Help!!

[ebacha588]

I am a first year teacher and have been in a first grade classroom for a few months now. Most of the students in my class listen and respond to directions well. however, there is one student that simply will not listen. I have met with him, his parents, I've tried numerous behavior management techniques and I just don't know what to do. I feel like giving up but I know I can't. Does anyone have any suggestions for how I can get him to engage in the classroom and listen to my directions?
Thanks!

[mercygate]

I am a first year teacher and have been in a first grade classroom for a few months now. Most of the students in my class listen and respond to directions well. however, there is one student that simply will not listen. I have met with him, his parents, I've tried numerous behavior management techniques and I just don't know what to do. I feel like giving up but I know I can't. Does anyone have any suggestions for how I can get him to engage in the classroom and listen to my directions?
Thanks!
So what have you learned so far? What have you ruled out?

[Emmy Jo]

I teach first grade as well. I'm not sure what ideas you've already tried, but here are some that I know have worked for me:

Whenever I have a student who doesn't listen well, I make sure to seat him/her near the front, and I often put one of my "mother-hen" type students next to him/her to help keep the student on track. Because we have table point competitions each week, the other students at the child's table often encourage him/her to pay attention and follow directions.

Also, a little bit of praise goes a long way. Whenever you see the child doing the right thing, make sure to praise him/her.

One day when I was getting particularly frustrated with a child who wasn't following my directions, I accidentally stumbled across this useful technique. I had run out of other ideas, so I put a big smile on my face and said, "Charles loves to follow directions, so he's going to clean up his desk right away. Aren't you, Charles?" To my surprise, Charles immediately said "Yes" and put his things away immediately. I think it worked well because I stayed so positive and the child felt already that he was on my "good side" and wanted to stay there.

One last idea: A new first-grade teacher at my school with a few particulary inattentive students found this to be very helpful:

Get some of those small sticker chart grids (you can buy them at any educational supply store or make your own) and affix one to each child's desk. Whenever you see a child that is working on task, raising his hand to participate, following directions quickly, etc., walk by his desk and put a sticker on his chart. When his chart is filled, he may go to the treasure box. This REALLY encourages children to pay attention and participate in class.

Of course, you don't have to do this during every period, but try to keep the stickers close at hand and try to be consistent about when you use them. The teacher at my school who does this says that she will randomly pick certain periods to give stickers and tell the students they have to participate all the time because they don't know when it will be. If she gives out stickers to one student for participating in math class, then she'll give out stickers to the rest who participate throughout the rest of math period, but she might not give any out during the following writing period. This worked really well for her class -- she said their level of on-task behavior increased dramatically when she implemented this.

Good luck, and I hope this helps!

[Boxcar]

Some of my students that have trouble following directions benefit from really small steps. They cannot remember the three things they have to do, so I tell them each thing one at a time. Another thing is to make a small BINGO type task card. It shows in picture what the student is supposed to do during each portion of that time period. For instance: Get out paper. Get out pencil. Write name on paper. And so on. It ends with going to get the next card for the table.

[Brit]

boxcar -- I love the step-by-step in pictures. Do you draw the pics, or do you have a resource with them all? I mean, I don't know how to draw "get out paper" -- do you just have a pic of a piece of paper?

[Boxcar]

I use the basic paint program on Windows XP Pro. to edit clip art and make little drawings.

My pictures are usually stick figures. This is to avoid gender and race issues.

For the paper example, I have a stick figure holding up a piece of paper and an arrow pointing to the top of his desk. Underneth are the words "Get out paper." because I want to encourage literacy.

You can have someone take digital photos of you actually doing the actions. The students get a big kick out of this. Because it is you in the picture, you can reuse the cards and not have to worry about the confidentiality of having child's images on cards.

Another way to do it is to not show the person at all but just the desktop from the child's perspective. In Step 1, the child should look down at her desk and see that it matches the desktop in the card. A piece of paper is on the desk in the picture. Is there a piece of paper on her desk? In Step Two, there is a pencil next to the paper. Does she have a pencil next to the paper on her desk? In Step Three, a name is on the paper. Is there a name on her paper?

Google Images is a good resource for pictures. I copy/paste the drawings into paint and edit them that way. You can also draw freehand in paint or use the drawing toolbar in Word.

[ebacha588]

Boxcar thank you for the very helpful response! i'm interested in trying this in my classroom but i had a few more questions. Do you create these image cards for every task that the students have to do in the classroom or just for certain tasks? If it is a routine task do you think that it would be effective to have just one large card at the front of the classroom that all students could refer to? thanks so much for the tip!!

[Boxcar]

I do it for the tasks we do over and over again. Things like getting ready for WorkTime, doing Journal, ect. The cards are really helpful at the start of the year! It is fine to go broad and say "This card is for doing Seat Work or Worksheets." One big card is great. However, you also need at least one or two smaller cards. The children are not going to all work at the same pace, and you need to be able to have the flexiblity to let them move on to another card. Maybe from a Worksheet card to a Quiet Drawing at Desk card or a Quiet Acitivity Book Bag at Desk card. Additionally, some students need to hold the card itself. If you laminate the cards, the child can literally cross off the steps using dry erase markers. The card will wipe clean with water afterward.

One thing that might work for the big card - I've not done it but it does give flexiblity too. - is using a felt board with a grid on it. Then, you can mix and match pieces. You cut out your images and attach the bristle side of Velcro to them. Then, you organize them on the grid as you want it. This means you have an automatic card for an unexpected task. For common tasks, still have one or two little cards, but for unusual tasks you can also still use your image card at the front of the room.

[Ebeth]

[QUOTE=Emmy Jo;36153]
Also, a little bit of praise goes a long way. Whenever you see the child doing the right thing, make sure to praise him/her.

One day when I was getting particularly frustrated with a child who wasn't following my directions, I accidentally stumbled across this useful technique. I had run out of other ideas, so I put a big smile on my face and said, "Charles loves to follow directions, so he's going to clean up his desk right away. Aren't you, Charles?" To my surprise, Charles immediately said "Yes" and put his things away immediately. I think it worked well because I stayed so positive and the child felt already that he was on my "good side" and wanted to stay there.
Get some of those small sticker chart grids (you can buy them at any educational supply store or make your own) and affix one to each child's desk. Whenever you see a child that is working on task, raising his hand to participate, following directions quickly, etc., walk by his desk and put a sticker on his chart. When his chart is filled, he may go to the treasure box. This REALLY encourages children to pay attention and participate in class.

QUOTE]

I would like to commend your use of positive reinforcement in your classroom. I wish my (now 14) son would have had you in 1st grade! He is ADHD and while he is doing fantastic now, 1st grade was horrific for him (and me). His teacher use to sit him next to the doorway facing the opposite direction than the class. He did not feel that he belonged and only heard negative things from the students and teachers. Teachers need to realize that if a student feels things are so bad, they often feel powerless to change it, they think "oh well, that is just how things are." Positive reinforcement gives them the ability to do something concrete. Kudos to you!!! :clap: