Mentor materials
Reinforcing routines and positive behaviour in the classroom
Intended outcomes
The intended outcomes of this topic are for Early Career Teachers to:
Learn that:
- Teachers have the ability to affect and improve the wellbeing, motivation and behaviour of their pupils
- Establishing and reinforcing routines, including through positive reinforcement, can help create an effective learning environment.
Learn how to communicate a belief in the academic potential of all pupils, by:
- Seeking opportunities to engage parents and carers in the education of their children (e.g. proactively highlighting successes).
Learn how to develop a positive, predictable and safe environment for pupils, by:
- Giving manageable, specific and sequential instructions.
- Checking pupils’ understanding of instructions before a task begins.
- Using consistent language and non-verbal signals for common classroom directions.
- Using early and least-intrusive interventions as an initial response to low level disruption.
Learn how to build trusting relationships by:
- Liaising with parents, carers and colleagues to better understand pupils’ individual circumstances and how they can be supported to meet high academic and behavioural expectations.
Activities
Reflecting on learning (10 minutes)
Revisit the ECT’s top five behavioural expectations from the previous topic. Ask them:
- How have you communicated them?
- How have you practised them?
- How have you reinforced them?
Are these behavioural expectations being met in all of their lessons? If the ECT says yes, ask them to talk through the evidence of this. If no (which is probably more likely at this stage) ask them which ones are the key issue
Pose the question: What actions are you taking to influence these behaviours?
Go over the impact a positive climate for learning can have on behaviour and explain that this topic is all about thinking about establishing some of the things that make up the climate for learning in the classroom. In particular focus on the class/es that the ECT is finding the trickiest.
The mentor may want to cover:
- Building, maintaining and fixing relationships with pupils
- Developing effective routines
- Maintaining high expectations of pupils’ behaviour and learning.
Identifying problem areas (10 minutes)
Ask the ECT to pick a class or a lesson in the week they are finding challenging and with the mentor go through the following list of questions:
Behaviour:
- Are all pupils following the behaviour policy?
- Are all pupils meeting your expectations?
- When they are not, what behaviours do you observe?
Routines:
- Are your routines being carried out to a high standard?
- Are routines habitual to pupils?
- What is your best routine? Which is your worst? Why?
Instructions:
- Do pupils always follow your instructions?
- When they don’t, why do you think that is?
How does this impact on pupil learning?
From the answers to the above questions, identify one area the ECT would like to improve. This will become the focus of the rest of this topic.
Improving behaviour (30 minutes)
Take a look at the example action plan on Handout 1.4. The teacher has identified a key issue and then used the table below to plan out action steps.
From the area identified in the last activity, use the table to select an action step. Together, use the template to write an action plan to help the ECT’s class.
Issue: Problems with specific pupils
Action to take
Speak to colleagues about pupils in the class
How to do it
- Identify a colleague who can support you with this specific pupil or class and find an appropriate time to ask for their support.
- This could be the pupil’s tutor, a class teacher, a TA or another member of support staff.
How it can help
- Can help solve issues with individual pupils.
- Gain information about the pupil from their tutor or another teacher.
- Gain information from a more experienced teacher on how they deal with specific pupils/situations.
Issue: My pupils are not always following my instructions
Action to take
Ask a colleague to observe part of a lesson
How to do it
- With your mentor identify a specific thing that needs addressing such as pupils not understanding expectations.
- Ask the colleague observing to focus just on this thing and provide feedback to support you with this.
How it can help
- Can help solve issues with individual pupils.
- Can help identify a lack of clarity in instructions/explanations
- Isolate a specific area to focus on
- Gain specific feedback to develop your practice.
Issue: Problems with individual pupils/ineffective relationships with pupils
Action to take
Contact parents/carers with positive news
How to do it
- Make a list of pupils that you are struggling with.
- For each one, with your mentor, identify one positive thing you could contact home about. This could be a specific piece of work they worked hard on, an improved grade, improved attitude to learning or something they are able to do now that they previously couldn’t.
- Decide the best way to contact home: postcard, phone call etc.
How it can help
- Can help solve issues with individual pupils.
- Can help improve relationships with pupils.
- Proactively highlighting successes to parents/carers can support your relationship with the pupil.
- Pupils will see that you care about them.
- Pupils will feel supported.
Issue: Problems with specific pupils
Action to take
Contact parents/carers to find out more information about a pupil’s individual circumstances
How to do it
- Make a list of pupils that you are struggling with
- Contact parents/carers to explain your concerns and ask for their support.
How it can help
- Can help solve issues with individual pupils
- Can help identify differences in pupils’ learning needs
- Can help identify outside influences
- Finding out more information about individual pupils can help you understand their situation better
- You will be able to support that pupil behaviourally and academically
Issue: Pupils do not always follow routines
Action to take
Re-establish routines, especially for beginning the lesson and transition points
How to do it
- With your mentor take a look at your current routines.
- Look back at Activity 1.3 of the self-directed study materials and together work out whether you need to reteach the routine or just reinforce it through practice and positive praise.
- Write a script if necessary and practise this with your mentor.
How it can help
- Can help solve a lack of clarity over expectations
- Routines need positive reinforcement and practice
- This will demonstrate your high expectations of pupils.
Issue: Disruptive behaviour
Action to take
Reminders of school policies
How to do it
- Together with your mentor look at the school policy and work out whether you need to refresh your routine or remind pupils of school policy through reinforcing behavior expectations or rules.
- Decide how you will do this – you may want to revise a routine and teach this to your pupils or you may need to reinforce a specific rule.
How it can help
- Can help solve a lack of clarity over expectations
- Can help address behavioural expectations
- It is important to adhere to school policy
- School policy is there to support you so draw on it when it is needed.
Issue: Disruptive behaviour
Action to take
Using least intrusive interventions
How to do it
- Together with your mentor, go back to the self-directed study materials and read through the section on escalating behaviour incidents as appropriate.
- Identify a strategy to try out and decide how you will do this
How it can help
- Can help deal with low level disruption
- Helps keep the environment positive
- Can help address behavioural expectations.
Issue: Disruptive behaviour
Action to take
Seating plans
How to do it
- Identify when it might be useful to move a seating plan around.
- Are there pupils who are struggling who it might be useful to move nearer to the teacher?
- Are there pupils who are disengaged that you can move to the front?
- Are there groups of pupils it would be useful to split up for a bit?
- How can you make sure all pupils’ learning needs are taken into account?
How it can help
- Can help solve a lack of clarity over expectations
- Can help with disengaged pupils
- Adjusting seating plans can be a useful way to reset a class
- Tailoring a seating plan to suit individual pupils learning needs is important
- Maximize learning time through preventing poor behaviour.
Remind the ECT that, even if they are struggling at the moment, this is something all teachers go through, and they can always rebuild their relationship with a class and with individual pupils. They have to model respectful behaviour so that pupils can learn how to do this themselves.
Planning for action
Decide together what success will look like for this class.
- How will you know if things have improved?
- What are you hoping to see?
The mentor and ECT should decide together three specific dates when they will ‘check in’ on the progress made and decide how they will make this check:
- Schedule a mini observation
- Take brief notes during the lesson about what is happening
- Schedule reflection time following the lesson
- Use pupil voice to gather feedback from pupils.