Early Childhood Behavior Management: Developing and Teaching Rules
Assessment
Take some time now to answer the following questions. Please note that the IRIS Center does not collect your Assessment responses. If this is a course assignment, you should turn them in to your professor using whatever method he or she requires. If you have trouble answering any of the questions, go back and review the Perspectives & Resources pages in this module.
- Explain how behavior expectations and classroom rules differ.
- Assume that your school’s mascot is a wildcat and your school-wide behavior expectations center around this mascot. They are:
- Care about others and self
- Act responsibly
- Teamwork
- Stay positive
Using the matrix below, develop rules to align with the school’s behavior expectations and to reflect the guidelines for developing rules that you learned about in this module.
| Behavior Expectations | Classroom Rules | Cafeteria (outside the classroom) |
Circle time (inside the classroom) |
|
Care about others and self |
|
|
|
|
Act responsibly |
|
|
|
|
Teamwork |
|
|
|
|
Stay positive |
|
|
|
- Describe four ways you can intentionally and systematically teach the classroom rules you listed in the matrix above.
- Imagine you are a teacher who has a class of 12 four-to-five-year-olds. The children in your class have been doing a good job following all the rules with the exception of “listening when others talk.” Describe a classroom reinforcement system you could implement. Be sure to include:
- What your system would look like (visually)
- How you would involve the children
- How you would acknowledge the children
- Discuss three reasons why it is important to communicate with families about rules.
