Responding to Challenging Behavior
One of the hardest part of being a teacher is dealing with students' challenging behavior. Students' behavior can be influenced by dozens of factors, so trying to determine the best response isn't easy. So why do students misbehave? Trauma, past experiences, skill deficit, performance deficit, social factors, emotional dysregulation, etc. are all common reasons why students' misbehave. This page includes resources, strategies, common misbehaviors and potential solutions for responding to challenging behaviors.
Thoughts for addressing challenging behavior:
•Address misbehavior consistently and quickly, while still minor.
•Use the strategy (see below) that is the least intrusive yet still appropriate for the frequency or severity of behavior.
•If efforts to re-teach are not resulting in behavior change, consider including an additional consequence (minor consequences).
•Always pair a consequence with teaching the desired behavior.
•When problem behavior occurs, increase rate of positive feedback; maintain a 4:1 ratio.
•When problem behavior occurs, increase teaching (lessons and pre-corrects).
•Chronic behaviors may require problem-solving with other staff and parents or an office referral.
While designed to support our early learners, this activity called "Hot Buttons" is extremely beneficial for reflection by educators. Knowing what our triggers are and how it impacts our relationships with students, allows us to plan for the behaviors and what our responses can be.
Supporting our Earliest Learners
For students in CD-2nd grades, check out the Classroom Routine Support Guide. It walks you through many of the challenging behaviors you may experience, along with how to prevent, address, and reteach specific skills, as needed. If you're trained in the Pyramid Model, check out our support site!
When addressing students, be mindful to to use the specific and contingent error correction continuum:
Error correction is an informative statement provided by a teacher or other adult following the occurrence of an undesired behavior.
It is contingent (occurs immediately after the undesired behavior); specific (tells the learner exactly what they are doing incorrectly and what they should do differently in the future); and brief (after redirecting back to appropriate behavior, move on).
Steps to Specific and Contingent Error Correction.pdfContinuum of strategies:
Frequently Asked Questions:
How do I respond to a student who won't stop talking?
There are a few options for responding to this type of behavior. Start by moving closer to the student talking (proximity) while continuing to teach to control the classroom space. Ask the student (without sarcasm) for their input. Call on other students near them. Make a general statement that you need everyone's attention. Use non-verbal cues to get the students quiet attention (eye contact, hand on desk, etc.). Ask the student to stay after class to discuss how their behavior impacted the class, and reteach expectations.
What do I do when a student is disrespectful to me?
Stay calm. Remind yourself that you only know about 10% of a student outside of school, and they may have other things going on, including experienced trauma or negative school experiences. Talk quietly to the student, reducing the audience. Tell the student you will be happy to talk after class about the issue. *Give the student a way to back down without losing face. This might include offering them an opportunity to get water, take a break, sit at their desk (not working), head down, etc. Allow the student an opportunity to regulate on their own (when possible).
I have that one student who just always argues...
Remain calm and professional. Take a few seconds to compose yourself if you need to. Acknowledge the student's feelings (whether you agree or not). Ask the student to explain and support his/her argument. Acknowledge the points and remind students that work is still required. Let the student know that you will think about their concerns and look into the complaints they have. Speak with the student privately to address concerns, and connect with additional resource staff to provide interventions if needed (social, emotional, behavioral, acadmeic).
How do I deal with a student who dominates the classroom discussion?
Ask other student's to "add on" to that student's response. Reteach expectations that students will be called on to respond, and call on individual students. Shift the conversation to the other side of the room. Talk with the student privately about allowing other students to participate to show their knowledge of the subject.
What do I do with a student who won't get off their phone?
Make sure that you are clear about the phone policy from the beginning. Remind students (and guardians) of this policy consistently. Cell phone policies should be consistent across the school, but if nothing else, across grade level and content area. Ask the student to stay after class to discuss the problem, and follow up with an email to the student and guardian reiterating expecatations. Use humor to difuse the situation!
What about students who won't participate?
Start with low-stakes questions, and then shift to different types, factual, open-ended, exploratory, etc. Create small groups, using strategic pairing, allowing the student to participate in a one-on-one situation. Draw on student's individual experiences. Provide a writing prompt first, and then ask for students' responses. Provide students with the discussion prompt at the beginning of class or the day before, to allow enough time for students to formulate ideas.
Those sound great, but sometimes these strategies just don't work...
The number one factor in having students participate and use appropriate behavior, is our relationships with them! All of the strategies only work if we have built trusting relationships with students. This foundation is vital. There are small, key components to building relationships with students, like using their names in a positive way, showing interest in them outside of your content area, listening and showing empathy, being willing to apologize when you do something wrong (we're human and make mistakes, too!) and acknowleding that students have a lot on their plates. Restorative practices is one way to help build these relationships, check out the Restorative Practices page for more information. Also, look at the Building Relationships page to access resources for circles, learn about making emotional deposits and withdrawals, and strategies for teaching outside your content area.