CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT PLAN

Rubric/Point Values
The attached format is to be used in developing a Classroom Management Plan (CMP).
The Classroom Management Plan must be typed in twelve point font and single spaced.
Further, roman numerals and headings (as noted on the following outline) must be used
for each section and appear in chronological order following a title page. Additionally,
page breaks should be used between each section (component part) of the Classroom
Management Plan. Diagrams and figures may be hand drawn given that they appear of
professional quality. The following grading key will be used to evaluate Classroom
Management Plans:
Points Awarded Possible Points Component of Plan
5

Description of grade level, ages, course

content, school
and community
6

Description of how you will physically

Description of your classroom behavior

Describe how you establish rapport with

Describe how you will structure the learning

arrange your classroom

expectations
your students/clients
process in
your classroom
7

Describe how you will respond to

Describe self-monitoring of your

distribution of positives vs. corrective
feedback

Describe how you will screen for given

students/clients who are in need of a
functional behavior assessment (FBA) and a
person-centered behavior intervention and
support plan

inappropriate behavior

50

Total Points

Classroom Management Plan

Jackie Reuss

CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT PLAN (OUTLINE)

I.
This plan is designed for an eighth grade English and Language Arts classroom in Milton
Area Middle School. The population of the Milton Area consists primarily of white
Americans; 7.9% of the population is Hispanic, 3.1% are African American, and 1.1% are
Asian. Ancestries of whites in the Milton area include: German (42.1%), Irish (9.7%),
United States (9.4%), English (7.8%), Dutch (6.0%), Italian (4.2%). Religions practiced
in the area are Catholic (37%), Weslyan (8%), United Methodist (14%), United Church
of Christ (9%), and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (20%). Twelve percent
classify their religion as other. The median annual household income in the Milton
area is about $35,000, and the unemployment rate is nearly ten percent. Seventeen
percent of Milton residents live below the poverty line; 50% of the Hispanic population is
below the poverty line, 32% of the American Indian and Alaskan Native population, 5%
of the black population, and 16% of the white population, and 80% of those who identify
themselves as being some other race. The student population of the five schools in the
Milton Area School District is 2,287. Of these students, 97 are English Language
learners, and 348 have IEPs. In the Middle School, there are 516 students and their
student to teacher ration is about 13 to 1. Of those 516, there are slightly more male
students than female students. The racial profile of these includes 4 American
Indian/Alaskan students, one Asian/Pacific Islander student, 24 African American
students, 37 Hispanic students, and 450 White students. Out of the 516 middle school
students, 195 are eligible for free lunches and 55 are eligible for reduced-price lunch.
Course content will include readings for all skill levels and will promote acceptance,
highlight the benefits of diversity, and be age appropriate. Some of the titles I will be
teaching are Hatchet, Holes, To Kill a Mockingbird, Where the Red Fern Grows,
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead and The Odyssey, among others. I will divide
the class into groups of four and five for some activities. They will stay in the same
groups for the whole year, some adjustments may be made early in the semester to
prevent problem and nuisance behaviors. Some of these activities will be peer editing for
reports, and projects where they interpret or recreate a scene from the assigned book or
chapter. Each member of the group will have a different responsibility for reading
assignments so that collectively they can make themselves study guides. One will be
responsible for keeping a vocabulary log of new words that they had to look up. One will
be responsible for making summaries of each chapter. One will be responsible for
making up the study guide, which should be a work in progress, not done all at once
before the test. One will be responsible for making up a review game. These groups will
also be used to play any games in class. Family Feud will be one that I use most often.
The readings themselves will be done either individually or in class as a whole.

II.

Description of how you will physically arrange your classroom

I arranged my classroom the way I did because I want students to get into deferent
routines and know what behaviors to use in different settings.
I want students to be comfortable for group reading; when we all read together in
class, the couches in the back of the room will be used. This furniture can be
adjusted to allow for students to face the wall in the back of the room when a
hanging projector will be used on the back wall.
The alignment of desks allows for them to be used for both individual work, and
easily moved for group work. These things will help to establish different
routines so that students will know how they are to act when we are in different
areas of the classroom. It will make implementation of rules easier for them.
The square rug (which will be red, implying a danger zone) underneath my desk
will be very important to implementation of my classroom rules and will signal
students that that area is off limits to them.
I have placed the classroom expectations on the clear wall, right of the
chalkboard. This will allow for them to be easily seen and make them easily
accessible for the process of designing classroom expectations each year in
discussion on the first day of school.
I will have a blank bulletin board to the right just inside the door to the classroom
and this will be for the students to use for whatever they like. For example: if
they drew a picture that they are proud of they can post it. Everything will have
to be approved by me before it is hung up, but this could be another way for me to
get to know my students and establish rapport. Bringing something in to hang on
it will be the first homework assignment they receive each year.

I have designed my classroom to aide me in establishing rapport so that i can in that way
minimize problem bahaviors.

III.

Description of your classroom behavior expectations:

Start and end of class,
homeroom and study halls

Be on time and
prepared for class

Be responsible for
your actions

Be respectful to
others

Desk
Work

Group Work

Readings and
Discussions,
projector lectures

Arrive on time
Enter and leave the classroom
in an orderly fashion
Bring materials to class
Pay attention when attendance
is being taken

Stay in
your seat
Pay
attention
Stay
organized

Move quickly
into your
groups
Stay focused

Pay attention, and

raise your hand if you
have questions
Take notes

Have any homework out on

your desk at the start of class
Do assigned readings when
they are assigned
Follow directions

Use your
time wisely
Stay
organized
and on task
Follow
directions

Complete
assigned
tasks in an
organized
and timely
manner
Complete any
preparatory
work in
advance to
group
meetings

Read assigned material

before discussions.
Participate in
discussions.
Pay attention to what
Ms. Reuss and your
classmates have to
say.

Listen when Ms. Reuss starts

Class
Use indoor voices, and use
school-appropriate language

Raise your
hand if you
need help
or have any
questions
Use indoor
voices

Use indoor
voices
One person
speaks at a
time
Be considerate
of the
opinion of
each group
member
Encourage
others to be
on task and
use time
wisely

Raise your hand when

you would like to
speak.

I will have a class discussion about classroom expectations, I will briefly discuss what 3
general expectations I will have of them; be ready, be respectful, be responsible. I will
then use those as categories for a game of family feud. I will design the display of my
expectations in a way that allows for the more specific functions that I wish for them to
perform will Velcro into the grid. I will divide the class into groups and two groups at a
time will head off and try to come up with subcategories, if they come to a draw, they can
phone a friend in the classroom and any other member of the class can help the team

that calls on them. In this way, I can save time by establishing groups for future
classwork while introducing and teaching expectations to my students. I should be able
to engage them in a way that will make them pay attention and set a light mood in my
classroom. It will also help me establish rapport.
Activities such as this game will be common in my classroom, of course lecture will be
necessary, in the last 5 to 10 minutes of class each day, we will get into our groups and
review in the form of a game. Until the students know this routine, I will have to allot for
a little extra time for these activities. It will be more like are you smarter than a 5th
grader, during this time, because each group will come up with the answers to the days
review questions and write them on a whiteboard. I will keep a tally on the board for how
many questions each group gets right. At the end of each class period I will record for
my own records how many questions each team got correct. I will make the class aware
that at the end of each quarter, the team who has gotten the most answers correct will
receive a bonus point or two on the next test. I will reward each group that goes a week
without any behavior problems with an extra point and they will urge each other to abide
by the classroom expectations. On weeks that all groups in a class have had no
violations, the last 10 minutes of Fridays class will be free for them to do what they want
within the classroom instead of as a review. If the whole class goes three weeks in a row,
they will get a free period after the next test.
In this way, I can encourage students to be ready, be responsible, and be respectful,
maintain the light atmosphere in my classroom, promote social relationships between
students, keep them engaged in the learning process, further establish rapport with my
students, and motivate them to want to learn.

IV.
Describe how you will establish rapport and build positive behavior with your
students/clients
Rapport is the word we have that describes a relationship of mutual trust and respect
between students and their teacher which shows the students that the teacher wants what
is in the best interest for the student. Rapport is very important to the success of both the
teacher and the student, because students will be more motivated to learn and perform
better when they know that their teacher has a genuine interest in them. The ability of a
teacher to make a difference in a childs life depends largely on building rapport with the
student.
The introduction of my expectations will first help me get close with students. By letting
them help me to establish expectations, it will show them that I value their opinions.
After this, activity is over, I will do some type of introductory activity so that I can get to
know a little bit about my students on a general level. I will hand out large index cards
that they will put some information on for me. I will use these cards to keep any

information about behaviors, strengths and weaknesses, improvements and areas in which
students have decreased in performance. It will help me until I really start to get to know
my students because when I am calling on them to answer questions or give me input, it
will give me some information on their interests so that I might be able to communicate
the material to them in a way that they might be more interested and more easily
understand. This will be part of how I utilize Tool 1, staying close. If I make an effort to
keep them interested and remember what their interests are, they will see that I am
interested in them. Aside from relating class material to their interests, it will tell me
what questions to ask to get them talking to me, for example, if a student, Mark, writes on
his card that he has two brothers and he plays baseball for the local Little League Orioles,
I might watch the paper to see when their games are so I can ask him about them, and I
might also ask if his brothers also play baseball, or if they practice together. The index
cards will give me many different opportunities to approach my students about their lives
outside of the Middle School Walls. Another example would be if four students say that
they like to play Yahtzee in their spare time, I might pick the game up for free periods in
my classroom and get a game started with them in a study hall. In this way I can
introduce them to each other and let them see that they have similar interests. If they
choose to play the game in my classroom, asking whos winning is also a way I can show
them that I am interested, maybe I can high five whoever is currently in the lead.
Utilizing Tool 2 will help me to keep rapport with my students. Catching them being
good will show them what behavior I think is in their best interest and it will encourage
them to behave in that way if I reinforce the desired behavior. I will use a token
economy, monopoly money, to utilize Tool 2. For example: if Marks group is doing a
particularly good job staying on task in a group activity, I may give each member of
Marks group $2 of monopoly money and let them know what a good job they are doing
staying on task. They can cash these in for bigger bills as often as they would like.
When a child reaches $25, $50, $75, and $100 they will be able to pick a prize out of a
box. There will be different boxes at each level. In this way I can also promote life skills
of saving and managing money. The kinds of things I would like to keep in the prize box
are brain teasers such as the peg game, or the card game called Set. I will make sure that
I reinforce at a rate of four times for every corrective behavior (see VII for more detail).
Students who appear more at risk to develop problem behaviors and have been more
difficult to break the ice with and establish rapport with will end up needing more
positive reinforcement at a more frequent rate.

IV.

Describe how you will structure the learning process in your classroom:

The learning process in my classroom will include group work, individual work, active
learning activities, and what I will refer to as large-group, or classroom discussions. I
will use groups for projects, and games, and for reviews. The frequent group projects
will allow for students to interact and motivate each other, and promote healthy social
relationships. Individual work might be a rare occurrence in my class. Any quizzes and

tests will be done independently of course, and as we do readings in largegroup in the

rear of the room, each student will be responsible for filling in study guides on their own,
but will be allowed to compare with their groups any time they like. Active learning
activities will be common in my classroom, usually done in their groups. We will use a
lot of games and projects to engage in the learning process, and the discussions in
largegroup will also be very active. By keeping students engaged I will minimize the
occurrence of problem behaviors.

V.

Describe how you will respond to inappropriate behavior:

There are two kinds of imappropriate behaviors: nuisance or junk behavior, and problem
behavior. Junk behavior will be ignored, these children are usually seeking attention and
when they dont get it their misbehaviors and annoyances might stop, especially if I give
them attention when they do things that are good as opposed to the junk behavior.
Problem behavior must be responded to with some attention, but in a sensitive way.
Stop-redirect-positive reinforcement is a good way to get these kids back on the right
track. So, if Mark swears in class, my response will be to inform him that his language is
inappropriate, and that he should find better ways to express what he is feeling. If he
says I f*ing love that movie, my response would be something to the effect of Mark, I
dont appreciate the use of that word in my classroom, it is disrespectful. I want you to
find a better way to say that, like I really love that movie, maybe it is one of your
favorite movies? In an ideal situation, Mark will respond with thats what I meant Ms.
Reuss, its one of my favorites. I could also go on to ask why and then reinforce that he
not only corrected his behavior, but found a better way to communicate how much he
likes it and could tell us why. If the student Mark is talking to responds without
swearing, I could also just approach that student and reward him for not using profane
language.
Behavioral contracts will be a last resort in my classroom. Between the index cards and
my token economy, I will have plenty of ways to collect data on the behavior of the
students in my classroom. When applying the 4 to 1 ratio and all else has failed, then I
will opt to put a behavior contract in place. For example, if Mark does not respond to my
reinforcers and continues to swear in class, I might put a behavior contract in place. It
would appear as follows:

BEHAVIOR CONTRACT
Student Name:______Mark Smith___________________________________
Relevant Staff Names:___Jackie Reuss_______________________________
Situation: Mark has been using profanity every time he opens his mouth to speak, he
needs to enlarge his vocabulary so that he does not have to use such disrespectful words, I
have had to correct his behavior as much as ten times per period. He has not responded
positively to stop-redirect. The 4:1 ratio has been effectively in place and Marks
behavior has not changed.
Target Behavior: ______Use appropriate language______________________
Data collection procedure: _Use a blank notecard attached to his index card to keep a
daily tally of inappropriate behaviors (swearing), Behavior will be evaluated at the end of
each class period, and we will discuss whether or not he has made any progress.
Reinforcement procedure: Because Mark has been swearing every time he opens his
mouth, Mark will receive a poker chip, (representing a quarter) for every time he speaks
without using profanity, it will add up to $1-$2 (monopoly money) for every class period
he spends in my room without swearing. If he goes a full day without swearing he will
get to choose from a prize box.
What must student do to earn reinforcement? __Mark must be more respectful and pay
more attention to the language that he uses. In my English class, he will refrain from
using swear words and find better ways to express himself.
Consequence for failure to meet behavioral expectations: He will not be allowed to
participate in the free time on Fridays at the end of class, and any other consequences Ms.
Reuss feels necessary.
Bonus for exceptional behavioral performance: At the end of the week , if he has $7, he
will get to pick two friends to bring back to the classroom during lunch period instead of
eating in the cafeteria.
Signatures: _______________________(Mark Smith)
________________________________ (Jackie Reuss)

Date_______________
Date_______________

VII. Describe self-monitoring of your distribution of positives (Tool2) vs. corrective

feedback (Tool 4):
The 4:1 ratio refers to the amount of reinforcement that should be given to students for
each corrective that is requested. It is important because it has been proven to be
effective in minimizing problem behaviors. Rates of reinforcement and correctives will
vary student to student based on their needs. If a student is more self-motivated to learn,
they will likely need the 4:1 ratio enforced less frequently than a student who has a habit
of swearing, like the example of Marks habit of speaking with profanity. I will monitor
my application of the 4:1 ratio by making a T-chart on their index cards, I will report their
progress in Microsoft Excel at the end of each week, so that I have more specific
information about each student.

VIII.

Describe how you will screen for given students/clients who are in need of 1) a
behavior contract and 2) a functional behavior assessment (FBA) and a personcentered behavior intervention and support plan:

A Functional Behavioral Assessment (FBA) will be conducted when I notice that my

implementation of the 4:1 ration has increased for a particular student, or that I have been
unable to achieve the 4:1 ration because problem behavior has been occurring so
frequently.
There may be an inconsistency between my preferred teaching methods and how my
students learn best. I will keep track of student performance and the methods of
instruction that I utilize in a binder. I will keep notes on lesson plans each year and
review them each week. Based on the formative assessments that I perform at the end of
each class, and how well my students respond, I will be able to tell if my teaching
methods are working for them. If students are frustrated with my teaching methods, they
will not do well academically and often develop behavioral problems. If a large number
of students are displaying behavioral problems, I may have to rethink my methods and
change them before I can claim that a FBA or behavioral contract is necessary.