How Teachers Manage Students' Behaviors Matters
Last week I introduced this next series of blog posts on supporting the development of critical thinking skills in students with ADHD. The series will cover behavior strategies, instructional strategies, and accommodations. This week, I will start with behavior strategies.
There are several common behavior strategies that teachers might use or that might show up on an IEP. These strategies include fidgets, a large band around the base of their chair for bouncing feet, standing at desk, which may also include kneeling or laying on the floor, alternative seating, such as a wobble chair, sensory cushion, or bean bags, visible schedule, seated near teacher, teacher checking in with student, schedule on desk, and, possibly, use of a timer. These are all great strategies, but I want to start with the basics, the classroom management system, or behavior management system.
For teachers, the classroom management system is how appropriate behaviors are reinforced and undesirable behaviors are discouraged, but how is appropriate and undesirable defined? How much of that is influenced by teachers’ preferences? Is it informed by the developmental abilities of children and their social-emotional development? These are just a few questions teachers need to consider beyond just defining behaviors as appropriate and inappropriate.
Let’s begin by discussing teacher preferences and how they can influence both positively and negatively on how behaviors are perceived and classified. As teachers, we need to step back and consider what is needed to effectively teach. Do you thrive in situations with lots of conversation and movement? Do you require a quieter environment? Does your noise and activity tolerance vary according to the time of day or even the day of the week? Take time to reflect on those questions. That reflection should inform your daily and weekly schedule. If you’re a person who needs some quiet time after lunch, then plan a daily activity that creates quiet time. For example, teach your students to enter the classroom quietly and move to predetermined centers to practice existing skills. You can even use a noise meter to help students monitor their own noise level. You can use this scheduled time to review students’ work, grade, modify lesson plans, work individually with a student, or just interact with your students in a different way. If you take the time to plan for yourself, then you will have the capacity to attend to the needs of your students.
Once teacher preferences and needs are addressed, teacher expectations need to be examined. How do teachers see their students interacting with them, their peers, the materials in the class, their desk, or even with others in the hallway, lunchroom, or playground? Are these expectations based on the teachers’ culture, the school culture, or on the developmentally appropriate behaviors and social-emotional factors for the age group? Classroom management systems need to be based on the appropriate behaviors and social-emotional development for the students’ age and ability in the classroom. It also needs to account for differences and delays in development that are always present, and it needs to include a component of “teach and release” for specific responsibilities, usually daily classroom procedures, to build community, sense of responsibility, and confidence within students. Finally, it needs to include conflict resolution strategies that students can use independently after being taught and guided through practice. This excerpt from Teaching Tolerance, Reframing Classroom Management: A Toolkit for Educators reframes classroom management by using the term responsive classroom, which centers the classroom on both the teacher and the students (3, p.2).
Responsive classrooms are shared community spaces where students are growth partners and leaders of their own learning…..excessive control undermines student motivation and development and creates reluctant compliance instead of the excitement that comes from self-determination.
So how do teachers go about reframing their classroom management systems to be responsive classrooms? First, teachers need to examine their behaviors and assumptions. There are things that can get baked into classroom management systems that can aggravate and escalate behaviors and there are things that can support students’ development and growth. Teachers’ reactions that escalate negative behaviors in students include getting into power struggles, body language, loss of recess as punishment, punishing the entire class, taking students’ behavior personally, having too many rules, setting low expectations and shaming. Things teachers can do to support students’ development include changing the physical layout of the classroom, distinguishing between disrespect, disruption and disregard, differentiating, focusing on developing instead of punishment or the quick fix, using transitions wisely, reinforcing positive behaviors, and examining your own biases. Once teachers are able to identify their strengths and where they need to make changes, then they are ready to reframe their perspective and build a management system that is responsive, inclusive, and supports the ongoing development and growth of the students (3, pps 6-9).
This discussion on behavior management is just beginning. In my next blog, I will dive deeper into this topic, discuss some different strategies that teachers can use to build a responsive classroom and how those strategies can help build critical thinking skills. In the meantime, always remember that all behavior is communication.
© 2025 Linda Patrell-Kim
Resources:
The ADHD Book of List, Second Edition, Sandra F. Rief, pages 103-108.
Effective Students, Classroom Strategies for Teaching Students with ADHD, https://effectivestudents.com/articles/classroom-strategies-for-teaching-students-with-adhd/
Teaching Tolerance, Reframing Classroom Management: A Toolkit for Educators, learningforjustice.org/sites/default/files/general/TT_Reframing_Classroom_Managment_Handouts.pdf
SPLC Learning For Justice, Toolkit for "A Teacher's Guide to Rerouting the Pipeline," https://www.learningforjustice.org/magazine/spring-2013/toolkit-for-a-teachers-guide-to-rerouting-the-pipeline
