Book Study - Chapter 12 - Building Character and Trust

 1.  Rewriting to make the statements positive:

• We are going to have a great day today, Jason!
• Noah and Beth, thank you for your attention.  Everyone else, let's give Jane our full attention please.
• Let's make sure we are staying on task and being quiet.
• Jasmine, sit up straight please.

2.  I want students to stay on task and pay attention.  Here are Precise Praise scripts for those traits:

• "Kayley, you are doing a great job!  Keep it up!"
• "Thank you for waiting for instructions."
• "This group is doing a fabulous job of problem solving together!"
• "Thank you for your full attention.  First, I want you to..."
• "Great job Haden!  I think you are ready to move on to Step 3.

3.  When students are supposed to be working quietly but are talking about everything but the lesson.  "This is not like Ms. Tumlin's class to be so loud and off-task.  I need you to quiet down and get to work please."

When students are running in the Media Center.  "I need you to walk please.  We don't run in the Media Center".

During Covid right now, students can only choose their books from the tables.  I am always catching students picking from the shelves.  "Friends, we have to choose our books from the tables only, not the shelves.  If you need help locating something specific, please ask me for help."

4.  Fun and Games: There are so many ways to turn lessons into fun and games in the Media Center.  I can do an orientation scavenger hunt, or turn assessments into Kahoots or Quizizz games.

Us (and Them): One of the best things about being in the Media Center is that I get to interact with all students in the school.  I try to greet them all by name.  I try to get to know them, especially the types of books they like, etc.  I will make conversation and ask them how they liked their book, tell them about new books they might be interested in, etc.

Humor: We have done funny bulletin boards in the Media Center to promote reading.  We have also occasionally did funny jokes on the morning news show.  I also like to joke around with the kids as they are checking out.

Suspense and Surprise: We have done trivia questions on the morning news show.  We have had students participate in adding stickers to a mosaic poster and they have enjoyed guessing what the final outcome will be.  We also have wrapped books and had students check them out.  We are elementary so we called it, Don't Judge a Book By Its Cover.