When school became parentis in absentia, educators co-opted the need to understand and respond to student behavior. School was no longer just about reading, writing and arithmetic. Quickly, we learned that when “Johnny was good, he could be oh so good; but when Johnny was bad, he could be oh so bad.” We could handle the good, but the bad has forever been a problem.

You have to be of an age to remember these strategies for responding to bad. School justice was resolved on a child’s backside with a paddle or the sole of a “Chuck Taylor All Star” Converse gym shoe. Teachers, especially male teachers and coaches, acted as the local sheriff and meted out punishment in the hallway or the locker room. Other students observed Johnny going to the hall and heard the smack and silently vowed that they would never be made to assume the position against a long row of lockers. A Chuck Taylor waffle welt lasted about an hour but was remembered for years.

Rights and wrongs were discerned with authority by a principal standing in the office doorway with arms folded across the chest and a serious frown on his brow. A principal’s frown could last for weeks and haunt the cafeteria and playground, as well as be seen looking through classroom doors at bad-doers. Often, the frown was handed down through progressive siblings and felt more like a label than a look.

School discipline in those times and places was abrupt and expected that Johnny would return immediately to the norms of the school. The only kept records were mental and emotional. Paternalistic teachers, coaches and principals dealt with the issue and/or transferred their story about bad Johnny to his pater familias. If behaviors were changed, it was due to a fear of Chuck Taylor or of a delayed justice through the student’s transcript or of what would happen when Johnny got home; if not, behaviors hardened or were stored up for potential review in the child’s adulthood.

Corporal punishment slowly was abolished by legislation and policy in many locales and an era of referral was popular at the end of the last century. When Johnny’s misbehaviors reached an indeterminate number or frequency, Johnny was referred by his teacher to the “specialists.” School counseling fell somewhere inside that indeterminate number and provided assistance in interpreting and “dealing” with Johnny. Counseling validated a need for the services of the specialists. Referral moved the problem from the classroom to another venue and once referred the initiator was relieved of the onus for responsible action. Educator pedigrees became specialized with titled positions, such as school social worker, behavioral disabilities teacher, multi-disabilities teacher, and school psychologist. The era began with Johnny being sent from the classroom for treatment and ended with the classroom being part of Johnny’s treatment.

Today, we address Johnny’s behavioral needs on the mirrored pyramid of RtI and PBIS triangles. Interestingly, no matter the era in which Johnny’s behaviors caught our attention, we faced a common dilemma in each and every instance. Or, at least, we had the opportunity to contemplate this dilemma. “What is Johnny’s choice of behavior about?” Simple question, but the coach in the locker room was more interested in quick law and order and the frowning principal needed to prevent Johnny’s behavior from infecting his classmates and a referring teacher saw a referral as a chance to spend more time teaching good Johnnies. However, “what is this behavior all about?”, remains Johnny’s persistent and haunting issue.

Belatedly, we can count and record all of the efforts expended in dealing with Johnny’s behavior against an often insufficient effort at parsing out the reason for his behavior and treating that reason(s) with a directness and compassion that Johnny may not have been able to request in his own words. This type of response typically must come from the person who deals with Johnny when and where his “badness” is exhibited – back to the educators in the classroom and playground and cafeteria and hallway. This type of response typically is very personal, as in listening to Johnny, letting Johnny’s behavior diminish from his running out of gas, confronting Johnny in non-confrontational ways, being personally direct with Johnny and spelling things out that other students may clearly understand, and protecting others from Johnny’s behavior while not ignoring Johnny. And, most importantly, a persistence and commitment to Johnny that often seems disproportionate to the distributed time devoted to all other children.

In the society of a school, upholding rules and behavioral expectations is a never ending story. In these societies, misbehavior dwells amongst a very large volume of good behaviors. Our professional value is remarkably enhanced when we are able to move Johnny’s or Julie’s behavior from problematic to acceptable. We know that no student must be angel every hour of every day, but we also know that we can help Johnny find his halo by working with him and not on him.

In 1959 I stood in a snowballer’s ambush of my fellow sixth graders on a great winter day. She came upon me from behind and I turned and threw as hard as I could, hitting Miss Knurr in the chest of her thick parka and double-layered sweaters with my best snowball. She demanded suspension, but Miss Phillips had me write “I will not throw snowballs” on tear-stained paper until Miss Knurr huffed out of the office. Then, she told me to stop writing, took my hands in hers and told me how she watched her sixth graders play baseball at recess each spring. She talked about throwing baseballs and games and she smiled the entire time and kept smiling when I apologized to Miss Knurr. Miss Phillips assigned me to dust Miss Knurr’s chalkboard erasers every day after school for the remainder of the winter and that was okay, because in happier times I would have volunteered to dust a teacher’s erasers. I know my story would have been different and properly handled had I hurt Miss Knurr, but Miss Phillips dealt with the facts and not the might-have-beens. Somewhere in that dusty time, Miss Knurr also helped me with fractions and her frown inverted into a smile.

Miss Phillips lingered with me during my 38 years of principalling. She worked to understand me and was not swept up with the mistake of a weenie-armed snowball thrower. All of my Johnnies deserved the best Miss Phillips interpretation I could give them. I constantly wondered, “Who and why are they rather than what have they done now.”

An excellent tool for understanding what bad behavior is about is “Your Can Handle Them All” by Robert DeBruyn and Jack Larson. This resource is delivered as a book or in a quick-action card deck by The Master Teacher.

When I pick up Izzy, a Kindergarten granddaughter, at her school to take her home and she is buckled in, I begin. “What is the letter of the week, Izz?” Yesterday she said, “P, Gramps.”

“Izz, please tell me five words that begin with P.” She did.

“Izz, please tell me five words that end with P.” She did.

“Izz, please think of words that have two Ps in their spelling. Can you tell me any of these words?” She did.

And, so it goes.

“Izz, tell me again what the letter of the week was last week.” “O, Gramps.” And, she began telling me words that begin, end with and contain the letter O.

Once in a while, I use my phone to record the way she tells me these words. She has great five-year old attitude. But, more than attitude she is learning language. She begins rhyming, finding patterns and creating word families. She sing-songs the words. She stops and looks out the windows for a while and then erupts with new words. Because I make up words sometimes to fit into a story I am telling her, she also makes up words with the letter of interest.

“Izz, tell me a story about some jalapeño peppered popcorn placed in a packet inside a pumpkin that was painted purple.” She is used to my nonsense and humors us with a short story that shows imagination and fantasy, but is laced with P-words.

Practice (another P-word) theory pervades much that Izzy and I do together. The story goes that when a musician asked how to get from his hotel to Carnegie Hall, he was told “practice, practice and more practice.” The way to grow a child’s learning always includes practice. Whether Izzy is learning to ride a bike, play her keyboard, do a cartwheel, name the variety of trees in her front yard, manipulate her favorite games on an IPad or learn how to satisfy her Gramps, practice is part and parcel to her success.

The principles pertaining to practice are simple.

How much? Practice the smallest amount that has meaning and build on that practice.

How long? Start with several short practices that are long enough in duration to cause learning; too long leads to lost interest and too short to nothing being accomplished.

How often? Begin with frequent sessions as newly acquired learning can be forgotten easily. Seven to eight times for short-term memory and 16 to 18 times for longer term retention. Then, repeat in a staggered manner over time.

How well? Smaller amounts in smaller time increments can lead accurate and correct learning. Seeking more complex and complicated responses and transferring the desired responses to other settings adds memory muscle. Be careful; incorrect responses require clarification and reteaching.

It is difficult to think of any learning that we want a child to do that is not related to and strengthened by practice theory. No, it is difficult to think of any learning period that does not require practice theories if it is to be learned for life.

Group work. What shall we think of it? Walk down a school hallway any day and I bet you will see multiple classrooms attempting one or more components of group work. Some children thrive in group work and others are immediately lost in their group assignment. Some teachers are masters at using group assignments to provide them with time for individual student and group tutorials and other teachers view group work assignments as extended prep time. So, what shall we think of it? A child’s ability to work productively in a collaborative group is an essential learning opportunity. So, we need to apply group work properly or not use group work at all!

Let’s understand the sixth sentence first. An effective use of group work is an essential teacher tool for creating time for individual or small group tutorials. Without good tutorial time, few teachers are able to monitor student learning and do the necessary reteaching needed to assure that all students are successful. So, what are appropriate group work practices.

The Partnership for 21st Century Skills tells us that the ability to work with others is an essential and necessary component for a person to succeed in this century’s world of work. http://www.p21.org/overview/skills-framework Specifically, to be 21st century-ready, children need to:

• Demonstrate ability to work effectively and respectfully with diverse teams,
• Exercise flexibility and willingness to be helpful in making necessary compromises to accomplish a common goal, and
• Assume shared responsibility for collaborative work, and value the individual contributions made by each team member.

Let’s start with these as the educational target.

These are several components of a strong instructional design using group work.

1. Group work is face-to-face work. Children need to see each other up close, share ideas with one another, discuss with and explain to each other, summarize what each other has contributed, and create a consensus together. “With one another” cannot be accomplished from opposite sides of the classroom or virtually. It is best when children are “knee to knee” at a group table or circle of chairs or desks.
2. Group work requires each child to do work. Too often group work has been accomplished by the one or two “go get ‘em” children in a group while others are cheerleaders or observers. As best practice, each child must do the initial work (reading, viewing, doing) and generate a conclusion from their initial work (written, spoken, shown). Each child must explain their initial work to the group and find similarities and differences in their collective initial work. Each child doing the initial work is the first separator between good and bad learning practice. If only some children do the initial work, the use of collaborative groups automatically is poor practice.
3. Group work requires appropriate social skills. Children need to take turns speaking and doing, listening and watching, and sharing their ideas. They need to respect the ideas of other children. Social skills do not arise by accident. While we encourage a competitive attitude in many school activities, we need to have children check their competitiveness and open themselves to cooperation and collaboration. This is an instructional target unto itself in which the teacher explains and demonstrates the active, receptive, and collaborative skills that build group collaboration.
4. Group work may apply structural roles of leader/facilitator, recorder/secretary, checker, timekeeper, summarizer/reflector. Once again, the importance of these roles creates its own teaching moment because a child needs a strong image of how these roles contribute to the group’s effectiveness. http://serc.carleton.edu/introgeo/cooperative/roles.htGroups must be heterogeneously assigned. Ability grouping condemns a group of high ability children to a competitive race and a group of low ability children to a dearth of ideas. 1 – 4 above contribute to the success of each student regardless of their ability. Too often, proponents of gifted and talented ideology demand that high ability students work only with high ability children. There is time and place for ability grouping, but not in the design of collaborative group instruction. Resist these demands.
5. Group work allows the teacher to monitor and assess each student’s initial work, demonstration of social skills, skill in expressing a group role, skill in collaborating for consensus, and ability to work with children of differing abilities. Good practice includes an assessment rubric on each of these points.

Group work is not a group project in which one or two students do all the work or an assignment that leads to all members getting the same grade based upon the final submission. When either of these is present, children are not afforded a good instructional opportunity.

Group work is hard work for a teacher. It requires a strong conceptualization of complex learning targets, discreet instruction of skills and understandings that are embedded in a child’s cooperation and collaboration, and a complex assessment scheme. And, this is just the preparation for group work. Inside the time that children are working in groups, a teacher also needs to plan for and implement individual and small group tutorials.

The next time someone walks past your classroom door and looks in to see group work, show them that your children are actively learning and using strong 21st century collaboration skills. Your good group work instructional practices also will be displayed by the overall academic success of all your children at the end of the year because you combined group work and tutorial instruction to the advantage of all.

Words and terms matter. Reteaching is synonymous with instructional intervention. However, the word intervention today is mired in the policies and politics of RtI. If we use the term intervention to mean reteaching, too many colleagues will immediately focus on their current emotions and district initiatives related to RtI. So, let’s talk about reteaching.

Before reading further, reflect upon the number of times in the past week that 100% of the children you teach learned 100% of the information, concepts, skills or processes that you taught to them. The old and laughable adage that “if I taught it, they should have learned it” no longer cuts it. “If, when I teach I then efficiently assess their learning so that I can reteach children who have not successfully learned, then all really have learned.” That’s better.

Read on.

Reteaching is essential in the new educational environment of complex high stakes assessments with more emphasis on the word “complex” than the words “high stakes.” Children cannot afford to enter those assessments without a solid understanding of the standards being assessed. Why reteaching? Research on the term “reteaching” is thin. Lalley et al (2006) indicate that pre-teaching and re-teaching produced significant increases in student abilities the math concepts, math problems and math computation. Research on “intervention” is much more extensive. Almost every state has developed resources that assist their educators comply with new regulations related to RtI. See the research base for interventions attached to your state’s department of education.

Reteaching 101.

Marzano (2010) provides the most concise description of good practice.

While teaching new content, skills or processes, check children for their understanding and immediately clarify and/or correct misunderstandings, misconceptions and mistakes. In the flow of new instruction, asking children to summarize, apply, explain to another will indicate the accuracy of their learning. Whatever is not acceptable should and can be addressed at that moment and later verified through another check for understanding. Sounds like Madeline Hunter? She originated the terms “checking for understanding” and “reteaching” in her discussion of mastery teaching the 1980s.

Secondly, reteaching should be purposefully attached to every formative or intermediate assessment that is designed to assess for learning. Problems of misunderstanding, misconception and mistake need to be addressed that time. Typically, this means reteaching to an individual child or a small group tutorial. Plan the time and energy for post-assessment reteaching, because it will be necessary if every child is to be prepared for next learning and/or for a summative assessment in the future. Also plan an extension activity that other children can use to profit their ongoing learning while you reteach.

Lastly, reteaching cannot be a repeat. The words and approach need to respond to the child’s misunderstanding, misconception and mistake. Reteaching must explain the error in the child’s learning and then use good teaching/tutorial practice to extinguish the error(s) and create a new and accurate learning. It is a mini-lesson with all of the good practices of initial instruction including the extinction of error.

The need to reteach is not an evaluation of a teacher’s instructional effectiveness. No one achieves 100% student learning all of the time. Reteaching is a skill and process used by an effective teacher to cause all students to learn.

Effects of Pre-teaching and Re-teaching on Math Achievement and Academic Self-Concept of Students with Low Achievement in Math, Lalley, James P. et al (2006)

“Reviving Reteaching”, Robert J. Marzano, Educational Leadership (Oct 2010, Vol 68, No. 2)

I am a senior citizen who spends a lot of time with his grand daughters who are a Kindergarten student and younger. I am in awe of their capacity to see, listen, do and remember. Izzy and Aly are so early in their learning lives and I am increasingly advanced in mine, yet there are principles of learning that can be applied to the three of us. These principles are universals that assist people of all ages to learn and remember. As a grandfather, I am enjoying observing them in young people. As an older learner, I need them. As career educator, I know these with appreciation to Madeline Hunter for her instruction on retention practices.

Things that want to be remembered need to have a big “Duh!” Duh! proclaims that whatever is being heard or seen or done is important. Duh! says “pay attention.” Without a belief in the importance of the moment, a sound, scene or event is just a passing breeze. For the girls, the sense of importance can be imposed. “Gramps says,” can make many things important, as long as Gramps doesn’t speak too often or without care. Izzy loves looking and talking about things; Aly loves handling and doing things. Anything that fits into what they like to do is self-imbued with importance. When we attach personal meaning to learning, we promote memory.

I create an importance through my knowledge of what is and is not significant. This is a prize of my age. I have felt many breezes and know a wind from a breeze. I pay attention to a wind, most of the time.

Things that want to be remembered need a “…now let’s talk about this.” When I take Izz an Al to the zoo, they can fly from one exhibit area to the next. The aquarium and bird house hold so many different fish and birds that everything the girls see must seem like a blur. However, when we stop, stand still, and point to a pair of Red Sided Eclectus and talk about how the female is red and blue and male is emerald and red we are building memory muscle. The colors are vibrant. If the birds are talking, the sound of their voices is captivating. The information about their plumage is clearly seen, their voices are clearly seen, and their unusual name is very distinctive. The next time we come to the zoo, they will want to run to the bird house to find an Eclectus.

When we take time to extend and deepen the initial experiences of learning, we promote memory.

Things that want to be remembered need a significant welcome and “try out.” When I take Izz and Al to the local horse corral for a ride on a pony, we go through a small ritual. “Izz, this is Dusty. Feed Dusty this carrot and touch her nose.” “With your small hands, hold the reins in your right hand and again in your left; hand in front of hand.” “Push your feet down into the stirrups and feel how you can use your legs to keep your position in the saddle.” “How does that feel?” Engaging Izzy in the ritual, giving her small but real things to do, and asking her to talk about it makes her first and each of her following experiences on a horse very memorable. The next time she comes to the corral, she will remember these small things and they will lead quickly to another enjoyable pony ride. When we personalize and make learning feel good, we promote memory.

Things that want to be remembered need repetition. Izzy has learned the months of the year, the days of the week and how dates are sequentially numbered on a calendar due to the planned instruction and repetitions by her teacher. Each morning, Izz and her classmates talk about the month, the day, and the date. They talk about yesterday and tomorrow and last month and next month. Arithmetic tables and spelling words are learned through similar instruction and repetitions. Izzy’s teacher knows how to use daily and planned repetitions and recitations on demand to cause her students to learn these things.

Inexplicably, we often forget about the need for repeated practice and repetition when we think we are learning on our own. Good teaching and good learning plans for and conducts repetitive practice. Self-learning often is too impetuous and forgets to do so. When we use good practice theory, we promote memory.

Things that want to be remembered are strengthened when they can be transferred to other experiences, times and places. Playing catch with Izzy and Aly is teaching them hand and eye coordination and practical protocols of how to position their arms and feet, how to step into a throw and follow through with a throwing motion, and how to use both hands to keep ahold after a catch. These fundamentals apply to tossing around a football or a basketball or a beach ball. They apply in the front yard and in the school yard, and especially when they are with their cousins in a family game. Izz and Al are learning about safety, proper language, courtesy and manners, and the use of Nooks and I-Pads through the same transfer procedures. When we find ways to use processes and concepts in different settings, we promote memory.

The concepts of promoting retained learning apply to all of us at all times. I have obtained a small wood lathe for the purpose of turning wood and creating unique handles for shaving razors and new lamp bases for my writing desk and Gramps-only items for the grandkids. I am paying more attention to public policy and policy makers. And, I am learning the Spanish language. Purposefully, I am including each of the above good practices to help me become more efficient and effective in remembering and using what I learn. It works!