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Sunday, February 18, 2018

Asking Students to Plan Bad Behavior

Getting students to think about behaving badly helps them arrive at positive norms—and such reverse thinking may work in other situations as well.

Here’s a question students don’t expect to hear from a teacher: “How can we make sure to get kicked out of the museum today?”
It was Tuesday morning, and my fifth grade class was getting ready to go on a field trip to the Honolulu Museum of Art. While I relish every chance I get to visit museums, I sensed that a few of my students did not feel the same way.
I had to make a choice before our departure: Review the safety rules and run the risk of seeing their eyes glaze over, or engage the students in coming up with appropriate behavior expectations for themselves.