Best Practices In Middle School Classroom Management

This scenario-based eLearning simulation assists middle school teachers (grades 6-8) in the effective implementation of classroom management techniques.

Responsibilities: Instructional Design, eLearning Development
Target Audience: Middle School Educators
Tools Used: Articulate Storyline & Rise, Microsoft PowerPoint, MindMeister
Year: 2020
Experience the eLearning HERE

Overview

This eLearning example presents six classroom management scenarios that require the learner to choose the best proactive and/or reactive option to either prevent and/or stop the student behavior. The six scenarios are:

Students at the same table keep talking with each other.
A student gets defensive and defiant after getting called on without warning.
A student has his head down on his desk.
A student keeps asking for clarification of the assignment instructions.
A student is consistently tardy and disruptive at the start of class.
A student often complains that she is bored.

Idea behind the eLearning

The majority of student misbehavior is due to being confused or bored. If students are confused, it is likely that the content or assignment is too challenging. If students are bored, the content or assignment is not challenging enough. Of course, there are exceptions to these rules. Students may simply not be interested in the content. But, for the sake of this game, let us assume that the content is culturally relevant and that the students are interested in it. Furthermore, confusing and inconsistent behavioral and procedural expectations "lead to constant struggling between teacher and students" (Wong & Wong, p.89, 2009).

All six scenarios can be handled by educators with a reactive approach. However, this is not ideal. Not all student misbehavior can be prevented, but can be anticipated. Therefore, educators are strongly advised to be as proactive as possible when considering their classroom management strategies and philosophy. Each scenario will be presented, as stated above, along with detailed descriptions of why the off-task behavior may be occurring. This first part of the game will be a drag and drop matching task. After the learner has successfully completed part one, they will identify proactive steps that might have prevented the off-task behavior from occurring in the first place. Finally, the learner will identify the reactive strategies to decrease or eliminate the off-task behavior once it has occurred.

The Goal

This game provides learners (K-12 educators) with a certain level of control and validation, as they will not be expected to sit and listen to information about which they already know. They will engage in the game without yet having learned anything from the course. I must admit that I am still working on the course content, and how this game will fit into it, but experience informs my decision to not treat this course as mandated delivery of content, regardless of whether or not the learner already knows it. Therefore, and even though the course objectives appear to be lower-order thinking skills (name and identify), it is the application of knowledge in real-life scenarios that requires critical- and higher-order thinking skills.