Defiance

by Margaret Berry Wilson

What do you do when a child defies authority? The strategies in this short, practical Responsive Classroom guide will help children who show defiance find productive ways to feel significant and return to cooperative behavior.

Veteran educator Margaret Berry Wilson concisely (in under 40 pages) offers tips you can use right away to help children struggling with authority return to productive learning. You’ll discover:

Why children defy authority (two possibilities: they could be hiding academic challenges or compensating for feelings of insignificance) Proactive ways to foster cooperation (for example, build a positive, one-on-one relationship and reinforce effort and progress in choosing cooperative behavior) Ways to de-escalate defiance in the moment (staying calm yourself is one essential strategy) What to do if a child continues struggling to cooperate (one suggestion: an individual written agreement that breaks down “being cooperative” into specific behaviors) How to talk to parents about defiance (a key strategy: frame the discussion in terms of how the child’s behavior is harming his or her learning)

Noticing other common misbehaviors? Check out all the books in this series. Each one zeroes in on a behavior—listening and attention challenges, disengagement, teasing, cliques, tattling, silliness and showing off, too much physical contact, dishonesty, or frustrations and meltdowns—with practical strategies from the Responsive Classroom approach, a research-based way of teaching associated with greater teacher effectiveness, higher student achievement, and improved school climate.

238 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 13, 2014