How can more student freedom be an effective Classroom Management Strategy? Freedom is, in most countries, an inalienable right, a right that feeds into our dignity and identity as well. We may be free to make choices but do we have the necessary skills and knowledge to make good choices? The freedom to make choices carries with it an awesome responsibility.
We covered Glasser’s first basic need, “BELONGING” In this article we will examine the second basic need, FREEDOM.
As teachers, one of our responsibilities is to help our students become self-sufficient adults capable of making decisions that will help them to achieve their goals in a positive way. What must we do to enable our students to make good choices, choices with consequences that will be positive both for them and the people around them?
Classroom management strategies need to be directed at helping our students satisfy a ‘need’. If I am hungry I eat. If I am sad I seek someone or something to make me happy. The choices we make in satisfying our needs in large part determine our happiness. Young students often satisfy their needs with an emotional response. If I am angry I will hit someone or break something. While this choice may make me feel less angry it will have a negative consequence. Having the freedom to choose comes with the consequence of taking responsibility for my choices.
Many students find themselves in situations that require action but they have a limited repertoire of choices to select from. In many cases, they only know of one response. For the student who hits someone when he is angry, that may be the only way he knows of to deal with the anger. These students need caring adults who can help them to broaden their list of choices so they will be able to make a more appropriate choices. For example, he could hit someone and be sent to the office, he could tell the other person that he doesn’t like what they are doing and had better stop, and then walk away to be near an adult, or he could ignore the person, walk away and not get into trouble. Now he has three strategies from which to choose.
An important starting point in our classroom management strategy is providing direct instruction on making choices. To teach children that they have choices we need to give them choices. Do you want to answer the odd-numbered questions or the even-numbered ones? Would you like to work alone or with a partner? Which of these five novels would you like to read and report on? These are examples of the many choices we could place before our students to give them ownership of their learning as well as teach them about freedom. The side benefit for both the teacher and the student is that CHOICE leads to OWNERSHIP which leads to MOTIVATION. It’s a win/win situation.
With choices in the social area master teachers are using circle meetings to allow students to talk about their problems, learn about the emotions associated with them, and develop strategies to solve them. Knowing that everyone in the class is willing to offer suggestions makes the student feel that they belong and are liked by their classmates. Role-plays are another great strategy to help students to develop more choices and learn how to use them in simulated real-life situations. For more about circle- meetings see Jane Nelson’s “Positive Discipline in the Classroom“.
Freedom to make good choices is a powerful gift that we can give our students, and helping them learn to accept responsibility for their actions will make them stronger, more responsible adults. It’s a classroom management strategy that you shouldn’t ignore.