Middle School

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Home : 2001 : November : 13

Middle School
By Fran

I hear what you are saying about the middle grades. Sometimes positive reinforcement works but usually with the kids who care about school in the first place so they are not a discipline problem to begin with. It seems
like at this age, the students are not too concerned with impressing their teachers....they'd rather impress their friends who also tend to be disciplin problems. I have found one thing that works...I don't know what subject you teach, but for freshman english, I write the word ESSAY on the board. Anytime ANYONE does anything that interrupts my teaching or causes me to stop the lesson,

I simply erase a letter from the word. If the all the letters are gone by the end of the period the students must write an essay - it's a test grade, don't do it and you have a zero. The students begin to get mad at the behavior problems rather than the teacher....maybe you could try something similar.