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CHAMPS Repro 8-1 Classwide Motivation System

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CHAMPS is a strategy I really want to start to use regularly. I have the poster printed out from the teacher resource center across the room from my desk with the intention that I'll see it when I address the class, but I don't always follow through on it. One of my goals this year is to use it regularly to address the class before an activity. You basically walk the class through each step before each activity so that they always know the expectations.

"During this partner activity, I expect there to no noise above whispering. If you need help, you can ask your partner or raise your hand. We will be..... You are allowed to move around the room to accomplish your task, but please ask permission if your project involves you leaving the room. I will know you are participating when I see you working side by side with your partner. We will switch partners when the timer goes off."

I've found with any age group I've taught (Kindergarden, 4th-9th grade, Juniors) that you can never repeat yourself too many times and you can never expect kids to understand something you haven't expressively told them. It's better to over teach or over model than to have students confused and not following directions.

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CHAMPS is a strategy I really want to start to use regularly. I have the poster printed out from the teacher resource center across the room from my desk with the intention that I'll see it when I address the class, but I don't always follow through on it.

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Have you ever been told about the "class from hell"? What about the "bad group"? Maybe the "kid who I think lives out of district and should not be going to school here anyway." I, like many, have been guilty of using these descriptions while explaining a challenging classroom management situation. I no longer use these tired, often inaccurate, and certainly too general expressions. This is because I was introduced to STOIC while learning about CHAMPS, a program of Safe and Civil Schools.

I learned about STOIC while reading CHAMPS by Randy Sprick. The book offers a proactive and positive approach to classroom management. The book is divided into sections that follow the STOIC acronym. Each part of STOIC is further divided into easy to follow tasks.

STOIC is an acronym that is used to shape behavior. Notice I said shape and not stop. Sometimes stopping behavior is necessary, but that is a temporary fix. To achieve longer lasting results, we must shape behavior. We can use STOIC to do just that. STOIC is Structure, Teach, Observe, Interact, and Correct.

STRUCTURE deals with your vision, organization, and management plan. Create a positive physical space that prevents common classroom management issues before they have a chance to occur. This includes establishing effective classroom rules as well as routines and procedures.

TEACH expectations to a nauseatingly clear level. Clarify you expectations for instructional activities and transitions. Develop lesson plans for teaching those expectations. If you expect it, then pre-correct it. Take the time to do this properly. Expectations should be taught at the beginning of the year and periodically throughout the year, especially after extended breaks. This will take some time on the front end, but it will save time as the year goes on.

OBSERVE the behavior of students. This is important for the classroom as well as common areas. Teach from your feet, not your seat. While in common areas, remember to Expect, Protect and Connect. Use data to adjust your classroom management plan.

INTERACT positively with students. Strive to have positive interactions with students at a 3:1 ratio. Catch students doing it right. We want to call attention to the students who get caught being good.

CORRECT fluently while shaping behavior. It is important to remain nonemotional while being nonnegotiable. Never resort to ridicule or an increase in emotional intensity.

There ARE NOT really "classes from hell." There ARE high structure classes. High structure classes require more teaching, monitoring, and feedback (TMF). We use STOIC to TMF. Be nausiatingly clear while teaching expectations. Monitor relentlessly. Give students frequent feedback at a 3:1 ratio of positive interactions. The higher the structure, the more TMF.

Using STOIC to shape behavior helps us to move beyond the commentating of poor behavior with overused cliches and into the shaping of behavior. It has certainly helped me. If you would like to delve deeper into this topic I recommend Explicit Instruction by Anita Archer and Charles A. Smith and CHAMPS by Randy Sprick.

Follow me on Twitter @Heath_M_Harmon

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Classroom Management Solutions: Moving Beyond the Cliche

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Have you ever been told about the "class from hell"? What about the "bad group"? Maybe the "kid who I think lives out of district and should not be going to school here anyway." I, like many, have been guilty of using these descriptions while explaining a challenging classroom management situation.

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Organizing your classroom and sorting out the path of your school year can be one of the trickiest components of teaching. You want to optimize student learning, minimize everything that doesn't encourage best practices and student engagement, while eliminating anything that wastes valuable instructional time.

While the school year may already be in full-swing, navigating through each day with our students takes tweaks and changes throughout the course of the school year. Things can change on a day to day basis, as we in education all know. Whether you are in need of some fresh ideas to enhance the great things already taking place in your classroom or even if your learners are thriving, here are a few tips I can share...

Like your classroom, my students are ALWAYS busy learning! Here is a peek at the flow of my full school day, and an overview of my ELA class schedule:

Behavior management can be tricky in any school building. We follow the CHAMPs behavior model within my PK-6 elementary school. Here is a sample bulletin board from my classroom that works as a reminder to my students how they are to follow procedures and self-manage based on the acronym CHAMP.

Download this updated CHAMPS FREEBIE for your classroom management display...

I am always wanting to reward students in my classroom for performing at the highest level on a task, doing something unexpected, achieving at the best of their ability, etc. I reward students with Bulldog Bucks because we are the Sharpsburg Bulldogs. In addition, my students are often in need of pencils and other necessary school supplies. They can grab those items that I have organized here..

Some say that students need to be intrinsically motivated, but my students are able to have a balance of both intrinsic motivation and extrinsic rewards. Each Friday students in the 6th grade come prepared with their Bulldog Bucks and have the chance to shop at the store, pending they have not earned too many (3+) checks on the Accountability Chart for the week.

I purchase items for the store at the Dollar Store, Michael's, Target, Kroger, and book stores. Also, my teammate is excellent about begging for donations of items everywhere he goes. We have two contacts for free candy and hot pretzels that are donated to us annually. You would be surprised how many businesses are willing to donate, if you just ask.

Perfect attendance for all students would be nice, but it just doesn't happen with all of the illness, appointments, changes to schedules, etc. I utilize one of my classroom bulletin boards, actually the ONLY one for this...

As teachers we place students in very diverse arrangements. I love having desks where students can partner with one other in rows. I also like when desks are grouped in fours. It depends on my group of students. If I have a really chatty group, I often find that placing them in rows of twos is the way students are most engaged in their learning.

As I read other teachers blogs, there are about a bazillion new ideas I can't wait to implement! I would love to hear classroom organization ideas that are tried and true for you!

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Organizing your classroom and sorting out the path of your school year can be one of the trickiest components of teaching. You want to optimize student learning, minimize everything that doesn't encourage best practices and student engagement, while eliminating anything that wastes valuable instructional time.

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A Proactive and Positive Approach to Classroom Management!

Champs behavior is a very important part of our classroom. This is a model for what we expect our students to look and sound like at school during our day. Each letter stands for something that will help your child understand how to be a CHAMP.

C = Conversation Can students talk to each other during this activity?

H = Help How do the students get teacher's attention and questions answered?

A = Activity What is the task and the objective?

M = Movement Can students move about during this activity?

P = Participation What does the work behavior look and sound like?

In the primary school we choose to use the terms what does this lesson or activity "look like and sound like". We use this to help your child in a proactive and positive way so that they will understand what we expect in all school situations. This will allow for a wonderful learning environment for each student. We create T- Charts at the beginning of the year with the students. The students are a part of the process of creating our class rules and procedures which are our Champs Rules! These T-Charts are reviewed before each activity to ensure understanding of the rules in the various activities and situations during our day.

We also create a class Social Contract. These are things that students help brainstorm together. We decide how we will show respect to others in the classroom. Each student will sign the contract to acknowledge understanding of how to act and treat others at school.

Please view the following Social Contract.

Rewards

They will receive tickets for being respectful and responsible throughout the day. For example, completing their center work, turning in notes, champs in class, champs in line, etc. I find many things to reward the students for during each day. Each table has a day of the week that they can redeem 20 tickets for a prize from the treasure box. They can also redeem a ticket or a prize if they have a stamp everyday of the week.

Consequences

We will review expectations from our Champs T-Chart before each activity. If a student does not follow a rule they will give me a ticket. After giving me one ticket they will put their planner on my desk for a planner warning. This will be some time out from an activity or recess. If they give me three throughout the daythey will have a note in their planner.
Please click here to view our Hall Manners and Playground Rules!
Please review and discuss these Rules and Contract with your child.

Thank you for your support in your child's education.

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A Proactive and Positive Approach to Classroom Management! Champs behavior is a very important part of our classroom. This is a model for what we expect our students to look and sound like at school during our day. Each letter stands for something that will help your child understand how to be a CHAMP.

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I am so excited to link up this month with other amazing bloggers sharing their Teacher Wisdom! In my opinion, classroom management kind of makes or breaks a good school year. I've kind of learned the hard way that even though I may be a little laid back, my classroom and students needs structure!

My copy of this book is well worn, but it still has great classroom management advice. There is also quite a bit about preventing and planning to help alleviate classroom management issues.

This is my Classroom Management Pinterest Board that I set up this summer. There are lots of easy to implement ideas to help with classroom management issues.

One of my favorite new pins is from Melissa Mazur. It is hand signals for sign language.

I love this freebie from D Conway!!! The visuals are great and work perfect for a pre-k or kindergarten class!

I'm a huge fan of CHAMPS. Here is a blog post I wrote that was featured on Rachel Lynette's Minds in Bloom blog. You can download my CHAMPS posters here for free.

CHAMPS is part of Randy Sprick's Safe and Civil Schools and is a research based program with over thirty years of classroom research.

The CHAMPS acronym stands for:

onversation: Can students talk to each other during this activity?

Help: How do students get the teacher's attention and their questions answered?

Activity: What is the task/objective? What is the end product?

Movement: Can students move about during this activity?

Participation: How do students show they are fully participating? What does work behavior look/sound like?

Success: When students meet CHAMPS expectations, they will be successful!

According to Save and Civil Schools, CHAMPS strategies are easy to implement and will:

*Reduce classroom disruptions and office referrals

*Improve classroom climate

*Increase student on-task behavior

*Establish respectful and civil interactions

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Teacher Wisdom: Classroom Management (with Freebies)

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I am so excited to link up this month with other amazing bloggers sharing their Teacher Wisdom! In my opinion, classroom management kind of makes or breaks a good school year. I've kind of learned the hard way that even though I may be a little laid back, my classroom and students needs structure!

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Last year, my school started using CHAMPs as a school-wide proactive and positive approach to classroom management. For those of you that haven't heard of CHAMPs, it stands for:

Conversation - can students talk during this activity?

Help -how can students get assistance during this activity?

Activity - what are students doing?

Movement - can students move during the activity?

Participation - what does active participation look like?

Here is an example of common settings in our classroom. Sorry the picture is so small, click it to enlarge it. ( click to download a copy in b&w)
We update and review our CHAMPs chart at the beginning of each lesson to review behavioral expectations. I really like that the expectations are clearly stated at the beginning of the lesson, because at this age many of them need the reminder.
To create my CHAMPs board, I printed out pictures, backed them with colored card stock and mounted them onto magnets so I could use them on my white board. After a couple of weeks the kids really get a hang of the chart and the Child of the Day updates it. The kids will even remind me if I forget to update it! :) Here is a picture of our CHAMPs chart.

Do you use CHAMPs? How do you utilize it in your classroom?

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Last year, my school started using CHAMPs as a school-wide proactive and positive approach to classroom management. For those of you that haven't heard of CHAMPs, it stands for: Conversation - can students talk during this activity? Help -how can students get assistance during this activity? Activity - what are students doing?

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While everyone is working to create social distance, you may have a luxury rarely afforded before-time for online professional development. We encourage you to consider using this time to provide vital learning for yourself and your staff.

Safe & Civil Schools has been working to create a variety of web-based training options. Below are possible offerings at the individual, classroom, and schoolwide levels. We are also happy to work with you to create a customized plan that will meet your needs. We can train whole teams or individuals, in full-day inservice or hourly training sessions.

Our new Encore Model is designed to provide the results you want in the time you have. Training will be distributed over time and repeated during teacher planning periods or in small learning communities.

Training accommodates the needs of your campus or district schedules. This model is effective for training new staff or enhancing an ongoing implementation.
Please call 800.323.8819 or email our professional development specialists to create a plan to make the most of the current situation.
Building on over 30 years of experience, Randy Sprick and associates refine decades of research on effective teaching methods into practical, easy-to-use principles and procedures. Our staff development has helped school districts throughout North America build the knowledge base needed to create positive school environments that are emotionally and physically safe and that foster independence, integrity, confidence, self-control, kindness, and responsibility.

Explore our web site to learn how our workshops and inservice trainings, consultation, books, and DVDs result in outstanding professional development for K-12 educators. Then, contact us to learn how we can help! Working together we can make a positive difference in your school!

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Positive Behavior Management Strategies for K-12 Educators from Safe & Civil Schools

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While everyone is working to create social distance, you may have a luxury rarely afforded before-time for online professional development. We encourage you to consider using this time to provide vital learning for yourself and your staff. Safe & Civil Schools has been working to create a variety of web-based training options.

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Linking up with Blog Hoppin to share Classroom Management Tips! I am so thankful to have had the opportunity to attend a Champs workshop before I started teaching. It was there that I learned that there are ESSENTIAL and CRITICAL things that need to be posted in a classroom.

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It's March, and you've probably established routines and procedures while simultaneously carving out more and more time for robust instruction.

To keep your momentum going, this DIY blog has a few ideas for incentive systems that can help motivate students to actively contribute to the cultivation of a strong learning environment.

Incentive systems complement your hierarchy system. They are meant to recognize and reinforce students for positively participating in your class, yet also allow students who are, shall we say, over-participating in the hierarchy system stay engaged in new ways. Your incentive system is also a concrete way to motivate and normalize the positive behavior in your classroom.

Here are three field-tested incentive systems with some details to help you decide which is ideal for your classroom.

System 1: Party Chart

This system can be used to interchangeably recognize individual, whole group, and small group accomplishments. It is intended to be used throughout the day and can be especially effective when trying to solidify routines and procedures.

This Marshmallow Party chart, taken from Chalmers School of Excellence in Chicago, is one of the most recent iterations of this type of incentive we've seen.
How it works:
Choose an item or activity that your students want to earn. Draw the shape(s) of that on a piece of chart paper and within that shape, draw a grid of boxes. For instance, in the example given here, the teacher/students chose marshmallows and chose to separate the whole, small and individual recognition into separate grids shaped like marshmallows.

When you want to reward students' meeting or exceeding your expectations, fill in a square. When all the squares are colored in, students earn the designated "party" indicated on the chart paper.
Implementation & Maintenance:
The reward starts off small and can get more substantial as you go, but always create one that is practical and manageable.

Some teachers brainstorm lists of these with students. Here's a few examples of other "parties" we've seen:

Cupcake Party

Free Draw Time

Michael Jackson Dance Party

Free Gym Party

Extra Read Aloud Party

As it is with all incentive systems, in the beginning, students should earn the incentive reward quickly to elicit student buy-in. You can see from the limited amount of squares on the marshmallow party incentive, this primary teacher wanted her students to earn it quickly.

Each time you create a new party chart, increase the number of squares so the time it takes for the students to earn it increases as does your expectation for students to consistently succeed.
Perks of this system:

Encompasses all the various ways you might need to recognize outstanding behavior/effort in one system

Can be adapted to fit all grades but is pretty well-suited for primary and intermediate grades

Can be created in a matter of minutes

Another idea is to attach the incentive system to a specific behavior or routine. Here are two examples of this type of incentive, both designed for use with your whole class.

System 2: Zero Hero
How it works:
Zero Hero is a challenge between teacher and students. The gist is that you choose a transition -- a good one might be transitioning from independent work to a listening position. When it is time to make that transition, use a countdown from 5 or 10. When you get to zero, if ALL students are in listening position or exhibiting the desired behavior, they get the point. If not, the teacher gets the point. Whoever wins the challenge is the "Zero Hero." It's simple, but insanely powerful.

Students love to "beat the teacher." Some teachers attach a reward if the class wins by the end of the day or week. Oftentimes, just having more points than the teacher is incentive enough.
Implementation & Maintenance:
You must be conservative with points at first. Don't make it too easy for them to win because you should also use this opportunity to solidify your expectations. Be sure, however, to balance that with making them feel successful. For instance, if students are not able to earn many points at first, you may want to try "Do it Again," and give them another chance to earn a point.
Perks of this system:

Limited Materials: Expo marker and a white board

Actively helps you make transitions fun and more efficient

Adaptable for all grades

System 3: Spell It Out
How it works:
Again, choose something you want to motivate students around. Then, choose the word you want to spell to represent it and each time students complete the desired behavior or activity, they get one letter. Once they spell the entire word, the reward can be something as simple as free draw time (upper grades) or blowing bubbles at dismissal (lower grades).
Implementation & Maintenance:
Always add letters, don't take them away. Once you begin that you start to mix your consequence with your incentive system. The systems need to remain separate to be fully effective.

Words we've seen "spelled" out through this incentive: CHAMPION, FREE CHOICE, EXCELLENCE, TEAMWORK.
Perks of this system:

Again, limited materials

Can be used to address chronic behaviors

Applicable to all grade levels

As you continue to do the hard work of establishing a culture for learning that is rigorous, full of high expectations and success, consider adding one of these incentives to help support you and your students along the way.

Good luck!
Rosemary currently works for AUSL, co-managing their Elementary Coach team. Using what's she's learned in her 14 years as an educator, she supports coaches, teachers and administrators as they do the important work of turning around failing schools. AUSL was among the first in the nation to adopt Teaching Channel Teams.

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Classroom DIY: Incentive Systems You Can Start Tomorrow

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It's March, and you've probably established routines and procedures while simultaneously carving out more and more time for robust instruction. To keep your momentum going, this DIY blog has a few ideas for incentive systems that can help motivate students to actively contribute to the cultivation of a strong learning environment.

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CHAMPS is a classroom management technique used at my school. It sets expectations for students for various activities. CHAMPS stand for

Conversation: Can students talk to each other during this activity?
Help: How do students get the teacher's attention and their questions answered?
Activity: What is the task/objective? What is the end product?
Movement: Can students move about during this activity?
Participation: How do students show they are fully participating? What does work behavior look/sound like?
Success: When students meet CHAMPS expectations, they will be successful!

I changed it up a little bit for my own classroom. For my class, CHAMPS set expectations for

Conversation
Help
Activity
Movement
Post-Activity (What should students do with their assignment when they are finished?)
Supplies (What supplies are needed for this activity?)

I have a CHAMPS board on display in my room. Prior to each activity, I explain the expectations and update the CHAMPS board. Because I do this regularly, my students will remind me if I forget. It really helps them to have a visual reminder.

So all I have to do is change the strip for that expectation.

The conversation level can be:

To get help, it may say

Ask group then raise hand

Raise hand

Kidney Table (which is where students go for small groups)

The activity might be

Movement options are

Stay in your seat

Stay in your group

Trashcan and pencil sharpener

Move around

When students are done with their work, they will

Keep it

Turn it in to the Inbox

Other (I may have some other place I want them to put their work)

Supplies lets students know if they are using

Pen

Pencil

Red Pen

Supply Boxes (markers, color pencils, etc)

Glue / Scissors

Book

Journal

So if a student asks what to do with their paper, I simply say, "What does CHAMPS say?"
If a student asks if they are supposed to write in pen or pencil (this was for my 5th graders), I say, "What does CHAMPS say?"
After a while, they get the point. Sometimes they'll start to ask me, then turn around and look at the board, because they know that's what I'm going to tell them to do. :-)
Next to my CHAMPS board is a door where I tell students what they are allowed to do when they are finished with their work. I printed out signs, laminated them, and put magnetic tape on the back. It makes it easy to switch out options.

These are my go-to activities that are almost always up. Sometimes, though, I take down VersaTiles depending on how quiet I want to keep it, such as for tests. Other things I may put up are Beat The Clock (to practice math facts), flash cards, acrostic poems (I give them a word), ABC lists (I give them a topic), and probably some others I can't think of right now. My kids know that drawing is never an option, though they sometimes like to see if I've forgotten my own rule.

Now I'm Done is a drawer where I put fun (and usually educational) worksheets. It may have math problems (line designs are popular, and the ones where you solve the problem to determine what color you shade a piece in - I don't remember what they're called), creative writing, using dictionaries, patterns, word searches, etc. Basically, whatever I can find. I don't give bonus points; I don't even check them. Students turn them in to the inbox so I can see what they've done, then I send them right back home with them.

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CHAMPS is a classroom management technique used at my school. It sets expectations for students for various activities. CHAMPS stand for Conversation: Can students talk to each other during this activity? Help: How do students get the teacher's attention and their questions answered? Activity: What is the task/objective?

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As a school we use the CHAMPS classroom management program. We have the CHAMPS posters posted in all of the classrooms, the special areas, and the cafeteria.

The students respond well to CHAMPS as well as the voice level rules.

The first 10 days of school are the most important in establishing your classroom rules and procedures as well as establishing your relationship with your new students.

In the first grade we use the reminder system where the students are responsible for pulling out the color coded reminder of where their offense falls and putting it in their labeled library pocket. This give the children a clear representative of their behavior and is recorded and sent home in their behavior log to their parents.

I use a poster board and cute library pockets for the reminder chart. The reminders are labeled next to the chart for students to pull. I keep this poster right by my round table so I can view the pockets when I fill out their binders at the end of the day.

Classroom Helpers are a great way to give the students responsibility within their classroom. I love having the students "apply" for a classroom job as the year goes on. The students definitely set their eyes on one or two jobs that they want and will work towards earning that job.

Groups of tables earn table points for following directions, working together and keeping their group and desks neat and clean!

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As a school we use the CHAMPS classroom management program. We have the CHAMPS posters posted in all of the classrooms, the special areas, and the cafeteria. The students respond well to CHAMPS as well as the voice level rules.

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CHAMPS is my all time favorite classroom management tool. Misbehavior generally stems from a fear of not knowing what to expect or know how to act. My students are still trying to figure which shoes to wear, which friends to hang with and how to talk to the opposite sex.

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The central idea behind focusing on classroom ratios is to ensure that our students are doing as much of the heavy cognitive lifting and having the most engaging experience as possible in our classes. There isn't one "right" ratio. Ratios vary by age of student as well as our individual strengths as teachers. That being said, the goal of maximizing the effectiveness of every moment we spend with our students remains constant across our PreK-16 and beyond continuum.

In Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey shares this quote from Bruce Barton: "Sometimes when I consider what tremendous consequences come from little things, I am tempted to think there are no little things."

The three ideas below draw from the following KIPP Framework for Excellent Teaching (KFET) competencies: joy, ratio, and rigor. We're also always looking for ideas and feedback about how we might develop a possible set of ratios for the various parts of a lesson. We've included a hypothesis at the end of this piece and would love your thoughts. Email me at blog@kipp.org.

1) Positive Interaction Ratios:
The ratio of our positive interactions to our negative ones impacts both joy and learning.
Research by Barbara Frederickson and Marcial Losada has found that the ratio of positive to negative interactions have a profound impact on someone's cognitive as well as emotional well-being. They found that positivity "equips individuals with the adaptive bias to approach and explore novel objects, people, or situations."

According to their research, normal human function is characterized by a ratio of 2.5 positive interactions for every 1 negative one. This ratio climbs to 4.3 to 1 for optimal functioning, and then 5 to 1 for successful marriages :). It's important to note that these interactions are often less than 3 seconds.
Four thoughts to increase positive interactions tomorrow:
1. Smile more

2. Circulate the room more during lessons noticing and commending positive behaviors and work

3. Use kid's name more when praising work or behavior in one on one interactions (remember growth mindset praise focuses on effort and actions)

4. Click for Constructive Responding guide

Misconception Alert:
Every interaction must be positive (misconception). Remember this is a ratio. According to research by Daniel Kahneman there are 20,000 moments in the day. This means there is plenty of room for negative interactions 🙂 - we are just looking to have the ratio tilt more in the positive direction.

2) Questioning Ratios:
Increase the ratio of varied questioning techniques (playing basketball) to static questioning (playing catch) and the ratio of higher level questioning to lower level questioning.
Think of static questioning as a game of catch between the teacher and one student at a time and varied questioning as techniques that have students talking in a variety of different formats (to the teacher, to each other, whole-group oral response, raise your hand if..., in writing to each other, etc...)

Some varied questioning techniques include (For more on certain of these see Doug Lemov's Teach Like a Champion):

- Call and response
- Pre-call - alert a kid that you are going to call on them next
- Cold call - call on kids without warning
- Half-statements - means you start a statement and then stop mid-way which is a signal for the kids to raise their hands to finish your thoughts
- Fill in the blank
- What's next/what comes before
- Unbundling - breaking a complex idea into its components.
- Elaborating or building on
- Why/how
- Testing the logic
- Playing dumb - intentionally making mistakes to see if the kids catch them
- Steering cues
- Asking students whether they agree or disagree with another student's answer

Try elaborative interrogation (coined by Robert Marzano) and Stretch-it (coined by Doug Lemov) to increase ratio of higher-order thinking questions.

Elaborative Interrogation: Forces student to "prove," "justify," or "defend" their answers and those of their classmates in a positive manner (of course).

Some Elaborate Interrogation strategies include:

- "What are some typical characteristics you would expect of ______________"
- "What would you expect to happen if__________________________"
- "Why would that be true?" "How do you know that is true?"
- "Tell me why you think that is so?"
- "It seems to me that you are saying _________________"

Stretch-It ( from Lemov's pp.41-47): Reminds us not to stop with simple, correct answers but rather to push students to answer follow-up questions that extend knowledge or test for reliability/correctness (both of their own answers and those of their classmates).

Some Stretch-It strategies include:

- Ask How or Why
- Ask for Another Way to Answer
- Ask for a Better Word
- Ask for Evidence
- Ask Students to Integrate a Related Skill
- Ask Students to Apply the Same Skill in a New Setting
Four thoughts to improve questioning ratios tomorrow:
1. Try one of the strategies from the varied questioning list (my personal favorites are half-statements and a combination of pre-call and cold-call.

2. Try another one!

3. Try one strategy from Elaborative Interrogation (my personal favorite is "how/why do you know that is true/the case or false/not the case?")

4. Try one "Stretch-It" strategy (my favorite here is asking for evidence).

Misconception Alert :
Every question needs to use a ratio strategy (misconception). You need to use these strategies to balance the needs of rigor, engagement, and pacing and timing. If you did a ratio strategy every time, you'd run out of time.

Misconception Alert #2:
These strategies apply only to oral questioning (misconception). These apply just as much to the written questions we structure for kids. Again, we must be cognizant of pacing and timing in all of the decisions we make as teachers.

3) Doing the Work Ratios:
Increase ratio of independent practice compared to guided practice.
Are we having enough sustained, structured, and rigorous independent practice so that our students have sufficient "at-bats" to develop and demonstrate mastery of what they are learning? Toward that end, independent practice allows us to have time in class to work deeply with individual/small groups of students on their level - those who are struggling, those on level, and those ahead. Providing real-time feedback on the quality of work is an essential part of maximizing the effectiveness of student practice.

Four thoughts for increasing the work done by our kids (you could start these tomorrow although some will take time to set up 🙂 :

1. Use a timer to keep a hard target for your opening routine and guided practice.

2. Set the expectations for and establish a routine for which kids you are going to work with during independent practice - try working either with a small group or an individual student for an extended time as opposed to hopping from student to student.

3. Create a chart to track the total time kids spend working independently every day.

4. Clearly explain to students what they are supposed to do when they are finished (when in doubt, try reading silently).

Misconception Alert :
More independent practice is always a good thing (misconception). There can be too much independent practice in a class by which teachers are not providing enough guidance or examples to feedback.

Misconception Alert #2 :
Independent Practice requires less planning (misconception). Effective independent practice requires actually more planning because it must be differentiated for the multiple levels in our classroom and it also must be clear enough that there aren't a bunch of questions from students about what they are supposed to do.

(Very early draft and likely to change over time.)

For the past several years, a large group of us have been talking, analyzing videos, and thinking through the ratio of how the various elements of a lesson plan are executed in our classes.

There are several HUGE asterisks here:

1. These are our current best thinking and will most likely change slightly in the months ahead as we do more work on this.

2. There are a ton of subset skills, routines, stamina that need to be taught to bring these percentages to life. We will not be able to do this overnight nor will kids.

3. There will also be individual variations on how this looks from class to class (i.e. more inter-woven guided/independent practice, more independent practice, or certain lessons that require a larger guided part). Ideally the percent of GP and IP both go up.

4. This is currently based on work with MS and HS teachers. Over the next 18 months we are going to be doing a lot of work to see how this looks in ES.

5. As mentioned in #2, hitting these targets is hard.

Potential Effective Classroom Ratios Outline
A. Opening Routine: Absolutely no more than 15% of the class(entrance, do now - including reviewing do now, homework check). B. Intro to new material/guided practice: Less than or equal to 25% of the class
i. 50 minute class ≤ (less than or equal to) 7.5 minutes
ii. 75 minute class ≤ 11.25 minutes (although it seems logical that this should still be ~10 minutes)
iii. 90 minute class ≤ 13.5 minutes (although it seems logical that this should still be ~10 minutes)
C. Independent Practice: Greater than or equal to 33% of the class
Remember - T his includes completing entrance do now (if applicable), going over do now (if applicable, and whatever HW checking routine exists. An opening routine that is too long is one of the primary ways that a class period can be messed up.

i. 50 minute class ≤ (less than or equal to) 12.5 minutes
ii. 75 minute class ≤ 18.75 minutes
iii. 90 minute class ≤ 22.5 minutes

This means SMART aims/objectives.
D. Review of Independent Practice, Evaluation, and Closure: Less than or equal to 22% of the class
i. 50 minute class ≥ (greater than or equal to) 16.5 minutes
ii. 75 minute class ≥ 24.75 minutes
iii. 90 minute class ≥ 29.7 minutes
E. Transitions, HW distribution, exit, etc.: Absolutely no more than 5% of the class
Remember at least 5 keys here:

1. As mentioned above, SMART Aims
2. Lesson plans that clearly map out independent practice.
3. Teachers are using this time to work with individual and small groups of kids in a structured fashion
4. Stamina needs to be built and taught. Depending on the nature of the lesson, IP can be in a couple of chunks with GP in between.
5. Super clear routines and expectations also need to be in place (particularly around what students do if they have questions, want their work checked, are finished, etc...)
Additional Resources:
i. 50 minute class ≤ (less than or equal to) 11 minutes
ii. 75 minute class ≤ 16.5 minutes
iii. 90 minute class ≤ 19.8 minutes

i. 50 minute class ≤ (less than or equal to) 2.5 minutes
ii. 75 minute class ≤ 3.75 minutes
iii. 90 minute class ≤ 4.5 minutes
Shout Outs:
Misconception Alert: Every lesson needs to have these ratios (misconception). Some lessons will require slightly more of one part of the lesson plan than another - the above are average targets to aim for across the typical lessons and across the course of a week.

Four books that will help you explore different aspects of ratio, rigor, and joy include:

- The Skillful Teacher by John Saphier
- Teach Like a Champion by Doug Lemov
- The Art and Science of Teaching: A Comprehensive Framework for Effective Instruction by Robert Marzano
- Mindsets by Carol Dweck.

The above ideas have evolved over a number of years through conversations with and observations of countless remarkable teachers, particularly: Sarah Campbell, Frank Corcoran, Caleb Dolan, Amber Field, Whitney Grese, Mayme Hostetter, Brent Maddin, Jeana Marinelli, Joe Negron, and Kelly Wright.

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Three Ratios to Improve Classroom Success

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The central idea behind focusing on classroom ratios is to ensure that our students are doing as much of the heavy cognitive lifting and having the most engaging experience as possible in our classes. There isn't one "right" ratio. Ratios vary by age of student as well as our individual strengths as teachers.

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I know many of you are out there experimenting with cooperative learning structures which is great! I wanted to share something that I think will help you as you plan for cooperative learning activities - or really any activities at all.
https://pcinstructionalcoach.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/champs_classroom_activity_worksheet.pdf
This is a method developed by Dr. Randy Sprick (Discipline in the Secondary Classroom). CHAMPS helps us think about how we want our students to talk, move, ask for help, and participate in various activities. This will help you be explicit with your expectations for the benefit of you and your students.

Don't hesitate to contact me if you have questions or want samples.

Posted on * This entry was posted in Classroom Managment and tagged Class Management. Bookmark the permalink.

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I know many of you are out there experimenting with cooperative learning structures which is great! I wanted to share something that I think will help you as you plan for cooperative learning activities - or really any activities at all. https://pcinstructionalcoach.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/champs_classroom_activity_worksheet.pdf This is a method developed by Dr. Randy Sprick (Discipline in the Secondary...

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CHAMPS is a classroom management system. It's overall goal is to teach students how to be successful in different classroom situations by establishing clear behavior expectation using the chart. The CHAMPS system is actually very new to me, but I fell in love with it right away.
I like this system much more than the standard color change chart that I have used in the past because it is SO clear about your expectations for the students. This makes it ideal for the primary teachers classroom.

The posters describe the following...
C- conversation - what should the voice level be?
H- help - how do I get help?
A- activity - what are you working on?
M- movement - how can I move around the room?
P- participation - how do I participate in the lesson?
S- SUCCESS!

It is also very easy to use as a teacher. Buy some circle magnets to put on each poster. Move the magnet along the poster based on what you need the students to be doing for the lesson. I found some HERE that match PERFECTLY with the posters

You can purchase these CHAMPS posters HERE.

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CHAMPS is a classroom management system. It's overall goal is to teach students how to be successful in different classroom situations by establishing clear behavior expectation using the chart. The CHAMPS system is actually very new to me, but I fell in love with it right away.

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I firmly believe that many challenges in a classroom are a result from a lack of expectations. CHAMPs is a classroom management system in which students are responsible, motivated and highly engaged on specific task through clearly defined expectations given prior to instruction and work time.

So what is CHAMPs?

CHAMPs is designed for each instructional approach by asking two questions, "What do students need to know and do in order to behave responsibly? What do students need to know and do in order to be successful?

By using CHAMPs, you have clear, defined academic and behavioral expectations for each instructional approach prior to beginning instruction and before transitions. This positive approach is achieved through the CHAMPs acronym shown below...

So what does it look and sound like?

I'm smitten with my recently updated CHAMPs file. The shabby design looks great and helps to save on ink when printing. If you previously purchased my colorful design, you will have access to this new update by going to your purchases and redownloading. I've bundled the old set with my new set to ensure both options are available to you!

I created my CHAMPs cards with limited words and pictures to match. The cards can be placed in a pocket chart to easily rotate out for each instructional approach. However, I always create a few charts for times when expectations remain the same throughout the school year, Daily 5.

How to I organize this file?

Finding a six drawer system will work to keep the pieces stored by each letter of the acronym. There are way too many word and clipart cards for to be kept in one spot. I purchased two small three drawer systems from Target for a couple of dollars. I keep all my cards for conversation together. In a separate drawer, all my cards are stored for help, etc...

For more information on this management system, please check out CHAMPs by Randy Sprick of Safe and Civil Schools.

If you're interested in my top selling product, please link through the graphic below. Best of luck in your management approach!

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A Positive, Proactive Approach to Management {CHAMPs}

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I firmly believe that many challenges in a classroom are a result from a lack of expectations. CHAMPs is a classroom management system in which students are responsible, motivated and highly engaged on specific task through clearly defined expectations given prior to instruction and work time. So what is CHAMPs?

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Topic - Classroom Management Page 1 - We Are Teachers

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Find resources related to Classroom Management on We Are Teachers - Page 1 of 23

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Classroom Management Miracle: Executive Functioning | Scholastic

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If classroom management mishaps have started happening, classroom executive functioning may just be the answer!

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Teaching Tools | Resources for Teachers from Scholastic

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Behavior Board in My Classroom

As the year is coming to an end {15 1/2 days, but who's counting?} I've been very pleased with my group. I'm very pleased with our entire 3rd grade. We had "the group" ~ you know what I'm talking about. The group that the Kinder teachers warned the 1st grade teachers about, 1st ran and told 2nd to watch out, we've watched them as 3rd grade teachers and thought, really? the FCAT with these sweethearts??!!

Then at the beginning of this year we had two teachers leave and two other teachers move to our grade level from other grades. We then used this time of change to start Teaming. Two teachers taught Math and two taught Reading. I wasn't too sure I wanted to do this, I love the Daily Five, but agreed to do Math and Science. We have a new principal, I adore her, so if it is what she thinks will work, I'm all in! After all this change, it was time to really, really, really work on behavior. We had a lot of "adults" ~ a lot of "leaders" ~ you know what I mean, too many bosses, not enough employees. A perfect example, we would send two children to the bathroom from the playground, after a few minutes, they were not back. Turns out, one wanted a band aid so they went on their own and without permission to the clinic, in addition to swinging by their old second grade room to say hello to their past teacher and the kindergarten building to wave hello to a younger sibling....we really had to crack down on "being a student" and "let me be the teacher" since most of the group really enjoyed talking back and telling others what to do, right or wrong.

Champs was wonderful in setting standards for EVERYONE, fair, equal and positive. I teach Math and Science for two hours, lunch and then Math and Science to my next group. If you have not heard of CHAMPS, the basic starting point is that it is about telling the students the classroom expectations in advanced. AND...review these standards before every lesson. CHAMPS stand for ~

When you first read the book or go to training, there are a lot of different things for each category, but I found that I only need two choices for each.

0 No Talking {When I am giving direct instruction.}

2 Inside Voice {When I am working with small groups and the students are in centers.}

Raise Your Hand {When I am giving direct instruction.}

Ask 3 Then Me {When I am working with small groups and the students are in centers, they need to ask 3 other students first, then interrupt me at small group. Very rarely will they have to interrupt the teacher.} This definitely needs to be role played at the start because you will have some that can't wait to "ask 3!"

Listen {When I am giving direct instruction.}

Learning{When I am working with small groups and the students are in centers.}

None {When I am giving direct instruction.}

Restroom {When I am working with small groups and the students are in centers, they may not go from center to center, but they may go to the restroom without asking.}

Everyone {This never changes.}

I wrote these on colored sentence strips at the start of the year with the intention of making them on PowerPoint with wonderful graphics, laminate them and having the board look amazing....yep, May 14th and the sentence strips are still there and still working! The pink sentence strips have writing on each side and are in place with two clear thumb tacks. When I am ready to transition from direct instruction to center work, I read/review the chart with the students and then flip the card to the other side. So 0 No Talking turns over to 2 Inside Voice, while I'm reviewing the chart.

Later this week I'll write about the other side, how I use a "Flip Your Card" to be a POSITIVE behavior chart in my classroom.

Remember, it may be the end of the year for you, but if the kids are getting out of hand and you are EXHAUSTED, it is NEVER too late to introduce a new plan. The students need structure and you need peace! :)

Running out of things to do? Having a hard time with lesson plans?

Check out my TPT or my TN Store for wonderful Center Games that are student directed. Get everyone busy and get some of that end of the year paperwork DONE!

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Behavior Board in My Classroom As the year is coming to an end {15 1/2 days, but who's counting?} I've been very pleased with my group. I'm very pleased with our entire 3rd grade. We had "the group" ~ you know what I'm talking about.

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Hello everyone!
I have reserved this week, specifically to talk about Classroom Management and some units you can use on the first week of school or begin to use at the beginning of the school year. Also I wanted to share with you all a Free HW Pass Freebie! :)

Classroom Management
I am sure most of you already have a system or your school let's you know what procedures are needed to take for classroom management. In my case, I have been trained and I was required to use CHAMPS. I honestly did not really know what to do with it, except using the things my school already provided for me to use. However, one day I had a teacher asking me if I could make some posters for her in the Dual Program. So I thought "Duh! of course I could use these and place them all around my room!"
So I created 5 CHAMPS POSTERS in both English and Spanish. Then, I had a request on my TPT to add one for writing and/or independent practice, but leaving it blank, so I added that!
So the final product comes with 7 CHAMPS posters (Centers, Group Work, Line, Class, Carpet Time, and 2 blank posters with students are their desk working). About the Blank Posters: Google docs do not have a portrait option, so be aware that the editable document is in a landscape position. Please see the instructions in the beginning of the document to edit the document. One poster contains a student at a desk (can be used for tests or independent work) and the second poster contains two students working at their desk (can be used for reading/writing time). PLEASE know that you cannot edit the fancy/big font or the clip art due to copyrights.
Click HERE if you would like to check it out :)

This school district where I used to work was very strong about implementing CHAMPS, so after a year of using it, I came up with an interactive bulletin board in my classroom. I created this for a foam board, but you can honestly just put some magnets and have it up on your classroom dry-erase board (or chalkboard if that's what you have). At the beginning of the school year (maybe the first 3/4 months), I was mainly the one who used this board. We would use this board ALL THE TIME. For every activity, including: independent practice (I would just say independent practice and clarify with my students what kind of independent practice we are working on. In that way, we are not having illustrations for every specific activity), cooperative groups, carpet time, centers, and tests. However, after those months I would start picking students to do it and the rest of the class would participate on answering what was expected. When they realized I started picking students, they all wanted to be "the teacher." I didn't expect them to want that since they were in third grade, but they just loved it!!

Alright, this board works like this:

I would go letter by letter "C is for conversation (I would expect the students to answer after months of doing this)" Then I would say "What voice level are we on? Level 1 (Expect students to answer). Then I would say, show me what level 1 sound like (this level is whispering so students would start whispering to me). Then I would go letter by letter until we finish the word CHAMPS.

If you would like a copy of this, please click HERE to take you to my store. The only items that this product doesn't contained is the border that I used to decorate the foam board and the foam board. On the product, I included more pictures of how the board looks like and the illustrations come with labels so you know what they are used for. I also included a video on how to use the board, if you are more of a visual person like I am :)

For the First week of School or Beginning of School
On my NEW Mustache Unit (I have created other units with mustaches), you will find 56 pages in this unit. It comes with different activities, Some can be done in groups or whole class; some others can be done in partners or centers. These are all simple and fun; just perfect for the first week of school! The best part?! Like all of my products, it comes in English and Spanish!!!

If you haven't seen my past blog posts, I would like to show you what's in it and hopefully you like it as much as I do so you purchase it! :)

1. I created this made-up story about a kid named Jack, who just moved to a new town called Mustacheville. This kid has a mustache and feels left out by the other kids because he's different (he has a purple mustache). However, the story changes when he meets someone else, someone who is also different than the other kids!
This story comes with a foldable to write the B, M, and E of the story. It also comes with a foldable to compare and contrast the main two characters in the story.

2. Then, I added some ice breaker cards! I usually play some music and when it stops, students grab the first person near them to partner up. I included specific instructions on how to do this activity. They use their ice breaker card and then report it on an activity sheet.

3. What more fun than Bingo? An ice breaker Bingo! You can have students in small groups or as a whole class!

4. I also included a writing activity! Students would interview a partner with a Question sheet (it includes 20 different questions) and they can include their own question too! Then they would make this fun poster/Foldable! Don't forget to take a picture with a mustache for your activity!

And this is what's in the inside. They will compare an contrast themselves with their new friend!

5. Time for some I have, who has... Game!! Simple addition facts for your class!

6. Last, but not least. I included some addition word problems. This might be a little challenging for the first week. However, I included both low and high level word problems! So you get to choose which level fits best for your class on the first week of school! It comes with an answer sheet and a sheet for them to show their strategy. Every level comes with 10 cards. I figured this is too much for the first week of school, so on the instructions, I said for them to pick three cards and work in partners! But remember you can always change the rules if you think your class is ready for some more :)

Alphabet Units, great to start using from the beginning of the school Year

This might not be for the first week of school, but it sure is great to start building your alphabet bulletin board! I want to share with y'all the Alphabet Interactive Unit I have in my store. I created an English and a Spanish version. The pictures are in Spanish, but know that I have this unit in English as well. All the letters are to be placed on your bulletin board in the classroom (so students can see them daily and it can work as a visual for them). I pinned mine with thumbtacks so I put them up and take them down anytime.

I then pull down whichever letter we will need to work with my small groups. Each illustration has Velcro on the back so it can stick to it while working and for them to stay while it was hung on the board. I would go over the sound and each vocabulary word with my students. As we repeat the sounds and words, I then would let my students place it as they say the phrase, e.g. "A es de astronauta" (A is for astronaut). They LOVEEEEDD this part, I don't know if it was the whole velcro thing or the fact that they felt they could do it on their own :)

Finally, I created this booklet for them to put together. I didn't staple my sample, but you could staple them to make sure the pages stay together. You could use this as a Friday review of the letter learned, small group review, or even homework.

I created a FREE SAMPLE in Spanish if you would like to give it a try :) Please click HERE for the Spanish Free Sample.

I also have a FREE SAMPLE for English :) Please click HERE to take you to the English free sample.

I really hope you love it so much that you want to purchase the packet! If you would like to see it or purchase it click on English or Spanish.

Before I let you go, I'd like to share with you a Free Homework Passes for a Jungle Theme I created in the past :) I know they are not monkeys or safari with animal prints, but the super Rock Stars characters have animal prints on their outfits (so that counts), PLUS they go better with the title :) They come in English and Spanish AND in color and Black & White.
Click HERE to take you to my TPT :)

I just finished creating one for the Superheroes Theme... It also comes in English and Spanish.. both color and black/white versions :)
Click HERE to take you to this freebie!

Well, this is it for me y'all! I hope you have found something useful for your class on this post :)

If you have some time, I'd love to hear from you! Please feel free to leave me a comment, I like hearing from my readers!
Also, if you have BlogLovin', follow me! so you don't miss the fun and latest posts!!! :) Click on the picture below to take you to my BlogLovin' page :)

Thank you for stopping by and have a great 1st week back to work and a great upcoming school year! I'll be working on some new units with Free Samples and thinking about a giveaway for you lovely teachers!!! So stay tuned!!! :)

Be sure to check other Freebies on TBA (Teaching Blog Addicts) for Friday August 21, 2015.

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Classroom Management, 1st Week of School, HW Freebie, and Alphabet Bulletin Board for PK-1!

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Hello everyone! I have reserved this week, specifically to talk about Classroom Management and some units you can use on the first week of school or begin to use at the beginning of the school year. Also I wanted to share with you all a Free HW Pass Freebie!

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About this time 5 days ago, the words, "We're getting our butts kicked by 6 year olds" might have come out of our mouths gone through our heads.

But fortunately for three day weekends, we did what any teachers who are getting their butts kicked by 6 year olds have a 3-day weekend would do...

We've been using CHAMPS behavior management for a few years now. But, since we were getting our butts kicked by 6 year olds started school last week we decided to kick it up a few notches. We needed it to make sense to our little learners, so we gave it our own twist. We spent our weekend laboring away and we are really excited to go back to school to start training our little champions!

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Class CHAMPS Classroom Management for Little Champions

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About this time 5 days ago, the words, "We're getting our butts kicked by 6 year olds" might have come out of our mouths gone through our heads. But fortunately for three day weekends, we did what any teachers who are getting their butts kicked by 6 year olds have a 3-day weekend would do...

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Ah, the proverbial new teacher. Obsessively checking his whiteboards for the precise phrasing of his classes' daily learning targets . His stopwatch-perfected wait time. His accidental shirt-and-tie on a spirit-dress standardized assessment day. Eagerly multimodality-minded with desks arranged in communal, interaction-primed clusters on day one, but sucked of his zeal by day six because of something he doesn't yet understand.

It must be the kids. After all, it's the student's job to learn.

"They just don't want to learn."

"All they care about are video games."

"The classroom just isn't the same as it used to be."

"I can't compete with their distraction with technology."

Or maybe it's the fault of the college programs that prepare the teachers.

"One semester of practicum and one semester of student teaching just doesn't cut it for being prepared for the real world."

Time changes everything. No, old-timers, I'm not talking about the song by Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys, but I guess that fits.

Every teacher's optimistic the-sky's-the-limit mentality ebbs and flows. It has to be resuscitated every now and then. There are different ways teachers do this: vacation, pleasure reading, blogging, social networking with a PLN, overtly strengthening the student/teacher relationship, differentiating instruction for interest and ability, adopting the good ideas and styles of others, attending a rejuvenating conference with other oft-deflated educators. If you want more ideas than these, check out Wolpert-Gawron's Edutopia article, " Teachers: Staying Positive in Trying Times."

Excuse-giving aside, first-, fifth-, and 30th-year teachers all have one thing in common when it comes to being prepared for classroom logistics, instructional strategies, gradual release, skill development, and student discipline: the need for a proven classroom management plan.

I just recently began using the CHAMPS classroom management system. The system uses acronyms for a few components of its system, but for this post, I just thought I'd share a slide I've created for the start of each of my class periods. I use it to briefly preview (30 seconds) each day's instructional period. I realize the format might not be ideal for a school with different school colors and mascots than ours, but maybe it could be of use to someone. I know that for my classroom, the more structure with which I begin an instructional block, the better the outcomes are.

Students do have classroom responsibilities - jobs to do in the classroom. But teachers are responsible as managers in this pseudo-work environment to give them the proper structure to know how and build the capacity to succeed. That's where a classroom management plan comes in, and it's where teachers can begin sustaining the fervor.

_______________________________

If you use CHAMPS and have a great way you champion the system, pass your successes along in a comment. If you'd like me to email you a KeyNote or PowerPoint file of the above slide, comment with your email. I'll make sure to leave your comment unapproved and not posted for other readers to see.

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Teacher Motivation and the CHAMPS Classroom Management System (Includes Daily Classroom Preview Slide)

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Ah, the proverbial new teacher. Obsessively checking his whiteboards for the precise phrasing of his classes' daily learning targets . His stopwatch-perfected wait time. His accidental shirt-and-tie on a spirit-dress standardized assessment day. Eagerly multimodality-minded with desks arranged in communal, interaction-primed clusters on day one, but sucked of his zeal by day six because of something he doesn't yet understand.

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Tweets by RandySprick

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Introducing Randy Sprick | Safe & Civil Schools

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Introducing Randy Sprick, educational consultant and primary author for Safe & Civil Schools. Each year, Randy presents practical, entertaining workshops to over 15,000 educators throughout the United States and Canada.

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Classroom management is what separates the good from the bad when it comes to teaching. While there is no one-size-fits-all solution to classroom management, I believe that every teacher needs to invest time and energy in determining what will work best for them.

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I think it's safe to say I am classroom management obsessed. It finally clicked after realizing I was sick of going home exhausted every day. I realized that instead of jumping right into the curriculum with my students, I need to take time to build a strong classroom management plan. I think that counts for one of those things we didn't learn in college, right?! ;)

One thing I have done in the past was the CHAMPS classroom management system.

The CHAMPS system is a great idea, and I do believe that your classroom will be pure chaos if your kids don't know what you expectant of them. CHAMPS leaves all the guesswork out. It allows students to know what the expectations are throughout the entire day. For example, through the displayed expectations, students know whether or not they can use the bathroom at that moment. They also know the appropriate volume they should be speaking. The idea behind CHAMPS is that you have cards posted for each letter:

C= conversation (how loud can I be?)

H= help (how do I ask for help?)

A= activity (what is it that we will be doing)

M= movement (can I get up and move around the room?)

P= participation (how do I respond to this lesson/ how do I look?)

S= success!

There are so many wonderful benefits to this system! But, the issue for was management. I am a firm believer in letting my kids run our classroom. I think it's extremely important to give them this ownership, and with the CHAMPS system, it was entirely teacher-based. I had to set up the board for each and every lesson, and I often struggled to remember to changing the cards on the board. I tried having students do this as a job, but it would often be them looking at me trying to figure out which card to put up (because they obviously didn't know the expectation at that moment!) Therefore, it didn't work. You can learn more about CHAMPS here, and maybe you can share your ideas on how to make it easier on the teacher, because it really can be awesome!

Another classroom management system is Whole Brain Teaching. Whole Brain Teaching also has some wonderful benefits! I modified many of the parts to fit them to my class and my teaching style. As with any new research-based approach, it's best to do a little research and tailor it to fit you and your kids. But, in the end, I am in love with a lot of aspects of this management system. Whole Brain Teaching lends itself to a fun classroom where we use games to practice a lot of the things we learn, we take mini brain breaks, and the environment is student centered and encouraging.

Here is an example of a 6th grade teacher using the approach:

The first step of Whole Brain Teaching is implementing rules. Stephanie from 3rd Grade Thoughts created this freebie that you can download HERE. In addition to this freebie, she has a ton of helpful blog posts on getting started with Whole Brain Teaching. I suggest you check them out!

She has some great, free printable rules you can post in your classroom. Click HERE to grab them!

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CHAMPS and Whole Brain Teaching Resources

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I think it's safe to say I am classroom management obsessed. It finally clicked after realizing I was sick of going home exhausted every day. I realized that instead of jumping right into the curriculum with my students, I need to take time to build a strong classroom management plan.

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Managing a Classroom

If you are a teacher, you have probably realized that classroom management is an important part of your teaching style. If you have ever been in a classroom setting before, you are well aware that there is no effective teaching without effective classroom management. Sounds simple right: ask the students to behave a certain way and they will. If only it were that easy. Classroom management takes time and consistency.

Before even thinking about lesson planning, focus on classroom management. How will you get students to listen, raise their hands, answer questions, and work with others? There are so many different types of management styles and it can be overwhelming to read through the material on classroom management. Focusing on one style at a time can make it easier to decide whether or not that style is right for you. One of the most popular management styles is called CHAMPs. Let's take a look.

C is for Conversation

The first part of the CHAMPs method is to stay aware of how students are conversing during any particular classroom activity. More importantly, students should be told the expectations about conversation for an activity. You can explain this verbally or simply write out their 'C' expectations on the board. This will vary based on grade level. For younger grades, you might use a picture or color (red, yellow, green) to let them know how much talking you are allowing. For older grades, you can simply write it on the board. Tell students before the activity starts who they are allowed to speak with, for how long and the expected topic for their discussions. Alternatively, if they need to work on their own without speaking, be sure to make that clear as well.

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champs classroom management system | study.com

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CHAMPs Classroom Management System | Study.com

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If you are a teacher, you have probably realized that classroom management is an important part of your teaching style. If you have ever been in a classroom setting before, you are well aware that there is no effective teaching without effective classroom management.

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Discussion and Supporting Materials

Thought starters

1. How do students react when Ms. V redirects them with a whisper?

2. Do you see a difference when she tries positive narration?

3. What advice would you give Ms. V to continue improving her practice?

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New Teacher Survival Guide: Classroom Management

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Ms. Vreeland is a new teacher working to improve the management of her classroom. She shares a video of her class with management expert Jackie Ancess. Mrs. V takes what she's learned and tries it out in her class. Watch the before and after.

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champs: a proactive and positive approach to classroom management

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CHAMPS: A Proactive and Positive Approach to Classroom Management, 2nd Edition

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The second edition of CHAMPS assists classroom teachers to design (or fine tune) a proactive and positive classroom management plan that will overtly teach students how to behave responsibly. The new 2nd edition includes tips and resources to make this definitive guide to classroom management eve...

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FREE! C.H.A.M.P.S posters with card attachments! All I ask is that you leave positive feedback and follow my store to stay up-to-date on my latest creations!

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When I was first introduced to the CHAMPs classroom management system, my first thought was that it was just another set of "classroom rules." I soon found how wrong I was.

If you'd like a proven way to enhance your classroom management system without a load of mind-numbing "training," CHAMPs may be just what you've been looking for.

And, it works like a charm for any subject area at any grade level-barring, of course, those little folks who have not yet learned how to read.

The free PDF's offered on this page comes from a set of 100 classroom-ready signs that spell out your behavioral expectations for each of your specific classroom activities--small group work, study buddies, workshops, teacher-directed instruction, or virtually anything else that you undertake with your kids.

68 of these signs are ready to go, straight out of the box. The additional 32 are customizable. As a result, you may type in your own specific expectations for each of the letters in the CHAMPs acronym.

Use the provided graphics or the framed blanks--either way, your kids will know exactly what you expect of them in each of your classroom activities.

Quick Links for THIS Page

You may use the following quick links to go directly to what interests you on this page. You may also scroll down the page manually if you choose to do so.

How CHAMPs Works

In my mind, I think of the CHAMPs management system as a set of highly-focused, activity-driven, temporary classroom rules. When you switch activities, the expectations change accordingly. Consider, if you will, the following examples.

When you present direct instruction to your kids, you sure don't want them talking to each other, walking around the room, or leaving to go to the restroom. With the CHAMPs management system, you inform them of your behavioral expectations ahead of time for that particular activity.

Posting selected signs from the 100 CHAMPs Classroom Signs collection on your classroom whiteboard, bulletin board, or wall, your management plan for the particular activity of direct teacher instruction, for example, would look something like this:

When you are supervising small group activities, however, you most certainly want your kids to talk to each other about the task at hand. So too, they may need to move around the classroom to gather supplies or sharpen their pencils.

For the particular activity of small group work in say, a Geography class for example, selected signs from the 100 CHAMPs Classroom Signs collection would look like this:

As you've noticed in both of the example displays above, the acronym signs along the left never change (although you DO have a choice of two styles as shown above).

This is because CHAMPs defines five specific components of behavioral expectations for each successful classroom activity: Conversation, Help, Activity, Movement, Participation-all of which contribute to the "S" for Success.

The signs along the right most certainly change with each type of classroom activity because your behavioral expectations are activity-driven.

Now, I invite you to have a look at all of the specific signs included in the 100 CHAMPs Classroom Signs collection.
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The 18 available signs for Conversation are presented in the slide show below.

The signs with blue boxes indicate areas of the customizable signs where you may type in any number of your own specific behavioral expectations regarding Conversation.

As you may have noticed, all of the signs for Conversation have the same style frame. This was done purposely to serve as a way of correlating the expectations themselves with the acronym letter they are associated with.
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Here are the 12 signs for Help. The "Stand Up a Book" help sign refers to a silent signal for help that does not involve waving an arm distractingly in the middle of the classroom.

The student simply balances a textbook on its end and continues working while he/she waits for assistance.

7 of the Help signs are customizable. I know that some teachers prefer to use plastic cups-down-turned on desktops when no help is needed and reversed when they require assistance.

Whatever your preferred method is, the customizable blank frame (included for each letter in the CHAMPs acronym) gives you the opportunity to specifically spell out your procedure for students seeking help.

Again, the frame style for the Help signs match, making it easier to correlate the expectations with their associated acronym letter.
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There are 15 signs for Activity, and 7 of these are customizable (blue boxes are the typing areas).

I neglected to mention earlier that each set of expectations comes with your choice of two types of acronym letter signs-one is a bit fancier and the other is more toner-friendly. Which one you choose is entirely your call.
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Here are the 8 signs for Movement-2 of these are customizable.

Needless to say, there are a number of ways in which students participate in class. With that in mind, there are a full 20 signs for Participation, and 9 of them are customizable.

I like to begin a classroom activity by pointing to the Success sign at the bottom of the CHAMPs display and saying something like, "Alright, everybody. For you to be successful in today's (insert the name of the class activity), we need to remember that the voice level is..."

And, then proceed down the signs in the order they appear. As you might imagine, the number of class activities is nearly boundless.

I did my best brainstorming and came up with a list of 13 that I felt were generally representative of common class initiatives:

Knowing the impossibility of covering ALL class initiatives, I included 8 customizable signs for success-7 of these allow you to tailor the name of the initiative with the clip art provided, and 1 blank frame in case the clip art does not fit with the initiative you have in mind.

And, there you have it-100 CHAMPs Classroom Signs!
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I would strongly recommend, as I did on the previous page regarding CHAMPs , using 8.5 x 11 card stock paper (65 to 110 pound, thick paper) for printing the signs.

Once they're printed, consider attaching them to the classroom whiteboard with fasteners that can be removed easily (adhesive on one side and magnetic on the other).

These inexpensive fasteners can be purchased at your nearest office supply store.

Or, if you prefer to display them on a bulletin board, I'd recommend adhesive Velcro fasteners-one square in each corner.

Following either procedure above yields a set of displayable signs that will last for at least an ENTIRE school year-perhaps longer. After all, they're durable, reusable, and you're the only one who will be handling them.

Because they have such a long life, I would highly recommend printing all of the signs in color. These signs will really pop when they're printed in color.

You know, as well as I do, how compelling color is to the human eye.

If color is not an option, these signs will still fit the purpose and look presentable wherever you choose to display them.
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I have found that involving the kids in the development of the expectations themselves goes a LONG way toward insuring the success of the CHAMPs classroom management system. This makes the 33 customizable signs particularly well-suited for this initiative.

When you toss out questions to the class, such as, "What would be appropriate behavior to expect when we are reading silently?" Or, "What would be inappropriate behavior to expect during silent reading?" You'll be amazed at how mature and logical their responses are!

Of course, you can always steer their responses by probing, prompting, and reasoning with them-all of the things you do so well with them already.

List their responses, one by one, on your whiteboard, or type them into a word processor connected to a digital projector as you brainstorm.

When they see for themselves that their responses are, in fact, logical, reasonable, appropriate, and mature, they will buy into it. They will adopt their own expectations as the laws of each classroom activity.
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The potential pitfalls involving the CHAMPs classroom management system are limited, but nevertheless, they need to be mentioned.

1. Starting Time. This system works best if it is implemented on the very FIRST day of school. If you are introducing it later in the year, the overall success of this approach is entirely dependent on how well you handle it with your kids and how much you allow them to buy into it.

One tool that may facilitate the launching of CHAMPs in the middle of the school year is CHAMPs Companion, an 18-20 minute video book that introduces CHAMPs to students.

2. Include Student Input. If you allow the kids to formulate, with your guidance as outlined above, the behavioral expectations for each classroom activity, they will feel ownership in the approach and will be much more likely to abide by their own rules.

If you present your expectations as predetermined requirements, you can still make this work, however. Obviously, how you institute this management system is entirely up to you.

3. Sign Changing. More than one activity within one classroom session would necessitate a modification in behavioral expectations, and as a result, would require a change of at least five of the signs.

You can handle this efficiently in one of two ways: change the signs during the transition from the first to the second activity yourself, or select a dependable student (with clean, careful hands) to handle the change for you.

As you might imagine, pre-selecting the necessary signs for each of the two activities coupled with the matching frames for each of the CHAMPs acronym letters should make this a quick and straight forward task.

4.Establish Consequences. Finally, like any other sort of classroom management plan, this one has to have some teeth behind it. There just simply have to be consequences for non-compliant knuckleheads.

Your school's or team's progressive discipline plan may have to be invoked. If you'd like more information about formulating such a plan, I would encourage you to this page.

Bottom line: Implementing this plan on the very first day of school by involving the students in the decision-making process in the formulation of expectations is a nearly foolproof way of ensuring success.

Sure, it takes a little longer to launch a cooperative teacher-student initiative such as this, but the time spent doing it will repay you over and over all school year long.
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There are 10 free CHAMPs Classroom Management Signs availabe for immediate download, and they will ALL work on both Windows and Mac. They are presented below, once again, in the form of a slideshow:

You may download them completely free of charge here.

These signs are available solely for two purposes: they give you an opportunity to evaluate the quality and potential of this approach, and they familiarize you with the simple process of customization.

Basically, if you can use a computer mouse and a keyboard, you will not have a problem with customization.

If you would like these 10 signs PLUS the other 90 presented on this page, you may want to download the 100 CHAMPs Classroom Signs Collection.

This collection includes ALL 100 PDF CHAMPs Classroom signs in full color, exactly as seen on this page.

Or, get a quote on a School License and share the 100 CHAMPs Classroom Signs collection with your entire faculty at a deeply-discounted price!

Both the free and full versions come with a clickable table of contents for locating specific signs quickly and easily.

In addition, a Thumbnail Index of Customizables is included for your convenience. These collections are entirely compatible with both Windows and Mac.

Another important tool you may want to consider is 125 Classroom Signs for Structure and Organization .
Signs included in this collection are...

Classroom Entry Signs (19)

Workshop Model Signs (12)

Weekly Agenda/Common Core Signs (24)

Document Center Signs (31)

Classroom Traffic Flow Signs (5)

Classroom Object Location Signs (36)

Additionally, 68 of these signs will accept your own typing, insuring that what you post on your walls and whiteboards reflects your own unique circumstances.
See complete details here where you may download the Free 12-Sign Sampler , or purchase 125 Classroom Signs for Structure and Organization .
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If you are interested in a strategy that may successfully encourage students to be responsible, responsive, and proactive, the CHAMPs classroom management system is certainly worth trying.

Moreover, if this system works with my kids-and, it DOES, I know it will work with yours.

I tried to be as inclusive in my thinking regarding what to include in this collection as I could be, but I'm entirely positive that I've not designed signs for every conceivable option-thus, the presence of the customizables.

However, if you have glaring needs to address, please let me know about them.

Whether you are at the beginning of the school year or not, have a very successful and fruitful one. And, as always, best wishes to you and your kids.
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I always believe in giving credit where credit is due.

The creator of The CHAMPs Classroom Management System is Dr. Randy Sprick of Safe and Civil Schools. If you would like additional information and/or training, you may contact them here.

Over the course of the last few years, several of our colleagues have requested a collection of CHAMPs classroom management signs. I thank each of you for, at last, putting me to the task.

In particular, I thank Naomi Foote, one of our fellow elementary teachers, who was kind enough to share the seed ideas for this endeavor (along with several clip art images from Santa Maria Elementary School).

Although I was not able to identify the specific person(s) who was/were responsible for the images, I thank them nevertheless.

Finally, the classroom clip art of Phillip Martin at ppst.com, in my humble opinion, is uniquely superb. All of the images that he created in this collection are duly cited at the bottom of each sign upon which they appear.

Again, my sincerest thanks to all of you.

Return to Daily Teaching Tools Home from 100 CHAMPs Classroom Management Signs.

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CHAMPs Classroom Management: 100 Behavioral Expectations Signs

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When I was first introduced to the CHAMPs classroom management system, my first thought was that it was just another set of "classroom rules." I soon found how wrong I was. If you'd like a proven way to enhance your classroom management system without a load of mind-numbing "training," CHAMPs may be just what you've been looking for.

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One of my big goals this summer is to update all of my TPT products. I've been making products for just under a year now, and it's amazing how much I have learned along the way through trial and error! The first product I wanted to redo was my CHAMPS pack. This is by far my best selling product, and I wanted to make sure that it was cleaned up and ready for back to school time.

If you don't know about the CHAMPS program, here is a little overview:

I purchased this book from Amazon last summer, because the idea of the program seemed very interesting to me. They have other editions of this book, but they are way more expensive. I purchased the first edition, and got the basic gist of the program, why it's important, and how to implement it.

I then created cards that I could put on my white board (or pocket chart) and review with my students at the beginning of each activity. Each letter in CHAMPS stands for a different expectation. C is for conversation, and the cards in this area describe to the students exactly what level their voice should be at during a certain activity.

Your choices in this category include - no talking, whisper voice, inside voice, presentation voice, partner talk, group talk, and whole group discussion.

The H stands for help. In this section, you are informing the students what they should do if they have a questions regarding their current activity.

The options in this section are - raise your hand, ask 3 before me, ask a neighbor, ask your group, come to the teacher's desk, and work through the problem on your own.

The A stands for activity, so in this section, you tell the students exactly what activity they will be participating in.

The options for this section are - independent work, group work, centers, partner work, stations, whole group instruction, small group instruction, test/quiz, presentations, silent reading, seat work, read to self, work on writing, word work, read to someone, listen to reading (daily 5), and computers.

The M stands for movement. Where are the students allowed to go during their current activity?

Options for movement are - get a new pencil and throw away trash, stay in your group, move around freely, pack up, get/return supplies, hand in completed assignment, go to the bathroom or get a drink, stay in your seat, get a tissue, and line up.

The P im CHAMPS has two options, the first one is participation, and tells the students exactly how they should be participating in the current activity.

Participation includes - actively listening and raising your hand to speak, writing or creating, discussing, reading, completing station expectations, completing a test or quiz, and standing in line.

Your other option for P is post activity. This tell the students what to do with their assignment, once they are finished.

Cards in this section are - table basket, inbox, finished basket, turn it over, keep it, mailbox, cubby, finish up folder, backpack, poetry journal, and journal.

The S also has a couple of different options, the first one is signal, and let's your students know which signal they should be listening for, to the indicate that the activity is over.

Your choices here are - bell, freeze, timer, chimes, respond to teacher, music, and lights.

Your second choice for S is supplies, and let's your students know what supplies they need to complete the activity.

Supplies included are - pencil, pen, markers, crayons, colored pencils, glue, glue sticks, paper, book, journal, supply box, white board, and scissors.

Some schools choose not to do a new category for S, but end it with either success, or super students.

At the end of the pack there is also some hand motion cards that give the students a silent way to ask you for permission to use the bathroom, get a drink of water, get a tissue, get a new pencil, and ask a question.

I loved using this in my class last year, and I felt that the students clearly understood what was expected out of them, and had the tools they needed to be well behaved and successful! Please let me know if you have any questions about the CHAMPS program, or this pack. I would love to hear if you have used this in your classroom, and how it worked!

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One of my big goals this summer is to update all of my TPT products. I've been making products for just under a year now, and it's amazing how much I have learned along the way through trial and error! The first product I wanted to redo was my CHAMPS pack.

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Behavior Management Charts {CHAMPs Aligned)

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Manage behavior with style! My Behavior Expectations Charts were created to align with CHAMPs Behavior Management Program created by Randy Sprick. Within this file, you will receive a brief explanation of CHAMPs acronym. Please see my preview for all that is included in the updated Shabby CHAMPs file.

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Minds in Bloom presents Literacy without Worksheets with her post on classroom management. Enjoy!

Classroom management can be one of the most challenging aspects of teaching. As teaching becomes more stressful with increased accountability standards and high-stakes testing, a well-managed classroom is key to maximizing student learning opportunities. The more time teachers have to spend correcting behaviors and getting students' attention, the less time students have to learn (and this leads to very stressed out teachers)! To maintain my sanity, I am sold on CHAMPS for classroom management. It is a positive and proactive approach. Just like you plan lessons to teach a learning target, CHAMPS allows you to teach behavior expectations throughout the school day. However, I must point out that CHAMPS is just one component that I use.

I still have classroom rules. For example, #1 is Keep the Dear Teacher Happy. 🙂 I still have consequences if students do not follow the classroom rules. I still provide incentives (money for the school store, popcorn parties, extra recess, bring your favorite stuffed animal to school, Fun Friday, etc). I also have an attention signal. I use this when I want everyone to stop what they are doing, look at the teacher, and listen for directions.

CHAMPS is a system of expectations that works with any set of rules, rewards, or consequences that you are already implementing. It can even be used if your school has a specific classroom management program in place. For example, my school has the 3 Bs: Be Safe, Be Responsible, and Be Respectful. Those are common terms all teachers use. I still use those terms frequently, but I also use CHAMPS in my classroom.

CHAMPS is part of Randy Sprick's Safe and Civil Schools and is a research-based program with over thirty years of classroom research.

The CHAMPS acronym stands for:

Conversation: Can students talk to each other during this activity?

Help: How do students get the teacher's attention and their questions answered?

Activity: What is the task/objective? What is the end product?

Movement: Can students move about during this activity?

Participation: How do students show they are fully participating? What does work behavior look/sound like?

Success: When students meet CHAMPS expectations, they will be successful!

According to Safe and Civil Schools, CHAMPS strategies are easy to implement and will:

Reduce classroom disruptions and office referrals

Improve classroom climate

Increase student on-task behavior

Establish respectful and civil interactions

In order for CHAMPS to be successful, students need numerous opportunities to practice what each expectation looks and sounds like. One easy way to do this is to have the students become actors and actresses. They can model examples and non-examples to show their friends. This provides them a fun way to learn expectations.

Once students have been taught what CHAMPS looks like, then before each "activity," the expectations need to be explained. This can be done before whole group, before students are doing independent work, before transitions between activities, and before guided reading/guided math and work stations.

In addition to CHAMPS, it is important to also positively praise and reward (class points) as much as possible when students are demonstrating the expectations. By the same token, if students are not following the expectations, then teachers need to follow through with their classroom management system.

If I am teaching to the whole group, then my CHAMPS expectations would be the following:

If we are doing guided reading, and I'm working with a small group but students are at work stations, then my CHAMPS expectations would be the following:

Conversation: Partner voice

Help: Ask a friend

Activity: Do your own work

Movement: Responsible movement

Participation: Work with a partner

In the above picture, I used green highlighter tape to highlight each expectation. I can use it over and over, and it's easy to move. You could also use sticky note arrows or clothes pins.

The key to CHAMPS is that expectations are explained before the activity begins. In addition, through modeling and practice, responsible school behaviors have been taught. Many times I feel like I'm a broken record. However, the students clearly understand my expectations, and we can spend more time learning!

You can download my CHAMPS poster here!

Literacy without Worksheets loves to provide hands-on learning opportunities for her students. Currently, she works as a literacy coach and teaches reading intervention groups. When she is not teaching, she loves reading, running, and traveling.

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Minds in Bloom presents Literacy without Worksheets with her post on classroom management. Enjoy! Classroom management can be one of the most challenging aspects of teaching. As teaching becomes more stressful with increased accountability standards and high-stakes testing, a well-managed classroom is key to maximizing student learning opportunities.

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Introduction

The overall goal of the CHAMPs classroom management system is to develop an instructional structure in which students are responsible, motivated, and highly engaged in the specific task at hand.

More particularly, the teacher's goal is to teach students directly how to be successful in specific class situations.

As I'm sure you must know, this requires thorough planning.

Initial Considerations

You are already using many, if not all, of the following instructional approaches: teacher-directed instruction, class discussion, small group activity, independent work time, sustained silent reading, cooperative groups, and testing or quizzing.

You may be using several more that I have not listed.

For each of these instructional approaches, ask yourself two questions, "What do students need to know and do in order to behave responsibly? What do students need to know and do in order to be successful?"

Planning a CHAMPs Classroom Management Strategy

Use the CHAMPs acronym to define detailed behavioral expectations for EACH instructional approach that you use. Here is the CHAMPs acronym along with questions to ask yourself for developing each structured activity.

Conversation: Can students converse during this activity? About what? With whom? For how long?

Help: How do students get your attention for help? How do students get questions answered? What should they do while they wait for you?

Activity: What is the expected end product of this activity? What is the task or objective?

Movement: For what reasons can students get out of their seats during this activity? Do they need permission to do so?

Participation: What behavior shows that students are participating or not participating?

Success: There are no questions for this one. When CHAMPs expectations are met, students will be successful.

CHAMPs Classroom Management Example

The specific instructional approach for this CHAMPs example is the class discussion. This is how I chose to structure this approach. You, of course, may have any variations that you choose.

Here is the CHAMPs acronym with MY specific instructions for each expectation.

Conversation: No conversation is allowed during this class discussion. Keep cell phones off or on vibe.

Help: If you do not understand someone's comment, raise a sheet of paper in the air to ask questions for clarification. You will be the first one called to ask this type of question.

Activity: Listen to the discussion. Do not interrupt others who are speaking. Ask questions or make comments that are appropriate for the topic of the discussion. Raise your hand in a normal way to do so.

Movement: Stand and stretch if you need to, but do not walk around the classroom.

Participation: Share your experiences and questions related to the topic of the discussion.

Once you have brainstormed your expectations for a specific instructional approach, implementation takes just a few steps.

Implementing a CHAMPs Classroom Management Strategy

First, decide how you will present the CHAMPs expectations for reading journaling to the class. Based on my experiences, I have found that the following method is an effective way to present those expectations.

I prepare a set of signs for each CHAMPs initiative that contains the acronyms and their associated expectations.

I use 8.5 x 11 card stock paper (110 pound, thick paper) for the signs, and I attach them to the classroom whiteboard with fasteners that can be removed easily (adhesive on one side and magnetic on the other). These inexpensive supplies can be purchased at your nearest office supply store.

Once arranged and aligned on the classroom whiteboard, the CHAMPs display for reading journaling looks like this:

Typically, I leave the signs that display the acronym itself on the board from day to day. To begin a new instructional approach, in this case, the reading journaling activity, I place each corresponding expectation next to the appropriate letter.

I ask students to read the expectations so that they can be successful with the activity. Once again, I remind them that we are in the business of success.

When reading journaling begins, I write silently with them to model the appropriate behavior. I also monitor their behavior as much as possible during the journaling time--noting students who may need clarification of expectations in the near future.

At the conclusion of the activity, I provide immediate general feedback about how the class did as a whole. I finish by using specific positive reinforcement for individual students whenever I can.

If I find a need to modify the expectations, I make the changes accordingly prior to the next session that will be based on this particular instructional approach.
100 CHAMPs Classroom Signs
If you're thinking about implementing CHAMPs in your classroom, and you don't really have the time to make your own signs from scratch, you may be interested in the 100 CHAMPs Classroom Signs Collection.

Using signs from this collection, here's what a typical display for the activity of standardized testing would look like:

68 of these signs are ready to go, straight out of the box and another 32 are customizable-just type in your own behavioral expectations to suit your specific activities and requirements.

For more details about 100 CHAMPs Classroom signs, please reference this page. You can also download 10 of these signs completely free of charge here.

You may also be interested in 125 Classroom Signs for Structure and Organization .
Time Considerations
This system works best if it is implemented on the very FIRST day of school.

If you are introducing it later in the year, the overall success of this approach is entirely dependent on how well you handle it with your kids and how much you allow them to buy into it.

One tool that may facilitate the launching of CHAMPs in the middle of the school year is CHAMPs Companion.

CHAMPs Companion is an 18-20 minute animated video book that introduces CHAMPs to students.

This video book uses examples drawn specifically from the 100 CHAMPS Classroom Signs Collection; however, if you use your own set of CHAMPs signs, you'll likely find that this resource is just as useful.

To see more details and download the free sample, please reference this page.

CHAMPs Classroom Management Conclusion

As I'm sure you will agree, like any other management strategy, the CHAMPs classroom management system requires some trial and error.

However, the benefits can be substantial.

If you are interested in a strategy that may successfully encourage students to be responsible, responsive, and proactive, this approach is certainly worth trying.

Return to Daily Teaching Tools from CHAMPs Classroom Management

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CHAMPs Classroom Management: Designing and Implementing the System

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Introduction The overall goal of the CHAMPs classroom management system is to develop an instructional structure in which students are responsible, motivated, and highly engaged in the specific task at hand. More particularly, the teacher's goal is to teach students directly how to be successful in specific class situations.

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Proactive and Positive Approach to Classroom Management | Safe & Civil Schools

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Establish a proactive and positive classroom management plan with the CHAMPS program from Safe & Civil Schools.