Book Review: The Classroom Management Manual

If you are looking to gain insight into the elements of effective classroom management, I recommend reading the book The Classroom Management Manual: How to Build Relationships with Students, Share Control, and Teach Positive Behaviors by Scott Ervin.

I have read multiple classroom management books and while they all have the same common threads, each has their own twist on how to implement effective elements to manage classroom behaviors. This book was no different.

Book Review: The Classroom Management Manual

THE BIG IDEA of THE CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT MANUAL

Three Classroom Management Essentials:

Build Relationships

Share Control

Hold Students Accountable

It is essential for teachers to build relationships with their students. This is a no brainer for the majority of our students, but what about our difficult to reach students? Being nice to difficult kids, by itself, is worthless. Difficult kids will act out more when you go out of your way to be nice. Challenging students have trust and self-esteem issues, and will test you by exhibiting negative behaviors to see if you truly like them and if you are able to place limits on them - something they need and want.

You must build relationships through procedures that train students to exhibit positive behaviors. Establish these procedures as routines and create an environment where all students feel the safety and ownership necessary for them to be prosocial members of their classroom and ready to learn.

As teachers we need to share control with your students. It is best to give control to our students on our terms or they will take it on their terms. Easy ways to give students control is by allowing them to make small decisions, “Do you want to complete this work alone or work with a partner?” “We have extra time, let’s vote on a game to play.” Assign jobs to students in the classroom so they feel a sense of responsibility and ownership. Don’t create a “Power Struggle'' by making all of the decisions. 

This is the HARDEST part of classroom management for most teachers and is often the reason why management systems fail. Accountability. Students MUST be held accountable for their actions and there MUST be consequences.  Even well behaved students have bad days. When students slip up and forget to follow a procedure, even in the first weeks of school, you MUST deliver appropriate consequences. From small infractions to egregious acts, each and everyone one requires action from the teacher.

When giving consequences, all should be delivered with EMPATHY. Remain CALM. Be ASSERTIVE. By holding students accountable through appropriate consequences, students will learn that, although we love them and will grant them control, we are in charge.

IN SUMMARY

ALL students benefit from a calm, kind teacher who builds relationships, shares control, and teaches positive behaviors. 

ALL students, if treated this way, every day, will feel safe enough, cared for enough, and loved enough to be ready to learn and thrive in the classroom.

MY THOUGHTS ABOUT THE CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT MANUAL

This manual provides real classroom examples and stories from the author. I appreciated the fact that both Elementary and Secondary examples were given. Step by step instructions are provided for how to teach ALL procedures. Scripts are given for each aspect of effective classroom management with suggestions on what to say and how to say it. 

The author of this book uses a lot of acronyms and author assigned names for strategies: ESPN Greeting, PLO (Procedure Learning Opportunity), DLO (Delayed Learning Opportunity), Lock-it in Procedure, Tagging, and Nows and Laters to name a few. At times it is hard to follow as the references are unfamiliar. I related them to something I do within my own classroom and it helped me to keep everything straight.

AUTHOR SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

Author, Scott Ervin, is a proponent of the following classroom routines:

• Class TEAMS, assigned before the first day of school.

• Greeting students at the door each morning

• Nicknames for the class, each team, and each student

• Student Jobs

• Morning Meeting

• Real World Workshop (Must Do/May Do time).

While these are not unique to this author, he puts his own twist on them which is refreshing.

I have implemented all of these in my classroom in some way over the years. Every class of students is different. Each grade level is managed with varying expectations. Use his ideas and make them work for you and your classroom. 

UNIVERSAL MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES

The author, Scott Ervin, presents tried and true classroom management strategies with his own style.  Here’s a few that stood out to me…

CALM SIGNAL

When dealing with challenging students, have a calm signal.

The Calm Signal is a pause button; a signal that the teacher is calm and will give helpful positive strategies instead of a negative response. The Calm Signal cues the brain to be calm, relax, and think.

“Okay”

“Oh my”

“Oh me, oh my”

“Okie dokie”

PREVENTION THROUGH STRATEGIC NOTICING

Teachers need to use “I notice” statements throughout the day. Noticing a student’s behavior makes them more likely to repeat that behavior. Both positive and negative.

Educators need to systematically notice positive behaviors in order to encourage them, while also ignoring (when possible) or giving minimal attention to negative behaviors. 

Make it a goal to use Strategic Noticing every 90 seconds. All DAY LONG.

Strategic Noticing is your FIRST way to PREVENT behavior.

PREVENTION THROUGH MOVEMENT

Move around the room as much as possible. This is known as “Preventative Movement”. Walk around the room when things are GOOD and walk around as often as possible.

MODELING

One cannot aspire to be what one has never seen.

Show students respect, use good manners, take care of your responsibilities and apologize when you make mistakes.

A behavioral ceiling is the idea that students will never behave better than you do. You set the behavioral ceiling with your own personal behavior. Model what you want to see. If you want students to be polite, you are polite. If you want students to complete work in a timely manner, ensure that you are giving them feedback in a timely manner.

THE BAD KID CYCLE

Students who consistently use negative behaviors to get what they want use negative behaviors as a matter of habit. This bad habit typically starts at home. As children see their behaviors becoming more and more successful at getting more and more control over parents’ emotions, they start using more negative behaviors to get even more control, creating a power struggle that reinforces the child’s negative behavior. They bring this strategy to school. It is our job to end that cycle by not giving in and now allowing their behaviors to get us angry. Show EMPATHY. Remain CALM. Be ASSERTIVE.

THE GOOD KID CYCLE

Some students know that they get what they want through positive behaviors like being polite and pleasant. They also get what they want by earning good grades and achieving academic success. Let’s continue this Good Kid Cycle by noticing positive actions and behaviors.

FINALLY..

It is not about classroom management. It is about BEHAVIORAL LEADERSHIP.

We are the behavioral leaders in our classroom. We must model the behavior we want to see. In addition, we must follow through on everything we say. Students need to know we care about them and we are there to support and guide them. But we are also there to ensure they learn and do not disrupt the learning of others.