Successful Teaching for Acceptance of Responsibility™

Successful Teaching for Acceptance of Responsibility™ is a course that gives teachers practical skills to help them teach students to increase their self-responsible behaviors and assume increasing amounts of control over their school lives. The following six Responsible Action Statements summarize the basics of the course:

• Mistakes are permitted.
• Your behavior equals a choice.
• Speak up for yourself.
• Every problem is an opportunity.
• Level of risk is your choice.
• Finding solutions is the focus.

Students who demonstrate low self-responsibility may be lacking mental models that they can use to make sense out of their lives. There are several teaching strategies to help students develop the mental models they need to be successful.

Mental Models Strategies

• Make sure students have a clear understanding of "how to" do things in class.
  Spend time teaching the "how to" of lessons. Write out directions, post rules and regulations, and invest time in training students to work effectively in the classroom. Give them the "how to" in as many learning modalities as possible.
• Make expectations clear and simple.
  Anything you can do to reduce ambiguity will help students understand expectations. If you want a quality science notebook turned in, tell them what you want, have them read directions for what you want, and show them an example of a quality science notebook, so that they can see and touch what you expect.
• Share a "compelling why" for each lesson.
  Invest time in teaching the "why" of a lesson as well as the "how to." How does this learning objective fit in your students' lives now? Why is it important to know and use forever?
• See one, do one, teach one.
  Students might be learning long division or how to ignore distractions. In either case, they need to see an example. Then they need to do one. Most importantly, they need to teach one. It is the teaching that makes these skills stick in long-term memory.
• Divide and limit information.
  Divide information into small bits. Smaller units of information increase the number of closure points. This gives students low in mental models reference points where they can take stock. It also helps them arrive at closure sooner, which motivates them to keep going.
• Check students often.
  By regularly checking on students who lack mental models, you help them stay on track. Sometimes they do not even know what they do not understand. "Practice makes permanent," so get to them quickly when you are introducing new material.
• Use redundancy, use redundancy, use redundancy.
  Working with students low in mental models requires persistence, patience, and a willingness to say things over and over again. Use more than one modality (kinesthetic, tactile, auditory, visual) to communicate with these students. They often respond to peer and adult tutoring and derive pleasure from completion of simple tasks.
• Demonstrate patterns.
  Creative work is often a real stretch for students low in mental models. Since they need clarity and structure to feel successful, their creativity suffers. Patterns help. If you show these students the pattern for cinquain poetry, they can often follow it. Give them an outline or steps to follow. Acronyms also help students low in mental models. Give them the three Cs of our classroom: Caring, Cooperation, and Choices. Show them the four Ds of westward expansion: Determination, Direction, Distance, and Dissatisfaction.
• Introduce role models.
  Bring positive role models to your classroom. Ask former high school students to explain what it is like to be in college. Have eighth graders read to third graders who have trouble with reading. Bring in a police officer, a doctor, banker, writer, or other respected member of the community for an interview.

Empowering Teachers

Successful Teaching for Acceptance of Responsibility™ also empowers teachers themselves. With a strong focus on strategies that increase a sense of power and responsibility in all aspects of professional life, the course helps teachers learn how to:

• Develop inner attitudes and individual actions that show self-determination.
• Take responsibility for relationships with students, parents, colleagues, and administrators.
• Bring independent thinking, innovation, and creativity to teaching.
• Become proactive rather than reactive with problems.
• Become clear on what is within their power and take appropriate steps to use the power they have.
• Develop a high level of purpose and choose behaviors consistent with that purpose.
• Experience themselves as the source of their actions.

As Chick Moorman, author of the course, says, "Your classroom is an ongoing lab in learning how to make choices. It can be a lab where children learn obedience or one where they are issued continuous invitations to accept responsibility. The choice is yours."

For information about a Successful Teaching for Acceptance of Responsibility™ course in your area, contact PLS at 800-526-4630 or visit our Web site (insert link to http://www.plsregistration.com).