Activity 1

Title: What's Classroom Management Style?

Instructional Strategy: Critical Thinking

Purpose:

This activity is designed to help students become aware of the differences between authoritarian, laissez-faire, and authoritative approaches to classroom management.

Objectives:

• Distinguish differences between authoritarian, laissez-faire, and authoritative approaches to classroom management.
• Identify how students would manage their future classroom depending upon their choice of classroom management style.

Student Activity:

Create a table with three columns and two rows on a piece of paper (see Print and Do). Write "Authoritarian" in the first column, "Laissez-Faire" in the second column, and "Authoritative" in the third column. In the first row of each column write down how each of the above classroom management styles is characterized according to what you read in the textbook. In the second row, write down what kind of rules you would create in your future classroom for: (1) homework assignments, (2) tardiness, and (3) classroom etiquette. In the third row of the table, write down the strengths of this approach or a list of situations in which this approach would be ideal. In the fourth row, write down the limitations of this approach or a list of situations in which this approach would not be ideal.

Print and Do

Authoritarian | Laissez-Faire | Authoritative

Share your rules with the class while the instructor creates a master table on the board. Participate in assessing whether each rule fits the classroom management style it was created for.

Variation:

1. Add another row on the table and write down whether you think each management style can be used in student-centered classrooms, teacher-centered classrooms, or both. Write down your justifications.
2. Work in small groups to create a short four- to five-minute skit related to one of these management styles.
3. Work in teams of three to four to create a unique management style. Give this management style a name and then role-play it in front of the class.
4. Count off "one, two, three;" "one, two, three;" "one, two, three;" etc. "Ones" are authoritarian, "twos" are laissez-faire, and "threes" are authoritative teachers. Then freewrite for three to four minutes about a teacher in the past who best reflected that style. When time is up, share your stories with the class.

Activity 2

Title: School Violence Prevention

Instructional Strategy: Creative Thinking/Brainstorming

Purpose:

This activity is designed to help students think about the reasons for school violence and how they could attempt to prevent it.

Objectives:

• Develop an awareness of various reasons for school violence.
• Create prevention programs for school violence.

Student Activity:

Choose one of the following five factors of school violence: (1) physiological factors (e.g., hormonal), (2) gender-related cultural factors (e.g., socialization of gender appropriate behaviors), (3) academic factors (e.g., education levels and achievement/class standing) (4) psychosocial factors (e.g., identity confusion, goals), and (5) school environment factors (e.g., schools that do no meet the needs of their students). For the factor that you chose, describe what it is and brainstorm what type of school programs you think would be useful for preventing school violence caused by that factor. Write your thoughts down on a piece of paper. Select two or three programs that you feel would be most effective. Justify your selections. Share your programs with others in the class. What similarities or differences exist? What are some common themes?

Variation:

1. Share school violence prevention programs that you have observed in schools, and rank those as a whole class from most to least effective.
2. "Volunteer" to do a good deed or help someone in need sometime before the next class period (preferably in a school). Share what you did and discuss the results. How might such "random acts of kindness" be embedded in a school violence prevention program?
3. Interview one or two K-12 students or teachers and ask their opinions about violence prevention programs. What do they recommend be done?