Doug Lemov's field notes

Earlier this month I blogged about the Art of the Consequence, sharing ideas for how to give consequences so they actually improved your classroom culture—as opposed to, say, setting a student off and making him or her even more difficult—and just maybe helped students to learn and reflect and grow.  As part of the post I reflected on the challenges of giving consequences in high school in particular—in part because people ask me about this all the time.   I shared a few observations and benefitted from great insights from Achievement First’s Chris Bostock who chimed in on the comments section and took the discussion up a notch.

In follow up—and because, I should note, we are in the midst of developing a training tool on giving consequences effectively—Team TLAC reached out to Maya Roth Bisignano and Gillian Cartwright, Principal and Dean of Students respectively at our own Uncommon Charter High School for best practices for HS consequences. Not surprisingly, what we got back was a gold mine.    Here are our notes:

Maya:

• Consistency: in HS, students want to see things are fair
• Relationships are incredibly important
  • when you build relationships, students will see consequence are more likely to see the consequences as fair
  • Privacy is important
• Keep consequences private to every extent possible, have conversations about behavior outside of classroom
• Purpose: students really need to understand the why behind a consequence (and consequences in general)
  • HS teachers frame the consequence in terms of the value the student is violating
• Language of “earning” violation vs. you’re being “given” a violation is critical
•  Frequency: Ideally in 9^th grade you’ll have more consequences. By 11^th and 12^th grade, I don’t want teachers to use the language of violations or bridge bucks as often—consequences will always be there, but in AP US History class I’m hoping not to hear them used.
• Working this year on having students follow-up with teacher after the consequence to close the loop—improve the relationship with the teacher and improve the behavior that caused the consequence.

Gillian:

• I think what’s most important is all of the preventative stuff—preventing consequences from happening whenever possible is key.
• When I have to deliver: I show an expression of confusion and disappointment. (“Wow, that’s unfortunate; I don’t want to have to give out consequences”)
• I often mouth the consequence (make eye contact instead of saying it out loud)
• give as privately as possible unless the disruption has been particularly public –then I make them lightning quick and direct
• preventative: partners—purposeful partnerships—peer support (“dude, sit up”)

As a key action step Maya noted she’s going to be even more intentional about asking her teachers to practice giving consequences during training this year so they get really good and really comfortable with it.

100%, Art of the Consequence, Gillian Cartwright, High School, Maya Roth Bisignano