| |
|
|
"No, No, No!" or Quid Pro Quo? |
How to Negotiate With Our At-Promise StudentsBy Alex Kajitani Think about the best negotiator you know. Is it a businessperson who can close any deal? A lawyer who knows how to convince a skeptical jury? Or perhaps it’s a kid who always seems to end up with the front seat in the car or the last cookie in the jar. Whoever it is, I’ll bet they enjoy the art of negotiation that moves people forward.
As teachers of at-promise students, it is crucial that we also embrace this art of negotiating and moving people forward – as a matter of survival. We all know that in a full classroom of high-need students, negotiations can become unclear, confusing and sometimes downright messy – and getting mired in them can stall the learning at stake for everyone. We must understand how to negotiate efficiently and successfully in our classrooms, keeping up momentum with our students so we can get to teaching the content they need to understand for success in school and life.
The First Goal: Finding Common Ground
The stalls we face with messy negotiations usually come down to one problem: misaligned objectives. While a teacher’s objective may be to have the students calculate the Pythagorean Theorem, identify an alliteration, or name all of the parts of an atom, an at-promise student’s objective for the class could be something quite different. It may range from an attention-seeking desire to disrupt class to simply staying awake.
Try as we might, we probably can’t convince our students to see that we all should have the same objective in school – learning. But we need not let misaligned objectives stop us from helping learning happen.
To overcome opposing objectives, use successful negotiators’ first important strategy for success: finding common ground. To do this, shift your focus from the student’s objective (say, to disrupt the class) to her need (perhaps, some attention). Observe a student off task and ask yourself, what does she need? Perhaps it is just some acknowledgement, or a safe space, or a way to let off some steam. These needs are easy to meet – offer an encouraging comment, or a one-minute foot-stomping break. Once you have shown your student that you understand her need, you have placed yourself on common ground, in the optimal position for successfully negotiating with her to return to the lesson at hand.
Four Strategies for Success
Beyond this common ground, you can use any number of approaches to move your students back to task. Here are four concepts, and examples, to keep in mind as you practice fine-tuning your classroom negotiation skills:
1. Reciprocity. One of the most obvious of negotiation strategies, reciprocity relies on the principle of “Do this for me, and I’ll do this for you.” While it is often the simplest and quickest way to resolve a conflict, it can also result in creating a climate of expectations in which an at-promise student will only work when given something in return. Counteract this by using reciprocity in the context of building on the student-teacher relationship, and building on the student’s ultimate goals. Start with reciprocity that is small and immediate, but grows into something that is long-term, and more gratifying, for the student.
For example, I had a student named Luis who always fell asleep in class. One day, we struck a deal that if he could just stay awake for an entire class period, he would earn a “front-of-the-lunch-line” pass. After two days, we agreed that since this was becoming easy for Luis – and he was getting something positive out of being present in class – he now needed to stay awake for three consecutive days in order to earn the pass. However, since he was now accomplishing more, I offered more as well: at the end of the new three-day goal, he also earned 10 minutes on the computer playing the “multiplication blaster” video game. In all honesty, Luis still fell asleep on occasion; however, it was no longer a daily event, and whenever this happened, we started his three-day cycle over. By then, we had built on the relationship enough so that when I enacted our agreement, he accepted it easily.
2. Consistency. Students are often off task not because they don’t want to be participating in the class activity, but because they are unclear as to what is expected of them. Many of our at-promise students lack consistency in their personal lives and at home. Many have parents who are constantly working, and our students must fend for themselves when it comes to food, homework, and bedtime. Often, school is the only place that is a constant in their lives.
Thus, it is crucial that your classroom routines, procedures and expectations are consistent. This not only helps your students learn, it helps you avoid the constant and unsuccessful messiness of negotiating with them about what they should be doing at any given time. If you use consistency, when one of your students is off-task, you need remind them only of the procedure that they are not following, and do not need to get into a discussion about their behavior. This will save you much needed time and energy (not to mention your voice!) throughout the day. If you haven’t read Dr. Harry Wong’s seminal book on classroom procedures, The First Days of School, run out and get it immediately. It is a truly fantastic guide to designing, implementing and enforcing consistency in your classroom.
3. Social Validation. I remember growing up as a kid, and the McDonald’s near my house displayed the famous sign: “Over 1 million served.” As we all know, that sign soon came to say, “Over 1 billion served.” Each time I see that sign, I have an uncanny urge to drive over and order a Big Mac. Why? Because if so many others are enjoying themselves at McDonald’s, I should too! And how about the commercials for the latest pharmaceutical drug, which state, “Ask your doctor about xx, and join millions of others who have found relief…” Whether we like it or not, there is something to this classic “bandwagon” advertising principle, which allows us to feel connected to others and part of a larger group.
As teachers, we can use this principle to guide the actions and outcomes of our students in a positive direction. Sometimes, a new student comes into my class in the middle of the year, often because they have just been kicked out of their last school. Immediately upon guiding them to their assigned seat, I publicly welcome them into my classroom, and after introducing him/her, the class gives them the “Two-Clap Welcome” (two claps in unison, followed by everyone shouting “Welcome!” together). I then assertively say, “This is a great class and you will enjoy being here. Everyone knows exactly what they need to be doing at all times!” Not only does this reinforce the consistent routines in my class, it also sends a clear message that if you want social validation in my class, you’d better be doing what everyone else is. Sometimes, when a student is off task, I’ll simply walk over to them and quietly whisper, “Look around at your classmates. Every single one of them is working except for you. I need you to be productive like everyone else.”
4. Scarcity. When you’re at the store, and you see that there’s only one bag of cookies left, do you grab it a bit more quickly than you normally would? Of course you do. If you don’t, someone else might grab it, and you’ll be left with nothing. When you order something from the internet, the first thing you want to know is “How quickly can I get it?” Although you’ve lived your entire life without it, suddenly you need it now. Scarcity of resources, and scarcity of time, gets us to act quickly. Utilize this knowledge in your classroom.
When practicing a math problem, I’ll sometimes say, “You have exactly 2 minutes and 30 seconds to complete this problem.” Rarely will any students ever stop to ask, “Or what?” They’re too busy working. If they do, I simply reply, “Now you’ve only got 2 minutes and 10 seconds.”
At the end of class, in order to gain closure on the lesson, I’ll often utilize “exit tickets,” where the students have to complete a problem on a small scrap of paper in order to leave the classroom. If they don’t act quickly, they don’t get to leave the classroom on time. Or I’ll say, “Only the first 10 people who get the correct answer get to leave on time.” Once, after holding a student an extra minute after lunch began, he said sadly, “Now all the good food will be gone, I’ll have to eat the chicken nuggets.” Exactly, I thought to myself. From scarcity of time, to scarcity of cafeteria food, use this negotiation tactic to keep your students moving.
Negotiating with an at-promise student can be a daunting task. Negotiating with a room full of them can be downright intimidating. However, view these negotiations with creativity, fairness and the above four tactics, and you’ll find that you can turn even the most unwilling student into one that is on board and on task, and your classroom into one that consistently moves forward in the direction of learning.
Alex Kajitani, known around the country as “The Rappin’ Mathematician,” is the 2009 California Teacher of the Year (and a Top 4 Finalist for National Teacher of the Year). He has won numerous other teaching awards and speaks to groups nationwide. His company, Math Raps, has also won the RAPSA “Making a Difference” Award. Visit www.MathRaps.com to check out some of his rap songs! |
|
|
|
|
|
| 
at•promise: [at•prom’is]
adj. Belief that all students
can succeed
|
"Real Talk for Real Teachers"
|
Find out why more people are becoming valued members of RAPSA everyday.
|
|
|
