Classroom Management Philosophy Paper

The culture of my middle school and high school English language arts class is one that shifts from teacher-centered to student-centered throughout the school year. Based on Shindler’s Matrix (2010), I begin each school year with a classroom management plan that resembles that of a conductor and gradually work into the role of facilitator (p. 14). My philosophy of classroom management is to begin as a composer who orchestrates the classroom with expectations of behavior, including active participation and production. As the year (or semester) progresses, I scaffold the management of the learning from teacher-centered to student-centered. My goal is for students to learn how to self-direct and self-motivate their active participation. For example,

Shindler (2010) states when implementing expectation cues “it is best to be as direct and concrete as possible at first; then as the expectation becomes better understood conceptually and practically, use expectation cues the majority of the time to get the best results” (p. 68). It appears that I recurrently use praise rather than positive recognition in my classroom. Shindler (2010) points out the harm of this “Praise, by its nature, leads to dependence on an external source and is not readily associated with learning. Positive recognitions create clarity of the task and encourage the student’s own internal goals and interests” (p. 64). I plan to add a finish word to the expectation cues in my classroom, and I plan to be direct and concrete in my expectations. Furthermore, I can apply positive recognition rather than praising students. For example, I can create positive recognition by using clear, concrete praise, such as “I am seeing students who are including specific examples from the article when answering the question. I love that we are taking the time to do

A cue word or finish word that I am excited to include in my classes is go. I have never used a finish word before, but I can foresee that it will be beneficial to my classes. I habitually have students who start before I am finished giving directions. Conceivably this is the first step to improving the responsibility-freedom social frame in my classroom. This suggests that teaching students to listen to all directions before they begin the task will give them more responsibility and consequently lead to more freedom. Students will be better prepared for the task, and they will better understand the task before they begin. Perhaps some of my students are struggling with responsibility and gaining freedom because they jump into the task too quickly, or other students are jumping in too quickly and distracting them from receiving the full instructions. This implies that by adding this simple finish word go as a cue word my students will learn to listen to all directions before they go. Furthermore, it hints that this will lead to an improved responsibility-freedom social frame in my