Education Center

In the reading, it is evident that Adam is lacking attention being the youngest in a big family where the parents are always away. This goes to show that Adam may be the least noticeable if his parents even notice him at all. His lack of attention shows in his classroom behavior where he is noisy and does not follow what he is told – all cries for attention. Mr. Potter’s way of reprimanding Adam through the course of the situation has a few faults, apparently because Adam did not behave himself well in the next classes even after continuous reprimand and being sent to the disciplinary office.

Ignoring the problem for the first few times meant that Mr. Potter tolerated Adam’s behavior. In the next instances, when he was reprimanded and sent out, Adam felt the attention he most desperately needed though in the form of shame. Mr. Potter’s classroom management strategy is to ignore and to verbally reprimand, which may be considered as faulty. Ignorance can never get anywhere especially with a child seeking attention – he always has to be informed of the proper behavior, or he will never learn. Verbal reprimand yet can bring embarrassment to the child where proper speaking and explanation is more advised.

Ignoring the problem is not the right thing to do, most especially with children behaving badly. As for all cases or reprimand, the One Minute Reprimand works fairly well where “people must be reprimanded immediately, they should be told what their faults are exactly and how the person reprimanding feels about what he did, reaffirming that they are good people and the only problem would be what they did. ” The idea is, once the situation occurs, the person doing it should be reprimanded right away. This then makes it firm that such actions cannot and should never occur in a certain setting, in Adam’s case, the classroom.

Mr. Potter’s verbal reprimand though not stated may probably be a way through which Adam got even more annoyed. Verbal reprimand in front of his peers would of course cause shame to the child, and this will never result to a better behavior. The best way to deal with this, aside from what is stated above is to “use appropriate rewards”. Children need “consistent positive feedback to learn appropriate behavior therefore praise and attention are highly rewarding for young children, making sure the child knows what behavior is desirable”.

If ever Adam was ashamed of the verbal reprimand Mr. Potter gave him, Mr. Potter could have voiced out to the class what a behaved boy Adam was, during those times that he was quiet. Reinforcing good attitudes among children is a good way for them to learn. Aside from this Mr. Potter should learn how to “teach and provide attention, so that children do not become starved for attention and more likely interrupt others”. Reprimanding is of a contextual nature and is often subjective. No one method will work in the case of reprimanding bad attitude.

It is the job of Mr. Potter to assess which one will work for Adam, but most often than not, proper explanation and the steps written above can help more than ignoring the issue. Reference List: National Mental Health and Education Center. Behavior problems: teaching young children self-control skills [PDF document]. Retrieved from Lecture Notes Online Web site: http://www. nasponline. org/resources/handouts/behavior%20template. pdf Reprimanding your subordinates. Retrieved from http://www. halinakajamydin. com/2009/05/reprimanding-your-subordinates. html

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