Managing Student Behavior
Brief Session Explanation
Young adolescents can be enthusiastic and dynamic learners who are hungry for the good news
of Jesus Christ. Sometimes, however, their behavior prevents them and others from learning. The
catechist faces the challenge of bringing organization to the learning environment and employing
effective strategies to manage behavior so that the Good News does not get drowned out. This
session begins with a role-play and then introduces catechists to strategies that will assist them in
managing behavior among young adolescents.
Objectives
At the end of this session, participants will be able to
 identify several types of distracting behavior
 understand a variety of strategies to manage distracting behavior and help young adolescents
pay attention
At a Glance (45-60 minutes)
A.
B.
C.
D.
Behaviors of the Young Adolescent (10-15 minutes)
Effective Group Management (15 minutes)
Helping Young Adolescents Pay Attention (15 minutes)
Closing Prayer (10-15 minutes)
Materials and Preparation Needed
 Cut Resource A: “Behaviors of a Young Adolescent” into strips as indicated.
 Make a copy of Catechist Tip Sheet 4: “Effective Group Management” for each catechist
(copy this from the Coordinator’s Manual or print from the Catholic Connections Web site).
 Make a copy of Catechist Tip Sheet 5: “Helping Young Adolescents Pay Attention” for each
catechist (copy this from the Coordinator’s Manual or print from the Catholic Connections
Web site).
 Be ready to play the song, “Be With Me, Lord,” by Sarah Hart and Cutis Stephan (the song
is available on several Spirit and Song albums or download it from spiritandsong.com).
 If you are using the companion PowerPoint for this workshop, download it and set up the
equipment needed to show it.
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 Read “Strategies for Helping Young People to Pay Attention,” by John Barone found in the
introduction of each Catholic Connections Catechist’s Guide.
 Review Tip Sheet 2: Active Learning and Faith Formation.
Session Steps
A. Behaviors of the Young Adolescent (10-15 minutes)
1. Welcome the catechists and thank them for their commitment to minister with young
adolescents.
2. Explain that the session is focused on helping catechists manage behavior in the young
adolescent and that you are going to have them participate in a role-play. If necessary, arrange
the room appropriately for the role-play. Ask for four volunteers. Explain that three volunteers
will be young adolescents acting out the behaviors described on strips of paper you will give
them and then distribute the strips of paper from Resource A, “Behaviors of a Young
Adolescent.” The fourth volunteer will play the role of a catechist teaching the young adolescents
about the Lord’s Prayer.
3. Begin the role-play and allow it to continue for 3-5 minutes. Next, lead a short discussion
with the group using these or similar questions. The purpose of the discussion is to identify the
challenging behaviors young adolescents present and their effects on the catechetical experience.
Start by asking the whole group:

What behaviors did you observe in the “young adolescents”? How did the “catechist”
respond?
Next, tell the role-play participants to read aloud their description and share how they acted
it out. Ask each what it felt like to engage in those behaviors. Next, ask the “catechist” what his
or her experience was like trying to manage the young people’s behavior. What worked? What
did not? How would you feel after a 60-minute session with these “young adolescents”?
Then pose these questions to the whole group:


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What strategies may have been effective in responding to these behaviors?
What other types of challenging behaviors were not represented in this role-play?
If these behaviors are not addressed, how do they affect the other young people? How do
they affect the catechist?
Invite the catechists to offer any other thoughts, insights, and wonderings.
B. Effective Group Management (15 minutes)
1. Distribute Catechist Tip Sheet 4, “Effective Group Management.” Explain the following:
@ Managing student behavior and leading effective sessions is a balancing act of sorts. On
one side of the scale is the TASK of accomplishing the objectives of the lesson, and on
the other side of the scale is the MAINTENANCE of the relationship of the young
people with the catechist and with their peers. Focus on one of these exclusively and you
end up losing out on the other. The sessions we often feel best about are the ones in
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which we paid equal attention to both the task of the lesson and the maintenance of
relationships with the young adolescents.
2. Briefly present the main elements of catechist tip sheet 4 using the following points. Add
examples from your own life experience that will emphasize these points.
 Principle 1: Be well prepared to facilitate each lesson. Preparation does not just happen 15
minutes before the session. Take time to review the lesson at least a week in advance,
and several times before getting to the meeting room. Being well prepared means you
are more comfortable with the material, more capable of making adjustments if
circumstances arise, more personally relaxed, and more ready to focus on the young
people as soon as they arrive.
 Principle 2: Focus on building positive relationships with the young people. Learn their
names and call them by them frequently. Take an interest in their lives, their interests,
activities, friends, and family. In the mind of a young person, you don’t have to be
perfect or brilliant; you need to be genuine and genuinely interested in their lives.
 Principle 3: Become familiar with techniques for preventing disruptive behavior. Add
examples from your own experience to the list below.
o Maintain appropriate expectations. You set the bar. They will jump over it.
o Establish clear boundaries. Young adolescents are very capable of following
expectations literally--especially if a literal translation is to their advantage. Make
your expectations simple, reasonable, and to the point. (See examples on tip sheet 4.)
o Explain the consequences of broken rules. Enforce those rules quickly, consistently,
and without emotion. The more consistent you are, the better. Young people may step
over the line, but they step over it less frequently when they know exactly where it is.
o Use appropriate techniques for keeping participants focused and channeling their
energy. (See tip sheets 2 and 5 for examples.)
o Encourage and empower young people to take on leadership responsibilities within
the session and beyond.
o Catch youth being good. Affirm the positive kinds of behavior you observe.
o When in need, ask for assistance.
3. After reviewing the tip sheet, stop to see if the catechists have any questions. Ask if this
activity has answered any concerns they may have and if they know of other effective strategies
they would like to share. Encourage them to read the introduction in their catechist’s guide,
which addresses this area.
C. Helping Young Adolescents Pay Attention (15 minutes)
1. Explain that the next part of the session will begin with a game. Have each catechist find a
partner. Explain that the game is called “Staring Contest.” They must sit facing each other and
stare into each other’s eyes--the first person to blink loses. After each round, have the “losers” sit
out and the winners find another partner. Continue until you have one ultimate winner.
2. After the competition, debrief the experience using these and similar questions:



Who won and why?
Did you want to win?
If you lost, why did you lose? Did you understand the rules and the consequences?
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
In general, why do people who want to win a competition or comply with expectations
fail at accomplishing their goals? (Note: Answers will vary, but may include the
following: skill level, motivation, distractions, lack of concentration, and so on.)
Conclude the debriefing by making the following point.
@ We, competent and capable adults, find ourselves in situations where we want to win or
comply yet we lose even though we know the rules and the consequences of “failing.” It
should not surprise us, therefore, that young adolescents want to comply with the rules
of behavior, may know the consequences of not following those rules, but still
sometimes fail to behave appropriately. Most of these reasons are developmental, and
they are more severe in persons with conditions such as attention deficit disorder or
attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (sometimes referred to as ADD and ADHD).
Everyone, including ourselves, will fail at times to pay attention. Our job is not to form
young adolescents into behavioral robots, but to help them minimize inappropriate
behaviors and redirect their energies so that the session objectives can be accomplished.
3. Point out the following:
@ Three types of disruptive behaviors stem from three characteristics of Attention Deficit
and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. They are (1) distractibility (easily
distracted by those things around us), (2) hyperactivity (inability to sit still, urge to
move), and (3) impulsivity (outbursts that are random and seemingly unrelated to the
task at hand). Three of the characters in the earlier role-play exhibited these
characteristics. Our hope as catechists is to recognize these behaviors and positively,
constructively redirect the young people’s energies so as to minimize disruptions in the
session while at the same time honoring the dignity of the people involved.
4. Distribute Catechist Tip Sheet 5, “Helping Young Adolescents Pay Attention.” Present the
following techniques and explain that they will assist the catechists in facilitating learning and
enhancing the attention of all adolescents (add strategies that have proven effective in your own
life experience).
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If you know you have youth with ADD or ADHD, contact their parents and learn what
works well with their child.
Create order and limit visual distractions. A neat room with seating that point away from
windows will go a long way toward limiting distractions.
Consider alternative seating. This may be more of an art than a science, but consider a
variety of seating methods (distracters in back or in front, or the fidgeters standing).
Through experimentation you can learn what works best for particular youth.
Try small groups (two to three per group to minimize wait time and allow for more talk
time) and allow brief concentration breaks (60-second-stand-and-stretch break).
When giving instructions, use multiple modes (spoken, written, hands-on, and so on),
communicate the steps one at a time, and check for understanding (ask the young people
to repeat instructions back to you in their own words, until what they say is what you
want them to do).
When individuals are still exhibiting distracting behavior, try some other strategies such
as proximity (standing near or walking close by to someone who is distracted) personal
signals (signs that are agreed upon in advance to remind the young person to refocus
their attention).
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
Invite the catechists to share other strategies that have been effective for them.
5. Share some effective strategies from your own life experience. Ask the catechists to do the
same. You may wish to return to the role-play in the earlier part of the session and discuss how
these strategies may have been helpful in dealing with the challenging behaviors in the role-play.
You might even do the role-play again with new volunteers and have the “catechist” practice
some of these strategies. Be sure that the volunteer “young people” cooperate so the catechist can
experience success!
D. Closing Prayer (10-15 minutes)
1. Remind the participants that if we strike a healthy balance between the task of accomplishing
the session objectives and the maintenance of positive relationships, our sessions, our
relationship with the young people, and our faith (theirs and ours) will benefit. Invite them to
reflect on the young people they work with, or other young adolescents (especially if sessions
haven’t started yet) as the session closes in prayer.
2. Invite the catechists to think about the young adolescents in their lives and to bring them into
prayer by stating their names aloud. Allow a moment or two for catechists to name the youth,
and then pray with them using these or similar words:
@ Good and gracious God, we lift up the young adolescents we have just named and all
young adolescents you have entrusted to us. Be with them, Lord, in their troubles and in
their joys. Be their shelter and their strength. Send your angels to protect and to guard
them. Make them fearless. Make them yours. As we strive to serve you in our ministry
with these young adolescents, be with us as well. Guide us in the tasks of catechesis and
in the maintenance of good relationships. We place all our trust in you. Thank you for
being with us and with them. Amen.
4. End the prayer with the song “Be with Me, Lord.” Provide the lyrics (you can find them on
the Spirit and Song Web site) to the catechists so they can sing along.
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Behaviors of Young Adolescents
Below are descriptions of some behaviors that you might experience while working with young
adolescents in a group setting. There is also a description for a catechist role. Cut apart the descriptions
as indicated. You will be distributing these behaviors to volunteers for a role-play during the training
session.
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Distractible
Distractibility is characterized by difficulty maintaining focus. Distractible persons can concentrate
intensely, but shift what they focus on frequently and with ease. They can be talking to you one moment
and looking at a snowflake outside the next moment and noticing people’s clothing styles the next
moment.
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Impulsive
People who are impulsive often speak and act without thinking about the consequences of their speech or
actions. They will speak out or answer questions without waiting to be called on. Or they might take
someone’s pen or pull someone’s hair. Invariably when asked why these behaviors are done, the answer
is, “I don’t know.”
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Hyperactive
People who are hyperactive cannot sit still; they fidget in their seat, tap their pencils, kick and bounce
their legs. They feel the need to get up frequently and move around the room. Their energy seems
endless.
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Catechist Directions
Facilitate a discussion with your “young people” about the Lord’s Prayer. Ask them to recite the Lord’s
Prayer one line at a time and tell you in their own words what the line means. If student disruptions arise
during the discussion, attempt to respond to them as quickly and effectively as possible and return to the
discussion.
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Resource A: Permission to reproduce is granted. © 2009 by Saint Mary’s Press.