I am starting my first year teaching at the end of this month and I'm still on the fence about having a behavior chart (moving clips or turning cards, etc.). Are these too primary for 4th graders? What do you use?
I'm first year too, so take everything I say with a grain of salt. I am planning on using a modified stoplight chart with my 5th grade, so no, I don't think 4th graders are too old. I actually saw a card-pulling chart in 4th grade classes when I subbed. I also plan to combine my chart with Ms Powell's token system: http://www.mspowell.com/tokensystem.html As we speak, I'm googling poker chips (that don't actually look like poker chips!!) to use as counters.
I don't think it is too primary for upper elementary, however, I think encouraging self monitoring is a great idea. I have seen this in sub jobs more than the clips and turning of cards. Each student has a card they are to self maintain, but the teacher may give them a check (not good) for misbehavior, and sticker for correct behavior. However, there needs to be a substantial award at that age. I have also seen this as a group, but two years in one room on frequent visits I was not seeing it work. The whole group was punished for one or two kids who just didn't care.
we use a stick system. Every student has a popsicle stick labeled with their name. My system was on one of my side boards. There was a space for "friendly warning", "safe seat", "buddy room", and "safe room". Students moved their stick with each re-direct but hopefully ended up back at their seat. Ex. Beth talks out. I remind Beth of the procedure and ask her to move her stick. If Beth gives sass or does it again she moves her stick to the safe seat place and moves her body to safe seat. Once I'm able to process with her Beth moves back to her seat but her stick stays at safe seat. Hopefully everything ends there but sometimes Beth forgets she's in school to learn not to climb the social ladder!
I am entering my second year of teaching fourth grade. I used the card turning system last year and was not happy with it! I plan on using the token system this year. I was referred to that at another site. It looks great. I am planning on using behavior contracts for those students that need a little more structure. I'm planning on getting some sort of treasure chest for the tokens. I found bingo chips on ebay for near to nothing! I just have to decide what I will store all the chips in!
I'd like to add to my idea.... I found a cute plastic treasure chest and I'm thinking of using plastic gold coins instead of bingo chips....I'll just number the gold coins and they'll be reusable from year to year.
I did a card system with tickets. Honestly, I did not really see it making a difference. Students got 2 tickets per day...if they kept their green card all day, both tickets were put into a box for our weekly drawing (they got to choose little prizes or certificates like homework pass, sit by a friend, etc). Students who received a warning turned their card to yellow and lost 1 ticket. When students got to red, they lost all tickets AND got a note home in their agenda. In order to be sure that students did not continue with their misbehavior once they got to red (I have seen that happen in a lot of classrooms), I also had other consequences if the behavior continued (phone call home, detention, office referral). Most of the kids really liked the system and strived to stay on green. However, those were the kids that probably would have behaved no matter what. The kids with behavior problems really didn't care. Notes and phone calls home did nothing because their parents didn't seem to care. Office referrals were not always effective because they usually got a "talking to". If I teach 4th grade again (I am moving and taking a year off)...I would probably try the system again, but only if I have a supportive administration when it comes to disciplining repeat offenders.
For seasoned professionals.... When you start your year, do you advocate starting with a behavior monitoring system or do you advocate waiting until you know your students and basing something that follows what they need (if needed). I personally would think it would be better to start with building a community climate and seeing if the students can work without having to need an elaborate extrinsic based system and then adding one if they do need one. What are your thoughts?
what i used I'm not a seasoned professional by any means, but I did have a tough class last year. I used several systems in my class that seemed to work pretty well together. 1. I had a card system that lasted throughout the week. Each student had a pocket with 5 different colors of note cards. Green = Great, Blue = Warning, Purple = 5 minutes recess, Yellow = 10 minutes recess, Red = All of recess/phone call home (I later had to change the recess time to a conduct grade because I couldn't guarantee that students actually sat out at recess because it was right after their lunch time .. which was still my lunch hour) If they got past red they went straight to the office with a referral. The note cards worked out great because I could write the offense on the card and just refer to it as I filled out the referral.. stating exact dates and actions. If a student stayed on green all week they got 2 stickers to go on my sticker chart .. once they filled up their line they got to get a prize from my treasure chest (filled with frisbees, dominoes, crayons, water balloon packages.. really good finds from the dollar store) On Fridays, students were sent home with a behavior calendar. I used the note cards to fill in offenses in accordance to their days. Every good day earned them a sticker in that particular day's square. Parents signed and calendars were returned to me on Monday.. if they weren't signed I called home that day and told the parents that their child was taking their calendar home again today. 2. I had a whole class reward systems.. marbles in a jar. They never actually earned their reward ALL YEAR (like I said.. they were pretty rough), but had they filled up the happy jar they would have been able to watch a movie on Friday and each student would have receive a no homework pass. 3. For my REALLY tough cases, I had individual cards on their desks. The type of card depended on the student and his needs.. so I won't get into specifics since this post is MUCH longer than I had originally intended..:sorry:
I've enjoyes reading all of your posts, and wanted to add my "two cents." I'm going on my 5th year of teaching but 2nd year teaching 4th grade. I most definitely use the behavior pin system. I believe this year, it may be more powerful for the students to move their own pins. On Friday, if students had an excellent week and got to pink-which stood for fabulous behavior, then they received "Lunch Bunch"--eating in the classroom for lunch and watching cartoons on cable!! They loved this. But using behavior systems is not too primary for 4th grade. I really works. And I understand what one teacher wrote about wanting to fostera commnity first before setting up behavior rewards and consequences. I see your logic there, but in the school in which I teach, which is pretty tough, I believe I would have to do it all. Build community early on, as well as instituting a behavioral system that students are aware that the choices they make either have rewards or consequences.
I've enjoyed reading all of your posts, and wanted to add my "two cents." I'm going on my 5th year of teaching but 2nd year teaching 4th grade. I most definitely use the behavior pin system. I believe this year, it may be more powerful for the students to move their own pins. On Friday, if students have had an excellent week and got to pink-which stood for fabulous behavior, then they received "Lunch Bunch"--eating in the classroom for lunch and watching cartoons on cable with me!! They loved this. But using behavior systems is not too primary for 4th grade. It really works. And I understand what one teacher wrote about wanting to first foster a commnity first before setting up behavior rewards and consequences. I see your logic there, but in the school in which I teach, which is pretty tough, I believe I would have to do it all. Build community early on, as well as instituting a behavioral system that students are aware that the choices they make either have rewards or consequences on day 1.
This will be the 1st year that GA is adding Economics to it's SS curriculum. I'm going to try to work my behavior system around this by "paying" for jobs in the classroom and great behavior. I'm not sure exactly how I'm going to do this yet, so if any of you have some good ideas or websites with info, I'd love to hear them. I figure that if I can make Economics a daily lesson, it will be much easier to understand.
I use a token reward system that I learned while teaching in New Zealand. I have paper "tokens" (circles with the wording 'I've been caught doing good!' on them) that I give to students when they are, well, caught being good, lol. I just lay it on the corner of the students' desks during class, and during a break, they write their name on the back and put it in a box on my desk. I give them out for things like participating in class, good behavior, walking quietly in the hall, helping out another student, etc. I may reward a specific behavior one day, and not the next, so it keeps the kids on their toes. I like the system because it enables me to differentiate. I know next year that I have a student that is very dishonest and throws tantrums quite often. So, I can reward her with tokens when she is honest and behaves appropriately. A student that has perfect behavior, may get a token for participating more often in class or helping out others, etc. At the end of each day, I pull one token from the box and the student gets a reward (I use a prize drawer that has pencils, stickers, passes to eat lunch with the teacher, extra computer time, etc.). I will also pull a token if I need a student for a special project or errand. At the end of each week, I dump out all the tokens and we start from scratch the next week. I always have a few students that take their coveted tokens home, because they are rewarded at home for them (this year I had one student that received a quarter for every token - I was making her rich, lol). One year I recorded how many tokens each child got during the week in their planners on Friday, but that got to be a lot of work. Anyway, I have used this system with K, 2, 3, and 5th graders and it works great with all of them. It's not too babyish and you can do some probability lessons about getting your token drawn with older kids. Good luck with whatever you choose! I think it's important to have a positive reward system. Oh, btw, I just dealt with problem students on an individual basis - it just worked better for me than having a class-wide behavior plan.
I'm getting some really good ideas here! Thanks for sharing! I'd like to share something I do...well 2 things. One, I've done ICMM (I Can Manage Myself). Basically every kid has a card or stick that is magnetized so I can stick it up on the white board. There is an area for In The Club, 1st Warning, 2nd Warning, 3rd Warning, and Out of the Club. Oh there's a Gold Club area too. If a student can go 15 consecutive days with no warnings they move into the Gold Club. If a student gets more than 3 warnings in a week they move to the Out of the club area. They lose recess. If they can go 3 consecutive days with good behavior they can move back In The Club. I know it sounds confusing but it worked for me. The other thing I did was give the kids 3 blue carnival tickets on Mondays. When they didn't turn in their HW or weren't following class rules, they gave me a ticket. On Friday I did a drawing from the tickets that the kids had left. I chose 2 boys & 2 girls to go into the treasure box. Also, those who had all 3 tickets got to have free time while the others made up work or went to another room.
Behavior chart-check out PBS Hi, I am new to this site, but I just wanted to say that you should really check out Positive Behavior Support for management systems. Positive behavior support eliminates the need to use chart systems-it is rooted in explicitly teaching the desired behaviors and redirecting behavior through identifying what is causing the behavior (the antecedent) and creating interventions based on those antecedents. It is a preventative and pro-active system that has had phenomenal success-I highly recommend you look it up it has changed my perspective on classroom management forever. Hope this helps
I have taught 4th grade for 3 years now and I don't use any card systems. I do reward appropriate behavior with tickets that can be put in a jar for weekly drawings (for trinkets). I have never had to send a child to the principal or put them in the hall for behavior. I make my expectations clear up front, am fair with consequences, and rarely have problems. I do teach in a rural school, so that may make a difference, but it's a lower socio-economic area as well. Honestly, I just don't have the time or patience to do all the fancy cards, stickers, charts, etc. Oh, and if anyone asks for a ticket, they don't get it. I give them randomly throughout the day and try to make sure those "problem" children get caught being good as often as possible.
Yes, start bldg. your community climate BUT your students MUST know rules and expectations/consequences ahead of time. Now don't go changing colors or give them consequences the first few days until they know what to expect from you and know what and how to implement the class rules. Does that make sense?
I had a tough time when I long term subbed with a behavior chart. It was always the same kids who went had to keep turning cards. No matter what the consequences were, it didn't matter. I have a classroom economy (like Beth Newingham) and I just take money away or give money. The kids try to hard to earn money every way possible to buy cool things from the class store.
Our entire school using the card flipping system, and my 5th graders don't have a problem with it. However, I ask them to go and turn their own card,rather than me turn it for them.
I'm using this right now too. The only problem I have is that the tokens are not always convienent to get to. I might have to walk across the room to get to them, wasting time, or even if you have a kid do it themselves, then the ones who were ready aren't anymore because they're out of their seat.
Behavior chart I feel that a behavior chart is a good idea for 4th graders. it would even be a good idea for 5th and 6th also. this in my opion would give the students a better understanding of your rules and it is a way for you to keep up with their actions so that the parents can also see how their children behave in class on a daily basis.
New2Grade4, I think that you should throw that behavioral chart in the trash. Then you should try the Love and Logic methods where the student are for helping making own behavioral choices and are responsible for their own consequences. Put the blame on them where it belongs instead of punishment. I believe if you try this you might have less headaches everyday. Good Luck, pcfaithful
I just started this forum, but need a place to begin replying--I chose this particular thread because I feel like I have been back and forth on what management tip to use (my first year in fourth). Honestly, this year I only had a very small class and keeping tabs on them has been easy--however, next year I will have a big class and am worried I may not have a good system down from the get-go. i would like to spend my summer working our the kinks and preparing so all is ready week one. Any thoughts on a ticket system (ie: one ticket for one piece of gum, 15 tickets for lunch in the room with a friend, etc?)
