Effective Discipline Plan

In The First Days of School by Harry Wong, he states that teachers must have a discipline plan to succeed in the classroom. He even says, "If you do not have a plan, you are planning to fail." I strongly agree with this statement. When you don't have a plan, you resort to yelling and screaming, which gets no where with students. Having a set and stable discipline plan will help a class flow more smoothly.

Wong says that the basic structure of a discipline plan is made up of rules (expectations), consequences, and rewards (incentives). He sets a list in his book of things to do in setting up your discipline plan. Rules should be the base of the classroom and help the days flow. Consequences should be known as what the student chooses to accept if a rule is broken. This helps create student responsibility with the choice of following the rules. Rewards are what the student receives for appropriate behavior.

There is an argument that “the number one problem in the classroom is not discipline; it is the lack of procedures and routines.” I strongly agree with this. Like I said in my last post,about discipline, consistency is key. If the students don't have a strong foundation in the discipline plan that is set, they will wobble and shake within the rules causing discipline problems. Students need to have a set routine and procedures that they follow, they have to know what to expect day in and day out.