Home

PRODUCTS

This manual details a building- or system-wide behavior program that is effective and easy to implement. It is an excellent resource for fulfilling the Safe Schools Initiative.

The Manual Includes

Procedures and tools for enforcing behavior.

Steps to implementing the enforcement component.

Forms and tools for implementing program:

• Expectations
• Consequences
• Record-keeping Charts
• Student behavior plans
• Parent calling forms
• Hall tickets

Recommendations for making the program work:

• Managing common areas.
• Setting up in-school suspension rooms.
• Knowing when to ignore behavior and when to act with consequences.

Procedures and tools for teaching behavior.

• Steps to implementing the teaching component.
• Posters for 75 behavior skills.
• Teaching units for 75 skills.

Other Important Information.

• Summary of related research.
• Answers to frequently asked questions.
• Recommendations from successful schools.
• Transparencies for sharing program with staff and parents.

Summary of Enforcing Positive and Productive Behavior

We have combined the best of discipline programs from across the country to create an enforcement program that is simple to implement, effective in establishing compliance, and easy to manage.

The enforcement component includes:

Clear, explicit, positive behavior expectations

Meaningful consequences progressing through several steps from a warning to expulsion

A plan for consistently enforcing the expectations through the consequences

Simple record-keeping that holds students accountable for their behavior

An effective system for managing behavior in the halls, on the playground, in the lunchroom, and on the bus

This component also includes information on:

How to involve parents early and often,

How to set up a meaningful in-school suspension,

How to document consequences for chronically disruptive students.

Dealing with Chronically Disruptive Behavior

The progression of consequences outlined in the manual is designed so that chronically disruptive students are systematically identified and dealt with while protecting the rights of those students who are in school to learn.

Summary of Teaching Positive and Productive Behavior

Teaching students to be responsible for their own behavior is a long-term process. In this program, teachers become involved mentors for students, helping them learn to meet the expectations of the school, teaching them positive and productive behavior, and helping them learn to deal with their own problems and conflicts.

If students are taught both how to behave appropriately and why it is important to do so, and then consistently held accountable for meeting the behavior expectations, they will internalize the skills of positive and productive behavior and assume responsibility for their own behavior.

The teaching component includes:

• A 75-skill behavior curriculum
• A plan for teaching the skills by grouping them into monthly themes
• Posters that# include the rationale for each skill and the steps students follow to practice the skills
• Units with a wide variety of activities for teaching each of the 75 skills
• A plan for scheduling and managing the teaching of the 75 skills

Why is This Program Necessary?

With 90% of families in the United States either headed by a single parent or having both parents working outside the home, parents simply do not have enough time to spend with their children. Some parents compensate for this lack of time by indulging their children and trying to make their lives easy. This often results in kids who grow up self-centered, overly sensitive, and demanding. Other parents simply neglect their children who often become overly independent, lacking basic social skills.

Whether children are over-nurtured or neglected, the result is the same: more children coming to school lacking the basic skills of self-discipline, respect, responsibility, social skills, and coping skills. They have little motivation to work hard and learn. They feel little responsibility for developing the skills necessary for their own success.

TEN SIGMA's Teaching and Enforcing Positive and Productive Behavior program is a unique, two-part approach to improving student behavior through consistent enforcement of high behavioral expectations teamed with the systematic teaching of positive and productive behavior skills. Both parts work together to create an environment where students follow rules and take responsibility for their own behavior.

Schools may choose to implement the entire program as is, or select parts of the program and customize it to fit their own particular needs.

Quotes from Users of This Program

"You can make students behave for the moment, but when you also teach them how and why to behave, they develop lifelong success skills."

"I think the consistency that we have gotten with this program has been the real key to our success."

"This program creates a consistent environment that parents respect and kids can count on."

"Our students no longer have to think about how to behave. They have learned the skills so well, that it just comes naturally to them."

From the Author

As educators we must become partners with our students, helping them develop a personal behavioral culture that enables them to live in a positive, productive, successful, and happy manner, not only in school, but throughout their lives. In this partnership we need to help students learn (1) how and why to behave appropriately and (2) to accept responsibility for their own behavior by accepting the consequences of their inappropriate behavior.

In this program, behavior expectations are identified in a clear, explicit, and positive manner, then enforced through a series of progressive consequences. When schools post behavioral expectations and the consequences for inappropriate behavior in every corner of the building and then consistently enforce those expectations, student compliance is almost guaranteed. However, over time compliance begins to weaken. Students get numb to the consequences and teachers lose their consistency. This is why we recommend that schools also teach students to internalize positive and productive behavior skills. While consistently enforcing compliance is important, it is the teaching of the skills that has the greatest long-term benefit to students.

John D. Wessels, Ph.D.

Samples from this manual

Recommended behavior expectations

Recommended consequences for inappropriate behavior

Sample form for enforcing consequences

Sample unit for teaching a behavior skill

Sample poster for teaching a behavior skill

All samples are in PDF files; Adobe Acrobat Reader® software or an Acrobat-enabled Web browser required to view. To download the free Adobe Acrobat Reader® software, click here.

To order

Teaching and Enforcing Positive and Productive Behavior

Order item # 700 . . . $ 300.00