SPE 323: BEHAVIOR STRATEGIES FOR ALL STUDENTS

BEHAVIOR PHILOSOPHY PAPER: Due Oct 21st

Many things need to come together for a classroom to run smoothly. Your task for this assignment is to articulate
your philosophy of behavior management and how it will be reflected in your classroom.
A philosophy of behavior management should be specific to your beliefs about behavior management not classroom
management. Therefore, it needs to be about behavior and how you will set your students up for successful behavior and assist
them in being productive and respectful members of your classroom community.
To that end, you should focus on, at minimum, the following questions:
a. What is your basic philosophy of behavior management?
b. How does it look in the classroom? Provide specific examples.
i. How will your classroom environment contribute to your behavior management plan?
ii. How will you make sure your students know what is expected of them with regard to behavior?
iii. How will you deliver academic instruction so that it enhances the behavior expectations in your classroom?
Include classroom rules (3-5), how you will encourage appropriate classroom behavior (such as
modeling or reward system), and make connections between philosophy and academic instruction
c. Support your philosophy with research
i. Textbook
ii. At least two credible Internet references (not Wikipedia, etc.)
iii. At least one peer-reviewed journal article
iv. Any other books, journals, interviews, etc., that are necessary
The final submission will be worth 50 points. This project will be uploaded into Blackboard.
Your philosophy statement, when completed, will be about 3 pages in length, double spaced, and will address the requested
content in a clear, creative and detailed manner in APA format. A title page, in-text citations, and a references page will be provided
in proper APA format. Writing is to be free of mechanical errors: spelling, grammar and usage, punctuation and capitalization.
Components of the paper are to be well-organized and structured. The paper needs to include a beginning, conclusion, and
supportive components. Word choice that clearly articulates your message and sentence fluency will make the paper easy for the
reader to follow.
Make sure you have used this description and the rubric as a checklist to ensure that all components of the management plan are
complete and included.

Behavioral Philosophy Paper

Chantelle Vargas
SPE 323
October 17, 2014

Are my opinions valued? Am I important? Am I worth the investment? Am I capable of being

successful? These are all questions that if my students were to ask themselves the answer would be yes. I

want my students to know that they are important and supported. In order for me to instill this into my
students I need to incorporate the right kind of behavior management plan in my classroom. Having a
behavior plan that supports my beliefs and values will allow me to have a better running classroom.
I believe in teaching kids things that they will be able to use for the rest of their lives and I am not
just referring to educational content. In my classroom I want to focus on students discipline rather than
how to punish my students for incorrect behavior, Ronald Morrish says that "Discipline is a process, it
teaches not punishes" (Morrish, Sercets of Discipline, 2012). That process of teaching discipline to my
students will start from the first day of school in my classroom. Throughout Harry Wong's book The First
Days of School he emphasizes the importance of telling your students the expectations you have for them
right off the bat (Wong, 2009). I would spend the first couple weeks teaching the students the routines of
the classroom and also what kind of behavior I expect from them. Wong also talks in his book about how it
is important not to have more than five rules in your classroom. When there are too many rules students
may forget or be overwhelmed. There are five rules that I would want to incorporate into my classroom
and they are; be prepared to learn, let the teacher teach and others learn, make good choices, accept
responsibility for the choices you make, and lastly respect yourself and others.

I know that just because I teach the expected behavior at the start of the year does not mean that
the students are going to begin following those behaviors right away. Ronald Morrish discusses in most of
his work that teaching children discipline and how to behave is a process and hard work. Children should
be guided and assisted through the expected behavior. Once the teacher sees that the students are ready
he/she should then allow the students to proceed with less supervision. The goal is for the students to
become more independent. Ronald Morrish defines independence as "more than just doing whatever you
feel like doing. It's the ability to do what's right on your own -the ability to make the same decisions when
you are unsupervised as you would have made if you were directly supervised." (Morrish, Secrets of
Discipline).
Harry Wong shares with teachers that it is important for us to clarify with our students that
consequences are not just negative. Consequences are what happens after a choice is made and it can be
either positive or negative (Wong, 2009). I believe in mainly positive verbal reinforcement and tangible
rewards when the behavior is over and beyond what is expected. I believe that positive verbal
reinforcement represents the real world and prevents students from doing things only because there is a
tangible reward afterward. Ronald Morrish believes the consequence of a misbehavior should be making
the student redo the behavior the correct way (Morrish, Sercets of Discipline, 2012). I agree with that form

of consequence but I also recognize how that might interrupt the class in certain situations. I would use the
consequence of redoing the behavior in circumstances involving classroom procedures and misbehaving in
the hallways and such. During lessons and times that may interrupt the class I would use a different form
of consequence. In my class I plan on implementing classroom economy where each students has a job
and earns money along with paying rent and taxes; I think this would be a good way to implement
consequences for misbehaviors during those times that I don't want to interrupt the class. I can easily give
students a warning by handing them some sort of paper or ticket and if the behavior continues after the
warning I would give them a slip that resembled a fine for their misbehavior. They would need to pay that
fine from the money that they earn during the week.
Modeling and clearly expressing to my students the expectations I have for them will limit the
amount of behavior problem because according to Wong students want to know what is expected of them
and what the penalties are if the expected behavior is not followed. I also plan to be very consistent with
my expectations and consequences because then my behavior plan becomes ineffective and my students
will not be consistent in their actions, making the classroom a harder place to teach and learn. According
to Wong when the classroom is not managed and behavior is out of control no learning will occur (Wong,
2009).

I also agree with Morrish because he is a big believer in not using if-then statements. I noticed that in
one of my internships that my mentor teacher was pretty good at handling behavior in her classroom but
where she seemed to struggle was when she would use if-then statements with some of her students.
When the students didn't mind what the consequence was he/she would then proceed with the behavior
because the consequence didn't bother him/her. There has also been instances where I have seen a few of
my mentor teachers threaten to implement use threatening a punishment or reward as a way to correct a
student's behavior, more time than not lead to bargaining rather than the behavior being corrected . I have
also witnessed one of my mentor teachers be very consistent with her expected behavior and
consequences. The students knew what was expected of them, they also knew what the consequences
were if the expected behavior was not followed. The students didn't need to guess what the penalty would
be for not following expectations and there wasn't any opportunity for bargaining with the teacher, so
students behaved the way they were supposed to.
Along with classroom management having an effective behavior plan can make the teaching
experience run much more smoothly. In Ronald Morrish's book Secrets of Discipline He says that "discipline
should end in correct behavior" along with the advice to "not focus on the past behavior but on

improvement" (Morrish, Sercets of Discipline, 2012). I feel like these two quotes directly reflect what I
believe when it comes to a behavior management plan.

Works Cited
Charles, C. (2007). Building Classroom Discipline. Retrieved october 16, 2014, from nmsu.edu:
http://web.nmsu.edu/~pestep/book/images/CharlesSelfAssessResponses.pdf
Morrish, R. (n.d.). Secrets of Discipline. Retrieved october 16, 2014, from schools.hcdsb.org:
http://schools.hcdsb.org/brig/Documents/home%20page/Secrets%20Overview%20%282%29.pdf
Morrish, R. (2012). Sercets of Discipline. Ronald Morrish.
Wong, H. W. (2009). The First Days of School: How to be an Effective Teacher. Harry K. Wong Publications, Inc.

Category
Rationale for an
Effective Behavior
Management Plan

Behavior
Management
Impact on Student
Achievement

Real Life Examples

SPE 323 Behavior Philosophy Rubric

5
4
3
Exceeds Standards
Meets Standards
Approaches
Standards
Clearly explains why an
Clearly explains
Explains why an
effective behavior management why an effective
effective behavior
plan is important and necessary behavior
management plan is
Supports with research
management plan
important and
is important and
necessary
necessary
Clearly explains how an
effective behavior management
plan impacts student
achievement
Clearly explains how an
ineffective behavior
management plan impacts
student achievement
Clearly explains short and longterm consequences and their
impact on student achievement
Supports with research

Provides at least two real-life

examples of how a behavior
management plan has
impacted student behavior and
makes clear connection
between the two

Clearly explains
how an effective
behavior
management plan
impacts student
achievement
Clearly explains
how an ineffective
behavior
management plan
impacts student
achievement
Clearly explains
short and long-term
consequences and
their impact on
student
achievement
Provides at least
two real-life
examples of how a
behavior
management plan
has impacted
student behavior

2
Does Not Meet
Standard
States that an effective
behavior management
plan is important and
necessary, but does not
explain

0
No
Attempt
Section
omitted
from
paper

Explains how an
effective behavior
management plan
impacts student
achievement
Explains how an
ineffective behavior
management plan
impacts student
achievement
Explains short and longterm consequences and
their impact on student
achievement

Explains how an effective

behavior management
plan impacts student
achievement
OR
Explains how an
ineffective behavior
management plan
impacts student
achievement
But not both

Section
is
omitted
from
paper

Provides at least one

real-life example of how
a behavior management
plan has impacted
student behavior and
makes the connection
between the two

Provides at least one

real-life example of how
a behavior management
plan has impacted
student behavior but
does not make the
connection between the

May explain short and

long-term consequences
and their impact on
student achievement
Section
is
omitted
from
paper

9
and makes some
connection
between the two

Product

Beliefs and opinions are

backed by important, carefully
chosen details and supportive
information
Components of paper are well
organized and structured.
Personal belief is heard
throughout the paper.
Word choice helps to clearly
articulate the message.
Sentence fluency makes the
paper easy to follow. Writing is
free of mechanical errors:
spelling, grammar and usage,
punctuation and capitalization.

Beliefs and
opinions are
backed by
important details
and supportive
information
Components of
paper are well
organized and
structured.
Word choice helps
to clearly articulate
the message.
Sentence fluency
makes the paper
easy to follow.
Writing is free of
most mechanical
errors: spelling,
grammar and
usage, punctuation
and capitalization.

two

Beliefs and opinions are

stated but are not
backed by important
and supportive
information
Components of paper
are well organized and
structured.
Word choice helps to
clearly articulate the
message.
Sentence fluency
makes the paper easy
to follow. Writing has
many mechanical
errors: spelling,
grammar and usage,
punctuation and
capitalization.
Information and layout
of classroom are
vaguely labeled.

Beliefs and opinions are

not stated or are vaguely
stated and are not
backed by important and
supportive information
Body is lacking
organization and
structure.
Message throughout is
hard to understand.
Lack of sentence fluency
makes the paper hard to
follow.
Writing has many
mechanical errors:
spelling, grammar and
usage, punctuation, and
capitalization.

No
attempt
to state
beliefs
and
opinions
in an
understa
ndable
manner.
Serious
errors in
construc
tion
which
prevent
understa
nding of
paper

10
APA Format and
References

Paper is fully developed in APA Paper is

format including the following:
adequately
1. Proper references in
developed in APA
body
format
2. Proper reference
Includes 4 of 6
section
listed
3. Proper headings and
characteristics
subheadings
4. Proper cover page
5. Proper running head
and page #s
6. At least 4 references per
assignment guidelines
Grade: ____________/25 x 2 = __________________/50

Paper presented limited

development of APA
format
Includes 3 of 6 listed
characteristics

Paper presents minimal

development of APA
format
Includes less than 3 of
the 6 listed
characteristics

No
attempt
made to
adhere
to APA
format