Level 1 Consequences: Consistently Punish Obvious, Bad Behavior

​Level 1: Obvious, Bad Behavior = Single, Consistent Consequence

With volume, as with consequences, you have to start somewhere, and tragically, the bottom is the only place to start. No matter what your college professors say, engaging lessons and relationships cannot run a classroom. When beginning in your application of consequences, you will practice your first steps in the art of consistency. Step one is easy: identify 5-10 behaviors that are obviously inappropriate for a classroom. Depending on your school, and the corresponding demographics, obvious misbehavior lists may sound like either of the following:
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Obviously inappropriate behavior:

1. Gum chewing
2. Sleeping
3. Pen tapping
4. Note passing
5. Not turning in assignments

Obviously inappropriate behavior:

1. Punching other students in the face
2. Throwing books across the room or out the window
3. Sleeping
4. Walking out of the classroom
5. Swearing, racial, sexual slurs, or sexual intercourse (it once happened between students on my middle school's stage.) Yes. Stage.

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Doubtless, there is some crossover between the two lists, but everyone, in every school culture needs to start somewhere. On one of my co-workers third day of teaching ever, one of her students started screaming and throwing text books out the window while verbally harassing the teacher’s aide in the room. There were some threats of violence as well. That student refused to be moved by anyone until he was restrained and taken away by the police. At my school, those types of behaviors are the ones to start with as “obviously wrong.” Your starting point might be much more commonplace, but regardless of the culture of your school, the steps towards consequential progression are the same.

Once you have decided what is obviously wrong, you must decide on one consequence to respond to each of those obviously wrong behaviors every single time those obviously wrong behaviors are perpetrated. At this point in the game, your consequences will probably use the school structure as a crutch. Better yet, your consequences will use better teachers than you as a crutch. Write students up using whatever discipline referral policy is in place in your school. Give every such infraction ten minutes of detention after school. Whatever discipline you decide on, make sure you do it every time, whether it’s the kid you hate because he reminds you of the dude that stole your homecoming date away, or your favorite student who visits your grandmother in the nursing home most weekends. The whole point of the obvious level of consequences is to instill in your teaching complete and unerring consistency.
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At this point, your classroom management structure has one tier, and it is as follows

Tier

1

Infraction

Obvious, bad behavior from your list.

Consequence

Assign the same school, or other badass-teacher structured consequence each time.

If you’re beginning in the realm of giving consequences, using the school’s existing structure is important. Chances are, in the classroom, your head's still spinning, you’re screaming occasionally, and by and large just talking about everything that needs to happen. Picking an obvious, simple consequence has several advantages for teachers at this stage in their career.