chapter 5

Chapter five had several helpful tips and ideas pertaining to managing classroom behavior and safety in the science classroom. I really thought that the section on classfying misbehavior was helpful. It is important to recognize the differences in off-task, inappropriate, and disruptive misbehavior, because all should be dealed with in an appropriate manner, and not necessarily the same way. Most of us as educators will have to deal with disruptive students at some point, and this chapter does a good job in outlining some helpful actions a teacher might consider taking when dealing with a student of this sort, as well as four routine steps that are used regularly in behavior modifaction.

Breaking down the section on implementing learning activities into phases was really helpful to me, because I was able to see that in order to continue to the next phase the one previous to it needed to be completed successfully for the whole lesson to run smoothly. Listing key concepts to cover in each phase was also informative and helpful. One concept that really stuck out to me was in phase B: the pre-activity stage. Here they mention that it is a good idea to outline a set of rules with the students, and give them reasons for the rules. It is in my experience working with children that sometimes they will disregard a rule because they feel it is purposeless and does not pertain to them. Also outlining rules with the students allows them to feel like they have a say and some control in their own classroom. Posting the rules so that all can visually see them is also another good way to try and enforce them. This chapter was also helpful in showing how to write key aspects of lesson plans, such as standards, writing appropriate objectives, and assessing with rubrics.