Defusing Disruptive Behavior in the Classroom

by Geoff Colvin

"The goal of Colvin′s work is teacher fluency in their first response to behavior. Every career teacher needs to be equipped with the concepts in this book."
--Krista D. Parent, Superintendent
South Lane School District, Cottage Grove, OR

"Geoff Colvin provides teachers a set of very useful, clear, and sensible tools to manage the behavior of a very important, often-overlooked contributor to their classroom themselves."
--Mike McCornack, Technology Coordinator/Choral Director
Willamette High School, Eugene, OR

"Colvin empowers teachers with specific, practical, research-based strategies to prevent problem behaviors from occurring and to respond effectively when problems do occur. Each strategy is grounded not only in applied behavior analytic techniques, but also respectful approaches to fostering more positive student-teacher interactions."
--Kathleen Lane, Associate Professor of Special Education
Vanderbilt Peabody College

"This is exactly what every teacher needs when dealing with problem behavior! I tried Colvin′s strategies in my classroom and the students who had problems have done a total turnaround!"
--Jennifer Stargel, Fifth-Grade Teacher
Allen Elementary School, Marion, IN

The ultimate guide to handling problem behavior "in the heat of the moment"!

When disruptive behavior occurs, your first response can determine the outcome of the situation and how quickly it is resolved. This practical resource offers teachers approaches for immediately defusing disruptive situations, avoiding escalation, and correcting behaviors.

An expert in behavior management, Geoff Colvin introduces seven key behavioral principles and offers specific, research-based strategies for handling disruptions. This resource


Strategies that target specific behaviors, including off-task behavior, rule violations, disrespect, agitation, noncompliance, and threats and intimidation
Common classroom scenarios and solutions for K-12 general and special education teachers
Checklists and action plans for applying the strategies while maintaining the flow of instruction
Defusing Disruptive Behavior in the Classroom helps teachers respond in a way that immediately corrects the misbehavior and smoothly returns the class to learning.

Genres: Professional Development

155 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 10, 2010

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Geoff Colvin, PhD is a teacher, school administrator, and research associate at the University of Oregon.
He is an authority on emotionally disturbed youth.

Reviews

[Tyler · Rating 4 out of 5]

The central idea that organizes this book is that any attention from the teacher reinforces behavior, be it positive or negative attention, so teachers must strive to frequently attend to good behavior while deemphasizing attention to bad behavior. Colvin examines this core principal in the context of a few different types of bad behavior and gives example scenarios to illustrate. In implementing this approach (modified for the music classroom) I have noticed immediate results with my 6th graders especially. They began to strive for praise quite quickly after I began consistently delivering both individual and group compliments. I have been told by mentors before that I should be giving mostly positive feedback, but I appreciated that this study gave me a lot of vocabulary for how to do that in a genuine, non-forced way. I'm happy to say this text has already improved my teaching practice, and I recommend it as a short worthwhile read.

[Nancy Loy · Rating 2 out of 5]

What a riveting read for spring break! On to smut and nonsense now!