Part 3: Plan A, B, or C?

Plan A is convenient and fast for the majority of "average" students. These students have the skills to understand and deal with this type of backlash when expectations are not met, however, this seems to exacerbate the issue that "might makes right" because this is just blatantly wrong and when using plan A it engrains this ideology into the "average" kid and elicits more bad behavior from "challenging" kids. Sometimes I use plan A to quickly correct behaviors that I have established are unacceptable in our classroom, like use of profanity, putting down other students or being disrespectful. Plan B is collaborative problem solving to ensure that students can still meet expectations when they are unable to met these expectations on their own. Plan B is about solving problems and teaching skills to students that are lacking skills. Plan B is a slow process that takes time to build skills and trust with the challenging students but overtime will result in learned skills and desirable behaviors. I have used plan B in my class for a child that had a very difficult home life and 0 parental support at home. He chronically interrupted class, didn't do homework and was stirring the pot to elicit conflict in other students. I had to develop a relationship with him and sit him down and voice my concerns and thoughtfully explain to him why those behaviors were unacceptable. I also gave this student air time to explain why he was displaying these behaviors and asked him if he would be willing to work with me to get on the right track.

Plan A is when we "impose our will" when a kid does not meet our expectations. Dr. Green states that Plan A can cause "challenging behavior in challenging kids" because we are imposing our will on a person who may not be equipped with the skills to handle that type of response. Dr. Green states that the continuous use of Plan A reinforces that "might makes right" and we use Plan A because, "it is convenient." Plan B, on the other hand, is "collaborative problem-solving." 

I've used both Plan A and Plan B in my classroom. My use of Plan A seems to stem from any immediate disruption in my classroom. For example, if a student yells something out during class, my response will be more in line with Plan A. However, Plan B has been used in my room many times, especially in my co-taught classrooms where I have the luxury of having a lengthy conversation with a student during class. Using Plan B allows me to help students understand their behaviors and how we can work together to problem solve. 

Plan A works for most students in the classroom but it doesn’t mean that it is the right choice. Plan A can work for quick fixes like “don’t stand next to that kid in line” or “you need to sit out for recess”. Plan B is collaborative and works WITH the child. This helps teach the child the skills that are needed. This reminds me of kids with impulse control or  difficulty expressing feelings. Showing a child how to calm down and building their coping strategies is necessary for these students. Ask them what works and talk about how they feel before, during and after. 

Plan A and Plan B are completely different.  Plan A is the more traditional, impose-your-authority approach to handling unmet expectations.  Although also dealing with unmet expectations, Plan B is not about imposing anything.  It is about cooperating with skills on prioritized, unmet expectations in order to help students to learn the skills that they are lacking, which Greene argues leads to the unmet expectations in the first place.  I feel like very little of my teaching training dealt with classroom management.  Because of that, I think when I first started teaching, it was easier to rely on Plan A and to yell at unruly study halls or to impose detentions.  Plan B reminds me more of what a lot of schools—my own included—are doing now with restorative justice practices like circles.  Those involve both the teachers and the students voicing concerns and making plans for the future.     

I enjoyed this perspective on teaching styles.  Plans A, B, and C describe how you respond to a situation when your expectations are NOT met.  Plan A involves imposing your will upon a child.  As a math interventionist, this reminds me of telling a student to complete an assessment when they don't want to.  The tested material may be too difficult for the student at that given time, but because their skills need to be assessed, we tell them they "must" complete it.  Plan B describes collaborative problem solving.  This involves teaching students the skills they need to solve problems that they are having difficulty solving on their own right now.  This reminds me of our daily intervention lessons, practicing the strategies for solving math problems over and over, and in different ways, until the student is able to solve the problems on their own, without my guidance.  Plan B aligns with the "kids do well if they can" motto because ONCE THEY CAN (on their own), they WILL.  

The explanation between Plan’s A, B, and C was very well done. Greene made it clear that plan A imposes an adult will on students, basically you tell them to stop, or even what to do. Challenging students will not respond to that type of response well because they do not have the coping skills to just do what is being asked. Recently in my classroom I have used plan A recently with a challenging student to get him to complete his work. Using plan A I would just tell him you do not have a choice, you must complete your work in order to go to recess, otherwise it will be sent home to be done at home. Obviously because I was telling him he had no choice and if he didn’t do it in school he would miss out on something, and then he would still have to complete the work at home, clearly did not help the situation as it arose in the classroom. Recently I have started to flip the way I think about the situation and I am very careful on my wording with the student as the problem arises at various times, using a more Plan B approach. When I notice he is struggling or starting to refuse to complete his work, I try a gentle reminder that he is capable of doing the work and doing it well. When that doesn’t work, I pull up a chair next two the student, give him an opportunity to explain why he does not want to complete the work and then we come up with a plan TOGETHER on how WE are going to get the work done. Whether it being by doing it together, him feeling confident enough to want to finish it on his own, or going to work with a small group of students in a teacher directed group, because I switched from just telling him what to do to trying to meet his needs by working together, generally the work that needs to be completed gets done.

A challenging kid is one who wants to challenge/compete with everything. The constant use of Plan A creates opportunities for a kid who wants to argue the change to compete with the instruction. Plan A is aptly named because in most situations in a classroom it may be the initial plan but as a teacher you may need to be flexible in your ability to move on to Plans B or C affectively. 

In class today, I went from Plan A to Plan C due to disruptions during the lesson. Students, knowing their expectations for a good grade went to work on their assignment without the additional instructions. Allowing them to work and fail on their own made for a smooth transition to Plan B - which is to have them involved in making the plan. 

Depending on the lesson, especially as an art teacher, there is room to use Plan B from the beginning but for the most part the level of choice given to the students may have to be minor in order to meet the academic goals for the day. 

Hold onto expectations, but get to them in a productive way that is going to give students the skill sets needed to meet them. The goal is to make things better for them. Sometimes it's ok to let go of a certain expectation for the time being; you can come back to it at a later time. I appreciate Dr. Greene's frankness in the number of techniques being thrown at educators.  

One thing that every teacher learns early in his or her career is that everyday we need to be prepared with a variety of methods to handle different students.  I have used Plan A in my classroom most often in September when setting boundaries in the class.  Most students just need to see that this is a consequence for their actions.  Very often it only happens once and lesson is learned.  It does at time escalate to an argument, which I always try to avoid.  At those times it is helpful to pause and finish the discussion at another time. 
Plan B is a helpful to students that may not like being told what to do.  Having them be a part of the plan, makes them fight it less and want to be successful.  This happens most often in my classroom with students that seem to have a behavior issue in multiple classes and a plan is developed to help them be successful.  I have found that it also can be helpful to get to know more about this student.   A personal connection can often go a long way. 

Plan A and Plan B are complete opposite approaches when handling challenging behaviors. Plan A causes challenging behaviors in challenging kids because in Plan A, the teacher is imposing their own will upong the student. This will escalate behavior and does not result in meeting the desired expectations/outcomes. I have used Plan A on challenging behaviors in the past. An example would be where I asked a student to stop interrupting class. The student refused & became aggrevated that they were asked to stop. It escalated between us and the student eventually stopped. This was short lived because the student created additional behaviors and was not meeting expecatations. 

Plan B is a collaborative approach to problem solving. This approach takes longer but it is successful because the behavior is diminished and expecations are met. There is not a power struggle with Plan B. I have used Plan B on many occassions. A student was not meeting homework expectations, getting frustrated, then acting out in class. I spoke with the student and they said that they have a lot of responsibilties after school and are too tired to complete work most nights. We agreed that completing homework was important so we agreed on a sliding homework scale. This gave the student choice, increased their confidence, and eventually over a few weeks behaviors & grades imoroved. 

Plan A is imposing your will on expectation.  I’ve used this in the classroom when students are not participating in a class expectation, such as completing an assignment or when they are distracting other students.

Plan B is collaborative problem solving.  I’ve used this method several times.  Every five weeks I teach a lesson on a skill such as regulating emotions or coping skills.  We collaboratively think of ways to handle different situations.

I use plan C a lot and have always felt guilty about it until now.  I take time to process what is happening, and also have an easier time addressing unmet expectations when I have time to think of solutions.  At home, my husband always says I’m too easy on the kids and at school I feel guilty when I get observed and I don’t address the behavior right away.  This technique works for me, because we all operate much better when not in the heat of the moment, and later can work on finding a solution.  I feel much better knowing this an actual appropriate approach.