Classroom Discipline Workshop: Helpless

HandraisersCounseling 810: Sasha Albrecht

What is “helpless handraising?”

•Pattern of handraising for extra help during classroom instruction time• Not all handraising is “helpless” handraising- defined as helpless

when repetitive & not simply clarification or verification •Average number of helpless handraisers per class: 5-6•Average amount of time devoted to each handraiser: 4.23 minutes• While the rest of the class remains unsupervised and potentially off

task• Amount of time effective to tutor?

•Behavior positively reinforced with attention from teacher• Generally the students who were “clingy” in lower grades, need to

adapt methods to not look like a “baby”• Clingy behavior can refer to any behaviors in which the child is

overly dependent on the teacher. For this workshop, we will focus specifically on asking for teacher assistance on classroom tasks or projects.

•Learned helplessness: no need to pay attention to lesson if they can have one on one help from teacher

Target Population

•Kindergarteners•Reverse “clinginess” in younger years to disrupt development of chronic pattern of learned helplessness•Build independence!

“Common Sense” Corrective Feedback

•Show the child how to do it, check for understanding•Reinforces helplessness•Produces cognitive overload• Multi-step tasks require

long-term memory• A lot of work

compared to short-term memory (total recall)

Simplifying Corrective Feedback

•One step at a time• Brief and clear prompts

•Examples of common openers:• “Show me where you are

having difficulty,” “You did a good job with the colors, but now let’s look at the shapes,” “(sigh) Okay let’s see here…” “Okay let’s go over this one more time,”

• All error based! Why focus on something you don’t want the student to repeat?

Steps for Corrective Feedback

1. Take a relaxing breath2. Take another relaxing breath: this time looking at the task – what has

the student done right so far?3. Evaluate: what do I want the student to do next?

Feedback:

Praise (Only use the first time you help a student): Describe what the student has done right with simple, declarative sentences (focus & review)

Prompt: Safety phrase “The next thing to do is…” (simple & avoids error focus)

Leave: Before student carries out prompt – feedback is for learning, not attention

Additional Tips

• If lesson plan includes graphics, follow the same ideas: simple, step-based• Reduce the duration of the

prompt (more time for the rest of the class!)

• For younger students: omit words from diagram (reduces confusion)

• Teach to all modalities the first time around• Say (“Let me explain…”)• See (“Watch as I…”)• Do (“Now you do it.”)

Assessing Effectiveness

Immediate:•Student performance on task (accomplished with or without teacher help?, what kind of teacher help?)•Number of “clingy” or “helpless” behavior incidences • May be helpful to record number of incidences prior to

implementing intervention – as a class total and per each individual student• This is a time consuming and distracting process… may use

a short time interval (e.g. one week of observation)

Long-term:•Number of incidences of helpless handraising in higher elementary school grades (e.g. 3rd grade +)• Compare to previous years• Analyze on a year to year basis for trends in overall school

behavioral changes

Summary•Clingy behaviors in early elementary school grades leads to helpless handraising in later grades•Eliminate needy behaviors early on before they become established patterns•Can combat helpless behaviors by building independent learning skills (Praise, Prompt, Leave)•If effective, will reduce amount of time spent one-on-one tutoring, while optimizing the time that is spent tutoring• Will also increase the amount of time available for

classroom instruction & monitoring