Student Self-Monitored Rainbow Clip Chart

Ahhhhh!! Has anyone else's class been going crazy lately? My students are having so much trouble following our classroom expectations. We have been practicing coming in from recess and sitting down quietly, working quietly, reading silently during Daily 5, etc... I hate having to constantly get on them for not following expectations. Especially the for the kids that are doing what they need to do.

We have literally gone back to the first week of Daily 5 and are timing ourselves for silent reading. To be fair, we haven't been consistently doing silent reading, so it makes sense that their stamina has slipped, but it is still frustrating that we can only read for about eight minutes some days! I am not going to let silent reading go ever again!

Anyway, I have been thinking really hard about how I can turn responsibility for their individual behavior over to them. I am way too busy to manage behavior for 22 individuals - that is just impossible for any one person to do!

I started giving tickets for good behavior last week. This has worked for some things, but it is missing teeth. Yes, kids who are behaving correctly get tickets for a drawing, but kids who aren't doing what they should do have no consequences. I haven't really needed any consequences stronger than staying in at recess for a chat with this group, so we don't have anything in place already.

I have decided to try a clip chart, but not one that hangs up in the front of the room. I am not a fan of the charts that everyone can see because I feel like it would be embarrassing for kids who are working on following classroom expectations. I never want to embarrass anyone.

Instead, I made these rainbow charts for each student in my class.

Students can keep them on their desks. It isn't 100% private, but it will allow both me and the student to quickly see how the day is going. Plus, I plan on having the students clip themselves up and down the chart. Moving yourself is way less embarrassing than having your teacher move you. Of course, if students need help accurately placing themselves on the chart, I can help them with that too.

You can see that, unlike other clip charts, I gave some broad examples of what each level would look like in the classroom. I am hoping this will help students accurately place themselves on the chart.

I did have my own students in mind when I wrote these. For most of my students their main issues are not being ready during transitions, being off-task during work time, and talking out. I do have a few students who are very distracting to others and sometimes make unsafe choices. I am hoping that these descriptions work for all of my students. For example, kids can go to red right away for making an unsafe choice (such as swinging arms around while holding scissors - yes, it has happened this year), or they can slowly move to red as they continue to talk out or be off-task.

On the flip side, students can move up at anytime. If a student is on red, but then stops distracting others, they can move up to yellow or even green. I think that this ability to move at any time will be important for my students who are still learning how to be successful in a classroom.

While I think that just being aware of their behavior will help most of my students, I still want some sort of carrot and some sort of stick. I am thinking that anytime students clip up they will get a ticket for our class prize drawings. Plus, if students end the day on a blue or purple, they will get a positive note home:

I try to send home positive notes for kids as often as possible, but when I get busy this is one of the first things to go. I am hoping that by having notes ready I will be more likely to follow through. I left room at the bottom to add specific details for each individual child.

On the other hand, kids that end the day at red (maybe orange too) will get a note home that needs to be signed. This will, hopefully, get parents checking in with their students as well.

I really hope this plan gets us through the last eight weeks of school. Plus, I need to get these kids ready for fourth grade!

If you would be interested in this set, I would be happy to share! Just leave a comment on this page, follow the blog, or share this post. As soon as I get five new followers or 20 views of this post, I will post the link to this FREE product!

I am so mad because I haven't been making good choices! I am going to rally and move back up the clip chart.

I did it! I am so happy! I can do anything! Look how much I can learn when I follow directions!