Elementary, Secondary Classroom Management Techniques, K12 Resource Plans, Help, Ideas for Teachers, Principals

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Problem-Solver Library
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100s of Answer-Packed Articles
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Oppositional Defiant (ODD) Students:
Must-Have Classroom Management Methods

Sample Article, excerpted from The Problem-Solver Library Violence and Misbehavior eBook.
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If you are a teacher or counselor who finds that "nothing works" to manage some students, this article may help. It's way past time for you to learn about ODD, Oppositional Defiant Disorder. If you don't already know this information, it can make a huge difference right away-- especially in your classroom and group management results.

In college, you probably got very little training on basic mental health, but if you've been teaching for more than five minutes, you know that little bit of training wasn't enough. Here's just a quick peek at what they should have taught you in college about basic juvenile mental health. Be aware however that this article gives you just 1% of what you will need to know in your classroom in order to maintain control and best assist each challenged student. This information may be critical to improving out-of-control classroom management problems.

WHAT DOES "OPPOSITIONAL-DEFIANT" MEAN? "Oppositional-Defiant" is a mental health diagnosis that describes kids that have consciences but sometimes act like they don't. This diagnosis can only be applied by a mental health professional but will be very important for any youth worker to know and understand. This diagnosis is far more hopeful than "conduct disorder," which means the child lacks a conscience and a real capacity for relationships. While the oppositional-defiant child (ODD) may also appear to have little conscience or relationship capacity, you may be able to improve that with the right approach and methods. With conduct disordered youth, such improvement may not be possible.

** WHAT DOES "OPPOSITIONAL-DEFIANCE" LOOK LIKE? Oppositional-defiant kids are often some of your most misbehaved students. They may disrupt your class, hurt others, defy authority and engage in illegal or problematic conduct. Though they may look similar to conduct disorders, their bad behavior is usually less severe, less frequent, and of shorter duration. The ODD label is often inaccurately applied as this dynamic can be a difficult concept to grasp and apply. Many ADD youth are also ODD, and boys dominate this category.

**THE 3 AREAS OF HELP FOR ODD YOUTH The thrust of helping the ODD child must focus on 1) Skill building, plus 2)"Pulling up" that conscience and 3)Improving their relationship skills. For skill building, teaching them how to regulate their anger, actions, peer skills, verbal output, etc. will be critical. You may find that remedying classroom management problems is difficult or impossible without the skill building. But equally important, this child must be aided to care about others and to be guided more by conscience. You will need good strategies that are designed to address each of these points. This game plan can deliver noticeable improvement in individual students, and in your general group and classroom management. Sometimes, change can even be quite rapid.

The full, printable article continues
and covers these topics:
  * Strategies to stimulate the conscience of ODD kids
  * How to "pull up" a child's conscience
  * How to adapt interventions for young children

Sample Article excerpted from
The Problem-Solver Library
Violence and Misbehavior eBook.

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Forgotten Favorite Strategies for
Unmotivated, Apathetic, Acting Out and Misbehaved Students

Sample Article, excerpted from The Problem-Solver Library Violence and Misbehavior eBook.
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We have so many interventions that sometimes even some of our favorite devices can be forgotten. These techniques used to be regularly included in our popular Breakthrough Strategies to Teach and Counsel Troubled Youth Workshops (click here), but not so often now, though perhaps they should be. So, here are some old but golden strategies that should be used not forgotten. Add these novel devices to your classroom or group management plan, and you will find that chronic student behavior problems can improve more rapidly than you might have expected. Conventional approaches may not help but these innovative, attention-grabbing techniques can over time transform your classroom management nightmare into classroom management heaven.

** FOR YOUTH WHO DISRUPT THE CLASS OR GROUP

To teach hand-raising, wave your arms all around and name that "windshield wiper arms" or "helicopter arms." To show students correct hand-raising technique, hold your arm in the air and still and call it "flagpole arm." Using these images may work better than conventional approaches.

** FOR YOUTH WITH LOW SELF-ESTEEM

Have the kids create a magazine about what they do well over the next month. The magazine can feature a picture of the student on the cover and highlight successes that the student has. Name the magazine "Esteem Magazine," with a motto of "for students who know that Esteem is more than hot air." The magazine may also contain articles on self-worth and lists such as "The Top 10 Things People Like About Me."

** FOR YOUTH WHO THINK SCHOOL IS A WASTE Here are the very latest numbers that show once more that education pays and pays and pays! These new numbers make an old intervention even more profound and even more powerful! Use play money to illustrate or put this information in a chart on your board, or do both. Follow up by having students experience how much money is worth by visiting a store, car dealership or reviewing housing classified ads. As of January, 2000, drop-outs can expect to earn just over $16,000, based on 1998 dollars. High school grads earn nearly $23,000 and college grads almost $45,000. Ask your kids to pick their salary for the new millennium.

The full, printable article continues
and covers these topics:
  * Strategies to help absent youth attend school more regularly
  * Strategies to help youth manage peer pressure
to use drugs and alcohol
  * Strategies for youth and children who can't imagine
ever being able to successfully make personal changes

Sample Article excerpted from
The Problem-Solver Library Violence and Misbehavior eBook.

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For more information on this book, click here.

Teachers: Did Your Classroom Management Training Prepare You
to Work with Difficult, Truant and Misbehaved Students?

Sample Article, excerpted from The Problem-Solver Library Violence and Misbehavior eBook.
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For more information on this book, click here.

Teachers, when you received your training to teach, the world probably looked much different. Guns meant water pistols and gangs meant West Side Story.

Here is a test to see if your skills have kept up with the changes in our kids. If you discover that you are more prepared to work with Beaver Cleaver than Beavis and Butthead, then this article is for you. Our resources-- including this article-- can turbo-charge your skills to fit contemporary kids.

All the quiz questions are shown here in this article sampler, however only one of the answers is included in this brief excerpt from the full briefing. Information on purchasing the full article (with all the answers) is shown above and below this article.

1. Who is the hardest-to-manage, most potentially violent kid, and how must you work with them differently than everybody else?

Bonus Question: If you work with this hardest- to-manage child using the same approaches you use with everyone else, what is likely to happen?

2. There may be just 3 major ways that kids can respond to adult directions. Name the 3 ways.

Bonus Question: What is the only effective way to get children to comply with adult directions?

3. Name the student most likely to drop out.

Bonus Question: What other problems will this child quite likely face?

4. Who are the kids at highest risk of extreme violence?

Bonus Question: Why do you work differently with each of these kids?

5. Other than violence prevention, name the single most important school readiness skill to teach to students. (Hint: Most schools don't have a formal plan to teach it, but they all require it)

Bonus Question: When is the time to teach this skill?

ANSWERS:

1. CONDUCT DISORDERS. Conduct disorder is a mental health term that essentially means that the child is sociopathic. While you can continue to successfully use relationship-based approaches with any other child, these methods almost inevitably flop with conduct disorders who, by definition, can't relate normally to others.

Bonus Question: If you use conventional relationship-based approaches with conduct disorders, it conveys to them that you do not understand them. It may be close to painting a target on your chest. Actions that are normally appropriate under some circumstances, such as giving one more chance, can be dangerous even disastrous with conduct disorders. If you do not know this child backwards and forwards, you may lack key tools to ensure your safety and the safety of other children. For example, character ed methods not only inevitably fail with conduct disorders, they generally make this youngster behave far worse. If you don't know why this is true, then you are especially vulnerable to this potentially dangerous student who will discern that you don't quite know how to manage them.

The full, printable article continues
and covers these topics:
  * The 3 major ways that kids can respond to adult directions
  * The types of kids at highest risk of extreme violence,
and how to work with each type
  * The most important school readiness skill to teach (besides safety) that schools require but seldom teach

Teach Students Teacher Interaction Skills
for Better Classroom Management and Control

Sample Article, excerpted from The Problem-Solver Library Violence and Misbehavior eBook.
BUY this book in just 60 seconds by clicking here ($15, includes the full, printable article)
For more information on this book, click here.

At our popular Breakthrough Strategies to Teach and Counsel Troubled Youth Workshops (click here for details), we always let the course participants name the problem areas they want to cover during the inservice workshop. We can always count on teachers asking for ideas for classroom management and control. Nearly every teacher has had moments when maintaining control over the class was difficult or impossible. Some teachers tell us that their class has actually gotten out of control. Here's help.

So many students believe that they should be in charge of the classroom and that they know more than the teacher. It can be tough to teach hard-to-manage students who think they should be in charge. Since few schools have a written game plan to formally train their kids to be students, you may see a lot of younger and older youth who do not look, act or sound like students.

Until trained to be students, some youngsters may continue to be unmanageable. Here is a small sampling from our arsenal of strategies to effectively teach kids to be successful students. The strategies offered here will focus on just one of the many skill areas you need to cover: how to interact properly with teachers. Don't forget to cover those other areas too-- how often to talk in class, what to say or not say, how to be on task, how to arrive on time, how to interact with other students and so on. Our books and classes cover all these areas in depth, but here's a peek at some of our best!

** Who Is Qualified to Be in Charge? For students who believe that they should run the class, have your kids list out all the qualifications that teachers must have. Write their responses on the board and elicit answers like "have a college degree" and "have a license to teach." Next, ask the class to determine who has these qualifications, the teacher or students? This intervention can very effectively squelch your "know-it-all" students' attempts to be the boss of the class.

** Top 10 Ways Your Teacher Can't Tell You Need Help To further teach students that teachers are unable to magically determine when students need help, have the class make a Top 10 List. Title this list "The Top 10 Ways Your Teacher Can't Tell You Need Help." Elicit answers such as "you glare." Post the completed list on the wall and discuss what might work better

The full, printable article continues
and covers these topics:
  * How to teach compliance skills to students
  * Methods to teach students to wait more patiently
for help from the teacher
  * Unusual ways to teach students that teachers can't
"read minds" and don't magically know how to help

Got Defiant, Argumentative, Angry and Difficult Students?
Win the Power Struggles Every Time

Sample Article, excerpted from The Problem-Solver Library Violence and Misbehavior eBook.
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Here's the absolute, no-fail way to win every power struggle with every kid every time: Don't struggle for power. Think about it. The minute an adult wrestles with a kid for power, they've immediately lost. And, the younger the child, the more true that statement becomes. To give you an image, you want to take your "sails" out of their wind, so to speak. Here are some specific tips and tricks to use instead of getting caught up in the "Yes, you will"-"No, I won't" battles when everybody loses.

How do we know what to recommend to you? This is all we do. This web site is your Problem-Kid Problem-Solver packed with lots of creative ideas, along with books, workshops, and much more.

*** It's Fun to Torture Adults:

For many youngsters, it can seem like sport to "trap" an adult in a power struggle. What better way to get out of doing what you are supposed to be doing than to debate it? For example, if you run a counseling group, you may notice that it seems impossible to get some youngsters to come to group on time. Instead of taking group time to debate if "the bus was late" is a satisfactory excuse, turn it over to the group. The group may decide, for example, to have the latecomer clean up after the group is over, a natural consequence of inconveniencing the group members. Notice the issue switches from being an adult-kid issue to a kid-to-kid issue. Once your group has set a standard policy, never waste time debating again.

*** BONUS TIP:

Set an on-going limit on how long you'll discuss compliance issues. Your youngsters will know that they have only a brief time frame, and that this time can not be during group or class time, but on their own time.

*** Meet the Bickersons:

Teach kids about the "bicker- backs", when people get into a griping match. Teach them how to spot the "bickers" and to stop the "backs". They'll learn that you won't bickerback and will give up attempting to bicker with you. This is a great device to give to families.

*** BONUS TIP: Teach kids "Ask once, you're assertive, ask thrice, you're aggressive." This saying can become a common comment that youth use with each other, relieving you of some of the chore of confronting coercive behavior.

The full, printable article continues
and covers these topics:
  * Must-know reminders about how to work with conduct disorders (your most seriously misbehaved students) differently than everybody else
  * Find out if you should use coercion during power struggles
  * Easy interventions that finally stop the talk-outs

Oppositional-Defiant Students: Strategies, Interventions and Ideas
for Better Classroom and Group Management

Sample Article, excerpted from The Problem-Solver Library Violence and Misbehavior eBook.
BUY this book in just 60 seconds by clicking here ($15, includes the full, printable article)
For more information on this book, click here.

Oppositional Defiant Disorder is a mental health diagnostic term that can be applied by a mental health professional to describe some severely misbehaved youth and children. Although this youngster may be a real handful to manage, this diagnosis is an infinitely more hopeful and workable one than Conduct Disorder, which can appear similar.

In our Breakthrough Strategies to Teach and Counsel Troubled Youth Workshop, even many mental health professionals confuse the differences between oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) and conduct disorder (CD). Although there are similarities between these two types of seriously misbehaved youth, some of the ways you work with these kids differ dramatically. In fact, many methods that are essential to work with ODDs are not just ineffective, but dangerous with CDs.

Here is a very quick recap in case you are unfamiliar with these crucial concepts, but don't take this quick one paragraph summary as sufficient for upgrading your skills and information base. It's just a starting point. ODDs probably have a conscience and remorse, but neither of these seem to be much in evidence. CDs are considered much more severely disturbed, and much more likely to engage in extremely dangerous and/or problematic behavior. By definition, CDs lack meaningful relationship capacity. Here's a pop quiz to test your knowledge.

These questions capture some of the most common misconceptions and questions we constantly hear in class about these two types of hard-to-manage youth. However, the brief answers provided here are absolutely no substitute for mastering how to effectively and safely work with severely acting-out youth and children, so if you want more information, be sure to purchase this article in it entirety in our Problem-Solver Library eBook (information on that is shown above and below this article), take one of our live or recorded workshops (click here), or purchase our book/ebook that covers nothing but conduct disorders (click here.) Since this sampler article is just an excerpt, all the answers for this quiz are not included here; purchase the full article to access the entire quiz with answers (purchase information shown below.)

Here's the quiz:

1. Animal abuse is particularly characteristic of... ODDs or CDs?

2. Evoking remorse is a strategy that should only be used with...ODDs or CDs?

3. There has been a big increase in the number of kids diagnosed as...ODD or CD?

4. ODD leads to CD...or does CD lead to ODD?

ANSWERS:

1. Animal abuse isn't a litmus test for CD, but some mental health experts believe it almost could be. Animal abuse is tightly correlated with CD.

2. Most mental health experts, though not all, believe that the heart of being a CD is having no heart or conscience. Therefore, evoking remorse in a CD won't work. Getting that conscience "in gear" is often central to working with ODDs.

The full, printable article continues
and covers these topics:
  * All quiz answers and explanations, plus strategies targeted for CD and ODD
  * Strategies that work with conduct disorders when conventional methods fail
  * Discover if the number of conduct disorders are increasing and the most important tools you need to manage them

Innovative, More Effective Interventions
for Students with Chronic School Behavior and Attitude Problems

Sample Article, excerpted from The Problem-Solver Library Violence and Misbehavior eBook.
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You may have many students who have chronic problems with their behavior and attitude at school. Fortunately, we have many awesome interventions to turnaround bad behavior and even worse attitudes. Some of our favorite interventions for sour attitudes and problem behavior, are shown below.

Me? Flunk English? That's Unpossible!
Just write this sentence on the board, then let the students discuss it: "WiLl YOu RealY NevER ned a diPlOmA?" You may also repeat this exercise with this sentence: "Me? Flunk English? That's unpossible!" The second sentence is stolen from the cartoon show, "The Simpsons"; ask your students to create other sentences like the two shown above. Also, you can ask your students to imagine how signs might be read by someone who hasn't learned to read very well. For example, ask them to imagine signs at the airport you better be able to read. They will devise many funny but provocative scenarios.

Ready or Not, Here Life Comes
Some students are very negative about school because they consider it to be a waste. Here is a fun intervention to show students that education may be essential. Have students write down the types of problems that an adult might have to deal with during one really bad day, then have them determine how many of these activities use skills learned in school. Your group will notice that all/most of the problems in a really bad adult day may require education. Include problems like the refrigerator is a bit warm, the car seems to slide for some reason on the wet road, and the bank says that your checking account is overdrawn.

The full, printable article continues
and covers these topics:
  * "The 10,000 Ways School Builds You Up" intervention that powerfully conveys the value of education
  * Our dramatic and forceful "Dropouts Needed" intervention that shocks potential dropouts
  * Decidedly unusual, effective methods that convince misbehaved students that the school isn't the cause of their problems

Temper Tune-Up Techniques to
Turn Down the Heat Today

Sample Article, excerpted from The Problem-Solver Library Violence and Misbehavior eBook.
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School has only been in session a short time, and our Live Expert Help page (click here to visit) is being inundated with requests for aid for just a single problem area. Frankly, we are very concerned to be getting so many requests for help with students who are verbally abusing, defying or hitting their teacher. Yes, that sentence included the phrase "hitting their teacher." In the time that it has taken me to type that last sentence, we received another plea for help from yet another teacher, this request coming from a 28 year veteran. These reports are coming from mainstream settings, not from specialized settings for the most extreme children and youth.

Yes, it has obviously gotten harder to manage students in the last few years. Regardless, our view has stayed the same: Students should never be allowed to get anywhere near an aggressive level of behavior with anyone at school, certainly not the teacher. By the time the situation has reached the point where students are kicking the teacher-- as we have heard from several of you-- it will be very challenging to turn the situation around. But, you may wonder, how can a teacher be expected to stay in charge of increasingly out-of-control students? Well, for those of us who have worked in both mainstream and specialized settings, we know that the level of behavior at the typical day treatment center, residential treatment center or juvenile hall, is usually far superior to that in the mainstream even though the child served in the specialized setting, is usually much more troubled, out-of-control and uncooperative than their mainstream counterpart. That observation may indicate that at least some of your success managing a group depends not on the difficulty of the youth, but the skill and will of the adult.

It shouldn't have to be said, but here we go: Maintaining control over your group is just about the most important thing you need to do each day. You don't have to be at all dictatorial but your group needs to know and feel that you are going to keep things "safe and okay," to quote one student. If your class members have been physically or verbally aggressive to you, or defied you on key matters, then stop all else that you do until you re-gain control. Re-gaining control is always much harder than starting off strong from the start, so it will not be easy. Expect to be tested even worse than you have been already until your acting-out students determine that you will not relinquish control. But the message I hope comes through is that you will not be able to teach, counsel, foster parent, supervise, coach or do whatever your job is, until you establish control-- so you might as well do what it takes starting right now.

The full, printable article continues
and covers these topics:
  * Interventions for students who believe they'll never have to control their anger
  * Our "Jocks in Jail" intervention to convince students that they can't avoid learning anger control by becoming an out-of-control sports star
  * What you may not know about the different kinds of out-of-control students-- and why it can keep you from being able to successfully manage your classroom or group

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Interventions
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If you work with unmanageable, unmotivated, disruptive, aggressive, or socially maladjusted students, then you should know that they are our specialty. So many of our books are packed with creative, unorthodox, attention-grabbing devices, all designed to utterly convince even the most resistant youth that they need school and must begin to use better behavior. Our new books of handouts precisely fit that description. Our decidedly different Behavior Change Handouts Series covers both out-of-control students and school misbehavior. The Controlling Myself and My Feelings volume (available as a paperback or ebook) is packed with startling worksheets and handouts to turnaround problem behavior and feelings. Our Becoming a Prepared and Motivated Student and Worker volume (in paperback or as an instant ebook) is packed with printable worksheets that can transform classroom management problems-- even serious and persistent ones. All the handouts are completely reproducible. Click here to view this series in paperback. Click here to view this series as an instant download ebook that you can own, read and print in a lightening-fast 60 seconds. You will use every one of the dozens of handouts packed into the Behavior Change Handout series. Buy as a paperback, or as an instant ebook for $28 each, $49 for both. These books can help you transform your reluctant students into motivated, interested ones, and help you finally rein in even your most unmanageable, misbehaved students. These books are specifically designed to work when conventional approaches fail, and are formulated to work with particularly resistant youth and children who are highly negative, discouraged or uninterested in school. If you ever struggle with classroom or group management, or are not sure how to help deeply impaired youngsters, this series has your quickest solutions. Click here to read more about these books. Click here to order in paperback. Click here for information on the ebook version of this series.

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