Redirection Done Three Ways

Guest Dragon Dropper Hang Le, an undergraduate student at Swarthmore College, has been assisting Stacey in researching "what works here" at Freire. In her recent observations of Freire classrooms, Hang noticed something special about how our teachers get their students' attention back from a distraction or negative behavior. She reflects on what she witnessed here:

Imagine a typical class period: The teacher is moving smoothly through their agenda and students are focused and absorbed in their work. Then, all of a sudden, an individual student does something that throws off the productive energy. They pitch a paper wad into the trash from three rows away--and miss. Everyone laughs. They collapse into a melodramatic sneezing fit--without covering their mouth. Every cringes. They exclaim loudly that they forgot their homework in their locker--and beg to go retrieve it. Everyone waits for the teacher to make an exception or hold firm. Regardless of the behavior, the effect is the same: The careful and complex web of learning woven by the teacher gets tugged at and torn, and rebuilding it (while keeping the other students positive and on task!) can be a challenge, even for a veteran teacher.

It seems impossible to avoid these kinds of scenarios, no matter how well the teacher establishes behavioral standards in the classroom or how engaging the curriculum is. I have been impressed by how Freire teachers employ multiple strategies to respond to individual acts of misbehavior. Especially interesting is how teachers are able to avoid small, individual behaviors from becoming a bigger disruption for the whole class or creating an attitude of general hostility in the students. 

In Ms. Jamie’s Algebra I class, I noticed that although most of her 9th grade students were very engaged in the material, one student in the corner of the classroom was clearly having a rather...rowdy day. Ms. Jamie first addressed his disruptive behavior individually while other students kept working on their worksheets. She said in a gentle but firm tone, “Stop it. If you need to step out for one moment you can do so. Otherwise, I need you to focus."

While this worked for a time, the student again succumbed to distraction. Ms. Jamie then switched to calling out the student's name in front of the whole class--but instead of reprimanding him harshly, she used a clear but humorous tone. While making a reeling motion as if she were going fishing, she said, “I’m reeling you back in. Get it?” Here, Ms. Jamie avoided provoking further tension in the classroom. The student who had misbehaved laughed along with his peers at her joke, but he also seemed chastened and stayed on task for quite a long time afterward.

Later in class, this same student started carrying on a side conversation with a nearby classmate. Not losing her cool, but also not letting him off the hook,  an ever persistent Ms. Jamie did not call him out again. Instead, she calmly began a few laps around the room, moving frequently to the area of the classroom where the distracted student was seated. By doing so, Ms. Jamie used her bodily presence to get the boy back on task. I thought this was a great way to not let the disruptive behavior further affect the learning happening in her class while still maintaining a cordial relationship with the student. Ms. Jamie had ensured a positive learning environment for all without having to turn into a ‘tyrant’ in the classroom.