You cant teach until everyone is listening

This is not a book about how to correct student behavior or even, as Marilyn claims, a book about preventing misbehavior.. And through the use of real classroom vignettes, we come to see

To Alia, with her brilliant personality, playfulness, and humor, who came into my life unexpectedly and enhances it immeasurably;

to her friend Ocean who is as beautiful in every way as her name; and to twins Violet and Aria, miracles who make every day a joy and

who take my breath away; Alia, Ocean, Violet, and

Aria, the future is yours.

Source: Photo, art, and production by Dave and Jen Page.

Copyright © 2008 by Corwin Press

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1 The Critical Beginning: Knowing and

Before the Teaching Practicum Begins 14

Novice and Experienced Elementary Teachers 15

The Downsides of Aito’s Schedule

The Results 18Novice and Experienced Middle

The Middle and Secondary School Day 19

The View From the Back of the Room 22

2 Avoiding Anonymous and Dangling Questions 25

Types of Questions Teachers Ask 27

Levels of Questions Teachers Ask 29

Dangling Questions: What Are They and

The Problems With Hand Raising 32

An Old Teacher’s (or Is It a Researcher’s?) Tale 34The Results of These Better Strategies 35Anonymous Questions: What Are They? 35

What’s Wrong With These Questions? 35

What Happens When You Use Filler Words? 46

Using Words of Civility in the Classroom 52

Three Other Powerful Hints About Language 55

1 Language Tone: You Don’t Need to Yell 55

3 Getting the Class’s Attention While

Making These Language and Tone Changes in Your Classroom 57

A Pilot Project: A Different Story 63

Giving Instructions That Don’t

Why It’s Important for Students

Forget About Asking:

Forget About Asking:

Back Up! We Are Missing Two Preliminary Steps 69

Second: Students Need to Ask Questions Up Front 70

5 Attending to Civility With Reminders and Cues 77

Seventh Period: A Special Ninth-Grade Class 77

The Problem With Classroom Rules 80

How Often Do You Have to

6 Upgrading Interactions: Can You Feel the

The Heart and Soul and a Rhythm and a Beat 92

1 Interact With Every Student

2 Increase Student-to-Student Interaction 95

You Can Learn a Lot From an Audiotape 97

Students Who Can’t Hear Are Potential

Dealing With Unexpected and Unwanted

The Results 106

Harry’s Mistake: An Ultimatum 110Harry’s Meltdown and Recovery 111

What the Students Wanted to Change 116

Student Teachers 120

At the Beginning of the Practicum 120

If You Have Already Begun Your Practicum 121

Foreword

In the spring of 2007, my dear friend and colleague Marilyn

Page asked me to consider writing a foreword for a newbook she was in the process of completing I said yes withouthesitation A few months later, the book arrived in my mailboxand when it did, my initial eagerness quickly turned to dread.Another classroom management book? A primer? Teaching is

a messy, terribly complex, remarkably unpredictable business.Surely Marilyn knows this, I thought She is a deep thinker too,one who eschews the formulaic, particularly when it comes

to the demands of the teaching profession The challenges ofcreating real communities among arbitrary collections of youngpeople forced into a single room; the shared, unspoken sodal-ity between teacher and learner; the difficulty of teaching forunderstanding: these should not—indeed cannot—be reduced

to a simple series of procedures and instructions

Yet here was Marilyn’s book, sitting on my desk, the verytitle suggesting that just the opposite is true I was disturbed,but, I must admit, intrigued as well Did she have a radicalchange of heart? Did she lose her bearings? The challenge wasclear: I had a foreword to write for a book I was pretty sure

I did not want to read My initial anxiety soon led to an ing sense of trepidation about the whole project, and then analmost intractable procrastination Truthfully, I did not evencrack the book’s cover until the urgency of the publisher’sdeadlines (I missed the first two) and repeated e-mail admon-ishments started to become embarrassing Then I read the firstpage And the next one and the one after that and before

increas-I knew it, increas-I was hooked

I finished this marvelous little book in one sitting; I imagineyou will want to as well Here, in direct, unadorned prose, is

a work of tremendous importance and easy accessibility;

a remarkable accomplishment for a number of different reasons,perhaps most notably because the words of an expert teacherare distilled into classroom strategies that are as powerful asthey are easy to implement

Marilyn’s considerable wisdom and expertise makes ithard to believe that there was ever a time in her rich and pro-ductive teaching career when she “knew nothing,” as she tells

us in the book’s opening pages She has wide and deep rience teaching young people in every imaginable environ-ment on both coasts and in classrooms in several parts of theinterior of our large and multifaceted country She has taught

expe-in rural, suburban and urban schools; expe-in small schools andlarge ones; and in classrooms with eager students and boredones, angry students, keen students, those who were cheeryand others who were jaded, recalcitrant, and even hostile Shehas taught Advanced Placement classes, classes filled withstudents with disabilities, and in classes where students spokeEnglish as a second (or third or fourth) language And, formore than twenty years, Marilyn has been a teacher educatortoo, one who has helped both novices and journeymen Sowhen she professes that she knew nothing as a first-yearteacher it is not an expression of false modesty, but rather anhonest appraisal of how she started, how so many of us begin

in this most difficult of professions

Research from my own field indicates that the development

of expertise takes time, particularly in professions like teachingwhere complex information processing is an ongoing require-ment Like authorities in other cognitively demanding fields,expert teachers must commit to memory, and then efficientlyorganize, large funds of conceptual knowledge before theycan smoothly execute even the most routine procedures In thejargon of educational psychology, expertise develops slowly

as declarative knowledge (knowing that) evolves into more highly automated procedural knowledge (knowing how) But

there is an inevitable tradeoff here: as procedural knowledgebecomes less attention-demanding and less effortful, itbecomes more difficult to explain (Think about how chal-lenging it is to tell a new driver just how much pressure to put

on the gas pedal when shifting into reverse to parallel park.)Put more simply, experts have extraordinary difficulty com-municating what they know And, herein lies Marilyn’s greataccomplishment: she has overcome this hurdle, skillfullydescribing the procedures expert teachers use in a way that is

so clear that even new teachers can begin practicing themimmediately (without having to wait for their declarativeknowledge to become overlearned)

In addition to being remarkably clear, useful, and engaging,Marilyn is also unashamedly directive She has earned theright to be Marilyn argues here quite forcefully that learningcommunities do not just happen, that relationships do notform by themselves, that a sense of belongingness and con-nection requires active, deliberate, and conscious effort on thepart of the teacher In a time of standards and accountability,

of renewed concern over declining test scores and studentmisbehavior, gang activity, and seemingly random violence,how refreshing to be reminded that at the heart of all goodteaching is the fundamental importance of building relation-ships with and between students To be sure, this is a how-tobook, but not of the usual cookbook variety (what Ohanian[2004] has so aptly described as “stir-and-serve” recipes forteaching) Nor is it an animal training guide—masquerading

as a book about working with children and young people—whose focus is on proper discipline

Here the reader will find a thoughtful and explicit book for forging relationships and building community There

hand-is none of the usual dhand-iscussion about rules, nor of the carrotand stick, the “logical” consequences for misbehavior, or theneed to punish, embarrass, shame, scold, or even reward This

is not a book about how to correct student behavior or even,

as Marilyn claims, a book about preventing misbehavior It ismuch more than that At its root, it is a manual for doing it

right, for helping to teach students about getting along, aboutwhy that’s important, and about how this relates to learningfor understanding As Marilyn notes, students do not, cannot,care about school unless they feel cared about This is a deeplyhumanistic book then, disguised as classroom managementprimer A book not so much about preventing bad behavior as

it is a set of explicit instructions for encouraging, directing—indeed orchestrating—prosocial behavior and the develop-ment of classroom community

Throughout, Marilyn reinforces the very potent, based notion that student behavior is directly proportional to

research-teacher behavior, that what research-teachers do and how they do it

matters in very important ways In short, that expert teaching

is not accidental; that it is not just the province of “naturals,”that teaching expertise develops by practicing what expertteachers do routinely and seemingly without effort But it isnot only a book about what expert teachers do, but also aboutwhat they say That is, Marilyn shows the reader how to usewords wisely, why certain words may fail to work asintended, or bore, and instead, when used properly, promotecivility, understanding, and connection And through the use

of real classroom vignettes, we come to see quite clearly howthe choices teachers make about the very language they usematters in ways great and small, from getting student atten-tion to encouraging inquiry and exploration, from preventingstudent confusion to promoting independence and increasedstudent-to-student interaction Marilyn’s book is simple, but it

is subtle too Do not be fooled into thinking that this book isonly about classroom management, for there are importantpointers here, for teachers new and veteran, about extendingand deepening student thinking and academic engagementand about increasing independence of thought and criticalreflection

One more thing: You will meet many students in thesepages and many teachers too There are hapless and disorga-nized teachers, dedicated and highly skilled ones, even somewho are just plain dreadful But in every case, these vignettes

tell important stories, capturing in ways both painful andoften humorous what it is like to face a classroom of studentsanxious and waiting to see how things will unfold Don’t skipover these tales, for in them you will be transported into theshoes of real teachers whose experiences provide invaluablelessons.

Marilyn has filled an enormous gap with the publication

of this book It is a guide that is clear and straightforward, butone that affords the reader the same level of respect she soclearly argues teachers should afford their students Early inthe introduction Marilyn asks, “Aren’t there already enoughbooks about classroom management?”

There are now

—Bruce A Marlowe, PhD

Professor of Educational Psychology

and Special EducationRoger Williams University

Bristol, RI

no teaching experience, but the state issued me a waiver.

It was kind of funny I was young, looked even younger,and was often mistaken for one of the students More thanonce, another teacher approached me as I stood my sentryduty in the passageway between two buildings and told me toget to my room before I was late for class And my learningabout adolescents was on a fast curve Within a couple ofmonths, I learned about the eighth–grade sex club It’s true—there was an eighth–grade sex club The girls would wearpurple knee socks on Thursdays if they wanted to have sex.That club and other unexpected high jinks tested and twisted

my innocence and it was never to be the same

MIKE

I had a particularly difficult student that first year He was ahyperactive and mischievous ninth grader, who interrupted

and disrupted my Spanish class daily and who happened also

to be the son of the school superintendent If anyone had told

me at that time that his behavior was my fault, I would havebeen offended Instead, being sure he was just a kid out ofcontrol, I gave him many after school detentions This, of course,resulted in self-punishment as I, too, had to stay after school.Did these detentions change his behavior? Maybe, for a veryshort time, but not really It definitely didn’t ingratiate mewith the superintendent

Two years later, I was working at a different school andone day while driving home, I heard a report on the radioabout a teacher who had forced a student to stay in a smallcloset for a whole period My outrage was extreme As I drovealong, I was shouting things to myself like “Take away theteacher’s certification!” and “Who in their right mind would

do that?” and “No student deserves that.” My indignationwas short lived when, as the report continued, the reporteraccidentally named the student while he was explaining thatthe student’s father happened to be the school superintendent

You guessed it I knew this student It was Mike; it was the

student who had joined me in so many after school sessions

In the blink of an eye, my righteous outrage turned to ible euphoria and a monumental feeling of long overdue ret-ribution “HoooooooRay!” I now screamed out loud,

incred-“Somebody finally put that kid in a closet!”

The point of this story is that teaching is not easy Youwon’t love every student, but you do have to manage a class-room full of them Managing a classroom is more difficult thanteaching, yet essential in order for teaching and learning tooccur There will be 20 to 30 or more students there in yourroom, all different, all expecting things from you, including,among other things, a safe, positive, and inviting environment

After several years of teaching in every Grade 7 through 12, atevery academic level, and in rural, suburban, and inner city

schools, I no longer knew nothing I knew something Actually,

I knew quite a lot I had had all kinds of extraordinary, prising, and even shocking experiences including studentswinning state and national academic competitions; a studenthanging himself on a tree outside his parent’s bedroom;students overcoming shyness; students sitting in horror as thevoice on the intercom announced that President Kennedy wasdead; students learning to respect each other; students fight-ing and falling through plate glass windows; students watch-ing the launch and catastrophic explosion of the Challenger;

sur-a student suffering from school phobisur-a sur-actusur-ally coming toschool; a student being shot; students shooting each other;students threatening to shoot me; students learning to behaveresponsibly and civilly; students living in their cars and ondrugs; and students achieving beyond their wildest expecta-tions and imaginations

FAST FORWARD TO THE UNIVERSITY—

Yes, I knew a lot, but it took a doctorate and 20 years more,

at the university level, of observing and working with K–12preservice, student, novice, and experienced teachers to figureout what it was that I knew and to put a plan for preventingclassroom disruption into words One state college, tworesearch institutions, and one Jesuit university later, here ishow it all came together

Field Testing: Student Teachers and Videotapes

As a doctoral candidate and for my first 10 years as a lege professor, part of my responsibility was to observestudent teachers in their practica I was shocked at how littlethese student teachers (almost all of whom I had not metbefore) knew about classroom management, how little prepa-ration they had had in classroom management, and even

col-more shocked at what little initiative they took in developingtheir own management systems.

From the first time I met the student teachers, I videotapedevery class I observed; this was often six times a semester forevery student teacher At the end of a student teacher orintern’s first observation, we would discuss, with as muchinput from the student teacher as possible, what was workingand what was not If that student teacher had little idea ofwhat to do next, I would introduce whichever steps I deemedmost necessary for impacting quickly the disarray in thatparticular classroom (At the time, I had not identified ornamed the Six Steps; I just knew what changes had to occur inthe classroom.) The student teacher’s job was to implementthe step(s) from that point forward, consistently and con-tinually Student teachers responded sometimes with appreci-ation; often with skepticism; and even with outright resistance,disbelief, and annoyance

Each subsequent videotape documented what hadchanged with the application (or sometimes, not) of the par-ticular step(s) At that time, if the student teacher or internwas again not able to figure out himself what he had to donext, I would introduce one (or more) of the other steps,depending on what state the classroom and student teacher orintern were in In this way, each tape was a documentation ofchange in the classroom Over the years, through this process

of videotaping student teachers and interns, I accumulatedover 1500 videotapes

Field Testing: Novice and Experienced Teachers

My university work with novice and experienced teachersusually has come about in the process of implementing newprograms or new government mandates in the schools; work-ing with participants in major research projects; or, in the case

of the Seashore Professional Certification Project in the State

of Washington (Page, 1999), directing a pilot project, the purpose of which was to test new professional certification

processes and requirements for and with first- to third- year teachers In the course of these efforts, and from therelated data, I have discovered that the novice and veteranteachers I have met who were successfully managing theirclassrooms were implementing all of the Six Simple Steps andmore advanced steps as well However, there were experi-enced teachers (sometimes of 20 years or more) who lookedlike or were even worse managers than the student teachers;the Six Steps were absent; the classes were disorganized, con-fusing, chaotically loud, unsafe, unfocused, and unproduc-tive As for the novice teachers, some had figured out a solidclassroom management system; the others were flounderingand thinking of leaving the profession.

Field Testing: In My Own Backyard

But it wasn’t just these experiences and these data thatled me to write this book I don’t have to go further than myown Teaching Methods class to find how overwhelmed pre-service teachers are with classroom management issues,even before they set foot in a classroom For many years atthe university, the following scene has repeated itself overand over On the first day of class (for college sophomores,juniors, seniors, and graduate students, depending on theprogram) in the teacher preparation methods class, I ask thestudents to write down the answers to several questions.One of the questions is always, “What is your biggest worryabout becoming a teacher?” The answers to that questionhave been almost all the same and have represented someform of concern about how to manage a classroom full ofstudents—how to keep the classroom safe and calm, andhow to know what to do when trouble occurs At the end ofthe semester, as the students prepare for their practicums,even though a great deal of time, role-playing, discussion,and practice have focused on classroom management, thesame worries resurface and overshadow every other concernabout becoming a teacher

LACK OFTRAINING IN

TEACHERPREPARATIONPROGRAMS

There is nothing unusual about any of this In just about anysurvey you can find that asks preservice, novice, and experi-enced teachers about their concerns, classroom management isalways on that list and often the most common concern (Gee,2001; McCormack, 2001) And it is no wonder that pre- and in-service teachers have so many problems dealing with classroommanagement issues and that they cite this as their main con-cern in or about teaching Most teacher preparation programs

do not include classroom management courses, and if they do,they are usually elective courses, or not practically oriented, orare relegated to a few class sessions in an education psychol-ogy or general methods class (Christiansen, 1996; Evertson &Weinstein, 2006) Novice teachers, especially, often blame theirclassroom management problems on the lack of related course-work in their teacher education programs (Ladd, 2000) andfeel betrayed by those programs (Whitney, Golez, Nagel, &Nieto, 2002) In a study (Christiansen, 1996) of 42 teacherpreparation programs, none identified classroom management

as a knowledge base included in their training Some ning teachers in one study even reported they would havebeen as well prepared to manage classes if they had skipped all

begin-of their college education courses entirely (Davis, 1999)

THE BIRTH OF THISBOOK

Did you know that 50 percent (often higher in urban areas)

of new teachers leave the field within their first five years ofteaching (Alliance for Excellent Education, 2005; Bergan, 2007;Darling-Hammond, 2003)? For these novice teachers, and forexperienced teachers as well, having problems with classroommanagement is consistently one of the main reasons theydecide to leave the field (Ingersoll & Smith, 2003) Obviously,something has to change Combining this dismal record with

the overpowering amount of data I have collected over manyyears has led to a percolation in my brain for what has seemedlike forever Until I analyzed all these data, I was mostly work-ing intuitively and looking at a big picture; but it becameclearer and clearer that it was Six Simple Steps that werechanging and have changed, in dramatic and productiveways, the dynamics of classrooms and the classroom lives ofthe teachers with whom I have worked.

And so this book, the purpose of which is to describe andexplain these Six Simple Steps, was born

It would be silly to suggest that these steps will eliminateentirely all unwanted behavior and disruption in your class-room; there are all kinds of unique and particular issues indifferent classes However, the field testing, documentation,and analysis for the work in this book have been extensive.Research methodologies have included both qualitative andquantitative approaches: structured interviewing; phenome-nological, 90 minute, in-depth, unstructured interviewing(Seidman, 2006); observation, videotaping and analysis ofsuch (Denzin & Lincoln, 2005); ethnohistorical case study(Page, 1992); surveys; questionnaires; and artifact analysis

The field testing and documentation of 20 years shows that all

of the preservice and inservice teachers who have used thesesteps (hundreds of teachers) have had and continue to havesubstantial success in preventing and reducing unwanteddisruption, disorder, and misbehavior in the classroom

Acknowledgments

Without the hundreds of student teachers and interns

who allowed me to videotape their classes, this bookwould not have been possible These teachers were willing tolisten and to modify what they were doing in the name of cre-ating superior learning environments for their students Theynow teach in schools all over the country and many havebecome teacher leaders All of you, thank you You teach, create,and shape the future

To the novice teachers who had full plates when they met

me and still decided to try new approaches, thank you foryour patience and determination Thank you for challenging

me constantly

Thank you also to the experienced teachers who, thoughoften tired and frustrated, agreed, and some reluctantly, tochange what they had been doing for several years I don’tthink you regretted your efforts You taught me about persis-tence and character and vision

To all the folks at Corwin Press who have assisted me inthis journey, thank you This includes Gem Rabanera, whohelped me in every way possible to complete this book; CarolCollins, who stepped into this process after it had begun andknew what to do to get the ball rolling and who has beenthere with savvy suggestions and encouragement; Brett Ory,who joined Corwin Press when Gem went on to new chal-lenges; Gretchen Treadwell, who respected the integrity of myvoice and made copyediting a delight (all authors should

be lucky enough to work with Gretchen); to Lisa Riley, who

designed a perfect cover; to Eric Garner, who oversaw the duction and graciously listened to and worked with myrequests; to C&M Digitals (P) Ltd for the expert typesettingand especially to the typesetter(s) who thought outside thebox about the boxes; to Charlotte Waisner, proofreader; and toall other Corwin Press family members who helped with theediting, production, cover, and art work.

pro-Thank you to the peer reviewers who took time out oftheir busy schedules, read the manuscript, and respondedwith much positive support and with very helpful critiques

To Bruce and Bob, master educators, extraordinary ars, and the most remarkable friends and colleagues, thankyou Bruce Marlowe, a national expert on learning theory andspecial education, agreed without hesitation to write theForeword and, then screaming and kicking, finally did; andBob DiGiulio, a nationally known authority on positive class-room management, reviewed the manuscript with a fine toothcomb and with his brilliant humor, helped me to fix the glaringissues “Thank you” cannot capture the scope of my gratitude.How lucky are your students! How lucky am I

schol-Corwin Press gratefully acknowledges the contributions ofthe following reviewers:

Susan D’Angelo

Teacher, Elementary 5, Gifted/Adjunct Professor

Pineview School for the Gifted/University of South FloridaNokomis, FL

Sharon RoemerAssistant Superintendent of InstructionLucia Mar Unified School DistrictArroyo Grande, CA

Devona RoweTeacher (AP History/Psychology) (NBCT)Mandarin High School

Jacksonville, FL

Dana TrevethanPrincipal/Adjunct ProfessorTurlock High School/California State University,Stanislaus

Turlock, CA

Matthew WightPrincipalApex High SchoolApex, NC

About the Author

Marilyn L Page is author (with Bruce A

Marlowe) of Creating and Sustaining the Constructivist Classroom (Corwin Press,

1998, 2005) and Creating the Constructivist Classroom, a six-part video series for

grades K–12 (The Video Journal ofEducation, 1999) She began her career ineducation as a high school social studiesand Spanish teacher and has taught inevery Grade 7 through 12, at every academic level, in rural,suburban, and urban school systems in different parts of theUnited States She has taught at the university level andworked with pre- and inservice teachers, Grades K–12, for 20years She also directed a major and complex research projectfor the development of K–12 professional certification require-ments in the state of Washington In addition to full-time uni-versity teaching responsibilities, she has been the technologycoordinator for education programs at two universities anddeveloped the first Middle School Teacher Preparation pro-grams in the Vermont State College System She earned herEdD from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst inInstructional Leadership and in Educational Media andInstructional Technology She consults on novice teacher,reform, classroom management, and technology issues ineducation She lives in State College, Pennsylvania

Introduction

PREMISESIt’s Not Always About Terrible Students

First, let’s start with the important premise that all teachers,

to be successful and to have dynamic classrooms, have to beprepared and organized and have to create engaging learningexperiences for their students (Winzer & Gregg, 1992) Theseare critical components in an active and productive classroom.However, teachers can be organized and prepared and provideextraordinary, engaging learning activities and still, easily, sab-otage their own classroom dynamic For 20 years, I have seenthis happen repeatedly as I worked with hundreds of student,novice, and experienced teachers, many of whom had workedhours and hours on, and did develop, creative and engagingstudent learning plans, only to have those plans disintegrateamid classroom disruptions and upheaval

Almost every one of these frustrated and often depressedteachers, blaming the students for the classroom disarray, hastold me how terrible the students are and has warned me:

“Wait until you see what they do and how awful they are andthen you will understand why there is nothing I can do; theyare just horrible kids.” Teachers are shocked and often defen-sive when I tell them that simply by not being proactive inmanaging their classes, they, the teachers, are contributing toand even causing some of the problems in their classrooms Thereal grounding premise here, then, is that it’s not about studentsbeing terrible; the premise is that teachers have to be proactive

Students and Teachers Have to Feel Safe

The second premise is that students can’t learn when theyfeel unsafe (Crosnoe, Johnson, & Elder, 2004; DiGiulio, 2007;Foundation for a Better Oregon, 2005) Equally important,

teachers can’t teach when they feel unsafe It is no secret that

classrooms out of control are unsafe for everyone, but it doesn’ttake a drastically chaotic classroom to make students andteachers feel unsafe All it takes is a small amount of off-taskchatting, laughing, smirking, daydreaming, poking, mimicking,

or interrupting A teacher who does not prevent or attend tothis disorder appears weak to the students and doesn’t earnthe students’ trust The students’ lack of trust leads to moreinappropriate and disruptive behavior and a continual testing

of the teacher’s ability to run the class; that inappropriatebehavior and testing scares students and also the teacher who,

in turn, often feels unable to function (Ennis & McCauley, 2002;Irvine, 2003) It becomes a vicious circle of disorder, intimida-tion, and dysfunction that prevents teaching and learning

OK, BUT AREN’T THERE ALREADYENOUGH BOOKS

Teachers need to be proactive and teachers and students need

to feel safe; but aren’t there enough classroom managementbooks? There is so much written already about classroommanagement; there are over 20,000 entries in the ERIC data-base system Check any college or university library or onlinebookstore and you will find an enormous selection of books

on classroom management In addition to all the books andarticles you can find, there are hundreds of Web sites thatmimic the book types Check Martin’s (n.d.) site—it’s one ofthe most comprehensive

Some of the books are textbooks for college classes; manyexamine various theories or systems of classroom manage-ment; many books provide the strategies for creating a har-monious and productive classroom community; many pride

themselves in not being how-to books; some try to addressevery issue of every classroom in every kind of school and inthat attempt describe everything from getting started on the first day of school to planning lessons, arranging theroom, using token rewards, speaking to parents, using specificdiscipline or management programs, and working with theadministration.

Some books, unfortunately, look more like how-to books

on training animals They describe and promote techniquessuch as flicking lights, counting down, ringing bells, givingfood and surprise treasures, and heaping praise; others pro-pose and promote similarly reactionary and demeaningactions such as putting names on the board or in a fish bowl;timing out; putting color chips on desks; declaring “do thisand you’ll get that”; putting students in the corner facing thewall; forcing students, in the corner, to read and reread therule(s) they violated; and an unbelievable array of other suchbehaviors Some books (DiGiulio, 2007), thankfully, try tomove away from the unproductive and often degradingreward and punishment system, which, at best (Kohn, 1993),leads to temporary behavior adjustment, rarely works longterm, and seldom addresses root causes

SO WHY ANOTHERBOOK, AND

WHATISDIFFERENT ABOUTTHIS BOOK?

This is not your typical book about classroom management

This book is a primer and it is proudly and unabashedly

a how-to book This book is simple and clear It distills years

of research, data, and the experiences of hundreds of pre- andinservice teachers into six simple, necessary, and doable stepsfor managing your classroom It is not a book about rewardand punishment; it is a book that shows teachers, through thestories of others, how to prevent classroom disruptions, nothow to react to them At the same time, it is much more,because it demonstrates how implementing these Six Steps

allows teachers to focus on the real issues and challenges: creating alive and productive classrooms that hum with posi-tive energy, and helping students to grow and learn to theirgreatest potential Most important, the Steps work They can

be lifesavers for teachers who don’t know where to begin withmanaging their classes and the solution for teachers who haveread about, tried, and become disillusioned with other pro-claimed systems

It is the book that professors who are teaching in teacherpreparation programs can introduce to their preservice students

It is the book every new teacher can carry into the classroom—first to the practicum and then into the real world; it is the bookevery novice and experienced teacher who struggles withclassroom issues needs because it is never too late to changethe climate and culture of a classroom This book is meant to

be carried with you, crumpled from use, and to result in veryshocking and positive changes in your classroom and in yourconfidence as a classroom leader

THE TITLE

The title, You Can’t Teach Until Everyone Is Listening, captures

the core of the book It does not refer to any particular kind ofteaching or learning approach It definitely doesn’t refer tostanding in front of a class and lecturing The key word in thetitle is “everyone” and what the title means is that little, if any,meaningful teaching or learning can occur if the teacher andthe students are not paying attention

The Teacher

If the teacher is oblivious to student disruptions or havior in the class, or sees it but ignores it for lack of knowingwhat to do or perhaps for fear of worse disruptions, thenstudents cannot learn If the teacher is not “listening” to theheartbeat and dynamic of the class, student and teacheraccomplishments will be stunted at best

misbe-The Students

On the other hand, if the students are not attending andnot “listening,” because they are misbehaving themselves orthere are too many distractions, or they feel unsafe in the class-room or the teacher is a poor class manager, then they will not

be very successful Instead, they will be frustrated, lack respectfor the teacher, tune out, or even create more mischief

THIS BOOK’SSTRUCTUREThe Vignettes

In this book, there are 14 vignettes that introduce differentcontexts, teachers, schools, students, and issues The vignettesillustrate and humanize the issues and provide workingexamples of implementing the Six Simple Steps The people,schools, and events in this book are real All names are pseu-donyms Whether a vignette features a student, novice, orveteran teacher, and whether the vignette represents Grade 2

or Grade 4, Grade 8 or Grade 10, or an inner city school or arural school, a small school or a big school or a school withgreat diversity or almost none, there are lessons for allteachers in each vignette From these scenarios, elementary,middle, and secondary teachers, whether pre- or inserviceand regardless of content area, can learn why and how theseSix Simple Steps can make a difference

The Chapters

Each of the first six chapters describes and explains one ofthe Six Steps The last two chapters focus, respectively, on amodel for reclaiming a chaotic class and on how teachers atany career stage can use these Steps

• Chapter 1 explains how knowing and using thestudents’ names consistently, constantly, fluidly, andwithout hesitation, prevents disruption and leads to

greater student attention, interaction, and focus.Additionally, it speaks to the importance of studentsknowing and using each other’s names.

• Chapter 2 defines anonymous and dangling questions

It discusses why and how using such questions usuallyleads to chaos in a classroom, and how asking ques-tions differently can eliminate disorder and lead to pro-ductive thinking and responding

• Teacher language is the focus of Chapter 3, whichexamines two sides of the coin: the detrimental results

of using unnecessary filler or unprofessional words

in teaching and the positive impact of using civil language in creating productive and safe classroomenvironments

• Chapter 4 focuses on how to give directions andinstructions in ways that avoid student confusion,require students to pay attention, prevent classroomdisruption, and allow and cause students to get andstay on task

• Chapter 5 first explains why different classes needdifferent amounts and kinds of attention and thendescribes what to do to prevent student distractionand general unruliness when there is a transition ornew task in the classroom

• Chapter 6 speaks to the importance of interacting withall students multiple times every day to build teacher-to-student connections It also explains how to developand increase student-to-student connections and relation-ships in order to create class cohesiveness, wholeness,and energy while simultaneously and consequentlyreducing disorder

• In Chapter 7, two teachers provide models for bringingdisorderly, chaotic, and dysfunctional classrooms back

to a place where it is possible to begin to introduce theSix Steps These are models for teachers whose classesare already in too much disarray to begin to make pro-ductive changes

• Chapter 8 presents ideas on how you can implementand use the Steps depending on where you are in yourcareer There are suggestions for preservice, student,novice, and experienced teachers as well as for univer-sity professors.

It has become increasingly difficult to find acceptable tors when referring to a person’s ethnic, racial, or culturalconnections It seems as though everyone has an idea aboutwhat is correct and what is not Different parts of the countryhave their own preferences about these labels as do members

descrip-of the same groups

One colleague who is of Native American heritage wants

never to be called Native American She prefers American Indian While Hispanic American is popular in some literature

and some areas of the country and even in Wikipedia, many

people who have roots in Latin America prefer Latino Anglo American has become synonymous with White in some litera- ture and in conversations Some Pacific Islanders don’t mind being called Asian, others do Some folks of African heritage prefer Black; others prefer African American; still others prefer people of color.

I have chosen to use the terms White, Black, American Indian, Indian, Asian, and Latino to refer to any generation

American, whether first, second, or other These names cate the heritage of the people described

indi-BEFORE YOU IMPLEMENT THESTEPS: PROVIDINGEXPLANATIONS

Before you begin, consider that part of the students’ feeling ofsafety in a class comes from knowing why you, the teacher,are doing what you are doing and what you are going to do

next and why Whether you are at the beginning of a schoolyear or somewhere in the middle or even near the end ofthe year, explaining your actions and changes in classroomprocesses and procedures, and reasons for such, goes a longway to developing understanding, calmness, clarity, and feel-ings of security for everyone.

Each of the Six Simple Steps, some of which may seem too

simple (don’t be fooled), plays an important role in ing a safe, secure, organized, calm, productive, and positiveclassroom environment; there are reasons for each of the stepsand you may have additional explanations to add It would be

develop-a tdevelop-acticdevelop-al error to omit the expldevelop-andevelop-ations for the chdevelop-anges orprocesses connected to these steps, no matter what thestudents’ ages or grade levels Knowing is safe And once youhave explained the reasons, students are more ready to coop-erate, and you are ready to take and implement the Step

THE ROADMAP

The Six Simple Steps provide the roadmap that allows everyteacher to become a successful classroom manager While itwould be ideal if all teachers were able to have identical levels

of success when implementing these Steps, life isn’t that fect Not all teachers are created equal and no two students orgroups of students are the same The infinite number of vari-ables that emerge within a classroom and in a school precludecarbon copy experiences No teacher should be discouraged,though, if the first try at implementation of a step is less thanperfect Persistence, determination, focus, and even revisiting

per-a pper-articulper-ar step will mper-ake the difference

And remember, being able to manage your classroomsuccessfully is not the end of the journey; it is the beginning

9

The Critical Beginning

Knowing and Using Students’ Names

BARRYThe Context

Barry was a senior in a secondary teacher preparationprogram at a large research university His student teachingassignment was at North High School, which was located in

a small suburban city of approximately 20,000 One of hisclasses was tenth-grade civics and that was the first class

I visited after Barry had completed his preliminary classroomobservations Barry had been teaching the civics class for twoweeks at that point All of his students were White and wereacademically heterogeneous

Barry’s Plan

Barry had decided that every Friday would be a currentevents day and that each student would find a newspaperarticle representing a contemporary political or social issue

to analyze and present to the class During the presentation,the other students in the class would develop three criticalquestions they would ask at the end of the presentation.This seemed like an acceptable, though not particularly cre-ative, plan.

Friday

Students entered the room several at a time Most weretalking among themselves and carrying bursting backpacksslung over their shoulders They slumped into their seats likerag dolls and, with a thud, dropped their bags on the floor.Barry sat behind his desk at the front of the room and neverlooked up and never spoke When the bell announced thebeginning of class, without attempting to get the students’attention, and apparently without even noticing whether ornot he had their attention, Barry launched into directivesabout how the day’s class would go He then walked to theback of the room, parked himself at a desk in the last row, andsaid, “Justin.”

Justin

A tall, lanky 16-year-old with a sour look on his facedragged himself up to the front of the room as if he wereheading for the gallows He leaned forward on top of thepodium and in a monotone read his article to the class with-out once glancing from the paper It was dreadfully boringand had nothing to do with current events Part way throughthe reading, students began to engage in distracting side con-versations Barry paid no attention to those chatting students,

to Justin’s demeanor, or to his article content

The Questions

At the conclusion of Justin’s presentation, Barry tried

to prompt students to ask their questions by saying, “It’s time

for the questions.” When there was no response from anyone,Barry let loose with a string of five questions himself Hemade no eye contact with anyone, including Justin Fromhis own notes, he read questions

he had developed during Justin’sreading and again paid no atten-tion to the escalating problem

of student distractions, whichincluded talking, sliding back-packs between desks, passingnotes, and eating He didn’t reply

to Justin’s responses He plowed

on with his questions

After Justin

When Barry had finished ing his questions, he announcedthat Justin could sit down and theperson in the first seat in the firstrow would go next This pattern ofeach student getting up to thepodium in order of seating, read-ing an article, often as he leanedover the podium, of no studentsasking questions, and of Barryasking a flurry of questions, con-tinued for the entire period By thetime the class ended, Barry’s voicehad gotten louder and louder so

ask-he could talk over task-he escalatingdin in the classroom The onlyname Barry had used during theentire class was “Justin.”

While Barry’s story includes many classroom ment issues that typically can be present during a student

manage-or new teacher’s first few weeks of teaching, there is one

Student Presentations

Unfortunately, student presentations can be uninspiring, lack substance, represent little learning or analyzing

on the part of the student presenter

or the rest of the class, and, additionally, evoke all kinds of undesirable, off-task behavior in the class Try an alternative Instead of requiring a talking and listening event, which is a setup for student misbehavior, ask each student to

“conduct a learning experience” with the class This would require each student to demonstrate his or her own understanding while involving other students in an activity or activities through which they can learn about the concept or topic Any age student can do this

at some level It takes your expertise to shift students’

expectations of their roles and your guidance to show the students how

to do this One way to begin is to ask for the students’ ideas on how this can happen (See Marlowe & Page, 2005, for more information.)