a
Ch o s
in Kindergarten?
L
et’s consider two children
any kindergarten teacher will
recognize:
Alejandro is a bundle of energy
as he enters the classroom. After
a quick “Hi” to his teacher, he tosses his
things into his cubby and joins a group
of friends who’ve discovered the new
magnets. Hearing the teacher’s signal for
circle time, Alejandro says to his buddies,
“Put them back in the box. We gotta go!”
In a moment, he’s on his sit-upon, singing
the Good Morning Song.
Emma enters the classroom, ignoring
the teacher’s friendly greeting. As she
jams her belongings into her overstuffed
cubby, she steps over her lunch box,
which has tumbled to the floor. Just after
Emma joins the children in the writing
center, a child in the group calls for help
because Emma is grabbing her things.
Ignoring the teacher’s redirection to come
to another area, Emma slaps at a girl and
pushes a basket of markers to the floor.
“It’s going to be another one of those
days,” the teacher sighs.
We all know these two children.
Alejandro is typical of many kindergarten students. He demonstrates
self-regulation, plays well with others,
contributes to the classroom community, and follows rules. On the other
hand, children like Emma struggle
through the day, leaving behind them a
trail of chaos and bad feelings.
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Bilmes.indd 32
Here’s how teachers can
help early elementary
students who are
seriously disruptive
in class.
Jenna Bilmes
Although most kindergartners are
more like Alejandro, the Emmas aren’t
a tiny minority. Ten percent of kindergartners show behavior problems or
disrupt their class.1 This number triples
for at-risk children. And children with
self-control problems rarely succeed
academically.
It’s not only the Emmas who suffer.
With all a teacher has to accomplish
during the kindergarten year, having
students who lack the skills to “do
school” is a real challenge. Other
students are also hampered by the
frequent drama. But once teachers
stop thinking of disruptive children
as naughty and instead think of them
as lacking social and emotional skills,
we can see the situation as no more
challenging than teaching the basics of
reading and mathematics.
Just as educators have identified
key language and literacy skills—like
phonological awareness—that underlie
children’s ability to learn to read,
researchers have identified key social
and emotional skills that underlie children’s ability to succeed in school. And
just as we’ve learned how to strengthen
students’ foundational skills in cognitive
domains, we can help students like
Emma build the interpersonal skills they
need to move successfully through the
school day.
Teaching social and emotional
skills—taking students from where
they are to where they need to be—is
similar to teaching skills in any domain.
To become increasingly competent,
children need to feel both capable of
and excited about learning. They need
a supportive environment, multiple
activities, and sufficient practice to
internalize skills like how to develop
relationships and how to resist the
urge to grab something they want. Let’s
consider how teachers can help early
elementary students develop four key
skills: building adult-child relationships,
belonging to a group, regulating themselves, and adapting “home” behaviors
to fit classroom expectations.
Educational lEadErship / octobEr 2012
8/28/12 10:25 PM
Relationships with Teachers
Students tend to behave well for
teachers they like and who like them.
support learning. The teacher’s task,
then, is twofold: to build relationships
with kids who pull away and to help
these children see teachers as valuable
resources.
The way we build mutually affectionate, respectful relationships with
kids isn’t much different from the way
we’d build relationships with a new
about favorite books, or whether he has
any pets at home, or where the sticker
on his shirt came from. Send a message
to the student that you truly enjoy these
chats—and his company. This is one
of the most effective ways to improve a
student’s cooperation.
Once you develop a mutually caring
relationship with a young child, you’ll
Unfortunately, children like Jacob have
a knack for behaving in very unlikeable
ways. They make it difficult for adults
to like them, which exacerbates their
defiance over time. And a history of
unpleasant interactions with adults
gets in the way of a child’s ability to
see adults as valuable resources to
friend or coworker. Intentionally weave
opportunities to build personal connections into the school day. Invite your
Jacob to help you carry the crate of
balls back from the playground, using
those minutes together to talk about last
weekend’s activities. As your class walks
to the library, walk beside him and ask
find she has a vested interest in living
up to your expectations. So when she
behaves inappropriately, you’ll be in a
position to help her reflect on what happened and work alongside her to plan
alternative ways to handle the situation
next time. Before responding punitively,
think about the kind of response you’d
Jacob has no use for adults at school. He
runs away from the playground monitor,
frequently reminds the music teacher
“you’re not the boss of me,” and pulls
away when his classroom teacher tries to
give him an affectionate pat.
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appreciate from your supervisor
if you made an error at work. Say
things like, “It’s OK. We all make
mistakes. Let’s talk about what
went wrong.” End with a message
of trust: “I know you can learn
how to do this.”
tipping it over to the delight of
the other children. He pokes his
neighbors during group time,
. disrupting everyone’s learning
Belonging
Children enter the classroom
community at different levels
of social competence. Some
can easily navigate working in
groups; others are still mastering
working in pairs. Set up areas in
the classroom where students can
work alone, in pairs, or in small
groups. Allow your Madison to work
at a smaller table. Help her learn largegroup skills by inviting her to join you
at a table with a big group from time to
time, so you can model and facilitate
successful interactions.
Sherry has a different belonging issue:
When the class works together to clean
up the classroom, Sherry inevitably
responds to the teacher’s request to throw
away a stray paper towel or wash out the
paint cups with, “Why do I have to do
that? I didn’t use it.” Working cooperatively for the good of the classroom community is foreign to her.
When we facilitate children’s
attachment to trusted adults, we help
them become more amenable to adult
guidance. And when we help children
identify themselves as belonging to the
classroom family, we create in them a
desire to work and play cooperatively
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Bilmes.indd 34
© SUSIE FITZHUGH
Madison does well when she can
work side by side with one other
child in the classroom. However,
whenever she’s assigned to a work
station with three or four other
children, she hoards materials,
gets into spats, and causes enough
ruckus that the teacher sends her
away from the area to work by
herself.
Most young children are
not programmed to stay still
for extended periods of time.
Pushing against a child’s nature
to be in motion invites disruptive
behavior. Unfortunately, teachers
often instinctively react to their
Demarcos by making them lose
outdoor time or sitting them
down to “think about” their
behavior. Research indicates that
the reverse might be a better
strategy; getting kids active leads
to improved concentration and
learning.2
Get all students out of their
seats for frequent “brain breaks”
before doing concentrated cognitive tasks. Have kids march
around the room to upbeat
music, do a quick round of freeze
dancing, or play Simon Says.
Add extra physical tasks for your
Demarco. Have him fetch the storybook
from your desk, erase the whiteboard,
or pick up all the carpet squares. Look
for “heavy work” like helping to move a
table or carrying a box of books.
with others in the community and to
conform to classroom expectations.
Most young children are naturally
drawn to exclusive clubs. Build on this
attraction. Work together to create a
name for your class and a community
symbol, such as a class flag, that you
hang on the wall. Write a class pledge
that students will recite each day, such
as, “The Sunshine Bears are kind. The
Sunshine Bears are helpful. The Sunshine Bears stay safe.” As your Sherry
begins to identify herself as a member
of the classroom community, she’ll be
more likely to look out for others and
work cooperatively—and wash out
paint cups she didn’t use.
Self-regulation
Demarco is a tangle of energy with his
hands on everyone and everything. He
rocks his chair back and forth, often
Demarco also acts before he thinks. If
somebody bumps him, he strikes out; if
he sees something he wants, he takes it.
He gets angry and uses profanity.
Impulsive children like Demarco
seem to thrive in a physically wellordered environment, with clearly
labeled boxes, baskets, and shelves and
lots of white space on the walls. Rituals
and predictable routines, along with
a daily schedule posted at students’
eye level, help impulsive kids organize
their days without feeling anxious. Use
masking tape or adhesive dots to assign
an impulsive student a specific place in
line or in the circle at group time.
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Transitions can be particularly challenging for impulsive kids. Help them
stay organized and out of trouble by
giving them specific tasks, like pushing
in all the chairs or wiping down
the tables. When you see a student
bouncing around the room, get down
to her level and ask, “What’s your
plan?” A plan can be as simple as “I’m
getting a drink.” One quick question
and response is often enough to get an
impulsive student back on track.
When a student’s impulsive action
has resulted in damage, help him or
her do an instant replay. Together,
reconstruct how the problem began
and walk through what did happen
and what might have happened if the
student had made a different choice.
Many children benefit from physically
reenacting an event, this time making a
better behavior choice.
Adaptability
“I feel like I spend half of my time
reminding children of the rules,” Ms.
Benson complained. Pointing to a group
in the corner, she added, “Especially
those three. How many times do I have to
repeat myself?”
It’s frustrating when children fail to
adapt their “home” behaviors to meet
classroom expectations. Sooner or later,
most students conform to expectations.
But for others, adaptation is much more
difficult. We can help these children
by letting all students participate in
creating classroom guidelines, helping
them understand what those guidelines
look like in practice, and enforcing
guidelines consistently.
For kindergartners, it’s best to begin
with three or so guiding principles of
behavior, or “big rules.” Big rules should
be overarching ideas that reflect a life
compass. They should be rules that
apply not only to young children, but
also to everyone. Three big rules you
might start with are “We take care of
ourselves. We take care of one another.
We take care of our world.”
Introduce these rules to students one
at a time over a series of days. Write,
“We take care of ourselves” on a piece of
chart paper and invite children to give
examples of what that looks like. You
might ask, “How can we keep ourselves
safe?” or “How might we help ourselves
learn new things?” Record students’
ideas on the chart and add to the list
during the school year.
your rules by always saying what you
mean and meaning what you say.
Why Take Time?
Some may argue that with all that
teachers have to teach, we have no time
to spend on these strategies. In reality,
when we don’t invest time to teach students social and emotional skills, we
opt to be interrupted month after
month with defiance, bickering, and
worse. We can spend our time reacting
Many children benefit from reenacting an event,
this time making a better behavior choice.
Students will suggest things like
washing hands, brushing teeth, or
paying attention. These examples might
be called little rules. When redirecting
children, use a little rule/big rule format:
“Adrian, give the paper back to Marcella. Remember, we take care of each
other” or “Let’s all pick up papers from
the playground. We need to take care of
our world.”
Be careful about giving children three
warnings (“You have until the count
of three. . .”). We might think giving
a grace period is kind, but for some
children it leads to a misunderstanding.
Most children will hear “This is your
first warning: Stop splashing water on
the floor” as “Stop splashing water on
the floor.”
However, if you consistently give
three warnings before you act, a
few children will think, “I can keep
splashing until she gives her final
warning.” It’s not that they’re defiant.
Rather, they understand your real rule—
that you’ll allow the action to go on for a
while longer. Help students understand
to disruptive behaviors, or we can invest
our time in helping students gain social
and emotional competencies so they can
manage their own behavior. The choice
is ours. EL
West, J., Denton, K., & Reaney, L. M.
(2001). The kindergarten year: Findings
from the Early Childhood Longitudinal
Study, kindergarten class of 1998–1999
(NCES 2001-023). Washington, DC: U.S.
Department of Education. As cited in Raver,
C. C., & Knitze, J. (2002). Ready to enter:
What research tells policymakers about strategies to promote social and emotional school
readiness among three- and four-year-olds.
New York: National Center for Children in
Poverty.
2
Ratey, J. J. (2008). Spark: The revolutionary new science of exercise and the brain.
New York: Hachette.
1
Jenna Bilmes ([email protected])
is a program associate with WestEd
Child and Family Services and an early
childhood consultant. She is the author
of Beyond Behavior Management: The
Six Life Skills Children Need (Redleaf,
2012).
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Bilmes.indd 35
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