Chapter 7

Chapter Seven: Redirecting Language: Giving Clear Commands when children have gone offtrack

by Gina Applegate

Kelly Mowrer

Rebecca DeSantis

Well the first thing we thought of when we read this chapter was, “well students getting off track happens in the kindergarten class quite often.” Paula Denton gives five points for using redirecting language.

· Be direct and specific

Here she says to tell a specific child what you are expecting of him/her. “David, hands in your lap.” David knows that she is talking to him and what she wants him to do.

· Name the desired behavior

In this part she want to get across that there are battles to pick that you may not want to waste the time on. This is hard, because it takes a while to get good at this and your emotions can get in the way. Some examples are:

Instead of “stop running” try “Stop. Walk.”

Instead of “How many times do I have to say, ‘No talking right now’?” try, “It is time to listen”

Here you are not signaling out one specific student that you may want to, but it is telling all students what behavior you are expecting right now.

· Keep it Brief

The fewer the words, the better. We found that this definitely applies for our little kindergartners. “Freeze” and “Stop” work wonders here.

· Phase redirection as a statement, not a question

This is something that we have all learned from our society, “Can you please pass the salt?” It is a statement, but we are asking it as part of being polite too. When we use redirection we are using it to guide a student who is not able to guide his own behaviors, so we need to tell him what we want. He will then learn this and know it for the future. Some examples, “ instead of, “Will you look at me?” try “Eyes on me”. Instead of I’m going to ask table one to quiet down.” try “Table one, quiet down.”

· Follow through after giving a redirection

Since redirections are meant to be firm, we have to be sure the students act on them. By following through we are telling the students we mean what we say. And when done successfully, they learn to act on it. Here are where logical consequences come into play. Make sure you are calm and it goes along with the behavior.

Redirecting language if successfully used is to bring your students back to a safe community and to show positive behavior all while respecting the students sense of dignity.