Many teachers are either heading back to the classroom or already back after a long period of remote learning due to the pandemic. Getting readjusted to the classroom setting can be challenging for teachers and students alike. The principles of Love and Logic can help ease this transition back to normal. Here are some of quick and easy classroom intervention strategies that can help with this transition.
Love and Logic Teachers are Highly Effective Teachers
Love and Logic teachers challenge themselves every day. How? They wonder how long they can go without providing a consequence for misbehavior. They are not challenging themselves to be permissive, rather they understand a fundamental concept:
Highly effective teachers prevent misbehavior
while less effective teachers constantly react to it.
Not only do Love and Logic teachers understand this principle, they also understand that classroom discipline requires the following:
- When I stop to provide a consequence, I’m no longer teaching.
- When I’m no longer teaching, other students get restless and begin to act out.
- I don’t have any consequences that will scare my toughest students into behaving.
Classroom Intervention Strategies
How do Love and Logic teachers prevent misbehavior? They rely on a variety of subtle actions designed to redirect the behavior while maintaining the flow of the lesson. We call these Quick and Easy Classroom Intervention Strategies. Below are some examples:
Begin with nonverbal messages:
- Use the “evil eye.”
- Use a signal – shake of the head, arm movement, etc.
- Walk toward the student while continuing to teach.
- Stand close to the student.
Use lots of empathy:
- Nonverbal – look sad or concerned.
- Verbal – try to lead with how you think the other person might be feeling, such as, “That must be really upsetting.”
Use “I” instead of “You” statements:
- “I’ll start when…”
- “I’ll be happy to…”
Get them thinking:
- “What do you plan to do about that?”
- “Is this helping?”
- “What’s your best guess…?”
Give choices:
- “You are welcome to ______, or to______.”
- “Feel free to ______, or to ______.”
Use your one-liner:
- “Could be.”
- “Possibly so.”
- “Nice try.”
Build the relationship:
- “I noticed that _____.”
- Use Recovery Time.
- Remove student for a “cool off” period.
Empathy Before Consequences
Above all, allow natural consequences and empathy to nurture the love of learning in your students. Always give natural consequences with empathy and remember that genuine, sincere expressions of empathy must precede the consequence. Lectures about how much the child should learn from his/her experience will cancel out the benefit of the consequence. Consider the following as a model for interaction:
- Lead with empathy: “Tough problem, huh?
- Follow with a sincere question: “What do you plan to do?”
- Gain permission to share: “Would you like to know what others have tried?”
- Explore possible outcomes: “How do you think this might work for you?”
- Allow to solve or not: “Good luck. Let me know how it works out.”
- Or take ownership: “Feel free to ____ when _____.”
Our Quick and Easy Classroom Interventions audio has more helpful examples of interventions.
Thanks for reading!
