Student-Centered Classroom Management

Shift away from extrinsic motivators (red, yellow and green cards, table points, student points, behavior clips, stickers, etc.) and instead, build opportunities for students to co-construct the classroom community. Start by having students share their hopes and dreams for your classroom community. Then launch into co-creating agreements by asking, “What agreements might we need in order to ensure that these hopes and dreams can come true?” You can use the sentence frame, “We are a class who…” and make sure students name behaviors in the positive (eg. instead of saying “We are a class who doesn’t talk loudly in the hallways.” “We are a class who talks quietly in the hallways.”). After each idea that students share, ask them why this would be important. For example, when asked why we would want to talk quietly in the hallways, a student might respond with, “Because talking loudly might distract the other classes that are trying to learn.” Asking why builds the understanding that the agreements are not arbitrary, but are there for a reason.

Approach with curiosity and ask students to weigh in on what’s happening in the classroom and how they would like it to be so that everyone can learn. Instead of managing students with rewards or punishments, enlist students as partners in the learning community, and provide lots of opportunities to continually reflect on how you’re doing as a learning community.

What is challenging about shifting away from extrinsic motivators?

How do your students see you, as the sage on the stage or as the guide on the side?

What structures and language shifts will you need to make to make your classroom management student-centered?

Read When Compliance is Not Enough, an op-ed about the shift from extrinsic motivators to intrinsic motivation by Mari Jones, former elementary educator and Director of the Deeper Learning Hub. Learn more about The Power of Teacher Language to shift classroom culture by decentering the teacher and focusing on the impact of student behavior.