As a first year teacher, I had big ideas for how I wanted to manage behavior in my class. I was going to introduce and review procedures for the first few months of school. I was going to practice procedures over and over. I was going to set high expectations and provide positive reinforcement for positive behavior. And my students were going to behave like little angels and I'd never have to worry about discipline or misbehavior- right?
Suffice to say, my first year of teaching was eye opening in terms of what is required for behavior management! One of my strategies at first was modeled after a management system that our specialists developed. In P.E. it was a baseball bat, in music it was a guitar, in art it was a paintbrush. In my classroom, it was a pencil and it came together quickly with some construction paper!
Each class period is represented by a clothespin and based on their whole group behavior during that period, they would either move up towards valedictorian or down towards failed class.
Every day they restarted at book worm and they were moved from there.
I did have to clarify for my students that detention does not literally mean they have to go to detention and if our behavior was very poor and they "failed class" that they didn't actually get failing grades :) If a class got valedictorian 4 times that week, they got a small reward.
At first it was fun and my students bought into the concept. However over time, some negatives came to light:
- It was a lot to manage how often three separate classes got "valedictorian."
- Students became very focused on where their clothespin was on the chart.
- Because it was on a weekly basis, it became challenging to fit in time for their rewards (which was more experience based rather than a "prize," i.e. extra recess rather than dollar store toys)
- The requirements for what qualified as valedictorian vs. high honors vs. class president behavior were not clearly outlined.
Moving into my second year, I knew I needed something a bit more manageable for me and more specific for my students. How would they know what behaviors I was expecting if I didn't clearly define them within our behavior management system? After some research last summer, I came up with Best Behavior Bingo
I created a giant bingo board with the squares naming positive, specific, desired behaviors. It was easy to put together once I formatted the boxes for the behavior squares and created the labels.
So how does it work? When I "catch" students doing one of the behaviors, I cover that square with a post it. Students work together to cover the bingo squares to get five in a row. You can also hold off a reward until they create an X or picture frame or even black out. My students originally said that they wanted to wait to get their reward until we had the board blacked out or completely covered. Ambitious babes :)
They students LOVED the idea of it being a game and would even say to each other "let's make sure we're really good at recess today so that we get that square covered!"
My management and the kids' behavior were improved in so many ways!
-The bingo squares were covered on a rolling basis, which meant no tallying sessions at the end of each week. If students got 6 bingo squares but they didn't make a pattern for a reward, the squares stayed covered until they got a reward. No "resetting" at the end of each class = less for me to keep track of.
-Because students got rewards on a rolling basis, I didn't have to squeeze in time for a reward on Fridays.
-Students were motivated by the game-like structure.
-Students were motivated by the game-like structure.
-The desired behaviors are specific and a visual reminder of what the classroom expectations are. The visual reminder of how many squares were covered also helped me to plan ahead for reward time if I saw that students were getting close to five in a row!
I also adapted this to be an individual behavior program and some of my students had their own individual bingo boards. Their boards had three target behaviors that were repeated throughout the board, so that it was a bit easier to earn a reward. I like that it's discreet, specific, and tailored to that student's behavior goals.
My 6th graders loved this, and I'm sure yours will to! Interested in trying this out in your own classroom? Click here to see this editable product on Teachers Pay Teachers!
I'd love to hear your behavior management tips and tricks! Leave them in the comments below!
XO Emily
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