Thanks for your wonderful and very-very helpful review of the literature on
classroom management. I'm sure that I'll find a lot interesting resources
for my students in your list! Thanks for taking time and efforts!
Eugene
-----Original Message-----
From: Linda.Fitzgerald who-is-at uni.edu <Linda.Fitzgerald@uni.edu>
To: xmca who-is-at weber.ucsd.edu <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
Date: Tuesday, November 25, 1997 10:47 PM
Subject: Re: References are needed!!!!
>Eugene--
>
>I'm just ending up my first term of teaching "Guidance and Instruction,"
which
>is what we in early childhood prefer to the elementary ed choice of
"classroom
>management" or (worse yet) "discipline." I'm not thrilled with the
standard
>Merrill textbook chosen for the course, Marian Marion's _Guidance of Young
>Children_ (4th ed., 1995), for all the reasons Jay cited in an earlier
thread
>this fall against textbook use. But I do like E. Bodrova and D. Leong
(1996)
>_Tools of the mind: The Vygotskian approach to early childhood education_,
also
>published by Merrill. Your students might be insulted by the early
childhood
>approach, but since early childhood goes up through grade 3, a surprising
>number of elementary ed teachers-to-be should find it pertinent. And I
believe
>Betsy Zan, also on xmca, has shared with the list in the past her book with
>Rheta DeVries (1994) _Moral classrooms, moral children_ by Teachers College
>Press. In early childhood ed we get quite a long way on the premise that
>behavior and discipline problems are best avoided by having a
well-constructed
>curriculum of interest to the children and delivered in a way that is
>developmentally, individually, and culturally appropriate to the students.
>
>We share with our elementary ed "classroom management" colleagues an
>appreciation for Alfie Kohn, who has a number of books but also some very
>accessible articles, such as an ERIC Digest, "The risks of rewards" (Dec.
94,
>EDO-PS-94-14, available from the ERIC Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early
>Childhood Education, http://ericps.crc.uiuc.edu/eece) and an interview
>conducted by Ron Brandt in _Educational Leadership_, "Punished by rewards?"
>(Sept. 95, 13-16, sorry I don't have the full citation).
>
>Alfie Kohn collaborates with the Developmental Studies Center, 2000
>Embarcadero, Suite 305, Oakland CA 94606-5300, which has an abundance of
>materials for elementary educators and teacher ed profs, including some of
>those cases or stories you are looking for. Better yet, they have a set of
>videotapes of real-time classrooms demonstrating such techniques as helping
>kids to work out problems in ways that build community and develop critical
>thinking abilities, make classroom rules in class meetings, etc. Call for
a
>catalog with good descriptions of the materials: 1-800-666-7270. My
students,
>who also want "recipes" for "maintaining control" of the classroom, seem to
be
>persuaded enough by some of these alternatives to top-down teacher
direction to
>try it out in their practicum out in real classroom settings. I've even
>witnessed a couple of conversion experiences!
>
>Our students find a lot of useful articles in a compilation published by
>Dushkin/McGraw-Hill, _Annual editions: Early childhood education. 1997/98_,
>edited by K. M. Paciorek & J. H. Munro (1997). An example from
Developmental
>Studies Center staff is on pp. 139-143, reprinted from _Educational
>Leadership_, (Sept. 96), C.C. Lewis, E. Schaps, & M.S. Watson, "The caring
>classroom's academic edge." Another one my students have been "converted"
by
>is D. Gatrell's "Misbehavior or mistaken behavior?" reprinted from _Young
>Children_, July 1995.
>
>And don't overlook the Project Approach (lots available at the ERIC website
>noted above), descended from John Dewey, as a curricular approach that
>seriously cuts down on the need for "managing" kids to do stuff the
teachers
>have to make them do. Reggio Emilia, Italy, has a number of early
childhood
>settings that have developed this approach in ways that U.S. schools are
>picking up. I saw that Teachers College Press recently came out with a
"story"
>from a St. Louis school using this approach, but I can't get my hands on
the
>flyer right now. New York City's Central Park East schools have had
>well-motivated students succeeding with such an approach as well, drawing
on
>some of the same theoretical inspiration from Dewey and Vygotsky and
Piaget,
>now all the way up through secondary school (see writings by founder
Deborah
>Meier and chronicler David Bensman).
>
>Sorry this has gotten so long, but I have been seeing some remarkable
learning,
>and application of that learning in practicum classrooms, that gives me
some
>hope that at least some of our future teachers won't be quite so obsessed
with
>maintaining control of their classrooms! I am looking forward to hearing
>suggestions from others as well.
>
>Linda May Fitzgerald
>Asst. Prof. Curriculum and Instruction
>University of Northern Iowa
>618 Schindler Education Center
>Cedar Falls, IA 50614-0606
>FITZGERALD who-is-at UNI.EDU