Effective Classroom Management: An

Analysis of Past, Present, and Future

Classroom Management Strategies
Kelsey Drabik
CEP 883
Michigan State University

What is Classroom Management?

 Prior to becoming a teacher, I thought of classroom management as compliance of

students to a set of classroom rules. This could be due, in part, to my past experiences with

classroom management as a student. This could also be due to my experiences observing

teachers in a classroom and seeing students in complete accordance to the rules, assuming this is

due to the teacher having defined herself as the leader of the room. Jene Brophy (1998) provided

this idea on classroom management: “Good classroom management implies not only that the

teacher has elicited the cooperation of the students in minimizing misconduct and can intervene

when misconduct occurs…. but the classroom management system as a whole is designed to

maximize student engagement in activities, not merely to minimize misconduct (pg. 3)” (Jones &

Jones, 2016, pg. 8). Therefore, effective classroom management is much more complex than

compliance. Jones & Jones offer 5 areas of knowledge and skill in order to be an effective

classroom manager. These include: (1) classroom management is based on current research and

theory in classroom management and student’s personal/psychological needs, (2) teachers create

positive personal relationships (both teacher-student and student-student) and community in the

classroom, (3) teachers develop behavior standards that commit to a safe learning environment,

(4) teachers use instructional methods that respond directly to the needs of their students, and (5)

teachers respond effectively when students exhibit behaviors that take away from their own

learning and the learning of others (pg. 8-9).

As a teacher, constantly improving and evolving my classroom management system is of

the upmost importance to me. Student’s academic achievement and success in school is directly

related to an effective classroom community (Jones & Jones, 2016). In this analysis, I will

describe my experiences with classroom management systems, both as a student myself and as

an educator. As teachers, we are constantly learning and developing alongside our students. As
stated in the text, “effective teachers are reflective practitioners who constantly seek to analyze

the impact their behavior has on the success of those they serve” (Jones & Jones, 2016, pg. 4).

Through the content and research that I’ve studied throughout this course, I will also offer

improvements for what my classroom management system will look like in the future based on

my increased knowledge.

Classroom Management: The Past

In my experiences as a student, I can distinctly remember many classroom management

systems of my prior teachers. Throughout elementary school, many teachers implemented a

“green, yellow, red” card system. At the beginning of the day, everyone’s card started out on

green. If you needed a warning for your behavior, you had to flip your card to yellow in front of

the rest of the class. If behavior continued, then you would have to flip your card to red. Often

times, this meant you could expect a phone call home. Punishments for yellow or red behavior

could be sitting out during recess, or being separated from a friend.

As I moved into middle school and high school, classroom management systems that I

experienced changed. There were no longer “card” systems, or recess to miss out on. Instead,

many of my teachers operated on ensuing fear of punishment onto students. If you weren’t

behaving in class, you would be sent out into the hallway for anywhere from 5 minutes to 30

minutes. Other students passing by in the hallway could see you sitting outside of the classroom

and knew what it meant. Other teachers would send you directly to the principal's office for

offenses as minor as talking when the teacher was talking. In high school, I had many teachers

whose classroom management systems consisted of writing student’s names on the board

whenever a student misbehaved. These teachers tried to gain control of the classroom by

demonstrating their arbitrary authority (simply being in the role of the teacher gives you
authority), as opposed to natural authority (having a natural ability to lead the classroom by

modeling positive behavior) (Jones & Jones, 2016). As a student, it’s much more easier to

respond and form a connect with a teacher who operates on natural authority, as opposed to

arbitrary.

Above all else, public embarrassment and fear of getting into trouble were at the

cornerstone of my own experiences. According to the text, Comprehensive Classroom

Management, classroom management should be less about responding to ineffective behavior,

and more about preventing it (Jones & Jones, 2016). As demonstrated in my past experiences,

“teachers too often intervene using disciplinary responses without carefully considering

interpersonal relationships or the organizational and instructional changes that could be made in

the classroom in increase positive student behavior and learning” (Jones & Jones, 2016, pg. 11).

This is reflected in my past experiences as a student. It should be noted, however, that I did have

some wonderful teachers in the past with whom I formed positive relationships. Yet, when I

think back to classroom management systems, the negative experiences are the ones which stick

out. This is a powerful idea to me as a teacher, and one that encouraged me to make a

meaningful and positive classroom experiences for my own students.

Classroom Management: The Present

When I began teaching, it was now up to me to decide how I was going to manage a

classroom of students. From my experiences in field work and working with various mentor

teachers, I knew that instilling fear or public embarrassment into your students was not the way

to create a productive classroom community. As a new teacher, instead, I’ve adopted a

combination of management styles from mentor teachers that I’ve observed into my daily

practice.

One of the first things that we do in my classroom at the beginning of the year is develop

classroom expectations together. I first ask students to think about what an effective classroom

is. We talk about what it looks like, what it sounds like, and what it feels like when we are all

part of a successful classroom. From there, we develop a concise list of expectations that we are

all expected to follow each day. This past year, our expectations included: choose kindness,

pursue excellence, and work for the common good. We talked about what each of those things

looked like, and provided many examples of each of these expectations. This serves as a

foundation for our classroom community. The expectations are clear and laid out from the

beginning of the year, so it takes the guess-work out of what I’m expecting for students.

Additionally, I make a point to not use the word “rules”. This choice of mine is supported by the

text, which discusses how using the term, rules, “suggests compliance orientation to classroom

management, whereas, we believe the goals of education and the needs of students are better

served by working with students to create a sense of shared community” (Jones & Jones, 2016,

pg. 173). Giving students a voice in creating our expectations is one way that I work to create our

classroom community.

As a second-grade teacher, my students are still young and developing their own internal

motivational systems. Therefore, there are still many extrinsic motivators built into my

classroom management system. First, students are held accountable for their own individual

behaviors. I do use a “clip chart” in my classroom. However, all of the verbiage on the clip chart

is positive (see Figure 1). Everyone starts on the day on, “I am doing my best to learn”. If

students are making good choices, they can move their clip up to “I am making good choices”.
The upwards progression continues to “I am being kind and thoughtful” and finally, “I am being

a role model to others”. If a student’s clip ends the day at “I am being a role model” they take

home a certificate and get to choose a prize from our prize drawer. If students are not making

good choices, however, their clip can be moved down. On the first warning, students move their

clip to “I can make better choices”. After another incidence, the clip is moved to “I can improve

my behavior”. The final space is labeled, “I can talk about my behavior”. At this point, the

student and I would have a private conversation about their behavior, and fill out a “think sheet”

describing the behaviors that happened at school that day to be sent home and signed by a parent.

In order to reduce public attention, whether it be praise or a correction, I ask students to move

their clip privately. However, the clip chart is displayed publicly, so all students can see where

each clip stands at any time.

After learning more about behavior management systems in this course, I can see some

drawbacks of my use of a clip chart. One problem with this is that it doesn’t lend itself to direct,

immediate feedback for the student. Whether a student has either done something positive to

move their clip up, or negative to move their clip down, I’m not always immediately available to

offer private feedback to that student until later. According to our CHAMPS text, feedback

should be given immediately (Sprick, 2009, pg. 289). Another issue that arises with the behavior

clip chart is the public knowledge of each student’s behavior. If a student is misbehaving and I

am publicly telling the student to move their clip down, and the clip chart is visible to the entire

class to see, it can be quite embarrassing for the student. This has the possibility to diminish the

trust and respect built between teacher and student. According to Jones & Jones (2016), it’s best

to send our messages to students privately. This is just something that a clip chart simply doesn’t

lend itself to.

 I also implement whole-class reward systems with both table points and whole-class

points (see Figure 2). Table points are earned when each student at a particular table is

displaying our classroom expectations. This could be students working cooperatively as a team

or all students on task. Table points can also be taken away if tables are off-task. During

independent work-time, for example, if table members are talking or acting silly instead of

working, that table will lose a point. At the end of the week, table points are tallied together and

the table with the most points gets to visit our classroom prize drawer. Whole-class points

operate similarly, expect they are earned when ALL students in the classroom are displaying

class expectations. They can also be taken away if ALL students are off-task or not following

directions. At the beginning of the year, we set a goal for how many whole-class points we want

to achieve to get a reward (typically this is 25 points). Once the class reaches that amount of

points, they can vote on the type of celebration that they would like. Options include an extra

recess, stuffed animal day, electronics day, special snack party, ice cream party, etc.

There are both advantages and disadvantages to using table points and whole-class point

systems as part of my classroom management plan. With whole-class points, for example, they

can be especially useful when they are used consistently, in regular time-intervals, and when

students have a choice in their rewards (Sprick, 2009, pg. 325). This is reflected in my own use

of whole-class points. However, I think that whole-class points should be used strategically and

with the nature of the students in my class in mind. As stated in the text, “it is not a good choice

when most of your class behaves well and one or two students are responsible for most of the

misbehavior” (Sprick, 2009, pg. 325). My usage of whole-class points could be re-evaluated with

each new class and I can decide if it’s appropriate with the particular group that I may have. The

same idea can be applied towards table points. If most students at a table are consistently
behaving, and there is one student who is always responsible for misbehavior, then table points

would not be appropriate. Additionally, if whole-class and table points are used, it’s important

for me to focus heavily on rewarding positive behaviors and gaining points, as opposed to rarely

giving out points but frequently taking them away.

Defining expectations, use of a clip chart, and table/whole-class points are the main

aspects of managing student behavior in my classroom. As I had stated, there are both rewards

and consequences to student behavior. Positive behavior is reinforced through moving up a clip

or through gaining points on the board. Award certificates, visits to the prize drawer, and choice

in class celebrations are some of the incentives that students have to exhibit positive behaviors.

When negative behaviors occur in the classroom, there are always consequences to those actions.

Depending on the behavior, sometimes a simple conversation with the student is all that is

needed. Other times, “think sheets” and parent contact is necessary, or students may have to miss

out on recess time as a consequence for their behavior. My goal in this is to encourage more

positive behavior, and reduce negative behavior. Our CHAMPs text offers various potential

consequences that can be used in the classroom for negative behavior. These include: taking

away time from an activity that the student values (e.g. recess), timeout in-class, timeout in

another classroom, restitution, positive practice, loss of points, or a behavior improvement form

(Sprick, 2009, pg. 132).

 Figure 1. Clip Chart Figure 2. Table & Whole-Class
Point Tracking

Classroom Management: The Future

After analysis of my current classroom management plan, through the lens of

professional literature and content learned throughout this course, I’m able to develop a new plan

of what my classroom management can look like in the future. To do this, I would like to reflect
back on the areas of knowledge and skill of effective classroom managers that are laid out in the

Jones & Jones text, that I had originally referred to. I have learned that these can be seen as a

foundation for developing an effective classroom management plan, and are principals for what a

positive classroom community looks like.

Principle #1: “Teachers create positive personal relationships and a community of support in the

classroom by establishing positive teacher-student and peer relationships and having positive

involvement with students’ caregivers” (Jones & Jones, 2016, pg. 9)

An overarching theme in my study of classroom management is the importance of

creating a classroom community. In my classroom, we truly focus on community building in the

beginning of the year. However, I can see that this is something that tends to fade out as the year

progresses. There are several ways that I would like to expand on this principle. Relationship

building is extremely important to begin from the start of a year. As stated in Jones & Jones

(2016), “More recent research indicates a significant relationship between the quality of

teachers’ relationships with their students and students’ behavior” (pg. 52). There were many

examples of this given in our course texts. One consistent application of developing positive

teacher-student relationships is to greet students at the door each morning (Sprick, 2009, pg.

282). This is something that I want to implement into my daily interactions with my students.

Additionally, Jones & Jones (2016) offered the suggestion of arranging individual conferences

with students (pg. 67). In my classroom, I could focus on having brief check-ins with each

student once a week. This could be a casual conversation on the playground, or a quick chat after

small group work. Whatever form it takes, making time to have conversations with students that

aren’t academically centered gives me the opportunity to express interest in my students lives in
a professional and productive way. Additionally, to truly exemplify this principle and develop

and maintain strong relationships with my students, I would like to eliminate the use of a clip

chart in my classroom. The clip chart holds potential to publicly humiliate and demean students,

which is counterproductive to what I am working to accomplish.

Principle #2: “Teachers help students develop and commit to behavior standards that support a

physically and psychologically safe classroom learning environment” (Jones & Jones, 2016, pg.

9)

As an educator, I’ve always worked to make sure that students have a clear set of

expectations to follow throughout the year. I’ve started this process by creating classroom

expectations alongside my students at the beginning of the year. This is something that has been

supported by professional literature and is a practice that I will continue to use. The CHAMPS

text provided guidelines that I will use in the future when developing classroom expectations

with my students. These include: (1) expectations are stated positively, (2) expectations are

specific and refer to observable behaviors, (3) teach expectations using positive and negative

examples, (4) expectations are applicable throughout the entire class period, and (5) expectations

are posted in a prominent, visible location (Sprick, 2009, pg. 116). Additionally, I want to focus

on helping students “commit” to our class behavior standards. One way that I can do this in the

future is to have each student sign their name on our list of expectations to be displayed. This

signifies that they agree to the standards and are committed to upholding these expectations in

our classroom each day.

Principle #3: “Teachers use instructional methods that facilitate optimal learning by responding

to the academic needs of individual students and the classroom group” (Jones & Jones, 2016, pg.

9)

Above all else, our main as educators is to teach academic content to students. Therefore,

our days consist of instructional activities, lessons, and transitions between the two. As part of

my classroom management plan, I would like to work to prevent behavior problems during

instructional time, as opposed to correcting them if they happen. To do this, I would like to

develop and establish expectations to communicate with students from the first day of school

surrounding instructional times. This can be done using the CHAMPS Classroom Activity

Worksheet, as shown on page 157 in the CHAMPS text. For each instructional time in the day

(e.g. writing workshop, reading workshop, small group time, math, etc.), I will define each

aspect of the CHAMPS acronym. What will the conversation between students be like (C)? How

will students get help if they have questions (H)? What is the end product of the activity (A)?

What kind of movement around the classroom can students engage in (M)? What behaviors show

that students are fully participating (P)? (Sprick, 2009). This will provide a base of what I’m

expecting from students throughout the day, and takes away the guess work from students to

minimize behavior problems from occurring.

Another important factor in this principle is responding to the academic needs of

students. A main cause of negative behavior in students can be due to academic frustration. If

students feel like the content is too easy and they become bored, undesirable behavior can occur.

If a student feels like the content is too challenging and they cannot access the material,

undesirable behavior can also occur. This relates to the “expectancy x value” theory of

motivation in students- for motivation to learn to be present, students must feel like they are
capable of completing the task, and they must also see the value in participating in the task.

Making sure that tasks/lessons/activities are engaging for students will be at the forefront of my

lesson planning. Administering interest inventories at the beginning of the year to gain an

understanding of what each student is motivated by/interested in will be helpful when

implementing this principle. Additionally, consistent assessment and differentiation in my

instruction to make sure that students are capable and confident in their abilities to complete the

work will also ensure that students are engaged and successful.

Principle #4: “Teachers have the ability to respond effectively when students behave in ways that

detract from their own learning and that of others” (Jones & Jones, 2016, pg. 9)

When analyzing my current approach to responding to inappropriate student behavior, I

had decided that my clip chart approach wasn’t a strategy that I wanted to continue. Instead,

“studies suggest that schoolwide management methods that focus on problem solving and

reteaching are the most effective in creating positive, safe school environments” (Jones & Jones,

2016, pg. 284). Upon my research of responding to student misbehavior in a positive manner, I

studied a behavior management program called “The Responsive Classroom”. In this program,

the idea of “logical consequences” are emphasized. Instead of giving a student a punishment

when they aren’t following expectations that doesn’t relate to the action, this program suggests

that teachers give a “logical consequence” to students- a consequence that directly relates to the

inappropriate action of the student. For example, if a student purposely spills a box of crayons,

the logical consequence would be to have to student pick the crayons back up and put them

where they belong. If a student is acting silly in the hallway, a logical consequence would be to

have that student practice walking in the hallway for a few minutes during recess that day. I like
the idea of logical consequences focusing on emphasizing the desired behavior and allowing

students to display the desired behavior through the consequence. Within my classroom

management plan, instead of a clip chart, I would like to implement private conferences with

students who are exhibiting misbehavior, followed by a logical consequence.

The Process of Analysis

Throughout this course, I have had the opportunity to continue my growth as an effective

classroom manager. Taking a deeper look into my own practices and challenging my own prior

beliefs towards what was best for students was not an easy process. However, effective teachers

ground their practice in research and professional literature. Gaining new insight towards

classroom management through course content and readings has left me with a new perspective

towards how my classroom will run. I believe that focusing my work towards the 4 principles

that I stated above as the future of my classroom management will allow me to make decisions

that will benefit both myself and my students in the long run.

References

Jones, V. F., & Jones, L. S. (2016). Comprehensive classroom management: Creating

communities of support and solving problems. Boston: Pearson.

Says:, N., Says:, R., Says:, S., Says:, E., Says:, P., Says:, A., . . . Says:, S. (n.d.). Articles.
Retrieved June 16, 2020, from https://www.responsiveclassroom.org/punishment-vs-
logical-consequences/

Sprick, R. (2009). CHAMPs: a proactive & positive approach to classroom  management.

Pacific Northwest Publishing.