Harry Wong's First Days of School

Three-Step Approach to Teaching Classroom Procedures:

Harry Wong's First Days of School

Prepared By: Shannon Trentham, Sarah Beth Maddox, Katie Brown, and Jonathan Chastain

The Differences:

"One of the greatest gifts a caring teacher can contribute to children is to help them learn to sit when they feel like running, to raise their hand when they feel like talking, to be polite to their neighbor, to stand in line without pushing, and to do their homework when they feel like playing. By introducing procedures in the classroom, you are also introducing procedures as a way of living a happy and successful life."

Summary of Major Points:

-H. Wong

It is probably least similar to Assertive Discipline Model because of the fact that this model focuses on the fact that students WILL misbehave and trying to SOLVE these problems, whereas, Wong uses prior planning to prevent the problem beforehand.

The Five Chapter Reviews for First Days of School

Ineffective Teachers:

Harry Wong's perception of the most

effective Classroom:

• will teach out of a book, follow a program, or complain about the culture or the neighborhood of the students

- There is only one way to improve children's learning and create a good school environment, its with an effective teacher. Effective is defined as having an effect producing a result. To be an effective teacher one must beg, borrow, steal and work collaboratively.

• will spend time covering the lessons and then disciplining

when things go wrong. They never spend time managing their classrooms.

A) Basic Understandings: The Teacher

-The successful teacher must know and practice the three characteristics of an effective teacher

B) 1st Characteristic: Positive Expectations

- The effective teacher has positive expectations for student success.

C) 2nd Characteristic: Classroom Management

-The effective teacher is an extremely good classroom manager.

D) Third Characteristic: Lesson Mastery

-The effective teacher knows how to design lessons to help students reach mastery.

E) Future Understandings: The Professional

-The teacher who constantly learns and grows becomes a professional educator. This book is for any teacher who wants to improve their teaching through better classroom management.

3 Characteristics of an Effective Teacher:

1) Good classroom management skills

2) Teaches for mastery

3) Positive expectations for student success (will greatly influence personal student achievements)

• will spend the first day attempting to teach a subject or do a fun activity and spends the rest of the school year running after the students.

- When intervening the only way to make a difference is with a knowledgeable and skillful teacher.

- Wong uses the teaching of Discipline, Routines, and Procedures on the first day to prevent problems from arising.

Lesson Mastery:

Teacher Community:

• Good instruction is 15 to 20 times more powerful than any explanatory model.

• Objectives focus students on what they are aiming for; they know what they are responsible for learning. When a teacher and student are heading for same objective, learning occurs.

• In low performing schools, teachers are less likely to collaborate and learn from one another, but in high performing schools, teachers share with one another the needed knowledge and skills to help their students reach high standards.

• Students get more done when they can see where they are going and what they are doing.

• Lessons correlated with state or district standards. Prior to lesson, criterion reference test (for assessment of learning) and scoring guide/rubric (formative to guide student improvement) are to be written.

• Success has little to do with money, class size, fancy programs, parental involvement, or tutoring. These can be found at good and bad school.

• To improve student learning, improve teacher instructional practices.

Classroom Practices

"Effective teachers don't discipline a classroom, they manage a classroom."

• Classroom must be ready. Prepare the classroom in advance ti maximize student learning and minimize student misbehavior. This is the primary goal for an effective teacher.

First day of school: will determine your success for the rest of the year...

Tools to Used to Maximize Teacher Effectiveness :

1. Welcome:

Either you will

Classroom Practices Conclusion:

Make sure to welcome the students and do everything possible to make sure they know where to go and how to get there on time i.e. stand at the door and greet.

As well as,

Win or Lose

2. Classroom Arrangement:

Arrange student seating and assign seats the first day of class.

your class on the first few days of school.

Children in a well managed classroom are responsible for their time. They know and follow the procedures that structure the organization of the class. They are engaged.

3. State Clear Expectations:

Make sure to state your name for the class and go over your expectations so that everyone knows your rules and goals for the class.

Consistency

The key factor of the first week of school:

4. Procedure clarity:

• Effective teachers have a script or classroom management plan ready on the first day of school to structure and organize the classroom and will spend the first week teaching students to follow procedures.

The children need to know procedures for dismissal, the beginning of class, for seeking help, and leaving the classroom when necessary,as well as, discipline procedures.

• Number one problem is not discipline it is lack of procedures, the lack of plan that organizes a classroom for success.

vs.

Procedure

Discipline

Rehearse:

Reinforce:

Explain:

refers to behavior

refers to getting things done

State, Explain, and

demonstrate the procedure

Reteach, rehearse, and reinforce

until the procedure becomes a

routine.

Penalties &

rewards

No penalties & rewards

practice this with the class

Ineffective

effective in management

"Inside every great teacher, there is an even better one waiting to come out. Teachers are the sculptors of the human race."

Questions?

Sources:

Ogdon, Kirsten. "review of The First Days of School-How to be an Effective Teacher." The Radical Teacher No. 60. (2001):42-44. JSTOR. Web 11 Apr. 2014

Oswalt, A. (2014). Early childhood physical development: Gross and fine motor development. Retrieved from http://www.bhcmhmr.org/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=12755&cn=462

Wong, Harry. "SUMMARY OF MAJOR CONCEPTS COVERED BY HARRY K. WONG." The Busy Educator Newsletter. Glavac, n.d. Web. 13 Apr. 2014.

Wong, Harry. "Managing Your Classroom For Success." Science & Children 49.9 (2012): 60-64. Education Source. Web 11 Apr. 2014

Wong, Harry K., and Rosemary T. Wong. The First Days of School: How to Be an Effective Teacher. Mountainview, CA: Harry K. Wong Publications, 1998. Print.

Implications:

With Harry Wong, the implication is simple.

2.

1.

4.

Have a discipline system that does not degrade the students.

3.

A successful teacher means: the teacher is ready, the work is ready, and the room is ready.

"A rule is a dare to be broken."

BE PREPARED! It is important to have something for the students to do as soon as they enter the classroom

Teachers will structure the beginning of school very, very carefully, using the resources of The First Days of School.

If you have a procedure and routine that is taught ahead of time, there is less likely to be a problem.

Wong's Child Development Theory:

Similarities and Differences:

To other models

Children relate to each other in (6) developmental domains.

1. Physical Development

2. Perception and Sensory Development:

3. Communication and Language Development:

The Similarities:

Using visual and sound stimuli, especially in the acquisition of language and the strive to exchange thoughts and emotions.

-concerns both physical growth of gross and fine motor control development. Both body controls defined in this development are induced in this stage of development.

-gross: involves full/large body movements.

ex: walking

-fine motor: involves more precise/engaged body movements.

ex: finger movement

-Sensory: refers to the interaction between stimulus and human receptors dealing with one of five senses: sight, hear, taste, touch, or smell.

-Perception: refers to the neural interpretation of the stimulus.

There are many similarities between Wong's classroom management model of The Responsive Classroom Model. It is similar in the fact that they both:

4. Cognitive Development:

6. Social Development:

Refers to how the individual thinks and reacts.

Concerning the child's identity, their

relationship with others, and understanding

their place within a social environment.

5. Emotional Development:

Considering all 6 developmental domains, Harry Wong collaborated 3 structures vital in managing the classroom.

Concerning children's increasing awareness and control of their feelings and how does he or she react to these feelings in a given situation.

Procedures:

Discipline

Routines:

important in society so that people may learn to function in an acceptable and organized manner.

concerns students to behave and procedures concern with how things are done.

refers to what the students do automatically.

With procedures you'll have time to devote to the art of teaching

Wong states, "A rule is a dare to be broken, whereas a procedure is a do- step to be learned."

A series of routines and procedures equal structure.

As mentioned prior, Three step Procedure: Explain, Rehearse, and Reinforce

-Place emphasis on the first days and weeks of school and being overly prepared for those times.