Small Consequences
The consequences in this section take a low amount of time and effort from the teacher and usually no follow-up.
Consequence 1: The Body Language of Meaning Business We owe a lot to Fred Jones, who studied people with the “aura,” the teachers with whom nobody seemed to fool around, and discovered that it was not magic that caused students to respond to them. It was the subtle but specific, observable, and learnable body language they manifested. This body language communicated that they were serious about their expectations and would do whatever it took to get them met. They rarely had to do more than send body language signals, and they rarely had to implement backup consequences.
We recommend Jones’s Tools for Teaching: Discipline • Instruction • Motivation (2013) to all beginning teachers and any teacher struggling with discipline issues. The details of learning and implementing effective body language are spelled out at length there. To give readers an idea of the nature of this body language, Table 10.3 summarizes the steps from Jones (2013) for addressing off-task behavior. It begins with understanding never to go any further with the following limit-setting sequence than is required to produce the desired result as described in Table 10.3.
A consequence should be logical and fit the infraction in terms of magnitude and severity.
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Table 10.2 A Hierarchy of Escalating Consequences
Small Consequences 1. Body language of meaning business/poker
2. Acknowledging a change in behavior and offering help
3. Quiet time
4. Verbal warning, privately delivered
Medium Consequences 5. Re-education (cafeteria school)
6. Hold up a mirror
7. Pulling the card
8. Letter home taped to desk
9. Account for behavior in writing
10. Time-out in classroom
11. Time-out in a colleague’s room
High Impact Consequences
12. Phone call home with student reporting in teacher’s presence what happened
13. Parent conference with home reporting and consequences; contract signed by teacher, student, and parent
14. Parent accompanies student to classes for a day as a condition for readmission (with parent supervision finishing work in isolation)
15. In-school suspension
16. Saturday school
17. Deliver a student to parent at work
Last Resort Consequences
18. Suspension
19. Police
20. Expulsion
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Table 10.3 Steps for Addressing Off-Task Behavior
Notice Notice the disruptive behavior . . .
Excuse and square off Terminate whatever you’re doing, and say to the students you are working with, “Ex- cuse me. I’ll be right with you.”
Turn completely.
Face the student squarely and look the student in the eye.
Make your face expressionless, arms hanging comfortably.
Take two relaxing breaths.
Name Say the child’s first name only, in a bland tone.
Take two more relaxing breaths.
The student may fold, but if not . . .
Move in (say nothing)
Walk slowly to the edge of the student’s desk until your legs touch it.
Stand upright.
Take two relaxing breaths.
The student probably folds, in which case you:
Thank and move out Thank the student, genuinely and warmly.
Wait fifteen seconds more.
Go to the second student who was involved (if relevant).
Thank him or her.
Wait fifteen more seconds.
Return slowly to the student you were previously working with.
Wait for two relaxing breaths.
Resume instruction.
But if student doesn’t fold . . .
Lean and prompt Lean over at the waist, resting your weight on one palm. (You’re back at the student’s desk.)
Deliver a prompt on exactly what you want him or her to do next. (“Carrie, you have two more problems to do. Let’s finish them up.”)
If the student starts working, wait for two relaxing breaths.
Then do the “thank and move out” sequence.
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Notice Notice the Disruptive Behavior But in the unlikely event student still doesn’t fold:
Palms (say nothing) Lean slowly across the child’s desk, and place both palms flat on the far side of the desk from you (ooze, don’t swoop).
Look at the student for two relaxing breaths.
When he or she resumes work, wait two more relaxing breaths.
Then do Moving Out.
Backtalk If the child displays helplessness, crying, denial, compliments, blaming, tangents, or accusing you of incompetence, say nothing and take two relaxing breaths.
But if there’s more backtalk . . .
Elbow and prompt Bend your elbow, and place it on the child’s desk.
Repeat the prompt.
If a second student chimes in . . .
Camp out behind Stand slowly and walk around until you’re between the two students.
Lean your elbow on the table.
Reestablish eye contact with the first student (blocking student 2).
Take two relaxing breaths . . .
Slowly move out.
Adapted from Tools for Teaching: Discipline • Instruction • Motivation (Jones, 2013)
Table 10.3 Steps for Addressing Off-Task Behavior (continued)
Jones’s premise is that limit-setting in classrooms is like a poker game: students play a card (test limits by trying out behaviors) and wait to see what card we will play. If we “see them”—that is, respond in some believable way—the student generally “folds” (gives in). Sometimes we need to “raise them” again—escalate the consequence. The bottom line is not to play any higher a card than is neces- sary to get the child to fold. We must play the game with confidence and convic- tion, signaling that we are in control without needing to get emotionally rattled. This premise is embedded in the sequence of steps illustrated in Table 10.3.
Reading this list of steps does not enable one to learn and carry out body lan- guage poker successfully. One must practice it repeatedly and get feedback to do it well, as Jones arranges in his courses and we do in ours. We urge readers to take this information seriously (though the study and practice of this behav-
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ior is fun and does provoke lots of laughs) because it is so potent. If there was ever a good example of acting one’s way into a belief, this is it. Practicing these behaviors is practicing an attitude as well—the attitude of teacher resolve and persistence—and developing confidence.
Here are accounts from three teachers who have been in our courses—one each from high school, middle school, and elementary—of their experience applying the body language of meaning business. All three were experienced teachers, well regarded, and successful. They did not have significant discipline problems, but they still found learning these techniques well worth the effort.