Intervention Strategies

Direct interaction between you and your students offers opportunities to build rapport, strengthen a sense of community, and humanize the educational process –Laura E. Pinto

In terms of managing student misbehavior, the most important takeaway I gathered from researching intervention strategies is to remember: conflict is natural. Conflict is a result of loss–loss of voice or choice. As a future educator, it is my responsibility to help students navigate and respectfully express their emotions. Conflict in the classroom can become a learning opportunity to practice problem-solving and communication skills that students will be able to transfer to their personal and professional lives. Additionally, I find it to be beneficial to collaborate with other teachers in order to encourage consistent expectations of students.

Characteristics of Intervention Strategies:

Making students feel heard and supported
Help students identify and respectfully express their feelings
Identify the root of the conflict
Determine attainable objectives can be measured
Develop solutions and action plans
Implement the action plan
Evaluate outcomes

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Individual HAT Meetings:

Rationale: Laura E. Pinto in her novel, “From Discipline to Culturally Responsive Engagement: 45 Classroom Management Strategies”, she introduces individual HAT meetings as an approach for student-teacher communication.

When to Use: Ongoing basis or determined by the teacher

How it Works: Scheduled one-on-one five-minute conferences every three weeks with each student. These conferences demonstrate concern for students in tangible ways by inquiring how things are going for them both in and out of class. If appropriate, by offering students support with personal or behavioral issues, this conveys to students that I care about them individually. It is important to emphasize the importance of students’ ability to communicate productively. I believe this technique would be beneficial to incorporate into my intervention strategies because it will help shut down behavioral issues more smoothly when there is a personal connection between student and teacher.

Space and Proximity:

Rationale: An everyday strategy I can use in the classroom is taking advantage of the space and proximity to students. If side conversations are distracting instruction or prohibiting an efficient learning environment, one technique that is great to help manage student productiveness is utilizing space and proximity to my advantage.

When to Use: To monitor student productiveness and/or stop side-conversations

How it Works: By simply moving closer to students or walking around the classroom, this helps students stay on task. With the anticipation of inquiries or questions, taking advantage of space and proximity in the classroom will foster self-management skills and on task behavior.

Behavioral Contracts:

Rationale: For optimal student success, I strongly believe that parental involvement in the classroom is vital to managing student behavior. By establishing relationships with parental guardians from the first week of school, it establishes a relationship between parent and teacher that promotes smoother interactions regarding behavioral issues.

When to Use: Send home with students to review with parents for homework, require parent signature returned next class period. Keep these contracts in student files.

How it Works: By sending out behavioral contracts to parents to review with their student, it holds all three parties involved (student-parent-teacher) accountable for students to respect classroom policies. The contract will have clear descriptions of good behavior expected from the student, as well as the outcomes in which these expectations are not being followed. From the first day of class, I want parents to know as their child’s teacher, I am there as an additional support system and want to see their child succeed.

References:

Pinto, Laura E. (2013). Discipline to Culturally Responsive Engagement: 45 Classroom Management Strategies. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.