Discipline through
Pragmatic Classroom
Management
Blair Carson
EDUC 531
Dr. Patty Williams
Harry
The Wongs:
Rosemary
 The Wongs’ approach is eminently
pragmatic, built from practical ideas
gleaned from myriad sources, with no
attempt to make suggestions fit any
particular theory.
 They write in an informal manner and use
many aphorisms that stick in the mind.
The Fundamental Hypothesis of the
Wongs’ Approach:
 Discipline problems largely disappear
when students are carefully taught to
follow procedures for all classroom
activities.
Wongs’ on School:
 School is where the students go to learn how
to be productive citizens and reach their
potential as human beings.
 School should be challenging, exciting, and
thought provoking, but it must have structure to
ensure student success.
 You cannot give students self-esteem, but you
can make sure they find success in school.
Wongs’ on Teaching:
 Teaching is a craft – a highly skilled craft that can be learned.
 By far the most important factor in school learning is the ability of
the teacher. The more capable the teacher, the more successful
the student.
 Good teachers enhance the life and spirit of the students they
teach.
 Stop asking, “What am I supposed to do?” Start asking, “What
must I know that will help me accomplish what I need to do?”
What you do on the first day of school determines your success
for the rest of the year.
 Start class immediately. Do not take roll until later.
 Learning is the most effective when it takes place in a supportive
community of learners.
On Teaching (Cont’d):
 The more that the students work together responsibly,
the more they learn.
 Shorter assignments produce higher student
achievement.
 Intersperse questions throughout a lesson.
 Students usually learn more from an activity-question
approach to teaching than from a textbook-lecture
approach.
 Teachers go through 4 stages of professional
development-fantasy, survival, mastery, and impact.
 You can have your achievements or you can have your
excuses.
 Those who teach well never cease to learn.
About Classrooms and Procedures:
 The most important factor governing learning is not
discipline; it is how a teacher manages a classroom.
 A well-managed classroom is task oriented and
predictable.
 Effective teachers spend most of the first two weeks of
the school year teaching students to follow classroom
procedures.
 The very first day, the very first minute, the very first
second of school, teachers should begin to establish a
structure of procedures and routines for the class.
About Roles and Responsibilities:
 Responsibilities as Your Teacher:
 To treat you with respect and care.
 To provide you an orderly classroom.
 To provide the necessary discipline.
 To provide the appropriate motivation.
 To teach the required content.
Responsibilities as My Students:
To treat me with respect and care as an individual.
To attend classes regularly.
To be cooperative and not disruptive.
To study and do your work well.
To learn and master the required content.
About Discipline:
 Classroom rules indicate the behavior you expect from
students.
 Rules of behavior set limits, just as do rules in games.
They create a work-oriented atmosphere.
 Behavior associated with rules must be taught through
discussion, demonstration, and practice.
 Consequences should be attached to rules – positive
consequences for compliance and negative for non
compliance.
 Explain your discipline plan to students the first day of
school.
About Testing and Evaluation:
 If a student cannot demonstrate learning or
achievement, it is the teacher’s fault, not the
student’s.
 Use criterion-referenced tests to evaluate student
performance.
 The more frequent the tests, the higher the
achievement.
 Grade on what is learned, not on the curve – a
procedure that has done great harm to education.
First Day of Class:
 Have you classroom ready for instruction, and make it inviting.
 Organize your classroom in accordance with a script that you
follow.
 Stand at the door and greet students as they enter.
 Give each student a seating assignment and a seating chart.
 Position yourself in the room near students: Problems are
proportional to distance between you and them.
 In a consistent location, post an assignment for students to begin
when they enter the room.
 Display your diploma and credentials with pride. Dress in a
professional manner that models success.
About the First Week of Training:
 3 most important things: discipline,
procedures, and routines.
 Explain your discipline plan to students.
 State your procedures and rehearse
them until they become routines.
A Discipline Plan is Necessary,
However
 They believe most teachers are too eager to begin teaching
lessons, and when misbehavior occurs, those teachers apply
punitive measures to stop it.
 The Wongs are not particular about the kind of discipline you use,
they prefer if you adopt a style that suits your requirements and
needs.
 The Wongs suggest that you carefully think though the kind of
behavior you expect from students.
 Wongs suggest that you limit your number of rules to a maximum
of five.
 The rules of the classroom are to help students learn in a safe and
effective way.
 Also, organization is knowing where things are, and making
your time and space work for you.
How to Decide on Procedures for Your
Classroom
 To establish good procedures do two things: (1) Decide what
routines are needed for the activities you will provide, and (2)
make lists of the procedural steps students must follow to
participate in and benefit from the activities.
 Every time you want students to do something, they need to follow
a procedure.
 Examples of some of the matters the Wongs give specific
attention to are:
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How to enter and exit the classroom.
How to begin and finish work.
How the class is to get quiet when necessary.
How to move about the classroom.
How to walk in corridors.
Classroom Procedures Must Be
Taught
 Good procedures allow a great variety of activities to occur, often
several at the same time, with little confusion.
 The Wongs suggest a 3-step method for teaching procedures:
 1. Explain. Teacher states, explains, and demonstrates the procedure.
 2. Rehearse. Students rehearse and practice the procedure under the
teacher supervision.
 3. Reinforce. Teacher reteaches, rehearses, practices, and reinforces the
classroom procedure until it becomes a habit.
How to Begin a Classroom Successfully:
 Wongs say new teachers have bags brimming with ideas, lesson
plans, and new ideas for the classroom. But new teachers have
little idea about what to do during the first days and weeks of
school.
 The Wongs present a First Day of School Action Plan, which they
credit to Sarah Jondahl. It consists of step-by-step processes of
how to prepare your classroom, academic expectations, time
frames, lesson plans, and activities for the first days of school.
 Wongs’ emphasize that teachers need to set high expectations
from day 1.
 Before class begins, tell yourself:
 1. I will establish classroom management procedures from the beginning.
 2. I will convey that this class will be business-like, with a firm, competent,
warm teacher.
 First I will establish work habits in my students and I will worry about content
later.
The First Five Minutes are Critical:
The Wongs repeat that you should have an assignment for the
students to begin working as soon as they walk into the classroom.
Set the tone in the first few minutes for your classroom.
Students needs to know their expectations.
Make sure that their materials are all ready.
Procedures for Cooperative Work Groups:
Students do better when they are allowed to work in cooperative
learning groups.
Wongs suggest that you call your groups support groups with each
member of the group known as a support buddy.
Effective teachers teach the students procedures and social skills
needed for functioning in a group.
Before you begin your first group activity, teach students how to do
the following:
1. Be responsible for you own work and behavior.
2. Ask a support buddy for help if you have a question.
3. Help any support buddy who asks for help.
4. Ask for help from the teacher only when support buddies
cannot supply it.