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Classroom Management Plan

Ian Salas
Cal State Dominguez Hills
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Introduction

In the fall of 2017, I conducted a field study at an elementary school in South Los

Angeles. The school's is located in the inner-city and majority populated by Latin and African

American Children. The instructor is a 20-year veteran/master teacher. The classroom contains

27-second graders. Ninety percent of the students in the classroom are English Learners. My

study focused on three students. An English learner (EL), a student with an IEP (Individualized

Education Plan), and an advanced student.

The English learner has lived in California for two years. Before coming to California, he

lived in Guatemala with his mother. He has a strong accent and needs a little more attention with

his vocabulary than most of the other students. He's energetic and likes to talk to his classmates.

This causes him to be irreverent, break rules and get in trouble. The student with The IEP is an

autistic African American boy. He starts his day in a special education classroom where he meets

with his aid. He then comes to the classroom with two other students and his aid. He's smart,

keeping up with the other students academically. Emotionally, he can get upset easily and refuse

to communicate with educators and students. This has only happened once in the thirteen days I

was present. The advanced student is an energetic and motivated Mexican-American girl. She

has grown up in a Catholic home. She has several older siblings, which help her with her

homework. Both her parents are involved in school activities and constant communication with

her teacher.
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Classroom Management Spectrum

As a teacher, I fall in all three focuses on the Classroom Management Spectrums. The

spectrums are Discipline, Reward-and-Routine, and Engagement (Pinto, 2013). I would love to

be solely on the Engagement Focus of the spectrum, having my students fully engaged in my

instructions and their work (Pinto, 2013). Unfortunately, I come into teaching with limited

experience. That's not to say that I don't have experience. I'll engage my student, but to master,

such a feat as to fully be in the engagement focus will take hard work and time. The knowledge I

do have some experience and my studies allow me to have a strong stand in the Reward-and-

Routine focus of the spectrum. As I start teaching, I will be in the Reward-and-Routine Focus,

with a little bit of Discipline Focus and leaning towards the Engagement Focus.

When it comes to being culturally proficient, I find that I will have to overcome myself,

which are my biases (Pinto, 2013). I'll need to be always exploring a changing with the culture of

the school I'm in, looking to be a better person from day to day (Pinto, 2013). Now, I am

Culturally competent, inspiring to be proficient. As I gain experience I am confident that I will

achieve proficiency.

Routines and Procedures

It's important to have a strong foundation in the classroom. Having a foundation is

attained by having routines and procedures. There are three routines and procedures I'll practice

with my students which will occur during the opening exercises. These routines are entering the

classroom and preparing for the day's lessons by 1) putting distractions away, 2) turning in

homework and 3) going over the daily schedule. To establish this, I will need to, unwaveringly,

repeat the instructions daily until it comes second nature for the students. When it comes to
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putting distractions away, students will be asked to put their homework on their desk and their

backpack in a holding area until the end of the day. Any materials they may need for classwork

will be provided to them. To turn in their homework, an inbox on a table will be provided where

the students will place their homework. The homework will be turned in every morning after

their personal belongings are put away. Finally, going over the daily schedule will be done with

the students after they turn in their homework and take a sit. These daily activities will be

practiced until the end of the school year.

Discipline and Rules

Setting up rules, expectations and the consequences to them are critical. But, the most

important thing about setting them up is to do it at the beginning of the school year. Including the

students in making the rules is also critical. Rules should not be restrictive. If they were, students

would naturally want to resist them. A better approach is to make the rules inclusive and non-

restrictive. Examples are being a good citizen, being respectful and communicating at

appropriate times and manner. Communicating student's behavior to their caregivers is also

important. This can be done by sending a color-coded progress report attached to the homework

or a checklist of daily accomplishment, which is easy enough to keep when the homework

returns. As for monitoring the rules and discipline? Well, that's a matter of having a central

location in the classroom where a student's standing can be displayed and changed with ease. I

would have a poster board with a picture of an edge. There will be three sections on the poster.

One on the farthest side of the edge, another close, and the last one on the edge. If the students

follow classroom guidelines they will remain far away from the dangers of the edge,

metaphorically speaking. If the student behave inappropriately they will be moved the to the
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middle of the board, which is a warning. If they get moved to the edge they receive the

appropriate actions of discipline.

Student Autonomy

Students, despite what one may think, are not mature enough to self-motivate and accept

responsibility for all their shortcomings. As an educator, one must have an agreement with the

student as to what the rules and consequences of breaking the rules are. It helps to include

students in the "rule" making so they feel ownership of them. As a teacher, following through is

the next most important aspect. Any leeway may break down the structure. Having a solid

structure will help motivate students to follow good choices and take responsibility for their

actions. Students desire social recognition and teachers need to figure out the motivation for their

student's misbehavior and guide them to motivations that will encourage good behavior (Pinto,

2013).

Use of Time

The classroom setup, routines, and daily openers are three strategies that maximize

instruction time (Pinto, 2013). Classroom Setup is with the organization of the classroom. This

means having an effective sitting arrangement, none distractive decorations in the front of the

classroom and even moving students sitting arrangement if that becomes distractive. Routines

mean having a set schedule (Pinto, 2013). Having the visible daily schedule is important as a

reference and a go to. When a routine is practiced over a long period it becomes second nature

and faster. Daily Openers are activities or task students do before or after the bell ring or between

lesson subjects. This can include a writing prompt, sudoku or a critical thinking puzzle. This can
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also be done to transition between lessons or during housekeeping, like taking roll (Pinto, 2013).

With practice, these strategies will make time in the classroom efficient.

Accommodations

Accommodating students who are English language learners, gifted or have special needs

are not clear-cut. Students have different personalities that may mesh well with a certain mixture

of peers. When setting up a small group of English learners, it is important to have a strong

English learner present to be an example. It should be a student with a good handle on learning

the English language. Gifted students' group need to be well rounded. They should be able to

have a discussion with peers their own level but also be able to explain their reasoning to

students who are not quite at their level. The needs of students with special needs (who have an

IEP) vary from student to student (Kirk, Gallagher, & Coleman,2014). These students need to be

challenged but they also have an IEP that may account for specific needs they may have and

require. Review of a student's IEP is necessary to better facilitate their education. These could be

listening to audio when reading or have a gifted student be their assigned reader. All these

groups should be five students or less, depending on the needs of the students. The students

should also be challenged to the point where they feel engaged but not to the point being

frustrated.

Peer Interaction

As a teacher, group learning is going to certainly be used. Peer interaction will play a role

in group learning. The following are examples that will get students to communicate as a class.

Using tokens or totems can alleviate a noisy classroom or give a shy student the opportunity to

speak (Pinto, 2013). Each student will have 3 tokens. As a conversation is led, a student must
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contribute at least idea, adding one of their tokens to the conversation. This ensures that every

student contributes at least one time to a conversation. While using a totem, students only speak

if they are holding the totem to avoid disorderly conversations. The totem is passed around so

whoever wants to participate can. Another way to have students interact with each other is to use

popular media to peak student interest, having them engage in conversation, relating pop culture

to the subject at hand. Topics can be related to music, television, books, movies and other

relevant media.

Fairness, Equity, and Respect

Social justice is a hard topic to discuss. Students vary in the way they think. Life

experiences are so different that they see individual's actions differently as well. Students who

feel oppressed will find flaws in teacher's decisions others may not. The expectations teachers

have for their students need to be high. Having a firm structure and following through with the

will show students that rules apply to everyone, the teacher does not have preferences and that

they have a say when they are included in the process of making the rules. Being included in this

process gives them a sense of responsibility and there is no excuse that they did not understand

the rules or consequences because they took part in creating them.

Parent Communication and Involvement

Communicating with parent and parent involvement are an important feature in the

success of students (Pinto 2013). Parents need to know what their children are learning and how

they can help them keep learning. To have parents involved in their children's education I'll ask

them to volunteer in the classroom. I'll ask the parent to volunteer time to tutor, read, do clerical

work and use their talents and strengths where I see best benefits the classroom.
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To better place parents in roles that will benefit the student, I will first need to know the

parents. This can be done by calling students homes frequently with positive news, this eases

parents when I try to communicate with them, about volunteering or when I need to talk to them

about their parent, allowing a relationship of trust form between myself and them (Pinto, 2013).

If I am unable to communicate with a parent over the phone I can scheduling to meet with

parents before or after school (Pinto, 2013). I can even wait for them at the entrance or exit of the

school site to quickly greet them, creating comfort and familiarity. Sending newsletters home, in

the parent's language, can give the parent much-needed information (Pinto, 2013). In this way, a

wide array of information can be communicated. This can be important dates, homework

assignment and general information. Creating a contract between teacher, student and parents is

another way to be on the same page with the parent. Here, student, teacher, and parent agree to

terms for the school year where students can have a sense of responsibility, but it will also give

parents a sense of responsibility to follow up with their children and myself as a teacher. It also

gives parents an understanding of the expectations I, as a teacher, have not only for their children

but for them as my student's parents.

Conclusion

Although I may fall chaotically on the classroom management spectrum at this moment, I

feel that I will gain strength as a teacher with experience. As I continue my studies I find that my

focus will sharpen. My instincts will improve, and I will be able to teach any classroom and any

student. As I reexamine myself with each new experience I will add to my classroom

management plan. Just as I have taken my experience with my field study, especially focusing on

the different needs of certain students, I can build my repertoire to encompass any need of a

parent, student or myself as a teacher.

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Reference
Kirk, S., Gallagher, J., & Coleman, M. (2014). Educating Exceptional Children (14th ed.).
Andover: CENGAGE Learning.
Pinto, L. (2013). From Discipline to Culturally Responsive Engagement: 45 Classroom
Management Strategies. SAGE Publications.