Songs revised

Sometime back, I posted an entry about songs that I used to make some basic rules of behavior modification memorable for students in my classes. This post reprises that post and updates it.

Please note that the songs associated with each “rule” are not meant to convey exactly the same sentiment as the rule; the songs’ messages are often more about individual relationships, so the lyrics do not conform precisely to the concepts behind the rules.

I’ve re-ordered some items and modified some of them. This is the version for this (the spring) semester of 2009.

1. Rule 1: Accentuate the Positive.
   Teachers too often get sucked into hassling and busting kids; if teachers provide positive support when students are behaving pro-socially, there’ll be many fewer needs to intervene aversively; one of the other ways to say this, “Catch ‘em being good,” echos a recommendation that Dan O’Leary and colleagues used as a title for a 1970s film about classroom management.
2. Rule 2: Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow.
   Teachers are the adults in classrooms and should remember that their actions will have longer-term effects [an idea that's not yet familiar to their students], so teachers should remember to take the longer view; there’s little percentage in demanding immediate compliance for students; a close corollary, and another reason to remember this one, is that reinforcement doesn’t work after only one application—it takes lots of repetitions for students to learn both academic and behavior competencies.
3. Rule 3: Monitor (“Every Breath you Take”).
   Teachers need to monitor what’s happening in their classrooms on a near-constant schedule; they should scan the room frequently (leading to opportunities to catch students being good and, then accentuate the positive!); during seatwork and small-group assignments, they should walk around and check in with students.
4. Rule 4: Examine features of the classroom that might promote misbehavior (“Before you Accuse me, Take a Look at Yourself”).
   Usually, when things go wrong in classrooms, teachers should examine their own behavior rather than implicating their student’s intentions, wills, parents, or genes; teachers sometimes model inappropriate behavior, and students may imitate it.
5. Rule 5: Never make a decision based on on data point (No song yet, but I’m leaning toward “One is the Loneliest Number”). Many times we generalize from a specific event, creating a broad interpretation based on too few data points; individual events and actions are influenced by myriad factors and open to myriad interpretations, so we should not emphasize them; .

I play different performers’ interpretations of these songs during class. For example, for “Every Breath you Take,” I have Police (of course), Martha’s Trouble, and the Young At Heart Chorus!

I’d like to hear whether these ideas are good ones and whether readers think the songs will help teachers remember them. Also, if someone has other suggestions for songs, please pass them along to me. I probably need updated samples, as mine come from an era that predates most of my students’ births.

The earlier post was called Sing Along.