No Audience

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Home : 2002 : August : 16

No Audience
By Suezie

One of my first class clowns couldn't seem to stay in his seat and would dramatically tip sideways and spill out of it. Sometimes the contents of his desk would spill all over and the other students would stand up, point
and cheer!!
Well, after many repeat performances and various consequences (leaving the room, missing recess, trip to principal office, conduct writing, phone call to parent, missing out on special time, etc., etc.), I picked up on the "audience" behaviour. While he was out of the room one day, I explained to my 8 and 9 year olds that we could no longer laugh at this behavior as it would

make for one lousy year. Anyone that encouraged the behaviour would be subject to the same consequence as the class clown. (of course I used nice kid language and we roleplayed several examples of how to react and not react). We did discuss when silliness could be appropriate and it was still okay to laugh at recess for example. When my class clown returned, I explained it to him privately and told him how the rest of the children wanted him to stop his silliness.

Needless to say, it took a few more dramatic falls (and consequences for those involved) but the class started to respond appropriately and we had a much better year than I had anticipated. He tried other inappropriate behaviours but they were much easier to stop when I used the same approach. I also caught him doing "good things" and would make sure the rest of the class was notified so he had more positive attention.

Opps, almost forgot. If you try this approach, make all of the other staff members aware of the plan and ask them to list the names of the audience members that encourage the class clown.