Journal Question #8

This entry answers #8 of the Reading Methods Journal Questions

Describe and respond to the discipline measures you have observed in your practicum experience.

The discipline measures in Mrs. Overstreet’s class were very clearly defined and consistent from day 1. Mrs. Overstreet had a can of colored popsicle sticks with each child’s name written on them. If the children were caught talking at an inappropriate time or misbehaving, she would have the children pull their stick and place it on her desk. If they misbehaved again throughout the day, they would have to sign “the book” (a binder at the front of the class that held inappropriate behavior/no homework sheets for the students to sign). Children who signed the book had to miss their recess. If children failed to turn their homework in, they would automatically sign the book and miss recess in order to finish the uncompleted work.

Mrs. Overstreet was very consistent with her discipline procedures and her children were extremely well behaved and respected each other, Mrs. Overstreet, visitors, and myself. At first I wondered if making the children pull their sticks for talking or interrupting inhibited the children from expressing themselves freely during appropriate sharing times, however, it did not seem to be a problem.

I felt that having the children pull their sticks and miss recess for failing to remember to have their parents sign their planners was a bit harsh and at least 4-6 students consistently did not get to have recess because they did not have their homework signed or completed. I wonder if there is not a better way to motivate the students to bring their homework back completed than robbing them of their free time every single day. Most times, the failure to bring back homework was out of the students’ control and was a product of inattentive or disconnected parents (there were many children in the class whose parents never went to parent teacher conferences and were not very involved in their child’s lives according to Mrs. Overstreet). Knowing this, I would make modifications for these children to insure that they were getting the instruction that they needed as well as developing self-regulation skills and responsibility.