Balancing Academics, Consequences, and Dignity

If you've ever had a student look at you with sad, haunted eyes as you docked her grade for late work; agonized over whether to call home (about pretty much anything); or felt the quiet thrill of a struggling student thanking you for the postcard you wrote about his super quiz score—basically, if you're a teacher—Chapter 7 of Marzano's The Art and Science of Teaching may be the first one you hit.

Summary:

This chapter asks, "What will I do to recognize adherence and lack of adherence to classroom procedures?" Chapter recommendations on consequences in the classroom seems to indicate that a mixed, balanced approach of positive and negative reinforcement is the most effective. Marzano suggests strategies for acknowledging both positive and negative behavior, such as involving the home, staying physically active and present within the classroom, or group contingency responses.

Stuck in My Head:

Marzano mentions briefly in the book's introduction that the order of the chapters represents a "logical planning sequence" for the teacher in addressing her classroom needs (p. 7). I am captured—and comforted?—that this chapter comes in after 131 pages of healthy discussion of curriculum, academic goals setting, and student engagement—well over two-thirds of the book itself.

This chapter's message seems clear: while our diverse, difficult, and daily needs as a teacher may tempt us to spend a majority of our time planning out all the rules, regs, and consequences (and believe me, I've done this), this actually represents a backwards approach to classroom management. The more time we spend working on the quality of our academics, it seems to be saying, the less time we will need for pure, hands-on management of our students. Martin Haberman's observations of star teachers in poor urban schools emphasize this as well.

In other words, kids who are immersed in a self-chosen novel or engaged in a fabulous lab are kids who are probably not trying to text message under their desks.

Playing It Out:

I took a giant leap closer to some answers on classroom management when I discovered Ed Deci and Rich Ryan's work a couple of years ago (I mentioned them in my first post on Chapter 1). Deci and Ryan also get a nod in this chapter from Marzano, but I honestly don't know if this is enough.

Consider, for example, that the entire foundation for Marzano's discussion of "effective" classroom strategies is whether it "decreases negative behaviors." My classrooms in Korea, where I first taught as a cultural embassador, were devoid of negative behaviors—because my high school boys knew they would be publicly shamed, slapped, or beaten otherwise. In America, our methods are more subtle, perhaps, but just as superficially oriented, if judging by this chapter is any indication. How willing are we as teachers to trade the dignity of our students for compliance? 

Marzano also glosses over the very slight differences in negative behavior reduction between mixed methods (33 percent) and no consequences (24 percent)—a total difference of a whopping 9 percentile points. Doesn't this at the very least indicate that the yardstick of decreasing negative behavior is not nearly the nuanced instrument we require?

Positive reinforcement alone, in contrast, has an effect size in triple digits (101), outstripping mixed methods by miles, but this fact is not addressed by Marzano at all. I wish it was.

Take Away This:

I had a kid in at lunchtime to finish a late reading journal the other day. When he had completed it to my satisfaction, about 15 minutes into the lunch period, I thanked him and told him he could go back to the lunchroom.

"You mean I can...GO?" he asked, in true astonishment.

I blinked at him. "Sure. You did the work. Why would you stay longer?"

"To teach me a lesson," he said.

I'll never forget that conversation.

What is punishment, versus a logical, respectful, compassionate negative consequence that is not a disguised teacher power play? Clarifying this difference to myself—and to my students—has been a bugaboo, but I inch closer each year. How do you do the same? Leave it in the comments.

Dina Strasser is a middle school English/language arts teacher in upstate New York and blogs at The Line. Read her Chapter 6 post in this chapter-by-chapter series on Marzano's The Art and Science of Teaching.