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Name: Karlyn Buchanan

Teaching Children to Care by Ruth Sidney Charney

What were the key points of your assigned readings? List any questions or discussion
These can be listed in bulleted format under each chapter. topics you would like discussed
Identify/Explain/Plan 1 idea from EACH chapter that you will “look for” or “try” in class.
during your RED 414 Clinical.
Section I Building a Learning Community
Chapter 1 Intentions
• Children don’t learn by being entertained. They learn by doing, and by finding success • What are different methods we
in the doing. can teach children to care?
• Without time in our day to talk to children and/or to allow students to talk to one
another, there will be no discipline, only disciplining.
• Discipline means learning.
• Discipline needs to be associated positively acts and feats of learning rather than
negatively with punishing. Teaching discipline requires two fundamentals: empathy
and structure. Empathy helps us know the child, to perceive his/her needs, to hear
what he/she is trying to say. Structure allows us to set guidelines and provide
necessary limits.
• Two basic goals in teaching discipline: Creation of self-control and Creation of
community. The power of self-control is the power to assert oneself in a positive way.
It involves the capacities to regulate one-self, to anticipate consequences, and to give
up an immediate gratification to realize a long-term goal. It includes the following: the
ability to make and carry out a plan, the ability to solve a problem, the ability to think
of a good idea and act on it, the ability to sift alternatives, and the ability to make
decisions.
• Three main points in this assertion that the first purpose of classroom management is
the creation of self-control: We need to teach self-control in the same way we teach
our academics, as a recognized and valued part of our school curriculum. Creating
self-control involves teachers and children ongoing interactions, which draws on the
experiences and context of day-to-day life in school. The acquisition of self-control
leads to a more fully engaged and purposeful school life. It fosters positive self-
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assertion and allows children to plan, make decisions, and carry out purposeful
activities. It allows children to become more productive and successful in school.
• Teaching children to care often means helping them find ways to express their care.
• Building community- such as know names, take turns, share, make room in the circle,
join activities and small groups, invite others to join, be friendly, cooperate, and solve
conflicts. These are all examples on how we expect children to build a community.
• I am going to “look for” and “try” to build a healthy community. Along with letting my
students know what the examples of building a community look like.
Chapter 2 I See You, I See Everything
• The 3 R’s: Reinforcing, Reminding, and Redirecting. • How can we as teachers
• Proactive teaching involves presenting and helping children practice appropriate incorporate the 3 R’s in our
attitudes and behaviors rather than constantly reacting to inappropriate ones. classroom?
• Noticing what children do right such as “I see that you are remembering to raise your
hand”, “You are ready so quickly today for math group”, and “I like the way you
included new people in your project.”
• Commenting on what you see: Specific, Encouraging, and Positive.
• Reinforcing example: “I noticed that you remember where to put your work so I can
find it” (P.32)
• Reminding (review and practice) “Who remembers what we need to get for writing?
Show me.”
• Redirecting- “I hear a lot of talking. This is your time to get your folders- silently now.”
• Teacher expectations during the first few weeks of school (P. 34)
• Stage One: Whole class learning (P.37)
• Morning meeting involves: Greeting, Sharing, Group activity, and Morning Message.
• Guided Discovery is a process for introducing materials, opening areas in the
classroom, and preparing children for different aspects of the curriculum.
• Steps in Guided Discovery: 1. Introduction 2. Generate ideas 3. Children explore 4.
Sharing 5. Clean up and care of material or area 6. Extensions- children work in
groups, pairs, or alone to continue exploring further uses of the material or room
area.
• Moving on from stage one when the class: 1. They group up quickly for meetings,
story time, games, and work periods. 2. They can locate and replace materials in the
room. 3. They listen and make relevant comments at meetings. 4. Most can stay with
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an activity for the expected and appropriate period of time. 5. They can make simple
choices.
• Stage two: Expectations for group work: Children function in two ways. 1. in small
groups, with the teacher. 2. Away from the teacher, with independence.
• Moving on from stage two. (P.64)
• Stage 3 Independence and Responsibility (P. 65)
• (P.66) and (P.67) General Stages of the school year. This includes the key
goals/activities and criteria for moving on.
• My goal is to try and comment on what I see my students doing/using/learning by
using the specific, encouraging, and positive rule.
Chapter 3 Making the Rules with Children
• Rules should frame what we do want and what we hope to achieve or become. • Is there a way to make rules
• 1. Knowledge is actively constructed rather than passively received. 2. Children grow more enjoyable?
through predictable and progressive stages.
• Stage 1: Rules based on the power of adults.
• Stage 2: Rules based on social conventions.
• Stage 3: Rules based on ethical ideas.
• We study developmental theory so that we understand children’s behavior, and so
that our expectations of them are reasonable and informed by what is age
appropriate.
• Approach of Making Rules
• 1. Making rules begin with hopes and dreams 2. The Golden Rule 3. Rules for
Classroom workers 4. Rules tied to academic work
• Some common teacher expectations (P. 78-79)
• Our “most important” rules (P. 92-93)
• My goal is to try to translate my students’ classroom rules that they create into
positive statements from don’ts to do’s.
Chapter 4 Teaching the Rules
• Modeling a behavior: 1. Demonstrating 2. Noticing 3. Summarizing and Reminding 4. • What are some unique ways to
Repeating the noticing by having students demonstrate the behavior and getting teach rules?
responses to the student demonstration 5. Having everyone practice.
• In morning meetings, the sharing component is a time for students to practice
listening and to show they are listening by asking relevant and real questions.
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• Role playing helps the children anticipate familiar and problematic situations and act
out a number of appropriate ways to apply the rules in order to take care of
themselves and one another.
• Following through on the rules.
• Being Consistent.
• Using the rules to examine problems.
• There are many strategies on teaching the rules: discussion, modeling, role-play, and
written responses.
• We as teachers need to be consistent and to take advantage of opportunities to use
the rules to examine tough or confusing classroom situations.
• By explicitly teaching the rules and following through consistently, we continually
build a community which reflects the hopes and dreams of teachers and students.
• My goal is to try and use a number of different ways to teach my students the rules
such as discussion, modeling, role-play, and written responses.
Chapter 5 The Critical Contract: A Student’s Individual Goals for the Year
•Guidelines for making Critical Contract (P.127) • How often do we need to make
•Listening to the parent’s goals, they feel important at the very beginning of the year critical contracts?
along with knowing the student’s interests, habits, attitudes, and struggles. • Most effective ways to
• Helping students formulate goals- 1. Have students think about a strong interest 2. communicate with parents?
Have them envision a personal change 3. Teachers can help students come up with a
wish to improve a skill or attitude.
• Helping parents and students to express goals positively- we want expectations that
will have a purpose and behavior.
• Making goals specific rather than general.
• Offering realistic strategies for achieving goals.
• Evaluating and sharing progress.
• Critical contracts help build a learning community by identifying different
perspectives, establishing the importance of cooperative effort, and presenting a
positive vision of growth for the year.
• The process of making a Critical Contract involves parents, teacher, and child in a
conversation that articulates goals for the school year.
• A Critical Contract can be a motivation and a reference point throughout the year.
• My goal is to try and get the parents more involved in their child’s progress at school.
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Section II Making the Community Work
Chapter 6 Using Logical Consequences When Rules are Broken
• Logical consequences are reasonable and respectful, neither punishment nor • Are timeouts considered bad
permission. or good?
• Logical consequences are intended to help children take stock of their own act, slower
to think, and apt to get into frequent trouble.
• Logical consequences are related to the rule breaking. Generic consequences, such as
missing recess, do not help children rework and learn to manage difficult situations.
• Our first step in responding to rule breaking must be to stop the behavior.
• Ladder of interventions- A look, A glare, A gesture, A few words, A touch, A few
gestures, Removal.
• Guidelines for Implementing Logical Consequences: 1. Respectful of the student and
classroom. 2. Need to respond to choices and actions, not to character. 3. Need to be
put into practice with both empathy and structure. 4. Should describe the demands of
the situation, not the demands of the authority. 5. Should be used only after the
teacher has assessed the situation. 6. Teachers need to “stop and think” before
imposing logical consequences. 7. Help to restore self-control and self-respect
through actions, not just words.
• Three types of logical consequences: 1. “You break it, you fix it” 2. “If you are not
responsible, you lose a privilege” 3. “You must forfeit participation.”
• My goal is to try and use the different guidelines for implementing logical
consequences during my clinical.
Chapter 7 Time-Out: Establishing Boundaries and Promoting Self-Control
• Guidelines for a Time-Out Program- 1. A familiar, consistent, predictable procedure 2. • What are some effective ways
Small things- Time out 3. Time-outs protect the integrity of school rules, the group, for kids to help promote self-
and the disruptive student 4. Timeout is a direction, not a negotiation 5. Use Check-ins control?
as a procedure for inquiry and reconnection 6. Timeouts are democratic. 7. “I like you,
but I don’t like that behavior” 8. Time outs emphasize choice and faith 9. Time outs
may be carried out in another classroom with support from other teachers or
administrators. 10. Teachers need to show empathy for rule breakers.
• My goal is to try and establish boundaries right away in my clinical along with
promoting self-control while being calm.
Chapter 8 The Five Percent
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• Steps in Bargaining Conference • How can we teach kids to
• 1. Naming 2. Emphasizing the student’s choice 3. Bargaining 4. Sealing the bargain. bargain?
• Children with behavioral skill deficits- 1. Adapt the environment 2. Create a support
team 3. Communicate with troubled students 4. Develop strategies to respond to
troubling situations 5. Create frameworks for solutions as a team 6. Administrative
and economic support.
• We must be flexible to help aid our work with inflexible children.
• My goal is to try and be as flexible as I can with students with behavioral skill deficits
or students who need extra help in my clinical.
Chapter 9 Working Together to Support the Rules
• Timeouts using a buddy system, you are never alone. • What are other ways us
• Follow up discussions- inform parents about their child being out of the classroom. teachers can be more
• Basic components for working together: The primary teacher is always involved in supported?
the process, the principal and others support the teaching team, work with parents
not against them.
• My goal is to try and get as much support as I can when I am having behavior issues in
my clinical.

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Section III The Voices of Teaching

Chapter 10 Empowering Language: Say What You Mean and Mean What You
Say
• Keep demands short and simple. • How can we teach kids
• Say what you mean. cooperation more effectively?
• Mean what you say.
• Remind only twice, third time “you’re out”.
• Speak directly, don’t ask.
• Use words that invite cooperation.
• Keep demands short and simple such as to guide children through transitions, to
restore the proper noise level in the room, to introduce changes in room organization
or schedule, to stop inappropriate behavior and redirect children to positive
expectations.
• Use words that invite cooperation, there are 3 techniques: 1. Making it fun 2. Asking
for help 3. Providing choices.
• We need to be clear in communicating what we expect, and we need to honor our
words by doing what we say we will do.
• My goal is to try and use short and simple demands when trying to guide children
through transitions in my clinical.
Chapter 11 Stress the Deed, Not the Doer
• Using the “I” voice in teaching: “I feel angry when you make faces if I ask you to do • How can I use the “I” voice
something”. more in my teaching?
• Children learn to express feelings of appreciation and anger.
• Adapting the process of giving compliments.
• Representing or work sharing meetings.
• Expressing anger.
• Stressing the deed, not the doer activities include Compliment Club, meetings, or
pretzels.
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• We help children use language precisely and intentionally to express their likes and
dislikes, their satisfactions and frustrations, in constructive rather than
deconstructive ways.
• Constructive expression requires noticing and naming details.
• My goal is to try and use the “I” voice to help students express their likes and dislikes
in my clinical.
Chapter 12 The Voices of Authority
• Three voices of authority: 1. the voice of principle (Golden Rule) 2. The voice of • What voice of authority is used
procedure (Rules for safety and order) 3. The personal voice (personal rules) most often?
• Using voices of authority serve as tools.
• The voice and principles of moral authority help stretch children’s power to care and
attend to others.
• Procedural rules provide the permission and constraint of an external order.
• The personal voice expresses both conviction and knowledge.
• My goal is to try and use all three of the voices of authority in my clinical.
Section IV Further Strategies for Difficult Classroom Behaviors
Chapter 13 Problem-solving Class Meetings
• Purpose of class meetings • How do we use class meetings
• 1. Provide a constructive format for students to contribute to their classroom by more effectively?
helping each other.
• 2. To develop children’s capacity to solve problems.
• It is very important to set the tone for class meetings.
• Creating a Positive Environment- Encourage individual expression, but also including
listening and accepting of others.
• Trying to solve problems.
• Support one another and not use any put downs.
• Listen to each other and not interrupt.
• Use the “I” voice when speaking.
• Helping create a comfortable atmosphere: Meet once a week at a regular time, keep
time, meet in a circle not desks, and set up a weekly agenda.
• My goal is to try and use the steps for problem solving meetings along with finding a
consistent day of the week in my clinical.
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Chapter 14 Teachers as Mirrors: Using Social Conferences
• The importance of noticing, showing students that we care. • How can we notice more in our
• Social conference builds a responsive relationship upon behavioral boundaries and classroom?
autonomy.
• 1. Establishing what teachers and students notice.
• 2. Naming the problem and the need to solve it.
• 3. Understanding the problem.
• 4. Generating alternatives.
• 5. Establishing an agreement to try.
• Common behavior problems- attention seeking behavior, defiance, being a bad sport,
tattling, losing and forgetting, dawdling, restlessness and lack of control.
• My goal is to try and keep the importance of noticing and show students that I care
during my clinical.
Chapter 15 Individual Contracts
• Elements of Individual Contracts- 1. Behavioral goals 2. A system of communication 3. • How often do you need to
A way to evaluate success 4. A celebration of achievement 5. Clear consequences create a new contract?
when boundaries are broken.
• Individual contracts bring together parents, teacher, and child together to work on
improving a behavior problem.
• Contracts state a goal and name a concrete marker that will be used daily to track
progress.
• At the end of contracts, a new goal can be created or a new contract addressing the
same goal can be drawn up.
• My goal is to try and help my students with contracts when needed in my clinical.
Section V Clear Positives
Chapter 16 Teaching by Clear Positives: Revisiting Ideals
• Schools need to teach alternatives to violence and to stress nonviolence as an • What are some alternatives to
essential characteristic of the community. teaching violence?
• Teach children to manage conflict.
• Teach nonviolence by creating a model for children through the social arrangements
of our school.
• Children need to learn to thing for themselves.
• We need to stretch, not track, potentials.
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• Availability, universal participation, support, and a responsive climate.
• I will always remember why we teach and why we do what we do in the classroom in
my clinical.
Chapter 17 Clear Positives in Action
• Clear positives can be a way to explain to students why we do what we do in our • How can we use clear
classroom. positives throughout the
• They are clear on a general or specific level and are always stated positively. school day?
• Define specific tasks.
• We will help children accomplish and describe attitudes we hope they will develop.
• Using clear positives helps us communicate our faith in children’s will and aptitude,
and our faith in the value of their work.
• My goal is to try to use clear positives throughout my RED clinical.

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