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Culturally diverse means a mix of students who are from different cultures mixed together and working as one group. If you have cultural diversity, you can embrace the differences by sharing and if you do not have much cultural diversity among the students, you can read books, watch movies, and learn trivia about other cultures that are foreign to yours. Generating cultural acceptance can make your students culturally diverse for when they encounter diversity.

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There are reasons to remove a student from a whole group setting if they are distracted/distracting from the others.  Removing them from the classroom will make them miss the content.  Some teachers instead will put them in a "naughty" corner.  This is ineffective.  A cool off, sensory station could be more effective.

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The purpose of RTI is to teach core content well, but if that shouldn't work there is a safety net to implement intervention so that a student can catch up. If they still struggle even with intervention... they should get more expertise and further one-on-one intervention with specialists. It is about catching the students who might fall through the cracks otherwise. It helps all students become successful and builds the core instruction to benefit the group, too!

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1. Name
2. What motivates them
3. Interests
4. Dislikes
5. Learning style/history

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Print photos of the students and have them write their names on them. Face to name recognition is very strong!

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A teacher should never humiliate or embarrass a student, instead they should handle each child with calm, patience, and discretion.

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Wait for the student to self-regulate.

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RTI is a multi-tiered intervention approach that provides early intervening services to struggling students to improve their skills. It can also be used to identify students who need more interventions and track the interventions provided. The purpose it to provide instructional intervention early to those who need it based on research-validated practices in the core classroom instruction.

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No example here.  I don't want to steal anyone's thunder :)

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No example here.  I don't want to steal anyone's thunder :)

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Making students stay in from recess because of misbehavior.

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Making students stay in from recess because of misbehavior.

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I have always found it interesting that teachers punish students by keeping them in during recess when there was a problem with behavior. Those are typically the students who REALLY need to be outside running around and getting some of that energy out.

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This is a good method especially with the younger students. I use this with my class which is very effective.

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50 fun call-and-response ideas to get students' attention

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Call-and-response is a time-tested technique for getting attention. Instead of repeating yourself, train students to respond to a fun statement!

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Keep calm and carry on. Not always easy, especially when things feel out of control. Like they say, never let them see you sweat!

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There are a lot of easy games out there to help memorize names. You can do them along with your class. The "getting to know you" activities are always helpful because if you can remember something specific about each student, it is easier to link that to their name and remember it

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How to Learn All Your Students’ Names the First Day of School

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How boring would it be if we were all the same

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How boring would it be if we were all the same

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Similar to Mr. Lichty's response. I talk with my class all the time about being an individual and being who they are. I always use the example of how boring life would be if we were all the same. Being different is what makes us each great and makes the world an amazing and diverse place to be. Also how it is important to be accepting of each other's differences.

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I think if my students see that I am excited to be there each day with them, they will feel that and know I want them there. Also creating that personal connection with each student is really important, I think that helps with the bond and knowing I care.

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1. Name
2. How they like to learn
3. Something unique about them
4. Family make up
5. Favorite & least favorite thing about school.

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RTI is a multi tier approach that helps to identify students who need additional help in school. Providing support to those who need it in a variety of different ways.

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At a glance

RTI aims to identify kids who are struggling in school.

It uses targeted teaching to help them catch up.

An important part of RTI is measuring progress and providing more support to kids who need it.

If you look inside any general education classroom, chances are good that you'd see different students struggling for different reasons. It can be hard for a teacher to tell right away which students are struggling or why.

Response to intervention (RTI) aims to identify struggling students early on and give them the support they need to thrive in school. The word intervention is key to understanding what RTI is all about. The goal is for the school to intervene, or step in, and start helping before a student falls really far behind.

Teachers can provide targeted teaching - called interventions - to help struggling students catch up. A big part of the RTI process involves closely monitoring student progress. That way the school can see which students need more academic support.

RTI isn't a specific program or type of teaching. It's a proactive approach: RTI measures students' skills and uses this data to decide which interventions to use.

Tell us what interests you

About the author

About the author

Amanda Morin is the author of "The Everything Parent's Guide to Special Education" and the former director of thought leadership at Understood. As an expert and writer, she helped build Understood from its earliest days.

Reviewed by

Reviewed by

Elaine M. Niefeld, MA, MBA is a consultant and former associate director of the RTI Action Network.

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What Is Responsive to Intervention (RTI)?

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RTI aims to identify kids who are struggling in school. It uses targeted teaching to help them catch up. An important part of RTI is measuring progress and providing more support to kids who need it. If you look inside any general education classroom, chances are good that you'd see different students struggling for different reasons.

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I find that singing in general gets the students attention better than talking or raising my voice. They really respond to that change in tone.

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How is it that some teachers seem to be able to manage their classrooms without ever needing to raise their voice? Is it some kind of magic? That's the question teachers have been discussing in our WeAreTeachers HELPLINE group on Facebook: How can I stop yelling to get my class's attention?

Yelling, it turns out, is rarely worth the trouble anyway. "I never yell anymore," explains Nikki W. "My kids have had enough yelling in their lives and they learn to tune it out." So how can you get them to listen if you stop yelling? Check out these ten teacher-tested tips that really work instead.

1. Try a classic call-and-response or clap-back.

Jordan A. recommends an age-old teacher favorite. "Make a call-and-response. Something like 'Like a good neighbor' and the kids say 'State Farm is there' back and then get quiet. You have to teach it, but after a bit it catches on and works like magic." ( Get more fun attention-getter phrases here.)

Elisabeth P. likes to give them a physical action as a response. "I quietly say, 'If you can hear me, touch your nose. If you can hear me, cross your arms. If you can hear me, give me your best professor look, etc.' After the first few, all students have joined in.

Clap-backs are another fun alternative. "My kids love a clap off," says Gina A. "I clap different patterns for them to mimic. They always quiet right down and I always tell them how impressed I am with their ability to copy the hardest beats!"

2. Install a wireless doorbell.

This idea from sixth-grade teacher Heather M. is downright genius. "I bought a wireless doorbell and ring the bell as my quiet signal," she shares. "Sometimes I have to ring it ten times before they get quiet, but it keeps me from ever raising my voice. There are a ton of different sounds to choose from, so I switch the chime every month or so to keep them from getting used to it and ignoring it too much. I've had kids comment that I'm the only teacher who never yells, and I'm proud of that. I used to end up yelling all the time when I tried other methods to get them quiet. The bell really works for me!" (Check out this $12 option from Amazon to try it yourself.)

3. Teach them to respond to hand signals.

Rebecca S. notes that the time out signal (arms above head with hands making a "T" shape) works at every level, including high school. "The kids put it up when they see you doing it and they're supposed to stop talking. It takes a little while to get them into the swing of it, but it works."

Try expanding your hand signals to communicate other commands too. Christina M. teachers her kids basic words in sign language like Yes, No, Stop, and Sit. See more classroom hand signal ideas here.

4. Shut off the lights.

This is another classic teaching strategy. Stop yelling and just turn off the lights instead, like Valeria T. "I like shutting lights off; it's like they know to freeze and zip it." If you're in a classroom without windows and don't want to plunge into total darkness, try turning off just one bank of lights or flashing them on and off a few times.

5. Monitor noise levels with an app.

Carol T. tipped us off to classroom noise monitoring apps. Choose an acceptable noise level and let the app do the work! Display the noise meter on the classroom screen to help kids monitor their own noise level. If they can't manage to stay quiet, the app will warn them with a buzzer or other reminder. There are multiple free noise monitoring apps out there; we like Classcraft's Volume Meter and the very popular Bouncy Balls.

6. Count down to quiet (or set a timer).

Giving kids time to transition from one activity to the next, rather than expecting instant silence, can be helpful. Terri M. says, "I count quietly backwards from 10 during transition times. Anyone not in their seat and ready does have a consequence."

A countdown timer works too. "I use an online timer with a countdown buzzer for transitions," explains Brita L. "I hold up the next activity-like if it's a read-aloud, hold up the book. If they don't respond, try a secondary signal-walking to groups holding the book, and saying this is what's coming next, get ready."

Timers work both ways, too. "I sit quietly and get my timer out," says Nikki W. "However long it takes them to get quiet is how long they stay in [from recess]. Honestly I never even have to keep them in anymore because it ends up being like 20 seconds. They freak out when they see the timer and hurry up!"

7. Give them visual cues.

Make sure your students know what noise level is currently acceptable in the classroom. Create a voice level display using battery-operated tap lights and our free printable poster. Before you start an activity, tell your kids what noise level will be acceptable while they're working and turn on the appropriate light as a reminder.

8. Reward the quiet ones.

Elisabeth P. suggests, "Start saying thank you to the kids who are listening and are looking at you. In a normal tone of voice, say, 'Thank you, Johnny, for being the first one ready to listen. Thank you, Susie, for being ready to listen.' They LOVE being the first one to be noticed. Soon everyone joins them and looks at me for directions."

Fifth grade teacher Courney S. plays a code word game. "When I felt it was getting noisy (usually right before big holidays) I would bring in a candy or a privilege for the day. As I taught I would just say in the same volume as I was or a bit quieter the code word is _______. Then I would ask who heard the code word. I would have 3 kids whisper it to me for the team point. Whichever team won before lunch or dismissal got the mystery treat or prize. The key is to do it randomly and a few times each at a quieter voice and the class quiets down with you so they can win!"

9. Get quieter, not louder.

Tammy H. explains, "I was told a long time ago: If you yell, they will get louder to over-talk you. If you talk in a normal tone students will stop and listen. It works in my classroom." Chantel J. agrees, "It takes a conscious effort to do so but after a while it becomes habit."

Sometimes it's best to just go silent and wait. "When they're noisy and not listening," says Carolyn C., "I'll stand there and look at them, and then the clock, and then them, and then the clock... and I'll wait. It only takes a few kids to notice that I've stopped talking over them and then it's 'SHHHH! LOOK!! MS. C'S WAITING!!' and peer pressure takes over to do the right thing."

Paige T. showed her students how much her voice really matters in the classroom. "With a class that refused to let me teach, we went silent for a week, so they realized how much having extra help and instructions helped. After reading part of The Odyssey alone, they got the point."

10. Learn some new approaches to discipline.

If you still just can't seem to stop yelling in the classroom, explore some new options. Here are a few recommendations from other teachers:
What strategies have you used to stop yelling in the classroom? Come and share in our WeAreTeachers HELPLINE group on Facebook. Plus, one teacher's success story of how she learned to stop yelling. This article includes Amazon affiliate links. WeAreTeachers receives a tiny bit of the purchase price when you buy through these links, but we only recommend products we really love.

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Yelling Doesn't Work With Kids. So What Should You Do Instead?

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How is it that some teachers seem to be able to manage their classrooms without ever needing to raise their voice? Is it some kind of magic? That's the question teachers have been discussing in our WeAreTeachers HELPLINE group on Facebook: How can I stop yelling to get my class's attention?

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Have each student state their name during share time each day. "Hi, my name is Claire, and my favorite part of today was..."

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It's important to model this every single day for our students. I feel that one of the most important things we can teach our students is how to go out into the world and be a good person. Encourage them to embrace others' differences. Read books about friendship and inclusion. Remind them to always, ALWAYS, be kind.

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To keep my students engaged and learning, I will motivate them with songs, dancing, movement, and laughter.

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7 Creative Ways to Use Music in Your K-6 Classroom - We Are Teachers

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Music in the classroom can help with learning, behavior management, and more. Check out these creative ways to get K-6 graders moving and singing along.

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1. Name
2. Family life
3. Interests
4. Personality
5. How they learn best

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Response to intervention (RTI) aims to identify struggling students early on and give them the support they need to thrive in school. The word intervention is key to understanding what RTI is all about. The goal is for the school to intervene, or step in, and start helping before a student falls really far behind. It is an option that can also be used to identify students who have learning disabilities.

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Response to Intervention (RTI) is a multi-tier approach schools use to identify students with learning and behavior needs early.

What is Response to Intervention (RTI)?

Response to Intervention (RTI) is a multi-tier approach schools use to identify students with learning and behavior needs early. The RTI process starts with universal screening of all students in the general education setting. The data clarifies which students are in need of intervention in specific areas. Through data collection, intervention, assessment of progress and revised practice, the RTI team is able to make recommendations for continued intervention, accommodations, and services that will decrease academic and behavioral challenges and improve student success.
→ Check out our MTSS/RTI guide to help your team run & improve your MTSS/RTI programs.
Why Should Schools Implement RTI Strategies?

Experienced RTI teams will expedite student and school success because there will be strategic systems in place that ensure student's individual needs are addressed. Schools without RTI systems may not have sufficiently assessed why student performance is stagnant or declining, which is a disservice to students and denies schools an opportunity to improve their practice. There are many factors that impact growth, and it is the job of RTI leaders to assess student needs and build solutions in collaboration with parents, teachers, and support staff. Additionally, it is the responsibility of schools to provide equitable and adequate academic and behavioral support, which can be ensured through a sufficient RTI program.

How do RTI Programs Improve Student Success

Students Are Identified Early

Paying close attention to student trends will ensure that students don't go years without getting extra support. Unidentified focus and attention challenges, for example, are much harder to address when students progress to middle school, as opposed to when they are in early elementary. The Response to Intervention process uses screeners to clarify which students may be in need of academic and behavior support. Routinely checking in on student progress and behavioral patterns ensures that schools don't wait too late to intervene and address student needs.

RTI Systems Can Easily Align With Data Systems Already In Place

RTI teams can determine student need by deeply assessing student data in systems that already exist. For example, assessing daily behavioral trends, chronic absenteeism, suspension data, retention data, standard school benchmark test scores, and daily objective mastery can tell RTI leaders a lot about students before diving into deeper assessments. Having a consistent process to filter out students who aren't making progress with general school supports will help schools clarify which students are in need of different supports.

RTI Can Prevent Behavior Challenges

When students struggle to learn, it can cause their behavior to decline. Showing a lack of success in class may impact student confidence and motivation. Students who are in need of intervention may have a hard time keeping up with their peers which can cause them to act out or give up easier. Having a system in place to assess and address needs will ensure that students have the support they need which can prevent these types of behaviors from arising.

Experts Develop Thoughtful Solutions for Students

The best Response to Intervention teams are comprised of experts that bring a deep lens for problem solving for their field. RTI teams can include, but are not limited to the following members:

General Education Teacher

Parent/Guardian

Qualified School Social Worker or Counselor

School Administrator

School Nurse

School Psychologist

Speech Therapist

Additionally, RTI teams seek input from other service providers and community influencers depending on student needs. These members are able to critically think about the students' needs and apply research-based practices that will support growth.

School Leaders Get Insight into Bigger Trends

RTI teams are able to assess outliers and trends. School administrations can use RTI data to determine if school wide, grade level, content level or teacher specific shifts are needed based on data collection.

Equitable schools prioritize Response to Intervention and give students who are in need of extra support a chance to get the help they need. RTI teams prioritize doing the data analysis and solution building that can be challenging for school leaders and teachers to do independently while balancing the day to day school operations. Investing in developing RTI processes will impact student growth and help schools improve their overall success rate.

Here at , we have seen schools develop and improve Response to Intervention systems using our mobile app, web platform and professional development services.

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What is Response to Intervention (RTI) & Why it's Important

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Response to Intervention (RTI) is a multi-tier approach schools use to identify students with learning and behavior needs early. Response to Intervention (RTI) is a multi-tier approach schools use to identify students with learning and behavior needs early. The RTI process starts with universal screening of all students in the general education setting.

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Our school used to have a strict no cell phones out during the school day and it was constant battle of asking students to put phones away and it strained a lot of student/teacher relationship. This year when we welcomed students back into the school in March we came up with a plan for when it was appropriate for students to get out their phones and use them throughout the day. All teachers has the schedule of when phones could be out and when they should be put away. We even included a section of when it was appropriate for them to ask, i.e. Advisory, in-door lunch, etc. It was a much better system than just banning phones completely.

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Most of our 6th grade team uses this same strategy and we says “6th graders give me five.”

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When creating a the seating chart post their school picture above their name. Reference this and say the student’s name every time you address them. The picture seating chart is also really helpful for when you have a substitute!

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How often does raising your voice at your class only cause things to become louder and more chaotic? But if you visibly whisper directions while students are noisy, they will have to hush up in order to hear you.

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Bored Teachers | Celebrating Educators Every Day.

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Whenever possible offer students choice. From how they complete assignments (verbal, written, typed, drawing, etc.) to what order they do their assignments in. Giving students control over their learning has is a huge motivator. In order for choice to be effective you have to know your students and their abilities otherwise this may overwhelm them or become ineffective.

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1.     Name

2.     Living Situations

3.     Their Ideal Learning Environment

4.     Strengths/Weaknesses

5.     Interests/Motivators

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Using a clip chart for behavior and making a student clip down to a negative color, such as orange or red.

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Using a clip chart for behavior and making a student clip down to a negative color, such as orange or red.

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I feel this is counterproductive. It calls attention to the student who misbehaved and it is humiliating for that student. A better way is to have positive rewards for good behavior such as a coin jar. Make sure to name a student who did their job, such as "Emma just earned us two coins for getting to the carpet quickly and quietly."

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Calling out students for every behavior.  By this I mean that students are often still singled out in front of their peers for something that could be more generally announced to the whole class instead of to one individual.  (Example: if a student were to be talking during a lesson, it would be very easy to give a class wide reminder about voices during that time of the lesson instead of singling out a specific individual and telling them to stop talking.) Singling out students makes them embarrassed in front of their peers and sometimes can result in a larger behavior to take place after.  I do think that calling out students is necessary at some points, especially when a student is being dangerous or very inappropriate, but I don’t think that this is necessary for every little thing that a student does.

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Call and Response, sometimes paired with PBIS reward coupons for individuals who respond the first time.  I like to switch up my call and response depending on the grade level, class and time of year, but I feel that with my 3rd graders that I will be teaching this year, this will still work perfectly.  I make up my call and response chants with my students so that they have a part in it and think that it is “cooler” when they respond with excitement and enthusiasm because they helped make that specific one up.

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A battle that will never be won.  Talking quieter and calmer is always my go to in a heated situation.  Students seem to lower their voices too because they realize that they are the only one being loud.  Yelling at students also just a pathway to embarrassing your students and losing their respect.

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Without spot-on classroom management, dealing with unruly students can be maddening.

It's easy to lose your cool.

And when you do, when you yell, scold, and wag your finger, you're often rewarded with immediate improvement.

A thorough dressing-down can stop misbehavior in its tracks. But the price is exorbitantly high.

Yelling is a costly mistake.

Here's why:
1. Improvement is temporary.
Yelling only works in the moment. Like a playground bully, it's used to intimidate students into compliance. The only reason why it works is because the teacher has an unfair size and/or authority advantage.
2. It doesn't change behavior.
Behavior only changes when students want to behave better-which is the result of strict accountability combined with a teacher they like and trust. In the end, yelling causes more misbehavior, not less.
3. It weakens your influence.
Yelling will cause students to secretly dislike you, distrust you, and desire to disrupt your class. Let's face it. Even one revengeful student can make your life miserable. You need your students on your side.
4. It replaces real accountability.
Teachers who yell tend to do so instead of following their classroom management plan. Students learn quickly that if they can endure their teacher's outburst, they can be on their way without being held accountable.
5. It sabotages real accountability.
Teachers who lecture, yell, or scold while escorting students to time-out, drive a wedge through the teacher/student relationship, causing anger and resentment. So instead of sitting in time-out and reflecting on their mistake, your students will be seething at you.
6. It causes students to tune you out.
When you yell, you train your students to listen to you only when you raise your voice. In other words, they learn that unless you're shouting, you must not really mean it. Before you know it, you'll be giving directions like a carnival sideshow barker.
7. It's stressful.
Yelling is a sure sign that you let misbehavior get under your skin. It's an expression of frustration, of taking behavior personally, and of trying to get even with students. It's also terribly stressful. It's bad for your health. And it makes teaching a cheerless slog.
8. It's difficult to defend.
Yelling at students is near the top of the list of parent complaints. And it's difficult to defend. "I'm sorry, I just lost my cool" is about the best you can do. The fact is, no misbehavior, and no level of disrespect, warrants yelling at students.
9. It's graceless.
Have you ever seen yourself on video losing your cool? Probably not, but one thing is for sure: it ain't pretty. You might as well grab a megaphone and shout, "Hey everybody-students, fellow teachers, administration-I don't have control of my class!"
10. It provides a poor model.
Students are more influenced by what you do than by what you say. When you yell, react emotionally to misbehavior, or otherwise lose your composure, you provide a poor model for your students for how to behave when things don't go their way.
Instead Of Yelling...
No matter how frustrated you may get with your students, yelling should never be an option. Although it often works in the moment, the cost of gaining momentary control is much too high.

So instead of being that teacher, the one with the reputation for yelling and for "being mean," why not be the one that every student wants as their teacher?

To start, create a classroom management plan that works-and stick with it. And then work on building influential relationships with students; the kind of personal leverage that causes them to want to behave.

If you haven't done so already, please join us. It's free! Click here and begin receiving classroom management articles like this one in your email box every week.

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10 Reasons Why You Should Never, Ever Yell At Students - Smart Classroom Management

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Without spot-on classroom management, dealing with unruly students can be maddening. It's easy to lose your cool. And when you do, when you yell, scold, and wag your finger, you're often rewarded with immediate improvement. A thorough dressing-down can stop misbehavior in its tracks. But the price is exorbitantly high.

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I had 500 students last year and the best thing that I did was print off a seating chart for every class, but also include a previous year school picture for each individual. This way I was not only looking at a list of names in each class, but also a face to go with it.

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I tell my students all the time that we should love what makes us special and unique and should celebrate and treasure the differences and beauty of everyone else. I plan to incorporate diversity videos, books and stories into my morning meetings along with a social emotional journal prompt to start the day. I am also in the process of finding speakers of many different cultures for this year, so that my students can learn from them and realize how differences make our world so beautiful and amazing.

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I pride myself in knowing my students very well. I like to understand who they are, where they came from, what they like to do, etc etc etc. I know that we aren’t exactly supposed to be “friends” with our students, so we are told, but I truly think that these strong relationships make the students excited to learn from me and helps me to keep them engaged all class. I also think that we as teachers are great actors and that is something that I rely on from time to time.  Students want to learn from someone who is excited and happy to see them, spend their day with them and is enthusiastic about the lessons. There are times that teaching is not easy, or I have a rough day and don’t want to be over the top excited, but I know that my excitement and happiness is why a lot of my students enjoy learning from me, so the excitement is something that I need to bring, no matter what I am feeling that day.

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1. Their name (correctly pronounced ). There are teachers that I was with this past year that went the whole year pronouncing a students name wrong. A name is something that is unique and an identity, we should get this right.

2. Their family life or living situation.

3. Their learning style.

4. What they are motivated by.

5. Who they are as an individual outside of the classroom.  This goes back to building relationships, and I do not think that I can best reach or teach any one of my kiddos without them trusting me and having a relationship first.

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RTI is a strategy to identify struggling students early on in hopes that they receive the support that they need and can continue on with the specific grade level benchmarks and goals. RTI has 3 tiers and is all about trying to implement interventions for students before the students fall behind. RTI can also be used to identity students with learning disabilities.

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I think any discipline tactic that shames students does exponentially more harm than good. Whether that be writing their name on the board, threatening to call their parents purposely in front of the class, or any other purposely humiliating practice, it's unnecessary and inappropriate.

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Students need to be able to see themselves in the literature we read and see their own culture reflected as they build their identity – this is their mirror. Windows are when we are providing students opportunities to view and understand someone else’s experiences. This need to be done in the classroom and in the lessons we teach. All students need to feel represented.

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A good teacher works hard to develop relationships with students in order to help them identify their place in the world. A great way to help children do this effectively is to introduce stories and materials that act as mirrors and windows.

You may have heard the term "windows, mirrors, and sliding glass doors" being used more frequently lately, especially when it comes to literacy. But what does this phrase mean?

What are windows, mirrors, and sliding glass doors?

The phrase "mirrors and windows" was initially introduced by Emily Style for the National SEED Project. Multicultural education scholar Rudine Sims Bishop furthered the concept when she coined the phrase "windows, mirrors and sliding glass doors" to explain how children see themselves in books.

A window is a resource that offers you a view into someone else's experience. A sliding door allows the reader to enter the story and become a part of the world. A mirror is a story that reflects your own culture and helps you build your identity.

It is critical to understand that students cannot truly learn about themselves unless they learn about others as well.

Why are mirrors important?

When students read books where they see characters like themselves who are valued in the world, they feel a sense of belonging. The first step is gathering diverse resources for your classroom. The second step is building a culturally sensitive curriculum that teaches all the things required of any standard-based curriculum. Putting up mirrors for your students merely means setting up the context for them, not doing it in addition to regular learning. So be sure that you hand pick the books your students will use to learn the standards. Here are some tools to help to make sure that happens:

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Why are windows important?

Bishop goes on to explain that windows help us develop understandings about the wider world. Students need to learn about how other people conduct themselves in the world in order to understand how they might fit in. This is where you'll need to diversify your materials so that, regardless of who is in your classroom, all students get to see a window into the range of possibilities out in the world. For some children, this may be the first time they are exposed to differences in culture, skin color, religion, and lifestyle. It's important that their introduction is one of non-judgment and supportive acceptance. Let kids find some comparisons on their own before guiding them to see similarities and differences. Share lots of picture books with all age groups so you can provide rich information about a lot of topics in a short period of time.

Why are sliding glass doors important?

Sliding glass doors further expand on the concept of windows. Instead of just viewing another person's culture or experience, glass doors allow readers to walk into a story and become part of the world. The goal here is to encourage reflection and action. Sliding glass doors result in a reader's change of perspective.

Resources to include in your classroom.

Whether you're encouraging your students to reach for a book as a window, mirror, or sliding glass door, these diverse lists will help guarantee you have ample material on hand.

Don't relegate mirrors and windows to literacy.

There are lots of ways to use the concept of mirrors and windows in other subjects. Problem solving lends itself nicely to getting kids to look at things from their own perspective as well as that of others. In his article Mirrors & Windows Into Student Noticing , Higinio Dominguez shares how this inward/outward process of thinking helps children reverse their poor self-concepts about certain subjects.

Circle back around to give students time to reflect.

Handing kids great books about characters they can relate to is important, but it loses its impact without reflection. Building identity is a long process which requires regular reflection and shifting of thoughts and ideas. Don't expect kids to know how to do this work on their own. Besides asking open-ended questions that provoke metacognition (thinking about your thinking), try using a Howard Gardner strategy from Harvard's Project Zero: When you want kids to reflect, have them write: I used to think _____, but now I think ____.

With all new big concepts in education, this one will take consistency and practice. The reward, though, is a classroom of individual students who feel valued and are therefore more able to move forward into the world sharing their gifts. As teachers, we can't hope to do more.

How can I learn more about mirrors and windows?

Deepen your understanding of what mirrors and windows are and how they can best be implemented in your classroom. Here are some great books and resources that can help:

We'd love to hear your thoughts around mirrors and windows, and how this thinking impacts your curriculum and library decisions. Come and share your thoughts in our WeAreTeachers HELPLINE group on Facebook.

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What Are Windows, Mirrors, and Sliding Glass Doors?

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What are mirrors and windows? Get the definition, plus resources for helping you to implement a mirrors and windows philosophy in your curriculum.

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I like to start class right away with "bell work" or another engaging activity so I don't lose their attention early on.

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Teaching middle school can be notoriously difficult, but it's crucial to remember that YOU are the adult in the classroom. You need to act like a mature adult, because you can't always expect 12 year old students do. Never stoop to an immature level to get students' attention.

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I taught 4K-8 Spanish last year at a school in a small town. The school was (and town) are not very diverse, and there were no native speakers of Spanish (or children of native speakers) at this school. For many students, Spanish class was their only opportunity to not only learn Spanish, but to learn about the variety of Spanish speaking cultures. I took that role very seriously and I incorporated a lot of culture days and activities. My classroom was not particularly diverse in terms of student body, so I did my best to make sure that the curriculum would be.

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I am sure this has been said already, but I always try to motivate my students positively. Rather than emphasizing potential negative consequences (ie. 'if you're not paying attention now it's not my problem when you fail'), I try to motivate students to want to pay attention. Granted, this can be easier said than done.

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1. Name
2. IEP or other accommodations
3. personal aspirations
4. necessary background information (to avoid triggers or upsetting topics)
5. what motivates them

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Collective punishment is sometimes used to pressure individual students to behave for the good of the group. This usually isn't effective and doesn't build a positive connection between students. Instead the teacher needs to put clear procedures and positive expectations in place.

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RTI (or response to intervention) is a method used to target students who require additional support in the classroom and to help them catch up to the grade standard. The word intervention is key to this method; the teacher and/or school must intervene on behalf of the student rather than just wait for them to seek out the help they need.

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At a glance

RTI aims to identify kids who are struggling in school.

It uses targeted teaching to help them catch up.

An important part of RTI is measuring progress and providing more support to kids who need it.

If you look inside any general education classroom, chances are good that you'd see different students struggling for different reasons. It can be hard for a teacher to tell right away which students are struggling or why.

Response to intervention (RTI) aims to identify struggling students early on and give them the support they need to thrive in school. The word intervention is key to understanding what RTI is all about. The goal is for the school to intervene, or step in, and start helping before a student falls really far behind.

Teachers can provide targeted teaching - called interventions - to help struggling students catch up. A big part of the RTI process involves closely monitoring student progress. That way the school can see which students need more academic support.

RTI isn't a specific program or type of teaching. It's a proactive approach: RTI measures students' skills and uses this data to decide which interventions to use.

Tell us what interests you

About the author

About the author

Amanda Morin is the author of "The Everything Parent's Guide to Special Education" and the former director of thought leadership at Understood. As an expert and writer, she helped build Understood from its earliest days.

Reviewed by

Reviewed by

Elaine M. Niefeld, MA, MBA is a consultant and former associate director of the RTI Action Network.

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What Is Responsive to Intervention (RTI)?

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RTI aims to identify kids who are struggling in school. It uses targeted teaching to help them catch up. An important part of RTI is measuring progress and providing more support to kids who need it. If you look inside any general education classroom, chances are good that you'd see different students struggling for different reasons.

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These are quick, engaging ways to grab students' attention. I like "Hands free! Eyes on me!"

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It's important to demonstrate appropriate behavior to students. If we model anger to get attention, we aren't setting a good example.

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Most teachers have been through this exact scenario: You try to start class with a line like, "Okay everyone, we're going to get started." And a couple students might glance up at you, indignant that this teacher is bothering them. So a little louder you say, "Everyone! Time to start class." This gets the attention of a few more students, but still the majority of kids keep talking to each other, ignoring the fact that their teacher is in the front of the room with a face that is becoming redder and redder. Finally, you lose your temper, RAISE YOUR VOICE, the room goes quiet, and you are left feeling a little embarrassed, and even more, frustrated that it takes yelling to get your class' attention.

Struggling to start off class or return from a group activity is a challenge every teacher faces. However, as important as it is to get your students' attention and be as efficient with time as possible, it doesn't have to be difficult. Here are 10 ways to get the attention of even the noisiest group of students without raising your voice or losing your cool.

1. Use a Timer.

Having structure to the time students spend in your class can help eliminate the chaos of getting their attention. If you have a screen in your room, project a timer for each activity they are working on. That way, students can see how much time is left and when they will need to redirect to the teacher. If you have an Amazon Echo in your room, you can tell Alexa to set a timer for ___ minutes. This way, there will be no surprises when you have to get your class' attention (and Alexa can call them back for you).

2. Stand in the Middle of the Room.

Use proximity to students to your advantage. If you are standing at the front of the room, you may be close to the students in the front, but are a whole classroom away from kids in the back. When getting their attention, stand at the middle of the room where you are closer to every student. If there is a certain group of students who have more trouble redirecting, stand near them when calling the class' attention.

3. Utilize Awkward Silence.

This one can be difficult at first, and it can seem counterintuitive to stand in the middle of the room and say nothing. However, this is possibly the best way to get your class' attention. Here's how you do it: Say one time, "Okay everyone, I need your attention." Then stand and wait. It will probably not get instant results the first time, but students will notice you standing there waiting for their attention, and like magic, will give it to you. You'll see students turn and quiet each other and do all of the work for you. I'm not sure if it's out of shame for making their teacher stand quiet for so long or some type of teacher-Jedi-mind-trick, but pretty soon the time you have to stand quietly vanishes. Kids know you will stand until you have their attention, making them feel awkward, and so give attention immediately.

4. Use Call and Response.

This a great culture building technique that makes getting the class' attention fun and familiar. The teacher has a regular call out to students, and students know how to respond when they hear it. For instance, the teacher could say something like, "What's up What's up?!" and the class responds, "You know what's up!"

Other call and response ideas: Teacher: "Everybody say Ay Yo!" Students: "Ay yo!"
Teacher: "Holy moly!" Students: "Guacamole!"
Teacher: "Alright now stop!" Students: "Collaborate and listen!"

You get the idea. It's a fun way to get attention and get everyone on the same page.

5. Utilize "Helpful" Students.

Every class has them, those students who help shhh everyone else and make sure everyone is following the rules. While sometimes these students can be a little overbearing and annoying, they can also be a valuable asset to your class. When this student is trying to quiet their classmates as you stand silently at the front (see #2), make sure to thank them publicly when the class gets quiet. This shows your gratitude to that student and encourages them to continue assisting you, and also sends the message to the class of what the expectation is when the teacher is trying to get attention.

6. Have a Countdown Call-Out.

Instead of calling for your class' attention out of nowhere, give them a 5 second warning. Try saying, "With me in 5. With me in 4. With me in 3. With me in 2. With me in 1." By the time you get to one, students will have had time to wrap up conversations or finish what they were doing and give you their attention.

7. Turn on a Special Light.

Have a light in a central place in the room, that when turned on, means you need the class' attention. This could be a lamp, stoplight, lava lamp, disco ball, or any other type of light that gives students a visual cue to turn their attention.

8. Play Animal Sounds.

This one is for your "auditory students." Play mooing cows, chirping birds, or howling monkeys through classroom speakers when you need students' attention. Not only is it funny, but it will be sure to get the attention of your students when you need it. Because let's be honest, who is going to carry on a conversation with pigs oinking in their ears?!

*Pro tip: Let students decide what animal will be played through the speakers each day. It's fun for them, and makes sure the whole class knows what sounds to listen for when it's time to refocus attention.

9. 'Clap if You Can Hear Me.'

This is the timeless classic that has worked across generations. It goes like this: Say aloud, "Clap twice if you can hear me." Students who hear you will clap two times. Now say, "Clap 3 times if you can hear me." More students will join in clapping. For the third time say, "Clap 11 times if you can hear me." By now, there is no chance that there is a student in the room who does not know that you need their attention. Kids get to burn a little physical energy and you now have their attention. Timeless. Magical.

10. Build Relationships!

And the most effective of all of these attention-getting techniques is of course to build relationships with your students. When students feel trusted and respected by their teacher, they will return that trust and respect. This is why the best classroom management starts with relationships. Simply put, kids will give their attention to teachers they know care about them. So the most effective way to start class quickly and get your students' attention is to care about them and make sure they know it.
Join the community for new teachers here at our Facebook Group.

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10 Ways to Get Your Students' Attention Without Raising Your Voice

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Most teachers have been through this exact scenario: You try to start class with a line like, "Okay everyone, we're going to get started." And a couple students might glance up at you, indignant that this teacher is bothering them. So a little louder you say, "Everyone! Time to start class."

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Look at the yearbook pages from the grade before off and on all summer.

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How I Do It: Learn Students' Names | Scholastic

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Creative ideas for memorizing new names from fellow teachers.

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A culturally diverse classroom builds on individual and cultural experiences and students' unique prior knowledge. One way to promote diversity is to make learning relevant by tying it to current events or social issues. Other important topics might include social justice and reform.

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I'm sure most of us experienced this in grade school, right? Lose 10 minutes of recess because the class is too loud and the teacher takes away time from the class. Whereas, I like to phrase it as "You are taking up your own time. We will leave when you are all ready and following rules. Thank you, Student A, for listening, Thank you Student B for being ready.." etc.

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My personal favorite is "Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?" The class responds... of course.. "Spongebob squarepants." Have to make it fun and keep them engaged with it too

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I will encourage student thinking and choice by employing an inquiry learning philosophy. Students will be motivated to learn by their own thirst for knowledge and power of choice. This type of learning makes students responsible for their success and keeps learning relevant and engaging.

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Losing your cool in front of a class of students is the worst way to get students' attention. Plus, they'll remember if for a lifetime.. I know because I remember my teacher going off.

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In the Kinder classroom I was in last year, the Kinder teacher had EVERYTHING labeled. from subject boxes to desks. I learned all 25 students' names in 3 days and it was incredible!

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Learning our names is the springboard for literacy learning in preschool! Children's names are the most important words to them, and learning them leads to all other types of learning. When we talk about teaching children their names, it is important to consider these three stages.

The first stage of learning names occurs when children start to recognize them! Young children begin to recognize the shape of their initial letter and often identify that first letter as "MY NAME!" They might find that initial letter in other places (separate from their names), point to it and say, "Look! There's my name!" even if it is just the one letter.

In preschool, we can do lots of things to foster children's recognition of their names. We label everything (lockers, change of clothes cubbies, snack chairs, carpet squares, folders, attendance chart, helper chart, and the alphabet wall) with their names and pictures, so that they begin to claim ownership of that very important word!

We use circle time as an opportunity to practice recognizing not only the child's own name, but the names of all the classmates as well. This is one of our favorite circle time songs for September. We write the students' names on apple cutouts and spread them all over the carpet. Then we repeat the verse for each child. They love to find each other's apples!

With repeated exposure and practice recognizing each other's names, the children begin to identify letters. Sarah and Shawn might have a difficult time figuring out which name is theirs because of the shared initial letter and close appearance of the other letters, so we just keep working on it noticing similarities and differences. Joshua might notice that, "Look! I have Olivia's O in my name."

The next step, after children are able to recognize their names is to begin to spell them orally. We practice this in many ways. A child might be able to recite, "E-T-H-A-N" without seeing it written down. Then they will begin to notice each letter. We provide a name activity like this one each morning for our students to practice.

We practice with both capital letters (for all the reasons I wrote about in this post), and we also practice matching capitals to lower case like this:

When the children are comfortable with recognizing and spelling their names, the next step is to work on writing them. Often these steps overlap and work in conjunction with each other! We give our children lots of opportunities to write their names with sidewalk chalk, paint, markers, in salt trays, etc. They are also work on strengthening their hand muscles and refining their fine motor skills. Our older Pre-K students (less than 1 year to kindergarten) also sign in their names each morning. It's such a rewarding way to keep track of their progress.

When children begin to write, they often use what they already know about names (from learning to recognize their own name and their friends' names and from learning to spell them). For an example, the first time Leah write her name (with sidewalk chalk in the driveway), she verbalized her thinking.

"L is for Leah.

L-E... E is for (my brother) Evan.

L-E-A... A is for (my best friend) Anna.

L-E-A-H... H is for (my baby-sitter) Holly.

Look!! I wrote my whole name."

Learning about names is an essential part of learning about letters and literacy in preschool. Practice recognizing, spelling and writing those names in a variety of fun and playful ways!

Try these EDITABLE NAME PRACTICE PAGES for your students who are learning how to write their names. You just type in your class list and print customized, differentiated name worksheets for each child. So quick and simple!
Follow Play to Learn Preschool's board Literacy: Name Games on Pinterest.

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The 3 Stages of Learning Names in Preschool

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Learning our names is the springboard for literacy learning in preschool! Children's names are the most important words to them, and learning them leads to all other types of learning. When we talk about teaching children their names, it is important to consider these three stages.

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Push hard for books that embrace and teach about diversity. Having this conversation early on is crucial and our responsibility as educators to promote a healthy and educational classroom.

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For decades, children's books in school libraries and classrooms have overwhelmingly featured white faces. And as the U.S. school-age population grows more diverse, students of color are less likely than white students to see books with characters that look like them or share their cultural background.

Some educators and children's book authors are trying to change that.

Nonprofits like We Need Diverse Books advocate for children's literature that better reflects the experiences of all young readers. In online communities, such as those formed around Twitter hashtags #DisruptTexts and #DiversityJedi, teachers, authors, and critics discuss which books are given to students in classrooms and what messages they convey. Even DonorsChoose.org, the school crowdfunding platform, recently pledged to match donations to teacher requests for diverse learning materials.

The ripples of this ongoing conversation have reached a lot of classrooms, said Jess Lifshitz, a 5th grade teacher at Meadowbrook Elementary School in Northbrook, Ill.

"More teachers now know it's the right thing to have books that represent a wide variety of people," said Lifshitz. But, she added, "I think people do that, and they kind of want to check it off the checklist."

Important Messages

Supporters of diverse books say that it's important for children of color to see their own identities and experiences reflected in literature. And studies have shown that black children who receive messages emphasizing cultural pride-though not necessarily through books-have higher self-esteem, better social-emotional functioning, and increased classroom engagement.

But developing a truly inclusive classroom library goes beyond bringing in diverse books. "Just having them on the shelf does not ... do that teaching or unlearning of the stereotypes that we are barragged with all the time," said Laura Jiménez, a lecturer in Boston University's education school.

Following the civil rights and women's rights movements, a call for multicultural education in the 1970s and '80s drove schools to incorporate texts that would challenge stereotypes about people of color and shed light on the historical injustices perpetrated against those groups, said Ebony Elizabeth Thomas, an associate professor in the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education.

Those texts were meant to repair distorted narratives, said Thomas, but they can be painful for children of color to read because they often deal with traumatic events. Thomas has seen these patterns persist in the literature that students have access to today-many of the books about black people cover slavery or the civil rights movement.

"The white child gets all kinds of mirrors of the self in literature," said Thomas. "Endless, countless adventures. The full range of history-the good, bad, and the ugly. Whereas other children only get a very narrow slice of that history."

Now, some educators are examining the composition of their classroom libraries as a whole and the stories that these books tell. And they're asking their students to examine the stereotypes that they hold as readers.

Auditing the Classroom

The Cooperative Children's Book Center, a library at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Education, has tracked diversity in children's books since the 1980s. Last year, 11 percent of children's books published in the United States featured main characters who were African or African-American, about 9 percent were about Asian-Americans or Pacific Islanders, about 7 percent featured Latino main characters, and only 1 percent were about native peoples. That's in contrast to the demographics of public schools today, where there are now more students of color than white students.

Even when teachers bring diverse books into their lessons, the broader context of a classroom or school library might still disproportionately favor white characters.

Noelle Mapes, a 2nd grade teacher at PS 142 in New York City, has found that to be true in her own classroom.

Three years ago, when she was teaching 3rd grade at a different school, she started conducting an annual diversity audit of her classroom library with her students. First, they looked at national trends in the racial diversity of children's books, using the cooperative center's data. Then, the elementary schoolers did their own tally in the classroom, recording the race of the protagonist of each book.

Mapes now does this activity every April, after introducing her students to the idea that books can be both "windows," exposing readers to new worlds and perspectives, and "mirrors," reflecting readers' own experiences-a framework developed by author and education researcher Rudine Sims Bishop, a professor emerita of education at Ohio State University.

Every year, the highest percentage of books feature white protagonists. And every year, students are surprised-and disappointed.

In Mapes' classroom, the overrepresentation of white characters isn't for lack of trying to improve. The first year Mapes did the audit in her old school, students started bringing in books with protagonists of color to donate. As a result of her project, the PTA allocated funds for teachers to buy more titles. She also uses school-provided funds for her classroom to buy diverse books every year.

Over time, the percentage of diverse books in her old classroom increased, Mapes said. But when she left the school, books with white main characters still outnumbered books featuring characters of color in her classroom library. "Each year, as that initiative grows, as awareness grows around what kinds of books we want to buy and have donated, the margins should decrease," she said.

Perpetuating Stereotypes?

In examining her classroom library, Mapes said, she's also noticed some of the narratives that her collection shapes. In years when she has had the time, she's gone through some of the categories of books with her students after the audit. When they looked at the books about Native Americans one year, she noticed a theme: All were set in the past.

That trend holds true across children's books about native people, conveying the myth that they don't exist anymore, said Debbie Reese, the founder of the American Indians in Children's Literature blog.

"The idea that we can have present-day culture, modern-day society as part of our lives and still have our traditional religion and culture intact-it's a no-brainer to me as a native person, but society has a hard time understanding that," said Reese, who is tribally enrolled at Nambé Pueblo. Characters also often aren't named by their tribal affiliation, Reese said, which obscures the fact that there are more than 500 different federally recognized native nations, all with unique languages and cultures.

Some educators are asking students to interrogate these "single story" narratives that they may carry.

Every spring, Lifshitz, the Illinois teacher, does an activity around bias in books. She covers the titles on a handful of picture books in her classroom and poses some statements describing what the books are about-sentences like: "This is a book dealing with sadness and struggle and loss," or "This is a book about the love and joy that exists between family members."

Lifhsitz's students, who are majority white, are asked to match up each book with each statement, relying on cover art alone. Usually, the children guess that the covers featuring black families are about struggle, pain, or trauma-even when they aren't.

Once the titles and summaries of the books are revealed, the students can usually explain what has happened in the exercise. "They're willing to say, 'Oh you know what, I was totally using skin color to make an assumption, and that's what led me to the wrong answer,'" she said.

Teaching students to think critically about the kinds of stories books are telling is just as important as having a diverse array of literature in the classroom, said Lifshitz.

No matter how much she works to confront stereotypes in her classroom, students are still going to confront them out in the world, she said. "If I don't give them tools to recognize that, having the books in my classroom isn't really doing much to change how they're reading outside of the classroom."

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Teachers Push for Books With More Diversity, Fewer Stereotypes

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For decades, children's books in school libraries and classrooms have overwhelmingly featured white faces. And as the U.S. school-age population grows more diverse, students of color are less likely than white students to see books with characters that look like them or share their cultural background.

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building a rapport with each student and creating that safe environment will allow them to feel safe and comfortable in being themselves. Starts with a little something like this:

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Teacher Has Incredible Handshakes With Each Student | ABC News

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1 - What makes them laugh
2 - What makes them excited to learn
3 - strengths/weaknesses in school
4 - family dynamic/communication
5 - Extra support needed (IEP, etc.)

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Rtl is a multi tiered approach to helping students in need of educational assistance. This support system is meant to step in before a student becomes too far behind in class, thus the 'safety net' reference it is commonly referred to as.

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1. Ideal learning environment
2. Strengths and insecurities
3. How to help them find their own motivation
4. Where they've come from
5. Their progress towards mastery of personal goals

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by TeachThought Staff

This is part 2 of our #iteachthought series (because we refuse to say "back to school"-well, except for just then). Part 1 looked at classroom design, specifically offering alternatives to rows of desks. Today, we're going to help you create smarter, student-centered learning profiles.

What Great Teachers Know About Their Students

If you're creating a learning profile, what kind of information should be included? What's the point of such a profile? How will it be used? Most learning profiles are quick glances of academic data. And there's nothing wrong with this-it's quick., useful, and basic.

But it's also limited. To take another approach, as Grant Wiggins might suggest, let's work backward. And further, let's do so from a single big idea that unifies everything. Specifying a single idea that's broad and accessible enough to be useful may be a challenge, but let's try, starting with a few underlying assumptions.

1. Teachers plan learning experiences for students.

2. Different students have different needs. This implies a need for differentiation of instruction, personalization of curriculum, or both.

3. In this way, teachers are like designers. The data teachers use to make these kinds of design decisions varies.

4. An additional challenge? Teachers have a finite ability to process data, which implies a need to be selective with the data that is sought out and adjusted for.

5. At the classroom level, data is broadly considered in terms of content and performance.

6. Another way of thinking about this is to consider data quality-and not quality as it relates to accuracy or reliability, but rather what sort of information do I need about students to help them learn?

Though I disagree with what might be the fundamental premise that this post rests on-that teachers alone are responsible for the miracle of learning, and can even begin to know everything about every student-the idea here has to do with rethinking how we see students and how they relate to curriculum, and then designing both curriculum and learning models that fit these personalized learning needs.

What Good Teachers Know About Their Students

1. Native language

2. Critical medical needs

3. IEP/504s/Giftedness, and other services

4. Living Situation", including religious beliefs, safety, food, family, access to books, technology, etc.

5. Grade Point Average & academic strengths

6. Favorite subjects

7. Reading levels & reading habits

8. How they respond to accountability

9. Relative strengths and weaknesses as a student

10. Classroom citizenship habits

11. Academic expectations (including difference between own goals and those of family)

12. How to 'motivate' them

13. Trend of general academic progress over last 1-3 years

14. Progress towards mastery of power standards/data from relevant standardized assessments

15. How to help them do well in your class

What Great Teachers Know About Their Students

1. Critical thinking habits

2. Ideal learning environment & circumstances

3. Which challenges they'll respond to most powerfully

4. Their personal histories (e.g., what they've overcome)

5. Personal strengths

6. Insecurities about school

7. How they respond to structure

8. How they respond to open-endedness and uncertainty

9. What 'school' means to them

10. Digital citizenship habits

11. Intellectual and human affections

12. How to help them find their own motivation

13. View of self as a reader, writer, and a person

14. Progress towards mastery of personal goals (creative, professional, familial, or other) and how to help them set-and doggedly pursue-their own goals

15. How to help them create their own standards and metrics for 'success'

*Age appropriate

Additional Reading
How-tos Of Differentiation Lesson Planning Learning Profile Cards Learning Profile (embedded above) by Jessica Winston Creating Student-Centered Learning Profiles: What Great Teachers Know About Their Students

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What Great Teachers Know About Their Students

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by TeachThought Staff This is part 2 of our #iteachthought series (because we refuse to say "back to school"-well, except for just then). Part 1 looked at classroom design, specifically offering alternatives to rows of desks . Today, we're going to help you create smarter, student-centered learning profiles.

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"RTI's underlying premise is that schools should not wait until students fall far enough behind to qualify for special education to provide them with the help they need. Instead, schools should provide targeted and systematic interventions to all students as soon as they demonstrate the need." http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/oct10/vol68/num02/The-Why-Behind-RTI.aspx

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Teacher says One Two Three Eyes on Me and Students say One Two Eyes on You

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I have seen a teacher this last year get into a students face that was misbehaving and scream into his face " Are you happy now that you have my full attention?" He totally lost his cool in front of the whole class 

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I have seen a teacher this last year get into a students face that was misbehaving and scream into his face " Are you happy now that you have my full attention?" He totally lost his cool in front of the whole class 

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Teachers could ask students questions like what is your favorite color or favorite food and then have them gather together in one group for pizza and one for blueberries.

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Teacher could promote everyone's heritage in the room by displaying different cultures and their beliefs and cards with different languages displayed around the room, for example hello written in different languages and then displayed around the room for everyone to see and hear

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I will encourage them to excel by hanging signs on the walls saying "Way to go, You've got this!" By displaying their work around the room and school in a special highlighted spot for great work. I will have a bulletin board with their pictures displayed with what they will be when they get older written above the pictures.

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Writers' Wall: Displaying Children's Work to Motivate and Assess Writing (Virtual Tour)

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1. Name or nickname they like to go by
2. Names of family members
3. What they are interested in
4. What their favorite subject is
5. Where they struggle and excel at

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I don't like the fact of teachers always giving candy out to motivate kids or point sheets because kids still get to earn special rewards for not listening to directions or expectations, especially at my school. It just shows the other kids that are always good, that it pays to not listen and to do what you want because you get rewarded for it.

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For Kindergarten students, most of the teachers I work with use a battery operated doorbell, a set of chimes, a xylophone, etc. Students know that when they hear the noise voices are off, eyes are on the teacher, and ears are listening for the next instruction.

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Several veteran teachers in my building struggle to accept help from our Cross Categorical Teachers and support staff. They have a particular way they manage their rooms, and it's worked "fine" so far. "What this kid needs is rules, not to go to the Regulation Station and play!" or they do not provide a quiet, safe place for students to regulate in the room. This attitude often results in a power struggle, a broken relationship and lack of trust, and unneeded stress for the teacher and the student. A better strategy would be to willingly accept and welcome assistance from other staff. Allow them to do their jobs; allow students to take a break, regulate, and come back, and always take a minute to re-build that relationship after the child returns.

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Emotional self regulation is the ability to monitor and manage our own behavior. With self regulation, we can calm ourselves down when we're distressed, and pick ourselves up when we're low. Self-regulation is developmental in nature, just like learning to walk, talk, and read.

How do you teach a student who hasn't learned emotional self regulation?
Teaching academics is far from easy when a student hasn't learned how to manage stressors or emotions.

In this interview, I talk with occupational therapist Leah Kuypers about the program she created to teach kids self-regulation skills.

Why Leah teaches self regulation strategies

When Leah started working with students in public schools, she felt driven to provide kids with more support. A trained occupational therapist, she had no shortage of skills to address students' sensory regulation challenges, but she felt something was missing when it came to addressing students' behavioral challenges.

Whether students were struggling with anxiety, ADHD, ASD, or another condition, they often couldn't focus on learning because they had little ability to manage their emotions.

"I was watching a student explode because they missed the first five minutes of math," Leah says, "and the teacher's looking at me like, 'Well now what do we do?' and I'm looking at the teacher thinking the same thing, and I realized that there were a lot of us looking at each other really unsure how to support these kids when they had these big emotional experiences that often manifested themselves with disruptive behavior."

What often resulted from these outbursts was not uncommon, but ultimately unproductive. Students were given negative consequences such as no recess or being removed from the classroom.

The expectation was that the students would learn a lesson.

But as many educators do, Leah saw time and time again that punishment does not often teach.

It usually just hurts.

It perpetuates.

And then crises repeat.

So Leah felt impassioned to help students develop more adaptive, prosocial behavior. Ideas started flowing as she began graduate classes and explored social learning, executive functioning, and emotional regulation in children.

As she began putting practices into place with students, her colleagues started getting excited by what they were seeing. Students were engaged in learning. Leah kept pursuing as much continuing ed as she could and applied what she learned to her caseload.

When she got her master's in education, her culminating capstone became The Zones of Regulation curriculum.

What many people don't know about self-regulation and emotional control
Just like learning to walk and learning to read, self-regulation is developmental in nature, Leah says.

"All too often, our approach for a child with lagging skills in self-regulation is a more disciplinary model-where we would never take that approach with a kid who has a motor impairment or a reading delay."

So to support a child who has self-regulation delays, we need to meet them with an empathetic mindset and skill-building so they can be more adaptive and functional.

The Zones of Regulation
The Zones of Regulation is a systematic framework that gives kids ways to categorize how they're feeling. The colors blue, green, yellow, and red represent four zones that students can identify with.

Blue zone
Sad, sick, tired, bored. "Down" emotions.

Green zone
Neutral emotions, organized states. Calm, focused, happy, OK.

Yellow zone
Intensified emotions with cognitive control. Frustrated, silly, excited, wiggly, agitated, sensory overwhelmed, nervous, embarrassed.

Red zone
Intense emotions that overwhelm. Panicked, enraged, elated, crying, screaming.

"We're taking a rather abstract-this emotional world we live in-[concept] and putting it into four categories or zones that allow students to cognitively be able to conceptualize easier, 'How am I feeling? '" Leah says.
"And once they get that general zone, they have a bank of emotions that fall into each of the four zones, so they're building that awareness of where they're at, we're giving them a very visual structure to use to support that, as well as a very easy way to communicate it-with the caregiver, with the teacher, which will assist in that co-regulation between student and caregiver."

And as students build awareness of their emotions, Leah's system gives them matching tools for each of the four-colored zones. Similar to CPI's Crisis Development Model℠, which helps staff identify four behavior levels and corresponding responses, the Zones system helps students identify how they feel and what to do.

Teaching self-regulation in the classroom and beyond
The first step is teaching students that it's OK to feel the way they feel.

"It's natural to experience emotions," Leah says. "But we don't have to be at their mercy."

Leah advocates teaching students to read their bodies' signals, asking themselves:

What are the cues my body gives me?

Are my muscles tighter?

What's going through my mind?

Has my voice volume or rate of speech changed?

Once a student can identify physiological cues, they can start to identify their triggers, and apply tools for managing each zone.
Collaborating across disciplines
It's important for everyone to work together to teach self-regulation, Leah emphasizes. This includes all the key players in a student's life, including:

Teachers

Caregivers

Administrators

OTs

SLPs

Social workers

Guidance counselors

Aides and paraprofessionals

Mental health professionals

And others.
"Working in collaboration," Leah explains, "It's profound for the student to be able to move between contexts and environments and amongst different people supporting them, and hear the same language, that the visuals are there, that the environment is embracing them and setting them up for success as they travel between the cafeteria and the classroom and their specialist and their resource rooms."

Blending the Zones with core curriculum
If you're a classroom teacher, you might wonder how to teach the Zones when you have so much else to focus on.

Formal instruction in the Zones can be pretty light, Leah indicates-and most importantly, it can be wrapped together with other academic lessons and other teaching tools.

Try formally teaching the Zones in a morning meeting or for 20 minutes every couple weeks. And build the framework into your daily classroom by:

Using visual supports

Weaving the terms into everyday conversation ("I'm feeling in the yellow zone.")

Modeling the language as the adult to set the tone ("Sometimes my teacher is tired in the blue zone or stressed in the yellow zone.")

Infusing the Zones into core curriculum classroom work. For instance, during read-aloud time, have kids identify what zone a character is in. What tools could help the character manage their zones?

Leah also has strategies for incorporating the Zones into science, math, writing, and other lessons for different age groups, in both regular and special ed.
Learn more
Guest biography
Leah Kuypers earned a bachelor of science in occupational therapy from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a graduate certificate in autism, and a master of arts in education from Hamline University in St. Paul, MN. She has practiced as an OT/autism specialist in school and clinical settings, specializing in self-regulation and social learning, and has worked with students of all ages and challenges, including anxiety, ADHD, and ASD.

Leah created The Zones of Regulation®, a framework designed to teach self-regulation, and is author of the book and two apps by same name (2011, Social Thinking Publishing; 2013, 2016 Selosoft, Inc). In addition to working with students, she provides trainings and consultation to parents and professionals on self-regulation and challenging behavior, as well as conducts workshops on the Zones to groups across North America. Leah lives in Minneapolis with her husband, son, daughter, and dog. She enjoys spending time with her family, traveling, and most anything outdoors.

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Emotional Self Regulation: Techniques for Teaching

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Emotional self regulation is the ability to monitor and manage our own behavior. With self regulation, we can calm ourselves down when we're distressed, and pick ourselves up when we're low. Self-regulation is developmental in nature, just like learning to walk, talk, and read. How do you teach a student who hasn't learned emotional self regulation?

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I know many people are responding to this question with this answer, but when we lose our cool, we are not modeling appropriate behavior to our students.  If our expectations are clear, we have established classroom procedures, and we follow through, we should not have to yell.  Related, and almost worse than yelling, is the whine.  Same concept--we model what we want our students to do.  A teacher I know gets frustrated because she does not establish strong expectations, procedures and fails to follow through. When her class gets off track, she whines, "Come on you, guys..."  Not effective!

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I pride myself on learning names quickly and effectively. It comes naturally to me--I'm not even sure how I do it. I know how important it is and how special it makes students feel when we know who they are. Especially working with Kindergarten students, it helps them feel safe, protected and cared for. I learn names by talking to the students and making connections with them. I also use their names whenever I can to cement it in my brain. Here are some strategies I found though:

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Instead of resorting to "Hey, you," try these techniques for retrieving names.

It's a common predicament for educators: Despite working closely with all kinds of students, they can't always easily retrieve names on demand-especially during the first weeks of school, when faced with both new students and new responsibilities. And biology does us no favors by storing visual information and names in separate parts of the brain.

Some teachers turn to awkward work-arounds. But "Hey, Boss!" or "Good to see you!" or "How is my favorite person in the whole world?" are obvious giveaways, and "Can you spell your name for me?" might be answered with "J-i-l-l."

Here's the secret: Take the same enthusiasm you have for fresh avocados, BuzzFeed, or Instagram and apply it to learning students' names.

Everybody has a good memory for things that interest them, according to Richard Harris, a Kansas State University psychology professor. So take a fanatical interest in connecting with your students and using their names.

Remember why you're studying learners' names: because remembering them is important. Here are a few effective tactics for internalizing students' names.

1. Assign several short written assignments in the first week, and then practice names ("Well done, Sasha") as you personally return papers.

2. Take photos of students wearing name tags. Review the photos before class. Attach student photos to interest inventories so that you can relate faces with experiences and affinities.

3. Identify a unique physical feature and then think of a funny sentence involving that feature and the student's name: Tim has a tiny tooth.

4. Create rhymes to aid your auditory and visual memory: Fred eats monkey bread.

5. Prioritize talking to a different group of five students every day for the first few weeks of school. Use their names frequently during your conversation.

6. Greet students by name as they enter the classroom. Ask for help from learners whose names you cannot recall.

7. When a student tells you their name, say it back to them and confirm that your pronunciation is correct.

Suggestions for Remembering Names

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Instead of resorting to "Hey, you," try these techniques for retrieving names. It's a common predicament for educators: Despite working closely with all kinds of students, they can't always easily retrieve names on demand-especially during the first weeks of school, when faced with both new students and new responsibilities.

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There is a major shift in what is becoming the new cultural norm and for some students, the current classroom environment does make them feel welcome or comfortable. We are also still sending too many students out of the classroom for much of the day because of an IEP. Those students can still benefit from learning in the classroom with the right differentiation methods.

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World of Better Learning | Cambridge University Press

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What does 'inclusive practises' mean and how can we ensure that all our classrooms and work environments are truly inclusive? Varinder Unlu explores in this third instalment from her series on supporting specific learning differences.

Inclusion is about how we structure our schools, our classrooms and our lessons so that all our students learn and participate together. An inclusive classroom is one that creates a supportive environment for all learners, including those with learning differences and one that can also challenge and engage gifted and talented learners by building a more responsive learning environment. Inclusivity also means respecting people from all backgrounds and cultures. By teaching our students the importance of this we can create a much more tolerant and understanding environment, not just in the classroom and school but also in wider society.

An inclusive school or classroom can only be successful when all students feel they are truly part of the school community. This can only happen through open, honest discussion about differences and understanding and respecting people from all abilities and backgrounds. An inclusive environment is one where everyone feels valued.

How do you currently promote inclusivity in the classroom?

Here are some questions for reflection:

Think about your own values and approach to disability, gender, race etc. Does how you teach acknowledge the experiences of the students from different backgrounds? Is your approach non-stereotypical? Do you encourage alternative perspectives, debate ideas, create an environment which is open to representation of different viewpoints?

Are your students treated as individuals, encouraged to share their own lives and interests?

Are your examples non-stereotypical?

In a racially diverse ELT classroom, have you thought about your own conscious or unconscious biases about people from other cultures? Do you have different expectations of students of colour than you do of white students, of male or female students, of students from LGBTQ community?

5 inclusivity practises to consider

1. Create a supportive, respectful environment: promote diversity and fairness.

2. Have high expectations of all your students. Research shows that students respond better when they feel that their teacher has faith in their abilities and is not focusing on their inabilities.

3. Create a supportive peer culture both inside and outside the classroom. This is when you empower learners to respect and trust each other, making empathy and caring 'fashionable' and reinforcing positive and pro-social attitudes by encouraging learners to help each other.

4. Plan learning which includes participation from everyone and encourages success. You can do this by creating an environment which is personalised to students' needs and by talking about learning that focuses on what students can do and what they would like to do next. This can be done through tutorials, Individual Learning Plans (ILPs), and short and long term goal setting by the learner so that they feel they have ownership of their learning. If you provide students with opportunities to tell you what is working and what needs attention, you will have a better idea of what to focus on.

5. Take a 'community' approach to learning and teaching. Inclusive values are developed through a student's lived experience and their exposure to other cultures and world-views. Bring your community into the classroom and take your classroom out to the community.

Creating an inclusive environment will not only help those students with learning differences - it will also support those students that don't have a learning difference by making them more aware, tolerant and understanding of each other.

If you've enjoyed this post, read all of Varinder Unlu's articles in this series:

Tips for helping students' concentration and focus
Specific learning difficulties - how can they affect your students?
Supporting students with specific learning differences
Managing disruptive behaviour in the classroom
Get teaching tips, insights, and resources straight to your inbox when you create your free World of Better Learning account today.

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How to create an inclusive classroom environment | Cambridge English

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How can we ensure that our classroom environment is truly inclusive? Here are practical ways to promote inclusivity for all students.

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I like the 'Show Me 5' attention getter because it works for all grade levels as long as students are taught what it means and understand how to respond. Anything that is simple and effective is best. One that I saw used this last year was the 'Waterfall.' I really liked seeing it in action and it worked great. When students are getting to loud, the teacher says "Waterfall" and the students reply with a water sound (kind of like shhh) and the room is instantly quiet.

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Anytime a teacher gets frustrated or looses their temper, they loose the class or an individual student. It is always best to stay calm. Shouting at students doesn't make them listen and often, if they are used to being yelled at (school or home) they have learned to drown it out.

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Without spot-on classroom management, dealing with unruly students can be maddening.

It's easy to lose your cool.

And when you do, when you yell, scold, and wag your finger, you're often rewarded with immediate improvement.

A thorough dressing-down can stop misbehavior in its tracks. But the price is exorbitantly high.

Yelling is a costly mistake.

Here's why:
1. Improvement is temporary.
Yelling only works in the moment. Like a playground bully, it's used to intimidate students into compliance. The only reason why it works is because the teacher has an unfair size and/or authority advantage.
2. It doesn't change behavior.
Behavior only changes when students want to behave better-which is the result of strict accountability combined with a teacher they like and trust. In the end, yelling causes more misbehavior, not less.
3. It weakens your influence.
Yelling will cause students to secretly dislike you, distrust you, and desire to disrupt your class. Let's face it. Even one revengeful student can make your life miserable. You need your students on your side.
4. It replaces real accountability.
Teachers who yell tend to do so instead of following their classroom management plan. Students learn quickly that if they can endure their teacher's outburst, they can be on their way without being held accountable.
5. It sabotages real accountability.
Teachers who lecture, yell, or scold while escorting students to time-out, drive a wedge through the teacher/student relationship, causing anger and resentment. So instead of sitting in time-out and reflecting on their mistake, your students will be seething at you.
6. It causes students to tune you out.
When you yell, you train your students to listen to you only when you raise your voice. In other words, they learn that unless you're shouting, you must not really mean it. Before you know it, you'll be giving directions like a carnival sideshow barker.
7. It's stressful.
Yelling is a sure sign that you let misbehavior get under your skin. It's an expression of frustration, of taking behavior personally, and of trying to get even with students. It's also terribly stressful. It's bad for your health. And it makes teaching a cheerless slog.
8. It's difficult to defend.
Yelling at students is near the top of the list of parent complaints. And it's difficult to defend. "I'm sorry, I just lost my cool" is about the best you can do. The fact is, no misbehavior, and no level of disrespect, warrants yelling at students.
9. It's graceless.
Have you ever seen yourself on video losing your cool? Probably not, but one thing is for sure: it ain't pretty. You might as well grab a megaphone and shout, "Hey everybody-students, fellow teachers, administration-I don't have control of my class!"
10. It provides a poor model.
Students are more influenced by what you do than by what you say. When you yell, react emotionally to misbehavior, or otherwise lose your composure, you provide a poor model for your students for how to behave when things don't go their way.
Instead Of Yelling...
No matter how frustrated you may get with your students, yelling should never be an option. Although it often works in the moment, the cost of gaining momentary control is much too high.

So instead of being that teacher, the one with the reputation for yelling and for "being mean," why not be the one that every student wants as their teacher?

To start, create a classroom management plan that works-and stick with it. And then work on building influential relationships with students; the kind of personal leverage that causes them to want to behave.

If you haven't done so already, please join us. It's free! Click here and begin receiving classroom management articles like this one in your email box every week.

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10 Reasons Why You Should Never, Ever Yell At Students - Smart Classroom Management

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Without spot-on classroom management, dealing with unruly students can be maddening. It's easy to lose your cool. And when you do, when you yell, scold, and wag your finger, you're often rewarded with immediate improvement. A thorough dressing-down can stop misbehavior in its tracks. But the price is exorbitantly high.

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This actually worked like magic for me in my summer school classes this year. I made name tents for each student and let them decorate them however they chose. On the first day, I asked them how they wanted to be addressed in class and wrote that name on a nametag 'tent.' By doing this, it gave me opportunity to put a face directly with the name and each student took ownership by telling me their preferred name and designing it how they chose. Since I have four different classes a day, it was an easy way to make them mobile so each class had their name on their desk. (Older students could also write their own name.)

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Having a culturally diverse classroom means that you value not only the cultures represented in the classroom, but all cultures. Students should be encouraged to share their personal experiences and share with their peers. Morning meetings would be a great time to incorporate cultural awareness and diversity. Having authentic artifacts, posters and literature at all times in the classroom is also very important.

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I think when the teacher is excited and passionate about what they teach, the students also get excited. Giving students choices will also help motivate them because they are learning about something that interests them. Small motivators could also be things like taking brain breaks to stretch or dance. Almost every teacher at the school I work at has a Go Noodle account and the kids love it.

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I think there are a lot of things we need to know, but five that I would make sure to know would be:
1. How they prefer to be addressed in the classroom
2. Cultural and family background (including current home life and any communication barriers)
3. What makes them unique as a student and an individual.  (this could include interests and dislikes)
4. How they view themselves as a learner.
5. How they learn best.

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RtI is the process of identifying students who need help or are struggling with grade level expectations. It is a way to support those students who may need intervention or extra help to get them where they need to be academically before they fall so far behind they need a referral.

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At a glance

RTI aims to identify kids who are struggling in school.

It uses targeted teaching to help them catch up.

An important part of RTI is measuring progress and providing more support to kids who need it.

If you look inside any general education classroom, chances are good that you'd see different students struggling for different reasons. It can be hard for a teacher to tell right away which students are struggling or why.

Response to intervention (RTI) aims to identify struggling students early on and give them the support they need to thrive in school. The word intervention is key to understanding what RTI is all about. The goal is for the school to intervene, or step in, and start helping before a student falls really far behind.

Teachers can provide targeted teaching - called interventions - to help struggling students catch up. A big part of the RTI process involves closely monitoring student progress. That way the school can see which students need more academic support.

RTI isn't a specific program or type of teaching. It's a proactive approach: RTI measures students' skills and uses this data to decide which interventions to use.

Tell us what interests you

About the author

About the author

Amanda Morin is the author of "The Everything Parent's Guide to Special Education" and the former director of thought leadership at Understood. As an expert and writer, she helped build Understood from its earliest days.

Reviewed by

Reviewed by

Elaine M. Niefeld, MA, MBA is a consultant and former associate director of the RTI Action Network.

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What Is Responsive to Intervention (RTI)?

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RTI aims to identify kids who are struggling in school. It uses targeted teaching to help them catch up. An important part of RTI is measuring progress and providing more support to kids who need it. If you look inside any general education classroom, chances are good that you'd see different students struggling for different reasons.

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We should get to know each of our students as individuals.  When we show genuine interest in learning about each students' cultural backgrounds, we build trust with them and create a safe place to explore our differences and what makes us unique.

In our lesson plans, we should incorporate diversity, connecting them to real-world issues and including guest speakers who can present different perspectives, including real-life experiences and context.
For reference or more information: https://drexel.edu/soe/resources/student-teaching/advice/importance-of-cultural-diversity-in-classroom/

We can further promote cultural diversity by creating diverse classroom and school libraries where everyone is represented.

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Introduction

Children's literature plays an essential role in the literacy development of children. This article focuses on the teaching and use of children's literature and provides educators with information about a wide range of books across multiple genres that are representative of the diverse world in which we live.

A strong emphasis is placed on the importance of having diverse library collections that take into account numerous factors, such as race, class, disability, and religion. This article also offers innovative approaches for bringing children and books together, as well as content analyses and rich descriptions of titles that share common features (e.g., endpapers, the blending of poetry and nonfiction).

"Books are sometimes windows, offering views of worlds that may be real or imagined, familiar or strange. These windows are also sliding glass doors, and readers have only to walk through in imagination to become part of whatever world has been created or recreated by the author. When lighting conditions are just right, however, a window can also be a mirror. Literature transforms human experience and reflects it back to us, and in that reflection we can see our own lives and experiences as part of the larger human experience. Reading, then, becomes a means of self-affirmation, and readers often seek their mirrors in books." (Rudine Sims Bishop, 1990, p. ix)

Bishop's analogy of mirrors and windows is an important one for educators to think about, no matter the demographics of the schools in which we teach. Books have the potential to entertain, foster a love of reading, and inform while also affirming the multiple aspects of students' identities and exposing them to the values, viewpoints, and historical legacies of others. The mission of the We Need Diverse Books grassroots movement, which began in 2014, is to put "more books featuring diverse characters into the hands of all children."

Although this movement may have recently led to a renewed focus on the importance of diverse books, it should be noted that this issue has been an important one for many years, especially for librarians and educators of color such as Charlemae Rollins, Pura Belpré, Effie Lee Newsome, and Rudine Sims Bishop. They all recognize the importance of children being exposed to diverse reading material.

In this column, I provide suggestions for educators on how to develop diverse classroom libraries. These ideas and suggestions are also applicable for school and public librarians. I focus on diversity using a two-pronged approach, the first of which is cultural diversity with attention to factors such as race, class, and disability. The second focus is diversity in regards to genres and subgenres.

Cultural diversity

The main types of cultural diversity that I reference are race, class, and disability. Other important cultural markers, such as language, sexual orientation, and religion, are equally important; books related to these additional markers are included in a recommended sample listing (see Table 1).

Table 1. A Sampling of Recommended Diverse Literature, Alphabetized by Author

The books listed here include recently published titles as well as older titles and a few classics - with an emphasis on culturally diverse literature - that I believe belong in K-6 classroom libraries. There are other titles (e.g., Pink Is for Blobfish) included that are not necessarily culturally diverse but that I believe children will enjoy reading. In short, this sampling of books is a microcosm of what I would consider to be an exemplary classroom library that is inclusive in regards to cultural identity markers (e.g., race, class, gender), as well as genres and subgenres.

From the Bellybutton of the Moon and Other Summer Poems/Del Ombligo de la Luna y Otros Poemas de Verano by Francisco X. Alarcón

The Crossover by Kwame Alexander

Thunder Boy Jr. by Sherman Alexie

Whoosh! Lonnie Johnson's Super-Soaking Stream of Inventions by Chris Barton

Zora and Me by Victoria Bond and T.R. Simon

Redwoods by Jason Chin

Job Site by Nathan Clement

Everett Anderson's Goodbye by Lucille Clifton

Uptown by Bryan Collier

Bigmama's by Donald Crews

The Watsons Go to Birmingham-1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis

Martina the Beautiful Cockroach: A Cuban Folktale by Carmen Agra Deedy

Rrralph by Lois Ehlert

Nikki & Deja by Karen English

Chickadee by Louise Erdrich

Comets, Stars, the Moon, and Mars by Douglas Florian

Maximilian & the Mystery of the Guardian Angel: A Bilingual Lucha Libre Thriller by Xavier Garza

Ice Cream: The Full Scoop by Gail Gibbons

George by Alex Gino

Honey, I Love and Other Love Poems by Eloise Greenfield

Make Way for Dyamonde Daniel by Nikki Grimes

Tuck Me In! by Dean Hacohen and Sherry Scharschmidt

M.C. Higgins, the Great by Virginia Hamilton

Extraordinary People: A Semi-comprehensive Guide to Some of the World's Most Fascinating Individuals by Michael Hearst

Look Book by Tana Hoban

Biggest, Strongest, Fastest by Steve Jenkins

Julius by Angela Johnson

Can I Tell You a Secret? by Anna Kang

Pink Is for Blobfish: Discovering the World's Perfectly Pink Animals by Jess Keating

Golden Domes and Silver Lanterns: A Muslim Book of Colors by Hena Khan

The Grand Plan to Fix Everything by Uma Krishnaswami

Pool by JiHyeon Lee

March: Book One by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell

National Geographic Book of Animal Poetry: 200 Poems With Photographs That Squeak, Soar, and Roar! edited by J. Patrick Lewis

Ling & Ting: Not Exactly the Same! by Grace Lin

Uncle Peter's Amazing Chinese Wedding by Lenore Look

The All-I'll-Ever-Want Christmas Doll by Patricia C. McKissack

Walking on Earth & Touching the Sky: Poetry and Prose by Lakota Youth at Red Cloud Indian School edited by Timothy P. McLaughlin

The Gumazing Gum Girl! Chews Your Destiny by Rhode Montijo

Niño Wrestles the World by Yuyi Morales

We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball by Kadir Nelson

Thunder Rose by Jerdine Nolen

Bill Pickett: Rodeo-Ridin' Cowboy by Andrea D. Pinkney

The Adventures of Sparrowboy by Brian Pinkney

Songs From the Loom: A Navajo Girl Learns to Weave by Monty Roessel

Tomorrow's Alphabet by George Shannon

Keeping Corner by Kashmira Sheth

Snapshots From the Wedding by Gary Soto

I Love My Hair! by Natasha Anastasia Tarpley

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor

Dear Primo: A Letter to My Cousin by Duncan Tonatiuh

Polar Bear's Underwear by Tupera Tupera

Justin and the Best Biscuits in the World by Mildred Pitts Walter

Before John Was a Jazz Giant: A Song of John Coltrane by Carole Boston Weatherford

One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia

Visiting Day by Jacqueline Woodson

The Twins' Blanket by Hyewon Yum

Racial diversity

The Cooperative Children's Book Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison collects statistics about the number of books published annually that are written by and about people of color. Although the numbers are bleak, when one goes back several years looking for notable books written by and about people of color, there are enough available and in print for teachers to have an adequate supply of books in their libraries. This is not to say that there is not a need for more children's books written by and about people of color; rather, there are books available for now to begin sharing and using with students.

One way for teachers to be aware of notable books written by and about people of color is to become familiar with race-based awards such as the Coretta Scott King Book Award, the Pura Belpré Award, the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature, and the American Indian Youth Literature Award.

It should be noted that these race-based awards were created because, for many years, authors and illustrators of color have not received the most prestigious awards, such as the Newbery and Caldecott medals and honors awarded by the American Library Association (ALA). For example, the Newbery Medal has been given annually since 1922, but as of the 2016 awards, only four books by African Americans had received it: M.C. Higgins, the Great by Virginia Hamilton, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor, The Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis, and The Crossover by Kwame Alexander.

Giving race-based awards brings attention to some titles that might not receive as much attention otherwise. For example, in 2015 and 2016, there were several outstanding books that received a race-based award, including Gone Crazy in Alabama by Rita Williams-Garcia (see Figure 1), I Lived on Butterfly Hill by Marjorie Agosín, Blackbird Fly by Erin Entrada Kelly (see Figure 2), and In the Footsteps of Crazy Horse by Joseph Marshall III (see Figure 3). Were it not for race-based awards, these titles would not have received major prizes.

Figure 1: Cover of Gone Crazy in Alabama by Rita Williams-Garcia

Note: From Gone Crazy in Alabama, by R. Williams-Garcia, 2015, New York, NY: Amistad. Copyright 2015 by HarperCollins. Reprinted with permission.

Figure 2: Cover of Blackbird Fly by Erin Entrada Kelly

Note: From Blackbird Fly, by E.E. Kelly, 2015, New York, NY: Greenwillow. Copyright 2015 by HarperCollins. Reprinted with permission.

Figure 3: Cover of In the Footsteps of Crazy Horse by Joseph Marshall III

Note: From In the Footsteps of Crazy Horse, by J. Marshall III,2015, New York, NY: Abrams. Copyright 2015 by Abrams. Reprinted with permission.

The Coretta Scott King Book Award is given to African Americans who write exceptional books about the black experience. The award, which has been in existence since 1970, has created a canon of high-quality books for teachers to choose from.

The Pura Belpré Award, named after the first Latina librarian in the New York Public Library, is given to "a Latino/Latina writer and illustrator whose work best portrays, affirms, and celebrates the Latino cultural experience in an outstanding work of literature for children and youth" (Association for Library Service to Children).

The American Indian Youth Literature Award honors exceptional writing by and about American Indians, and the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature honors books about Asian/Pacific Americans.

In addition to shining a light on particular award-winning titles each year, the awards introduce authors and illustrators to the children's book world. Although authors and illustrators are unlikely to win an award each year, learning about them when they do win can lead educators to seek out other titles that the winning authors and illustrators may produce over the course of their careers.

Class

Aunt Flossie's Hats (and Crab Cakes Later) and other family stories by Elizabeth Fitzgerald Howard feature middle and upper class African Americans who were teachers and medical doctors in the early 1900s. The depiction of African Americans as professionals is important for children to see and recognize that African Americans can be members of various socioeconomic groups.

However, not all children are middle or upper class, and they too should see their experiences reflected in books. Although there are certainly challenges directly related to poverty, there are books that show poor people in positive and realistic ways as caring about the communities in which they live and members of those communities.

One example of such a book is Something Beautiful by Sharon Dennis Wyeth (see Figure 4), about a girl who lives in a neighborhood that has many low-income families. After learning about the word beautiful in class, she goes in search of "something beautiful" in her community. At first, she only sees a homeless woman and some graffiti, but with the help of people who live in her community, she soon sees that there is beauty there, too, and that she is also able to make it more beautiful by removing the graffiti, for instance.

DeShawn Days by Tony Medina is a collection of poems about a boy who lives in the projects, and then there is My Very Own Room/Mi Propio Cuartito by Amada Irma Perez, about a girl who lives with a large family in a small, crowded house and dreams of having her own quiet space. Barbara O'Connor has written a number of notable middle-grade novels (e.g., How to Steal a Dog, The Fantastic Secret of Owen Jester; see Figure 5) with characters who are a part of poor or working-class families.

Reading widely and paying attention to issues of class as they appear in books is one way for teachers to select and include in their classroom libraries children's books that depict a range of socioeconomic groups.

Figure 4: Cover of Something Beautiful by Sharon Dennis Wyeth

Note: From Something Beautiful, by S.D. Wyeth, 1998, New York, NY: Dragonfly. Copyright 1998 by Random House. Reprinted with permission.

Figure 5: Cover of The Fantastic Secret of Owen Jester by Barbara O'Connor

Note: From The Fantastic Secret of Owen Jester, by B. O'Connor, 2010, New York, NY: Square Fish. Copyright 2010 by Macmillan. Reprinted with permission.

Disability

The Schneider Family Book Awards, given annually by the ALA, "honor an author or illustrator for a book that embodies an artistic expression of the disability experience for child and adolescent audiences." The award is given to books in three categories: picture books, middle-grade novels, and young adult novels.

One picture book exemplar is A Splash of Red: The Life and Art of Horace Pippin by Jen Bryant (see Figure 6), documenting the artist's ability and determination to continue painting after he was shot in one arm during World War I.

Figure 6: Cover of A Splash of Red: The Life and Art of Horace Pippin by Jen Bryant

Note: From A Splash of Red: The Life and Art of Horace Pippin, by J. Bryant, 2013, New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf. Copyright 2013 by Random House. Reprinted with permission.

As there are multiple aspects to our identities, there are also a number of ways in which we can see ourselves reflected. For instance, a Latina/o child and an African American child could both be autistic.

Reading a book like Rain Reign by Ann M. Martin, about a fifth grader with autism, could be a mirror in regards to disability but not necessarily race because the main character seems to be white. This is one example of why it is no easy task to fill classroom libraries with books that will function as both mirrors and windows for as many students as possible.

Schneider Family Book Award winners over the years have featured characters with a range of disabilities, including autism, dyslexia, blindness, an inability to speak, and clubfeet. An awareness of this award might make teachers more conscious about sharing books about characters with disabilities.

Thinking about genres and subgenres

Just as it is important to think about cultural diversity, it is also important to think about exposing children to multiple genres (e.g., poetry, nonfiction, historical fiction, fantasy) as well as subgenres such as wordless picture books and graphic novels. There are a few awards given specifically for certain genres; reading award winners in specific genres is one way to expose students to different types of texts and their characteristics.

For example, the Robert F. Sibert Award is given annually to outstanding informational books. Given for the first time in 2001, this award honors the work of Robert F. Sibert, a longtime president of Bound to Stay Bound Books.

The 2016 Robert F. Sibert Award winner is Funny Bones: Posada and His Day of the Dead Calaveras by Duncan Tonatiuh (see Figure 7), a biography of celebrated Mexican artist José Guadalupe Posada.

Other notable winners/honors of this award over the past few years include Parrots Over Puerto Rico by Susan L. Roth and Cindy Trumbore, The Right Word: Roget and His Thesaurus by Jen Bryant, and Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer, Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement by Carole Boston Weatherford, which blends genres by telling about Hamer's life through poetry.

There are also other awards for specific genres, such as poetry, nonfiction, and historical fiction, including the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award, the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children, the NCTE Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children, and the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction.

Figure 7: Cover of Funny Bones: Posada and His Day of the Dead Calaveras by Duncan Tonatiuh

Note: From Funny Bones: Posada and His Day of the Dead Calaveras, by D. Tonatiuh, 2015, New York, NY: Abrams. Copyright 2015 by Abrams. Reprinted with permission.

How to stay informed

Although maintaining a diverse library may seem like a daunting task, there are several steps that you can take to accomplish this goal. The first step might be to take a close look at your existing classroom library to see if a good selection of books written by people of color is included in the library all year long, not just at certain times such as Black History Month.

Second, it is also important to consider where your books are purchased, because at times, our selections are influenced by what is readily available. Note that the Scholastic Reading Club, for example, offers cheaply priced titles, but a close analysis of book club order forms over time (McNair, 2008) revealed a lack of books written by and about people of color. Not surprisingly, one of the authors who appeared most often in the book club order forms was Eric Carle.

Ordering from book clubs is certainly appropriate, but it is necessary to supplement books by authors like Carle by purchasing racially diverse titles from other sources such as Amazon or Book Outlet, a discount outlet that has a good selection of racially diverse books across genres. Book Outlet regularly features books by authors and illustrators such as Kadir Nelson, Nikki Grimes, Yuyi Morales, Gary Soto, Angela Johnson, Yumi Heo, and Eloise Greenfield.

A third step, as mentioned earlier, is to learn about awards, some of which are race-based as well as others, such as the Schneider Family Book Award, that are not. Numerous professional organizations, such as the International Literacy Association, NCTE, and ALA, give awards.

Consider tuning in to watch the ALA's annual Youth Media Awards announcement. It's an exhilarating experience for those of us with a passion for children's literature. Thousands of librarians attend the ALA midwinter conference and are able to be present at the press conference while others across the country watch a live webcast of the proceedings.

The press conference usually lasts about an hour, with the Newbery and Caldecott medals - considered the organization's oldest and most prestigious - saved for last to build excitement. Learning about the various awards presented and each year's winners serves as one important way in which we can make sure that our collections of books - whether we are educators, teacher educators, or librarians - are diverse in a number of ways.

Finally, to stay informed about notable titles being published, consider subscribing to reputable magazines that review books, such as The Horn Book Magazine and The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books. Reading reviews will allow for consideration of race, class, disability, religion, genre, and other factors.

Conclusion

Although it may be challenging to take on this task, the benefits are worthwhile. It is also important to remember that simply putting these books in our libraries is not enough. Reading them and sharing our enthusiasm with students is essential so they will seek out these books in the libraries.

Having a diverse collection can support all students in finding titles that they can read and connect with on some level while affirming their own cultural identities and hopefully developing important positive insights about others. We all need mirrors and windows in the books that we read.

About the author

Jonda C. McNair is a professor of literacy education at Clemson University, SC, USA; e-mail [email protected]

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Diverse Classroom Libraries for K-6 Students

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Learn more about books across multiple genres that are representative of the diverse world in which we live, including diversity in race, class, disability, and religion. You'll also find innovative approaches for bringing children and books together, as well as content analyses and descriptions of titles that share common features.

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Rewards as motivation to encourage good behavior. Unfortunately, it is a constantly moving target - it will always take more. By not giving the reward, you are still, in fact, negatively punishing the students.

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I have a singing bowl by the time it is silent the class should be as well. It doubles as a reminder for everyone to take a deep breath during transition.

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I think this will look different depending on each group of students.  By knowing our students and the class as a whole, you can find what motivates each group or individual students.  Again, I sound like a broken record, but relationship development is huge here.

In general, I tend to be my students' biggest cheerleader and encourager.  I know they can do hard things and I help them figure out strategies to do it.  When they do, we celebrate big.

Specific strategies I've seen done successfully involve the bucket filling style rewards.  X amount of puff balls = class reward--movie day, pajama day, extra recess, etc.  I have only seen this in the younger grades because those are the rooms I work with closely.

Also, I am a giant goofball, so I am not afraid to be silly in front of students to get them excited to learn. When I'm excited, they will be excited. I always win them over. :)

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1. Name, and how to pronounce it.
2. Interests. This may guide curriculum and motivate them.
3. Family--the dynamics, backgrounds, cultures, beliefs.
4. Strengths and areas of growth.
5. Learning style and preferences.
Adapted from:
https://www.teachthought.com/pedagogy/creating-student-centered-learning-profiles-what-great-teachers-know-about-their-students/

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I can't even believe that I witnessed this (professional coach, not teacher, but still). Making a comment about a student's intellectual capacity when they are not listening.

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Bribery has no place in the classroom but is still used everyday!  I may seem like it works for a little bit, but students are smart and will begin wanting a larger reward for good behaviors.  I have attached a link to a list of positive classroom management options that are better then bribery.

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Edutopia is a free source of information, inspiration, and practical strategies for learning and teaching in preK-12 education. We are published by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization.

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I do this everyday with my daycare kiddos! One of their favorites is "Macaroni and Cheese" - "Everybody Freeze"

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Marissa Gutsch - Being Louder Than Your Students

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Marissa Gutsch - Being Louder Than Your Students

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Being loud in an already loud classroom only adds to the noise. It also shows students that being loud is okay because the teacher is doing it too.

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RtI is a multi-tiered approach that begins with universal instruction (Tier 1) and "seeks to identify students’ needs before those struggles become barriers to learning."

Through frequent progress monitoring, teachers can determine which students may benefit from supplemental instruction (Tier 2).  If this targeted, small group approach does not work, a more intensive intervention with a curriculum or intervention specialist would happen at the Tier 3 level.

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In 2004, the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) was it reauthorized. Part of this reauthorization included a description of and support for the Response to Intervention (RTI) process. The legislators who renewed IDEA wanted a way to help school districts use intervention before relying on special education referrals. RTI is a multi-tiered approach that is used by classroom teachers and education specialist to help students who are struggling with a particular skill. Every teacher uses interventions as part of the teaching process but RTI is a little more structured than simply giving kids a little extra help.

The Response to Intervention model seeks to identify students' needs before those struggles become barriers to learning. RTI can support both learning and behavioral needs. The heart of RTI is high-quality instruction and universal screening of all children. The general education classroom provides students with research-based instruction. Classroom teachers give ongoing assessments to learn more about students' learning and levels of achievement. That data is then used in the RTI process. Based on assessment data, it may be determined that a student needs additional support in a certain area.

RTI involves a three-tiered model. Tier 1 is given to all students as the high-quality, researched-based curriculum adopted by the school. This curriculum includes periodic assessments as well as behavioral screenings to look at student progress. If the student is identified as being at-risk in a screening, he or she will be given a certain length of time to make progress. If the student does not make adequate progress, they moved to Tier 2 instruction.

Students receive targeted interventions at Tier 2. This includes more intensive instruction of the specific skills that students weren't making progress on. The time spent learning the skills, as well as the frequency of assessment of the skill, is increased in Tier 2. This targeted instruction is given in small groups so that the student gets the attention he or she needs to succeed. Students receiving Tier 2 intervention are all still receiving the high-quality instruction at Tier 1. The targeted intervention happens during small group work time. If a student shows little progress after a certain amount of time receiving Tier 2 intervention, the student is considered for Tier 3, which includes even more intensive intervention. This intervention may be developed and executed by a curriculum or intervention specialist who can also do a comprehensive evaluation of the student. Students who do not make progress in Tier 3 may be considered eligible for special education services. All of the data collected from Tiers 1 through 3 can be used in the special education eligibility decision.

In order to identify a student as at-risk, progress monitoring needs to be frequent. Student progress is the actual rate of learning compared to the expected rate of learning. Progress monitoring helps the RTI process in many ways when it is implemented properly. All students receive more appropriate instruction and feedback. Teachers can make decisions about instructional content based on real-time data. Progress monitoring provides data and documentation of student achievement.

Frequent progress monitoring can be short and simple. Assessments like fluency passages, mathematics fluency, and spelling tests are all quick opportunities for progress monitoring. Reading comprehension and writing may take longer to assess and may also take longer to show growth in for students.

RTI is designed to meet students at their current levels of achievement and help them make progress toward grade-level expectations. This makes RTI a more personalized approach for students who need special interventions. RTI is proactive in terms of helping the students make progress. Instead of waiting to see if the student will learn a skill or to see if the learning clicks, RTI ensures that students are receiving targeted practice and help. The RTI process also helps with parent communication. When a student moves through the tiers, teachers can communicate specific data and plans for an invention with parents so that nothing comes as a surprise later on.

RTI aims to help students who are struggling catch up to grade-level expectations. It's not a specific program, and instead is a flexible model that supports students starting with high-quality whole class instruction and moving to specific targeted intervention. While RTI may eventually uncover a student's need for special education services, the goal of the process is to actually remediate problems before those services are needed.
Amanda Ronan is an Austin-based writer. After many years as a teacher, Amanda transitioned out of the classroom and into educational publishing. She wrote and edited English, language arts, reading, and social studies content for grades K-12. Since becoming a full-time writer, Amanda has worked with a diverse set of clients, ranging from functional medicine doctors to design schools to moving companies. She blogs, writes long-form articles, and pens YA and children's fiction. Her first YA series, My Brother is a Robot, is slated for release by Scobre Educational Press in September 2015.

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The Response to Intervention model seeks to identify students' needs before those struggles become barriers to learning.

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Games and ice breakers are a great way for the teacher to learn all of the students but also for the students to learn each others names. It gets everyone to interact in a positive way.

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You're not the only one excited and nervous about the first day of school. Your students are, too! Here are four getting-to-know-you activities that will help everyone break the ice and create a sense of classroom camaraderie from the very beginning of the school year.

Create a Class Jigsaw Puzzle

Ellaine Barthelemy, a teacher in Apple Valley, Minn., uses a large piece of tagboard to create a jigsaw puzzle that has as many pieces as she has students, plus one piece for herself. She numbers each puzzle piece on the back, cuts them out, and distributes them to students on the first day of school. "I have students decorate their pieces with their names, pictures, and words," she explains. "We share these as a group and then reassemble the puzzle on a bulletin board to symbolize the importance of each individual's contribution to the class as a whole.

Play the Silly Name Game

"On the first day, I gather the children in a circle," says Megan Law, a teacher in Falls Church, Va. "We go around the circle and have each child pick a word to go with his or her name (either rhyming or beginning with the same letter as the name). Each child must say his or her name and repeat the names that came before ("I am Marshmallow Megan and that was Willowy Wendy and Soccer Sally and Jumping Jimmy..."). It's a fun way for young children to get to know one another and learn everybody's name."

Show and Tell in a Lunch Bag

About two weeks before school starts, Amy Scalf, a teacher from Winchester, Ky., sends her students a letter in which she introduces herself and describes some of the exciting activities her class will be doing during the school year. She also sends them a paper bag and asks each student to fill it with four or five items that are of some significance, perhaps a photo, an item from a collection, a souvenir from a trip, or a sports memento. "On the first day of school, we all sit together and open up our bags to show each other something about ourselves, myself included."

Guess Who?

Since she teaches upper elementary and middle school students who are already familiar with their classmates, Anna Hallock, a teacher in Elgin, Ill., turns getting-to-know-you into a fun guessing game. "On the first day, I have students write three unique facts about themselves, such as a pet's name, favorite sport, talent, and so on. I collect the papers and read a description aloud to the class. The students then guess to whom I'm referring. I continue until all the descriptions have been read, including my own."

One More Thing to Keep in Mind

Getting-acquainted activities aren't just for the first day of school. Experienced teachers recommend sprinkling these types of icebreaker and welcome back activities throughout the first week of school. They know it's the quickest route to building a strong class community.

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Classroom Activities: First Day of Elementary School Icebreakers | Scholastic

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You're not the only one excited and nervous about the first day of school. Your students are, too! Here are four getting-to-know-you activities that will help everyone break the ice and create a sense of classroom camaraderie from the very beginning of the school year.

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Learning names quickly was a matter of survival in my past career. I often used association with someone I already know to learn and remember names. https://www.forbes.com/sites/work-in-progress/2013/08/21/the-best-five-tricks-to-remember-names/?sh=a899681501f6

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Having lived in many parts of the country, mostly in urban settings, moving and teaching in a exurban Wisconsin community is still at times hard to wrap my head around. Our school just implemented a new F&P reading curriculum, which is fabulous at exposing students to different cultures, ideas and voices, but it only goes so far. You must be intentional about bringing culture into the classroom and normalizing the beauty of diversity. https://www.northeastern.edu/graduate/blog/culturally-responsive-teaching-strategies/

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I teach math to students who struggle with the subject and are pulled from scientific inquiry, toward the end of the day, to do their second math lesson - I have to pull out all the stops. Empathy is key followed up by absolutely anything and everything I can think of to make math fun. I have giant pencils, a huge eraser, a crystal tiara, a celebration bell and will be as silly as need be to keep it fun. One of my fifth graders told me I trick them into liking math. It was a point of pride for me last year.

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1. Name
2. The mood they are in that day
3. Some connection with them that has nothing to do with math or school.
4. Their frustration triggers.
5. What makes them smile.

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RtI is the support a student needs to close any gaps they may have be it academic or behavioral. Through a well scaffold program, meeting students where they are and building on where they need to go, most students will progress and succeed. Consistent data is needed (collected through progress monitoring) to assess where the student is at and where more or less support is needed. There really is no greater feeling than dismissing a student from Title :)