Self-Monitoring- Self-Monitoring seems rather synonymous with self-regulation, however the process of it requires specific attention to one's response rather than the processing of that response. Self-Monitoring acts as a check in for an individual as they pursue some goal-oriented action. This Self-Monitoring will appear in the educational context as a student checks in on their own progress and makes goals for their selves. This Self-Monitoring practice will also take shape as the student adheres to different expectations set by the environment around them as the student ensures they are not perceived as out of place.
'My Gas Tank' Strategy
This fairly straight forward strategy places the responsibility on the student to relay their emotions and ability to keep going to the teacher. As seen in the image, the teacher would have this gauge on the student's desk and have the student move some kind of marker around to indicate their state. This strategy would be best used as a classroom wide approach in which the teacher can model the proper practice of finding corrective activities that can bring them back into the green. This strategy would also work great as a silent form for more difficult students to channel their emotions into as opposed to acting out. We also felt that this strategy could be tied into emotional control as the marker placed in the red or yellow would be a silent way of allowing the teacher to know that they need some sort of break from the activity. An alteration of this strategy may be during work periods while the students indicate their ability to keep working and applying their full effort on the task before needing a break of some sort.
Giving Students a Choice
This strategy provides choice so that when students feel that they are getting frustrated or upset, instead of going to the teacher, they are able to rely on strategies that are given to them at the start of the year. It is important that you teach awareness of learning styles so that students can identify what works best for them ie: musical, visual, kinesthetic. By Giving students the choices of breathing, walking away, counting to ten, putting hands in pockets when the student is trying to gather their composure, they have multiple ways of calming themselves down without referring to a teacher. If these multiple strategies are provided at the start of the year, students are able to find out what fits best to their learning style, leaning away from getting constant attention from the teacher.
Noise Meter
The Noise Meter is a rather simple that can work wonders in the classroom. This strategy may be more of a management strategy, however through the indicators on the meter, the students will be able to re-adjust their behaviour and adhere to the expectations. Often students who have difficulty remembering the class expectations during work periods would benefit from this check-in strategy. The use of associated words to describe the noise levels and times in which they are used is a great way to contextualize this for the students. Implementation may begin with a consequence if the meter reaches a certain level, however over time the students will inherently monitoring their own noise level and create their own standard.
The Incredible 5 Point Scale
This rather straight forward management strategy creates self regulation skills through the discussions regarding the concepts of the strategy. This scale of 1-5 and associated colours works fantastic when implemented as a whole class approach with the students having their own scale posted on their desks. The teacher shall have a their own scale on the front board and model the use of the scale throughout the day. In addition to talking about each step, discussing intervention and corrective strategies helps build positive and healthy regulation skills for the students both in and outside of the classroom. Despite each student not necessarily needing the scale, using this method as a class wide approach opens the door for acceptance and creating a safe place for the students. Jodi Gurr of Dorothy Dalgliesh Elementary school has used this in her classroom and says that the teacher describing their emotion, associating it to a place on the scale and then explain how they are going to make themselves better i.e. listening to music. For additional information on this strategy please visit the link provided: https://www.5pointscale.com
How did these strategies work for you? Was there a better way of implementation or any information that we forgot? Please use the comment section below to provide us and our users with more information about this toolbox.