistic scoring has received quite a bit of bad press of late, but it has long been the preferred method of scoring student writing. The instructor simply reads the work to be assessed, makes marginal comments as appropriate, writes a paragraph or so in support of the final grade, and then assigns a grade. Usually, this is a letter grade, as it is easier to rationalize how a paper can be a “B” as opposed to trying to explain what makes a paper an 86. This method is probably most appropriately used to score essay or short-answer portions of examinations.

Objective Tests

Traditional tests or quizzes using questions with answers that are right and answers that are wrong.

Analytic Scoring

Best applied to extended written work, speeches, projects, portfolios, and the like, this method involves creating a rubric based on the important qualities of the assignment. Each trait listed should include descriptors of various levels of performance so that products of different quality can be distinguished from one another. The six-trait, analytic scale is one example of this type of assessment.

Primary-Trait Scoring

Again best applied to extended works, this methods assesses student work on the basis of a single trait. For example, a poem might be scored on the basis of “voice,” or an employment application might be scored strictly on “mechanics.” This type of scoring helps to focus student attention on one quality, and it is effective for measuring the success of instruction in a particular area. Primary-trait scoring is not particularly useful in providing an overall assessment of student work.

A collection of student work, typically scored using a rubric. These collections can be cumulative (e.g., a writing folder containing all student work) or developmental (e.g., selected artifacts collected over time to show growth) or showcase (e.g., the students’ very best work). Typically a portfolio offers a balance of required and optional artifacts. The portfolio itself might be scored using an analytic scoring guide (rubric).

Standardized Tests

Formal tests developed by the government, commercial test makers, or local schools. These exams are used to compare students, teachers, schools, and states against one another; to assess the effectiveness of educational programs; and to plan curriculum and instruction to meet the needs of students. It is worth remembering that these tests provide another measure of the success of classroom activities.

Key Points on Assessment

• Know what you want to test/assess. Just because you’ve reached the end of a unit or a book or an activity doesn’t mean a certain assessment is required. Think about what you want your students to know or be able to do, and then make your assessment (and, of course, your teaching) directly link to that goal.
• Use assessment to see what your students understand. Assessment is a great tool to determine what your students are learning and what you may need to reteach.
• Use assessment to assess your teaching strengths and areas needing improvement. These assessments provide a view of how you’re doing as ateacher.
• Mix it up; don’t use the same type of assessment every time. (Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences should encourage you to give a variety of assessment types so your students have ample opportunities to showcase what they know in a way that takes advantage of their own abilities and strengths.) Allow your students options regarding the type of assessment they can use.
• Document that your content area standards are being covered.
• Don’t assess out of anger. Assessments are valuable, but don’t use them as a classroom management tool or for punishment. As teachers, we need to see assessments as valuable learning tools…so we need to implement them in such a manner, as well.
• Once your students have been assessed, then it’s time for you to grade those assessments and provide meaningful feedback so your students can progress.

Pitfalls of grading

• Not being consistent in what is considered “right” vs. “wrong,” or “good vs. bad.” Students need to know the benchmarks of quality work; show them examples, if possible, and thoroughly discuss your expectations.
• Putting grades in the grade book just to fill space. Quality  of assessments needs to be balanced with quantity of assess ments. Students need multiple opportunities to show what they know, but those opportunities also need to be meaningful.
• Not grading in a timely fashion. It’s easy to be overwhelmed by the responsibility of grading students’ work…and by the volume of grading required. However, students need to receive your feedback fairly soon after having completed the assessment so they will receive the most benefit from your feedback. And that leads us to…
• Not providing enough feedback. Smiley faces are nice, but your students need more details. Provide specific ideas on how they can improve and what they should work on for “next time.”
• Providing too much feedback. Let’s face it, a student who receives a paper that has been bloodied by a red pen isn’t going to be eager to share the next one with you. If a student struggles with an assessment, which should mean he or she is also struggling with your daily class work, provide a few areas that he or she can address, as well as ideas on how to improve in those areas. Don’t overwhelm your students by trying to “fix” everything at one time. Learning, like life, is a continual process.

Note on Designing Rubrics

Performance rubrics are commonly used across disciplines and subjects toclarify expectations and aid assessment. Like most things in teaching, there is an art to constructing a powerful rubric.  Watch the brief introduction below.

Read: “TAME THE BEAST: TIPS FOR DESIGNING AND USING RUBRICS.” States News Service , January 18, 2012 .

Note on Designing Multiple Choice Questions  

Please consider the following excerpts from various essays regarding instrument item construction. We hope you find the short review helpful.

Question Format

A review of the literature suggests that the strongest format is one where the multiple-choice items are prepared as direct questions. This is in contrast to incomplete statements, or clusters of answers such as a and b, b and c, etc.

Lucy Jacobs (IU) offers suggestions for writing multiple-choice items that measure the higher thinking skills. Not all of these will be applicable for concepts such as the social contract, constitutionalism, or rights, but they may stimulate your thinking:

• Present practical or real-world situations to the students. These problems may use short paragraphs describing a problem in a practical situation. Items can be written which call for the application of principles to the solution of these practical problems,or the evaluation of several alternative procedures.
• Present the student with a diagram of equipment and ask for application, analysis, or evaluations, e.g., “What happens at point A if…?” or “How is A related to B?”
• Present actual quotations taken from newspapers or other published sources or contrived quotations that could have come from such sources. Ask for the interpretation or evaluation of these quotations.
• Use pictorial materials that require students to apply principles andconcepts.
• Use charts, tables, or figures that require interpretation.

Multiple-Choice Item-Writing Checklist

Do make sure that:.

• The item assesses important knowledge or skills.
• The question (or stem) presents a clearly formulated problem or question.
• There is only one right answer.
• The “distracters” should be plausible and free of clues that might help students easily eliminate one or more of the incorrect choices.
• The wording of the item clearly conveys the intent of the item and does not present obstacles to the students’ ability to demonstrate what they know.
• Use simple, basic vocabulary.
• Make sure sentence structure in the item is simple—avoid passive voice.
• The item should include only the information needed to answer the question or complete the task.
• Avoid idiomatic language and terms.
• The answer choices should be as brief and simple as possible.
• Always state items and questions in positive terms. Avoid using “negatives” in both the item stem and answer choices.
• All answer choices must be approximately the same in length.
• All answer choices should be similar in complexity and detail. (Avoid making the correct answer overly attractive.)
• Make sure all answer choices are grammatically parallel.
• Verify all answer choices are grammatically consistent with the stem of the item.
• Never use “all of the above” and “none of the above” as answer choices.

BIAS/SENSITIVITY ISSUES

• The item should provide all students with a fair opportunity to demonstrate what they know, regardless of their race, ethnicity, gender, religion, disability, socioeconomic status, or the region in which they live.
• The subject, issue, or theme addressed by the item should not demean or offend.

How To Improve a Multiple Choice Item

• criticizes the mayor in a public meeting.
• slanders another person publicly.
• wishes to speak against the government.
• demonstrates against tax increases.
• criticizing the mayor in a public meeting.
• slandering another person publicly.
• wishing to speak against the government.
• demonstrating against tax increases.
• Pennsylvania
• accelerating slowly
• jammed on the brakes
• hold the wheel firmly
• slowly decelerating
• jamming on the brakes
• holding the wheel firmly
• slowing down gradually
• to maintain peace among the peoples of the world
• to establish international law
• to provide military control
• to form new governments
• to develop a new system of international law
• to provide military control of nations that have recently attained their independence
• to establish and maintain democratic forms of government in newly formed nations

Writing Stems

We will first describe some basic rules for the construction of multiple-choice stems, because they are typically, though not necessarily, written before the options.

1.      Before writing the stem, identify the one point to be tested by that item. In general, the stem should not pose more than one problem, although the solution to that problem may require more than one step.

2.      Construct the stem to be either an incomplete statement or a direct question, avoiding stereotyped phraseology, as rote responses are usually based on verbal stereotypes. For example, the following stems (with answers in parentheses) illustrate undesirable phraseology:

What is the biological theory of recapitulation? (Ontogeny repeats phylogeny) Who was the chief spokesman for the “American System”? (Henry Clay)

Correctly answering these questions likely depends less on understanding than on recognizing familiar phraseology.

3.      Avoid including nonfunctional words that do not contribute to the basis for choosing among the options. Often an introductory statement is included to enhance the appropriateness or significance of an item but does not affect the meaning of the problem in the item. Generally, such superfluous phrases should be excluded. For example, consider:

The American flag has three colors. One of them is (1) red (2) green (3) black

One of the colors of the American flag is (1) red (2) green (3) black

In particular, irrelevant material should not be used to make the answer less obvious. This tends to place too much importance on reading comprehension as a determiner of the correct option.

4.      Include as much information in the stem and as little in the options as possible. For example, if the point of an item were to associate a term with its definition, the preferred format would be to present the definition in the stem and several terms as options, rather than to present the term in the stem and several definitions as options.

5.      Restrict the use of negatives in the stem. Negatives in the stem usually require that the answer be a false statement. Because students are likely in the habit of searching for true statements, this may introduce an unwanted bias.

6.      Avoid irrelevant clues to the correct option. Grammatical construction, for example, may lead students to reject options, which are grammatically incorrect as the stem is stated. Perhaps more common and subtle, though, is the problem of common elements in the stem and in the answer.  Consider the following item:

What led to the formation of the States’ Rights Party? The level of federal taxation The demand of states for the right to make their own laws The industrialization of the South The corruption of federal legislators on the issue of state taxation One does not need to know U.S. history in order to be attracted to the answer, b. Other rules we might list are generally commonsense, including recommendations for independent and important items and prohibitions against complex, imprecise wording.

Writing Options

Following the construction of the item stem, the likely more difficult task of generating options presents itself. The rules we list below are not likely to simplify this task as much as they are intended to guide our creative efforts.

• Be satisfied with three or four well-constructed options. Generally, the minimal improvement to the item due to that hard- to-come-by fifth option is not worth the effort to construct it. Indeed, all else the same, a test of 10 items each with four options is likely a better test than a test with nine items of five options each.
• Construct distracters that are comparable in length, complexity, and grammatical form to the answer, avoiding the use of such words as “always,” “never,” and “all.” Adherence to this rule avoids some of the more common sources of biased cueing. For example, we sometimes find ourselves increasing  the length and specificity of the answer (relative to distracters) in order to insure its truthfulness. This, however, becomes an easy-to-spot clue for the test-wise student. Related to this issue is the question of whether or not test writers should take advantage of these types of cues to construct more tempting distracters. Surely not! The number of students choosing a distracter should depend only on deficits in the content area which the item targets and should not depend on cue biases or reading comprehension differences in “favor” of the distracter.
• Options which read “none of the above,” “both a. and e. above,” “all of the above,” or “etc.” should be avoided when the students have been instructed to choose “the best answer,” which implies that the options vary in degree of correctness. On the other hand, “none of the above” is acceptable if the question is factual and is probably desirable if computation yields the answer. “All of the above” is never desirable, as one recognized distracter eliminates it and two recognized answers identify it.
• After the options are written, vary the location of the answer on as random a basis as possible. A convenient method is to flip two (or three) coins at a time where each possible Head-Tail combination is associated with a particular location for the answer. Furthermore, if the test writer is conscientious enough to randomize the answer locations, students should be informed that the locations are randomized. (Test-wise students know that for some instructors the first option is rarely the answer.)

Excerpted (with permission) from an essay by Jerard Kehoe Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

Classroom Management

One third of all teachers leave the profession in the first three years, and nearly half of teachers leave after five years. These statistics are alarming. Of course, a variety of factors contribute to a person’s decision to leave teaching. One of the most common reasons former teachers provide, however, is problems with classroom management and student discipline. Every day, teachers make scores (a fancy word for 20) of decisions that will impact student learning, behavior, and the environment they are creating with their students. This chapter aims to provide you with some initial insights that will grow with additional experience and practice.

Introduction to Classroom Management

Like other aspects of a teacher’s job, classroom management is complex. There is no script to follow, and many of the most important classroom management decisions arise in the context of actually teaching—there isn’t time to carefully and critically reflect. You cannot ask the students for a timeout so you can consult a textbook, a colleague, or a principal about what to do or say. Being a successful classroom manager requires practical wisdom—doing the right things, for good reasons, in the best ways. This section is an introduction to ideas that you will spend a career refining.

The Goal of Classroom Management

The goal of classroom management is to create, with your students, a safe, healthy, and positive learning environment. Every classroom has a climate, a culture, a “feeling tone.” How would you like your students to describe your classroom? Most teachers would hope their students would say things like: focused, engaged, challenging, fun.

For Starters

Much of what constitutes effective classroom management happens before the school year or semester ever begins. Effective classroom managers are proactive; they tend to think of solutions to problems before they happen. Here are a few general classroom management considerations teachers should resolve before they ever meet their students.

What rules will govern your classroom? Who will create them? How will they be communicated to students? What happens if a rule is broken? As you might imagine, answers to these questions vary widely among teachers. Based on our experience, we offer a few tips about creating rules:

•   Keep them simple and general.

•   Avoid attempting to create a rule for every way a student might misbehave.

•   Provide clear examples ad non-examples Example: Respect me, respect yourself, and respect each other.

What will be your policy for late work, going to the bathroom, food or drink in class, tardies, plagiarism, cell phones, academic honesty, or forgetting materials? Effective teachers have carefully considered and answered these questions before class ever begins.

Example: 10% is deducted from late assignments for every day an assignment is late, up to a maximum of five school days, at which time the assignment becomes a zero.

Rewards and Punishments

Incentives and consequences are often a part of a teacher’s classroom management program. Although students should be motivated in other ways, what might be some appropriate rewards or punishments in your class?

Example: At the end of the semester, I will add 2% extra credit to your overall grade. I will deduct .5% for every time you 1) use the bathroom,  2) come to class unprepared, 3) come late to class, 4) leave trash in your desk.

The classroom is a dynamic place. What procedures will you use to accomplish routine tasks? Read Harry Wong, Rosemary Wong, Karen Rogers, and Amanda Brooks’s Managing Your Classroom for Success. Consider what procedures you will use for:

• Entering the classroom

• Tardiness

• Dismissal

• Quiet work time

• Attention-getting signal

• Calling on students

• Asking for help

• Make-up work

• Turning in papers

• Returning papers

• Leaving your seat

• Leaving the room

• Time when work is complete

• School announcements

• Visitors in the classroom

• Watching videos

• Lunch (if applicable)

• Grading, tests, extra credit

Read: Wong, Harry, Rosemary Wong, Karen Rogers, and Amanda Brooks. 2012. “Managing Your Classroom for Success.”  Science & Children  49 (9): 60–64.

Tips for Promoting a Positive Classroom

Read Sprick, Randy, and K. Daniels. 2010. “Managing Student Behavior.”  Principal Leadership  11 (1): 18–21 .

Compare their tips to those created by Tom Vontz years ago. How are these tips alike, and how are they different?

Vontz’s Tips for Classroom Management

• CLARIFY EXPECTATIONS AND VISION AND SUPPORT WITH SPECIFIC EXAMPLES AND NON-EXAMPLES.
• JUSTIFY YOUR CONCEPTION; PROVIDE A RATIONALE.
• KEEP EXPECTATIONS AND VISION SIMPLE.
• YOU CANNOT CONTROL STUDENT BEHAVIOR.
• ACCEPT THAT THERE ARE BETTER AND WORSE WAYS OF RESPONDING TO STUDENT BEHAVIOR.
• CONSISTENTLY MONITOR STUDENT BEHAVIOR AND ADHERE TO YOUR VISION—USE ACUMEN.
• GET TO KNOW EACH STUDENT WELL—ESTABLISH TRUST.
• STUDENTS SHOULD SHARE SOME DEGREE OF POWER AND RESPONSIBILITY FOR THEIR LEARNING AND BEHAVIOR.
• STUDENT TALKING/CHATTER.
• HAVE A GENERAL PLAN.
• THINK OF PARENTS AS IMPORTANT PARTNERS IN THE EDUCATION OF THEIR CHILD; THINK ABOUT WHEN THEY MIGHT APPRECIATE A PHONE CALL.
• DON’T TAKE YOURSELF OR YOUR CLASSROOM TOO SERIOUSLY.
• REMEMBER THE THREE C’S OF CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT: CLARITY, CONSISTENCY, AND CALMNESS.

The Don’ts of Classroom Management and Discipline

Read: Spitalli, Samuel J. 2005. “The Don’ts of Student Discipline.” Education Digest 70 (5): 28–31.

Classroom Management Strategies

First and foremost, classroom management is not synonymous with discipline, though people often lump them together in the same educational discussions. Indeed, they are related, but we need to understand that the link is cause and effect. Good classroom management means less discipline is required. And less discipline means fewer headaches for you, the classroom teacher, and fewer issues for your administrators to deal with, as well.

As you visit classrooms, or remember your own classroom experiences as a student, what types of behavior issues have you observed? Could some classroom management strategies have eliminated…or, at least, reduced…some of the issues?

Read: 5 Quick Classroom-Management Tips for Novice Teachers

As you gain experience in the classroom, you’ll also become much better at foreseeing what types of behavior issues could appear, based on the type of activity they’re participating in, possibilities of where discussions might lead, and even environmental issues such as a snowstorm headed to your area or the excitement of spring break approaching. All of these require a savviness in the classroom so you can be prepared for all the possibilities.

And with your growing experiences in classroom management, you will have a sense of missteps you might be able to avoid. As one administrator told me early on in my first year of teaching, “You’ll know where that train is headed before it even leaves the station.”

So, in addition to general advice, what tricks work for teachers? Watch the popular video on Classroom Management “Hacks” below.

Specific problems often require specific solutions.

Read and watch:  Classroom Management Strategies & Techniques.

And, finally, always consider the following:

•  Set the tone of your classroom early on.

•  Keep rules simple.

•  Good classroom management means much less need for discipline and much more time for learning.

•  Never respond when you’re angry.

•  Never touch a student, especially if you’re angry.

•  Always remember that the student in front of you is someone’s child and is deserving of respect.

Unfortunately, we, and that includes students and teachers, never respond as well as we would like in all classroom situations. To use one of my daughter’s theater references, each day you “End Scene.” Every day is a new day, where you need to give your students and yourself a clean slate, even after a difficult situation. People—young and old alike—make mistakes; allow yourself and your students to move on with an opportunity for a new, successful day.

Elementary Case Studies

Cindy is a very mature 12-year-old sixth-grade student. She is intelligent, and good grades come easily to her. She is the youngest child in the family and is still referred to as the baby. If Cindy does not get her way at school, she sulks and has been known to blurt out obscenities. Her parents are very religious and would not condone such behavior. They feel that some mistake must have been made, since Cindy told them she hasn’t done anything wrong.

What do you do?

Shawna is in third grade. She is 9 years old, very pretty, extremely conscientious, and works hard on any assignments. Shawna is an overachiever. On recent group achievement tests, Shawna’s scores were average. Her parents were outraged and insisted she be tested again. Subsequent tests revealed the same results. The parents began putting pressure on Shawna to work harder.

Secondary Case Studies

A young teacher is worried about the exuberant affection a junior boy shows toward her. He occasionally puts his arm around her or slaps her on the back when he sees her. The student comes from a large family where much affection is shown, so the teacher feels hesitant about telling the boy how she feels.

A group of students frequently talk quietly during instruction. You have asked them to be quiet and warned them not to talk when you are talking, yet they continue. You decide your best option is to split them up. When you ask the first student to change seats, Steve refuses and asks why you are picking on him.

Core Teaching Skills Copyright © 2020 by Thomas Vontz and Lori Goodson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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The Key to Effective Classroom Management

A three-phase process helps build strong teacher-student bonds, which can reduce disruptive behavior.

It’s a daunting but all-too-common sight for many teachers: A classroom full of rowdy students who are unable to focus on the lesson. Classroom management techniques may get things back on track, but valuable time has already been lost.

Many experienced teachers know that making meaningful connections with students is one of the most effective ways to prevent disruptions in the first place, and a new study set out to assess this approach . In classrooms where teachers used a series of techniques centered around establishing, maintaining, and restoring relationships, academic engagement increased by 33 percent and disruptive behavior decreased by 75 percent—making the time students spent in the classroom more worthwhile and productive.

“Strong teacher-student relationships have long been considered a foundational aspect of a positive school experience,” explains Clayton Cook, the lead author of the study and a professor at the University of Minnesota. When those relationships are damaged, student well-being may be affected, leading to academic and behavioral problems.

In the study, teachers used an approach called Establish-Maintain-Restore to build positive interactions with students—a total of 220 in fourth and fifth grade—and boost their sense of belonging. (A follow-up study with middle school teachers used the same strategies, with similar results.) Relationship-building was broken down into three phases: the first meeting, maintenance throughout the school year, and points when a relationship may suffer damage, with useful strategies for each phase.

Since it can be easy for some students to fall through the cracks, a relationship reflection form—like the one we share here—can help teachers take notes on each individual student and highlight ones who need the most attention.

Starting on a Positive Note

At the start of the school year, the teachers in the study made time for establishing relationships. “The goal is to ensure all students feel a sense of belonging that is characterized by trust, connection, and understanding,” Cook and his colleagues explain. For students with learning or behavioral problems, cultivating positive relationships provided “protective effects” that helped them stay focused on learning.

To establish positive relationships, teachers can:

• “Bank time” with students. Schedule one-on-one meetings with students to get to know them better. The goal is to “make deposits into the relationship” to help ease conflict in the future if you have to give constructive feedback or address disruptive behavior.
• Encourage student-led activities. Students feel more invested in their learning if given opportunity to share their interests . Teachers can step aside, be supportive, and listen.
• Welcome students into the classroom. Activities such as positive greetings at the door and icebreaker questions help create a warm classroom culture.
• Use positive communication techniques. Open-ended questions, reflective listening, validation statements, expressions of enthusiasm or interest, and compliments help students—especially shy or introverted ones—ease into classroom discussions.

Maintaining Relationships

Without active maintenance, relationships deteriorate over time, the study authors point out. Teachers may focus too much on academics and not enough on supporting students’ emotional well-being, slowly using up the banked time they initially built up with students.

Teachers can maintain relationships by continuing to implement the strategies above, and in addition they can:

• Take note of positive and negative interactions with students.  Teachers should aim for a five-to-one ratio.
• Regularly check in with students. Ask how they’re doing and what support they may need. In an Edutopia article, Todd Finley explains how 5x5 assessment time helped him focus on a handful of students every day.
• Acknowledge good behavior. When teachers focus attention on positive conduct, disruptive behavior is stemmed before it becomes an issue.

Repairing Harm Before Things Get Worse

Eventually, negative interactions such as misunderstandings, conflict, or criticism can weaken a teacher-student relationship. If these negative interactions are left unaddressed, students may feel disengaged and be less willing to participate in activities. They may also be more likely to misbehave, creating further damage. So it’s important for teachers to “intentionally reconnect” with students to restore the relationship to a positive state.

When relationships need repair, teachers can:

• Let go and start fresh. Teachers should avoid holding mistakes over a student’s head, instead giving them a chance to start each day with a clean slate.
• Take responsibility for their actions. Teachers can avoid blaming students when things go wrong, and think, “What could I have done to avoid the problem in the first place?” They shouldn’t be afraid to apologize when that’s called for—doing so helps build trust with students.
• Show empathy. There are two sides to every story, and a teacher can acknowledge that students may have a different perspective about what happened.
• Focus on solutions, not problems. Teachers can work with students to find a solution that everyone feels is fair.
• Separate the deed from the doer. It’s important to criticize the behavior, not the person. If teachers label children as “problem students,” there’s a danger that they’ll internalize that label, making it more likely that they’ll repeat the behavior in the future.

The takeaway: Effective classroom management starts with relationship building. When students feel a greater sense of belonging, they’re more likely to be academically engaged and demonstrate positive behavior.