EDUP 590 Middle/High School Theory - Classroom Management Plan Assignment (60 pts)

1. Who/Where:
This classroom management plan will be used in a self-contained special education classroom
for 6-8 grade students with cognitive disabilities. An alternate curriculum will be taught in this
room and work with the Common Core Essential Elements. Lessons will focus on life and
vocational skills to better prepare my students for postsecondary success in the real world
setting.
2. Personality Impact:
Patience: Probably the biggest one for me that I have found in being an assistant working with
students with special needs. I am often told I am very patient or how can I be so patient and
honestly it comes natural to me. I know my students will need to try try again and need me to
give them wait time to process and accomplish new or even routine tasks. Getting frustrated or
snippy with them will do nothing for them other than make them not want to work for or with me.
Ability to make light of my own mistakes: This goes along way for all students. Seeing their
teacher screw up and actually admit to it elevates their playing field. They will know by seeing
you talk about your mistakes and how you learn from them that when they make a mistake it
isnt the end of the world and may actually figure out that it is the basis for most all learning. It
keeps the atmosphere light and often leads to some group laughter and camaraderie.
Ability to be silly yet transition back to instruction: This is something I have discovered in my
role as an assistant over the last three years. I can be silly and goofy with a group of students or
one-on-one and slowly work that fun break back into students getting to the desired task at
hand. I think in reality it isnt necessarily all my doing but the activity of having a fun break
between doing things in class. Where I come in is knowing what makes my students laugh or
join in on some tom foolery and how to direct them back but all that really is getting to know your
students and heaping spoonful of not caring how dumb or silly you might look to someone
walking by your room.
3. Management Style:
In taking the classroom management style survey for this course, I scored all fives in the
category of Authoritative and nothing above a two on all the other questions for the three other
styles. After reading the description for Authoritative, I felt it nailed right on the head how I would
want to run my ideal room. When working in the special education field, I know I need to be
consistent and fair, I am sure this also works well in the general education realm but in the
SPED world, we do a lot of repetition and routines to build skills and learn new things. Being
consistent is key in this situation. I think it would be okay to have a little different style when
working one-on-one with certain individuals. Some students needs may force you to adjust your
style slightly. Again, it still involves consistency so if you are adjusting for one student in some
way you need to be sure the class as whole still operates as a whole. There is an approach I
really like called 4 Positives for Every 1 Negative that I plan on trying hard to live by. You
basically need to accent all the positives you see the student doing in terms of expected
behavior when highlighting one unexpected behavior. I think this can be difficult to do when in
the moment of the unexpected behavior so being proactive in calling out the good behaviors is
key. Students focus on the negative comments coming their way and many in special ed may
dwell on these comments. The more positive input I can give my students the more likely they

wont tune me out when I need to attempt to correct a behavior. It helps build rapport with
students and some amount of respect.
4. Classroom Setup:
The big thing to me in organizing my classroom is to have plenty of open space where we can
move desks around or completely out. We will be doing a lot of cooking so having at minimum a
sink and counter space will be needed for prep and clean up. I will want a corner of my room to
be a little more secluded, may be blocked off a little by a bookshelf or desk carrels, in order to
have a safe, quieter place for students to take mini breaks in. I also will want an area where I
can have bean bags, yoga balls, rolling beans, etc for my students to have sensory breaks. I
might be asking for too much space-wise but the ability to have individual desks and a couple
tables for group work would be really ideal. When utilizing desks, I really like a U-shape with the
teacher in the middle when giving instructions. All the students have a direct view of the teacher
and also of their peers.
The walls in my room will be filled up with different projects throughout the year. A current
events wall will be a permanent fixture in the front of the room by the white board. This is an
activity we will do weekly working on learning what is going on in our different realms (world,
country, state, city/community, school, classroom) and how each relates to us. The whiteboard
will always have the schedule of the day on it. It will also have a list of anything that is needed
for that current hour and ideas for things to do if given free time or work is finished. It will also
have any pertinent announcements like if someone needs to go home early for an appointment
or if it is someones birthday. That will be actually more helpful for me to keep track of things but
also for the students to be aware of what is going on as well.
Classroom expectations will also be in the front of the room visible to all. I will also have
laminated labels with written word and picture for a visual aid on many things throughout the
room, especially what is inside drawers and cupboards. This will help in locating, clean up time,
and general organizational practice. I will have a small cubby or hooks by the door to store
locker keys for students not using combination locks. I am sure I am forgetting many things but
those are the big ones that jumped out at me.
5. Routines:
Routines will be my overarching thought when structuring just about everything related to my
classroom for students with cognitive disabilities. In many cases there will be routines within
routines and often there may be subtle differences on the individual student level.
A General Daily Plan: This is basic in that we will have our day separated out into specific time
periods for different academic tasks and also have set days for certain activities like going out
into the community, library checkout, computer lab time, reading buddies coming into the room,
and other once a week type activities. Alleviating some of the element of surprise for my
students will allow less time wasted on behaviors due to transitioning as routines are built. It
also plays to many of my students strengths of being able to follow a set structure and allow
them to focus more energy on the tasks I weave in to help build and improve on new skills. They
thrive on routines and dont care for surprises. I also think this will help acclimate my students
quicker to the flow of school so we can get to more on a daily basis.
Beginning and end of the day: This will start with me being very hands on with prompts and
eventually fade to students getting settled in or packed up for the day with little or no direction. It
will help them become more responsible and independent which will aid in classroom

management. When they acquire these skills to be able to get themselves ready at the start or
end of the day it could be a very powerful and motivating routine.
Setting the table on cooking day: This will be a large part of my life skills curriculum with my
students. It will occur on the same day every week (like mentioned above in General Daily Plan)
and be a part of a set of activities that happen in a general order during that day. We will have
students volunteer for the different tasks in the food prep and setup realm and each of those
individual tasks will be chock full of routine. In this in particular task, they will practice setting the
table by looking at a visual on the board of how place setting works and then replicating it 8-10
times or however many people will be eating with us. It will be a routine that they can take with
them and continue to practice at home and maybe even start to become more helpful and have
a feeling of being able to contribute around the house.
6. Instructional Approach:
Hands on learning: This was crucial for me during my K-12 years and in classes where we were
digging into things and experiencing it first hand, I still remember those lessons and activities. I
still have good memories of those teachers and classes. Classes that were more sit and listen
to the teacher talk all hour were lost on me and I dont remember much from the material and
honestly have forgotten many of those teachers names. I have found when working with
student in special education that this isnt any different. The more you can get them doing things
the quicker they are at acquiring the skills to build on it. This also can be more of a struggle with
these students who have more of a tendency to shut down and not try new things oppose to
their nondisabled counterparts but that is where as an educator you need to get creative and
differentiate a bit to get more involvement.
Relevant topics: I plan on trying to keep my material as current as possible and related real
world as my main goal is to prepare my students for life after school. Weekly readings will be on
notable people in the news, current events, and historical happenings during that week in
history that they may hear about at home, on the news, or their peers talking about (ie Black
History Month, The World Series, or the Iditarod). Tying my lessons to relevant topics will help
keep the attention of my students and pique interest which will aid in classroom management. It
will also keep me fresh as a teacher and not get lax on my lesson planning but rather more
reflective and evolving.
Tying in interests: I believe anytime you can tie in a student's interests into a lesson you are
going to get more out of your students. This is maybe even more important in special education
as many students have extreme fascinations with things and are the majority of what they think
about during the day. If you can get creative and find a way to engage that student on their
terms even tangentially with an interest of theirs, you will gain trust by showing them you know
what they like and have been paying attention and hopefully a glimmer of effort you may not see
when tasks are non-preferred. Obviously catering to interests isnt going to be something you
can do for every lesson but having each student in mind when planning every lesson will open
your eyes to opportunities to do so when appropriate.
7. Group Management Techniques:
Location: One of my expectations for my classroom will be that when I am standing in the
middle of the U-shaped desk arrangement, that means I have the floor and their eyes should be
on me, mouths should be closed, and ears open to hear the important information I am about to
tell. This will take some practice and initially I will be very dramatic in grabbing their attention

when I head to this area of the room, clearing my throat, doing a weird dance, etc. After the first
few weeks I will fade out the dramatic actions and instead move to the spot in the room and wait
patiently and quietly for the students attention. More than likely a couple students will catch on
and then encourage their peers to follow suit.
Tone of my voice: If I need to quickly interject a comment, direction, or bring up an expectation, I
will depart from my usual soft and pleasant inside voice to a deeper and louder tone that will be
heard by everyone in the room. The change in tone and the departure from how I speak 95% of
the time to the class will let the class know that I need them to listen to what I have to say at that
precise moment.
Use of music: Another technique I will use is having music playing at the start and end of the
class period or certain activities. Most likely this will be something the majority of the students
like currently and is a way to have them maybe get some wiggles out before class or activity
begins. When the music stops the students will know (as we have practiced this and discussed
it the first couple weeks when going over expectations) that it is time to listen to my directions
for what is coming next in class.
8. Individual Management Techniques:
When I need to intervene with an individual student due to unexpected behavior I will utilize
these three strategies:
Proximity and Eye Contact: I will move over to the general vicinity of the student showing the
behavior and make eye contact with them showing them a look on my face that I do not
currently approve of the behavior choice they have made. If this doesnt redirect the student I
will move on to step 2.
Restating Classroom Expectation not being followed: This will involve me stopping whatever is
currently going on in class and calling attention to the student who is showing unexpected
behavior. I will ask the student to tell me if they think their current behavior is expected or
unexpected. If they answer I will respond in kind to help explain what it is I expect them to be
doing at that moment and thank them for following through. If they dont respond I will explain
what I see them doing and how that is unexpected and what they can do to fix it. If they still
dont fix it I will move to step 3 (may depend on a behavior plan in place here but will pretend
there isnt one)
Remove student from setting or other students: My classroom will have an area dedicated for
breaks and isolated from the rest of the class for privacy. I would instruct the student to head to
this area until I was able to go over and speak to them on a one-on-one basis. I dont want to
escalate the student so this will be done in a calm but firm voice and if they still dont move I will
remove the rest of the class to another area of the school. Maybe resource room or lunch room
where they can sit with an assistant and not be this students audience. I then could give the
student a couple minutes of silence away from the group and then begin to try and talk and
figure out what is causing them to have the bad behavior or shut down. Once I have the student
back on track or over taking a break in the proper location, I will bring back the rest of the class
and resume the lesson. When possible and depending on the action causing the problem, I will
have the student restate the expectation to his/her classmates and apologize for disrupting the
class.
9. Reminder Situations:

In the special education setting, it is important to go over expectations on a regular basis. Like
everything in the SPED world, repetition (just like I have been doing on this assignment) and
practice are the hallmarks of learning and mastering skills. When we go on field trips or even out
into the community to shop or volunteer, I will take 5-10 minutes the day before to go over a
Community Expectations Matrix with my students. This will remind them first that we are going
somewhere out of the school setting (which giving a heads up for some kids is big so it doesnt
throw off established routines the day of, gives time to think ahead and plan) and begin to think
about what expectations stay the same and what may be different. I will lead this discussion but
allow volunteers to assist in providing examples or explanations of each expectation the day
before. The day of, before heading to lockers to get coats to head out, I will once again pull up
the Matrix and this time ask the students to tell me about each one. I will help out when there
needs to be clarification but I think it is important they come up with a good chunk of the
information as a group. One or two students may do the bulk of the talking but having peers
explain what is expected can be more powerful and if any reminders need to be given out in the
community you can say remember what you told me about or do you remember what so
and so said about
As a self-contained special education class, we will get out of containment as much as possible
and participate in school wide activities. This means going to plays, band concerts, pep rallies,
all school assemblies, etc. There would be a separate matrix for these as well to highlight
expectations of being a good audience member and/or participant. I would handle this very
similarly to the previous example by discussing it a day ahead of time and reiterating it just prior
to going to the event. I think another great tool is taking photos of the students doing the right
thing and using them as examples when discussing it with the group. Pairing the expectations
with a visual of what it looks like to be following them will be helpful for my students. I think
really highlighting the positive or expected behaviors will go a long way in the students behaving
appropriately in the first place.
10. Corrective Situations:
A student continues to interrupt when I am trying to give out need information to the whole class.
I will stop and look in the students direction and wait for them to stop talking. I will explain to
them that I am talking and that the expectation when the teacher is talking is the students are
listening. I will point out to the student that their peers are sitting quietly with their eyes on the
speaker, mouths closed and ears open. I will ask the student if they are ready to try it again,
then proceed.
When we are walking in the hallway as a group and one or more students begins to run I will
stop the rest of the group and wait until the runner(s) stop and notice they are no longer with
our group. I will motion for them to come back to join our group. When they have arrived back
with the group I will restate the expectations for traveling in the hallway are to remain on the
right, walk with their hands at their sides, keep their voices quiet, and to stay with the group. As I
am restating I am also modeling what this behavior should look like. Once I have gone over this
quickly with the whole group (again repetition, while the others may have been following the
expectations, they will benefit from hearing and seeing it again) we will try it again. In some
instances, it may be important to go back to the classroom and start all the way over. Maybe
even have individuals stay back for a couple minutes with a staff member and go over the
expectations in a one-on-one setting while also missing out on a few minutes of the fun activity
outside our room.
. 11. Implementation:

Our classroom expectations will be on a poster right in the front of the classroom at the
beginning of the year and after time be shifted to the periphery once things have settled in a bit.
We will go over each individual expectation several times the first few days, acting out what is
expected and showing how I will react (as to not be a surprise) when behavior is unexpected.
We will discuss what their peers and their teachers in the room might be thinking in their heads
when unexpected behaviors occur and how that might make people feel. I will show images
from years past (including current returning students whenever possible) of students following
expectations and maybe take new photos if students are willing and have a little fun with it.
Some of my students will no doubt have behavior plans which will be addressed on an individual
basis. So some of the consequences may look different depending on the student but I will
share examples with the class as to how I will respond to unexpected behavior in my class. It is
important that we spend a good chunk of time on this over the first couple weeks so when we
get into the meat of the year we are able to all the fun activities I have planned and can count on
my students to be responsible enough to go out into the community with the group. Those are
the experiences I want all of my students to get practice on as they may not get out in the
community much outside of school. Driving home the expectations early and often will be critical
for my students.