I teach in a very poor, inner city school. I have two advanced middle school classes and the rest are what you would call "average" kids. Most of my advanced students are children of teachers in the district. They value education and have a parent or parents at home telling them to do their work and get good grades. Plan A works perfectly with these students. I need to use Plan A when there is cheating, too much talking, safety issues in the class, or someone using their cell phone. These students have the skills and coping mechanisms to say "ok, I will follow the rules". Plan B is giving your students a "tour guide" for problem solving. This is the plan I use with most behavior issues in my other classes. An example that sticks out to me is a certain student that I know telling him to put his cell phone on my desk when he is caught using it. He responds in a way that I have never seen before. He started swearing at me, slamming chairs, throwing stuff. He was sent to the discipline office to prevent another student from getting hurt. Later that day, I sat down with him one on one. He explained to me why he was so upset. His phone is the only thing that is truly "his". He is homeless, living in a shelter. We talked about what the expectations were in the classroom, what he though he could have done differently, what I thought I could have done differently. We came up with a plan for what would happen the next time he felt the urge to use his phone. I haven't had an issue with him since.
