towards the work. The emphasis on content or class work was the primary distinction between this strategy and a behavioral strategy that would only focus on getting students quiet. Often, teachers encouraged students to concentrate on challenging material or to do their best to complete assigned independent work. Teachers prompted students to “get to work” whenever they were distracted or gave subtle reminders for the work they had to complete. Sometimes they used the amount of time remaining to complete an academic task to keep or redirect students to the task at hand. During one observation, for example, Mr. Frank reminded the class: “Six minutes left. People are finishing up so hurry up” (Field Note, June 5, 2014). Mr. Frank would then periodically update the time remaining to finish the assignment, helping students to determine how fast they should be working. Likewise,
93 teachers sometimes announced how many questions students should have completed or what
problem they should be currently working on. These reminders helped students pace their work while reminding momentarily disengaged students what they should do to stay on track.
3. Checking for understanding. Throughout their lessons, teachers also checked students’
understanding of content in order to engage students and prevent misbehavior. For example, teachers would deliberately select individuals to answer a question or practice a problem, as Ms. Babkin described, “to keep students accountable for paying attention and be ready to answer a question” (Journal, March 6, 2014). Mr. Vante similarly felt like checking for understanding helped him to manage the classroom because it “causes more students to pay attention if they don't know when their name will be called” (Journal, April 28, 2014). He thought this was an opportunity to keep students engaged, requiring students to actively participate in the lesson and have a prepared answer for his questions. Periodically during lectures, he cold-called students and, depending on their answer, he chose his response. If students knew the answers, he continued on with the lesson; for students who did not have an answer, he told them to pay attention to the content before calling on another student or allowing a volunteer to provide the correct answer (Field Note, March 18, 2014). Other case participants incorporated more formalized systems to determine which students would answer the question. Mr. Sand randomly chose from a deck of cards to select students to answer the warm up questions; he felt this approach kept “students engaged because they might be called on at any time” (Journal, February 10, 2014). Ms. Babkin drew sticks with students’ names on them (Recording, May 12, 2014) and Ms. Chatman nearly always waited for a certain proportion of student volunteers to raise their hand before calling on one student (Journal, June 10, 2014).
Relational actions. Teachers used other actions to foster a positive climate within their classrooms. These relational actions included building relationships with students and manipulating the environment to promote student interactions.
1. Building personal relationships. When managing classrooms, teachers often focused on
building relationships in order to establish a personal connection between the teacher and student and to promote a comfortable environment for students. Positive interactions between students and teachers seemed to help students to listen to the teacher and make them more compliant and willing to engage in material. As one survey respondent put it, “I found that management was easier when I formed relationships with students” (Teacher #33, Survey, September 10, 2013).
Case participants tended to build relationships in one of two ways: sharing about their lives with students or getting to know their students as individuals. Mr. Vante consistently shared with
94 students because he felt like it helped students to understand him “as a human [rather] than a robot teacher that plugs in at night” (Personal Interview, December 5, 2014). He enjoyed talking with his students and often continued student discussions rather than quelling them, such as telling the class a story of his trip to Disney when students were already off topic during the lesson (Field Note, May 12, 2014). This action engaged students for a moment before redirecting the attention that he had gathered back to the lesson.
Ms. Babkin shared about life experiences during childhood or throughout college as a way to convey moral lessons. These pseudo-lessons would often be deep and philosophical, as she “literally have talked to my kids like they're in college and I teach them life lessons I learned” (Personal Interview, June 23, 2014). She explained that she hoped sharing would create a bond with her students, impart wisdom that went beyond academic content, and keep them motivated throughout the school year (Field Note, June 2, 2014). For example, she shared with her students about her distant relationships with her father and sister; despite not having close familial support, she followed her dream by working hard and not making excuses (Field Note, May 7, 2014). She had hoped these lessons would build student motivation and investment towards the content, making it easier to then manage the students.
While she shared about her life, Ms. Babkin also spent time learning about her students. Ms. Babkin prioritized opportunities to learn more about her students by “getting to know my kids personally, having lunch with them, visiting their houses, [and] writing them letters. I have a working relationship with all my kids” (Personal Interview, June 23, 2014). She sought opportunities to get to know and interact with her students within and outside of school hours. Prior to starting one lesson, for example, she asked, “Anyone want to share about their weekends?” She allowed multiple
students to respond and even engaged with follow up questions about their experiences (Field Note, June 2, 2014). She dedicated class time to these conversations so that she could build a stronger relationship.
Likewise, Mr. Frank often took time to talk with students entering his classroom or passing by in the hall before class started. In one instance, he asked a student who had missed the previous day about the student's trip to Mississippi (Field Note, June 5, 2014). Before focusing on the work that the student missed, Mr. Frank took the opportunity to check in on the student’s personal life.