Last year, fresh from a Responsive Classroom workshop and excited to change my classroom management style for good, I sat down to plan how I would go about having my class of first graders create our rules. I had purchased the book The First Six Weeks of School and held onto it like a Bible. I had read the book Salt in His Shoes as a spark. The children had chosen their Hopes and Dreams for the year, and they were displayed on the wall. We brainstormed with the Golden Rule as our guide.

I taught the rules daily by modeling them. I remembered the 3 R’s of implementing rules:
1) reinforce the rules with encouraging language, such as… “I notice that you hung up your sweatshirt before you sat down in your seat — thank you for showing me you are ready for school to begin;”

2) remind by saying, “Remind me what our classroom sounds like when we are lined up to go into the hallway;” and

3) redirect by saying directly and firmly, such as, “You need to keep your hands to yourself.”

A failure of rigor
When some children broke the rules anyway, and it was time to follow through with logical consequences, my old permissive, laid-back style returned, and I did not create the true sense of discipline I desired for my classroom community. Instead of following through with all of the rules in a consistent manner, I concentrated only on the safety issues or hurt relationships, ignoring what I considered to be the “little” things, like not always having a round circle in Morning Meeting, or letting kids talk without having them take a break .

Good kids
Don’t get me wrong -- my kids were caring and compassionate … usually! … but lining up quietly became a chore, and my room was often a mess when they left for music because I had not taken the time to enforce our rule “Caring for our Environment.” I know that my lack of consistency left some children feeling anxious at times.

I am much more confident after last summer’s Responsive Classroom 2 training and encouragement. The fact that many teachers from my school have now been trained in the Responsive Classroom approach also helps to hold me accountable as well as providing added support and encouragement.

From punishment to possibility
I used to see logical consequences as punishment -- I have had to review Responsive Classroom’s approaches based on children’s developmental realities. Children test rules and limits as a normal part of their development.

When I respond to children who have broken rules with appropriate, reasonable, logical consequences, I’m giving them a chance to learn from their mistakes and internalize the rules they broke. My permissive approach last year had me pleading, reminding again and again. This year, I explain to the kids that I give logical consequences often — not as a punishment, but as a help, to show them how to become more responsible classroom community members.

It was helpful to read in Ruth Charney’s book Teaching Children to Care about the “ladder of interventions,” a visual to remind me of what I have and haven’t tried with the child I’m dealing with, or to remind me that a subtle signal may be all I need to defuse an escalating situation.

Using the ladder
The first response to rule-breaking is the Stop Step. From experience, I know that some children will never need a stronger reminder than this. However, when signals, reminders, or redirection don’t work, Logical Consequences are the next step on the ladder. Logical Consequences are respectful to the student and the rest of the class. They describe the demands of the situation, not the demands of the authority.

Think before you do
I also appreciate the suggestion to allow yourself time to think the situation through. Last year, I thought I had to impose a consequence right away to be effective. Now I sometimes tell my students that their behavior is inappropriate, ask them to go back to their desks to think about their behavior, and inform them that I will talk to them later in the day. This gives me time to think and decide on a consequence that is reasonable and realistic for that child and for me.

Three kinds
There are three types of Logical Consequences:

1) Reparation: you break it, you fix it. This gives children the opportunity to repair the damage they caused.

2) Breach of Trust, or Loss of Privilege: with the help of good teacher language, posted rules, and posted consequences, children sometimes realize that they have lost a privilege even before I tell them!

3) Time-Out: a child is removed from the problem situation, including for small infractions. I use a desk about 3 feet from my circle for the timeout space. We practice how to go there and how we as classmates will allow our friend time to be alone and quiet.

Steady growth
I have more confidence in my discipline this year. I make mistakes, but that is part of everyone’s development, and now I know how to fix my mistakes, just as the kids do.

I work steadily on helping the children see connections between what has been done and the hurt or damage that resulted. We all know that we have a chance to repair damages the best we can, and that we can keep learning and remembering ways to behave differently.

Meri Ripley teaches 1st-graders at Voyager Elementary School, Alexandria, MN.

This article first appeared in Origins: A Newsletter for Educators, Winter 2005