Reflective Discipline
By Leah Moorefield

There's nothing like teaching the perfect lesson, holding your students' rapt attention as you carefully and precisely guide them towards that "ah-ha!" moment – only to have your momentum thoroughly derailed by a restless student throwing a pencil at a classmate. All of a sudden, that rapt attention swivels toward the offender and the new situation. All thoughts of ancient Egypt or folklore fall from young minds as new questions race through their brains. "What happened back there?" "What will the teacher do?" The lesson is lost, and the argument with the offender starts. The entire class watches in delight as the teacher tries to determine what happened, why it happened and how to solve it.

Understanding disruption. Students disrupt lessons for a myriad of reasons, and few of them are immediately obvious. Children are often disruptive because they are hungry, tired, unhappy, sad or angry at a previous situation. They act out because they crave attention, feel left out or are bored.

I clearly remember my first carefully constructed lesson on the perfect paragraph, illustrated by my construction of a sandwich to demonstrate the importance of the opener and closer (bread) to hold in all the details (jelly, peanut butter and marshmallow fluff). A student named Samantha chose the moment of my triumphant melding of the sandwich to burst out in a fury at a friend, screaming and throwing things. The lesson ended badly, with a referral to the principal and the hissed promise that she would never disrupt my class like that again. My students, of course, went home to tell their parents about crazy Samantha, not about the metaphoric lesson. Yet, Samantha was angry because her mother was evicted from their apartment the night before, and they had spent the night in the family van.

After about a year of fighting with students, I found a couple of things to be true. First, rarely do classroom disruptions relate to the issue at hand. Second, a teacher cannot figure out and solve a conflict while teaching a class. Third, in-the-moment emotions distort true issues that arise with children. I realized I needed a new plan for dealing with discipline.

Approaching discipline differently. While disruptive children need to be dealt with, it is not fair to the rest of the class to interrupt a lesson in order to deal with one or two individuals. Additionally, interrupting a class ensures that you are dealing with students at the height of their emotions. I needed a solution that would remove students from the situation, allow me to keep teaching and allow students to be honest and reflective about the problem. I decided to use "reflective writing."

A revealing worksheet. When a student disrupts a class in any way, I remove the student from the situation, and ask him or her to move to a designated area and fill out a "reflection sheet." The sheet asks the student to tell me the problem, the factors that contribute to the problem and the solution he or she proposes to make sure this situation does not occur again.

When I have time, I review the sheet with the student. This process enables me to find out when a child thinks I am picking on him or her. It allows me to ferret out a bullying situation when I might otherwise blame the victim. If the sheet is not filled out to my satisfaction, I ask the student to try again, to allow for an honest reflection on the situation.

I make it very clear that a reflection paper is not a punishment but an opportunity to share problems and provide solutions. Often, the remarks start off angry and accusatory. Yet, by the time the student finishes, he or she has cooled down, and usually, has thoughtfully analyzed the situation.

If a student refuses to fill out a reflection sheet, I follow traditional methods and assess the problem, assigning consequences according to my point of view. Students rarely allow this to happen, as they all want to be heard and responded to regarding personal issues.

A space to reflect. Of course, while the offending student reflects in writing, I continue teaching the class. When a student disrupts the class, he or she is removed to the "reflection space," a writing table in the back of the room, within minutes. I provide pencils, paper, erasers and headphones, in case students want to block out other noises. (The headphones are not attached to anything, but students like them.) I maintain two reflection spaces in case of student-to-student conflict. After the student is situated, I redirect the class and continue the lesson. When I am finished, I meet with the student who acted out.

When meeting in the reflection space, I carefully read the entire page and discuss it with the child. I encourage him or her to explain and expand. Together, we come up with a solution to implement immediately. Whenever possible, I incorporate his or her solutions into the consequences for the action. This gives students a sense of ownership over their consequences and teaches the ability to reflect and accept responsibility.

A paper trail to resolution. Reflection sheets have also proven to be a wonderful resource for parental meetings and for identifying larger issues. I can quickly identify children with social problems or problems at home; I have learned of abusive situations, illnesses, anorexia and depression. I can find students who struggle with anger control and who always seem to fall apart right before lunch. These sheets allow me to construct a paper trail for discipline within the classroom. Best of all, it is a paper trail created by the students! Often, I will meet with a student who is really struggling and discuss the reflection sheets as a whole. Thus, I am not the decision maker or an accuser – I am simply a record keeper who allows students to identify and then solve problems in school.

A problem-solving system. The drawback to the reflective discipline approach, of course, is that disruptive students may miss important class lessons. However, instead of an entire class watching a conflict reach resolution, only the offending child misses instruction. In a student-centered classroom where students work in groups or independently, the teacher can usually meet individually with those reflecting on his or her behavior within about 10 minutes.

I have found that in using this system, my discipline problems have been reduced dramatically. Acting out no longer garners an amused audience of peers. I also find that conflict rarely turns into a student-teacher conflict. And perhaps most importantly, this solution teaches children to problem solve in a practical and relevant way.

Leah Moorefield teaches seventh grade history in Alexandria, VA.