Managing Student Behavior: 7 Questions for Exemplary Classroom Management
Managing student behavior comes down to two things: preventing problems before they start, and transferring ownership of the classroom culture to the students themselves. The strongest classroom managers build clear, student-created rules, use verbal and non-verbal cues consistently, and lean on tiered behavior plans (Tier I, II, III) when a student needs more support than the whole-class system provides.
Strong classroom-management skills can be an important asset for new teachers and a frequent focus for school administrators. A new teacher who still needs a lot of help managing behavior asks more of an administrator's limited time, so it's worth building this skill early and deliberately.
What separates a proficient classroom manager from an exemplary one isn't a longer list of rules or a stricter consequence chart. It's whether the teacher hands management back to the students. Here are seven questions worth working through if you want to move from proficient to exemplary.
1. What Classroom Rules Have You Created That Support Student Learning?
Clear rules are easy to write and post. Teaching them, and re-teaching them, is the hard part. Every group of students is different, and what works with one class won't automatically work with the next. Students need to buy into the rules, help revise them, and hold each other accountable for following them.
No single classroom management philosophy works for every teacher or every group of kids. The teachers who get the best results combine techniques from several approaches rather than adopting one wholesale. A few worth knowing:
- Positive Discipline by Dr. Jane Nelson
- CHAMPS: Safe and Civil Schools by Randy Sprick
- Love and Logic by Jim Fay and Dr. Foster Cline
- High Trust by Denny McLaughlin
- Precision Commands from Utah Students at Risk
- Classroom Management that Works by Robert Marzano
- Kagan Cooperative Learning by Dr. Spencer Kagan
State laws and local policies governing corporal punishment vary. Because these rules change, check the current law and education-department guidance for your state and district rather than relying on a national generalization.
The 2013 edition of Charlotte Danielson's Framework for Teaching Evaluation Instrument lists what the best-managed classrooms have in common (the framework has since been revised, but these distinguished-level markers still hold up):
- Orderly and productive, without feeling authoritarian
- Clear standards of conduct
- Respect and dignity upheld for every student
- Positive behavior modeled and celebrated, not just corrected
- Proactive approaches over reactive ones
- Discipline handled quietly and privately, not as a public spectacle
Rules and routines aren't the same thing, and mixing them up confuses students. Rules carry a consequence. Routines and procedures, when they slip, just need more practice. Keep too many rules and you'll never enforce them consistently. Keep a short list students can actually recite, and every corrected behavior can tie back to one of them.
Exemplary teachers get their students to actively support the rules, not just follow them. They model the words and non-verbal signals students need to hold each other accountable, and they reteach when it breaks down. Over time, students develop real agency: they take responsibility for their own learning and for keeping the classroom running well for everyone else.
2. Is Your Students' Behavior Entirely Appropriate?
Classroom culture runs on what you permit. Some teachers allow more conversation during work time. Others build in structured talk time on purpose. Exemplary teachers read the room and adjust: a chattier-than-usual class might need more built-in talk time through cooperative structures, not more silence rules.
Kagan Learning structures are one way to channel a talkative class productively instead of fighting it. Harnessing energy instead of suppressing it is the difference exemplary teachers lean on when they adjust their instruction mid-course.
Exemplary teachers also own their students' behavior outside their own four walls: the hallway, the lunchroom, the library, recess. They coordinate with other staff so students get consistent expectations everywhere, not just in first period. Teachers who stop at their own classroom door make real, lasting behavior change a lot harder to achieve.
Schools may use a multi-tiered system such as MTSS or PBIS. Tier 1 provides universal supports, Tier 2 adds targeted supports, and Tier 3 provides intensive, individualized support. A BIP may be developed when appropriate, often using information from a functional behavioral assessment (FBA). Procedures vary by school, district, state, and a student's special education status. This distinction matters especially for students with ADHD or other learning differences: some students may benefit from more individualized, function-based supports tailored to the factors contributing to their behavior.
South Bend Community School Corporation Special Education Services breaks a function-based behavior plan into these components:
- Description of Targeted Behaviors
- Hypothesis of Observed Behaviors
- Setting Measurable Goals
- Creating Objectives to Meet Goals
- Environmental Strategies
- School Setting
- Routines
- Curriculum and Instruction Modifications and Accommodations
- Positive Behavior Interventions
- Socio/Emotional Strategies
- Self-Regulatory Strategies
- Coping Skills
- Communication Skills
- Negative Behavior Interventions
- Redirection and De-Escalation
- Consequences
- Crisis Management
- Evaluation of Data
- Determination of Intervention Success
- Changing Frequency, Duration, or Intensity of Behaviors
- Making Next-Step Decisions
3. Do Students Help Create and Revise the Classroom Rules?
An authoritarian classroom demands respect instead of earning it, and giving up that kind of control is hard. But exemplary teachers treat student input as part of the management system, not a threat to it. The teacher still hands out consequences when rules are broken. What changes is that students help each other stay on track before it ever reaches that point.
The goal is a classroom full of students who understand agency: they take responsibility for their own learning and for the learning happening around them. When a student notices a peer's behavior is starting to interfere with the class, exemplary teachers have already given that student the tools and the standing to address it directly.
For example, if one student is talking while another is trying to read, the reading student might use a quiet, non-verbal cue instead of calling the teacher over. The talking student corrects course. The teacher may never even know it happened, and that's the point: management has transferred from teacher to students, respectfully and without a scene. That kind of transfer takes deliberate, gradual release of responsibility. It doesn't happen by accident.
4. What Verbal and Non-Verbal Cues Do You Use to Head Off Small Problems?
Cueing is the single most useful proactive tool in a teacher's toolkit. What you say and do shapes how students react, and most behavior is predictable enough that a well-timed cue prevents it before it starts. A frequently cited estimate suggests teachers make roughly 1,500 decisions during a school day, and a meaningful share of those are about which words or gestures to use in the moment.
Verbal cueing takes practice. You're choosing language that corrects behavior while keeping the student's dignity intact, and doing it without derailing your own lesson. Some sentence starters that work well:
- You may...
- You can...
- Your job is...
- You need to...
Non-verbal cues do a lot of the same work without interrupting instruction at all. A teacher moving toward a talkative student, without breaking stride in the lesson, often changes the behavior on its own. Here's a quick reference for the ones worth teaching your class:
| Cue | What It Signals |
|---|---|
| Finger over the lips | Quiet down so others can be heard |
| Palm pushed down | Sit or lower down for visibility |
| Two hands down | Slow down for safety |
| Twirling two fingers | Turn around and refocus |
| Shaking wrist | Requesting the bathroom |
| "W" in sign language | Requesting the water fountain |
| Palm raised up | Stand or get higher |
| Eye contact with raised eyebrow | Extinguish an unwanted behavior |
| Touch to the shoulder | Quiet or stop a behavior |
| Proximity | Quiet or stop a behavior without a word |
| High five, handshake, fist bump | Celebrate a student |
5. Do Students Support Each Other With Classroom Management?
The clearest sign of a well-managed classroom is how much of the management students handle themselves. That sounds like a stretch until you see it in practice. Exemplary teachers teach verbal and non-verbal cues thoroughly enough that students step in as the first line of defense, before the teacher ever needs to.
Picture a student giving a peer a quiet non-verbal signal to quiet down, the peer correcting course, and the teacher never finding out it happened. Students can also use words to address a peer's behavior directly, in a classroom culture where that feels safe rather than confrontational. In a proficient classroom, by contrast, the teacher is still the one solving nearly every behavior problem alone.
6. What Proactive Steps Prevent Behavior Problems Before They Start?
If a behavior is predictable, it's preventable. Five strategies worth building into your routine:
- Build relationships. Students rarely cause problems for a teacher they actually like. Treat the relationship like a bank account: you need deposits before you can make a withdrawal. Jim Fay's Love and Logic philosophy is a good place to start, and something as small as the everyday lessons behind 13 Manners My Mom Taught Me That Affect Behavior can shape how a student responds to you.
- Front-load expectations. Tell students what's coming before it happens, whether that's a transition, a partner activity, or a subject change. Advance notice gives students time to adjust instead of reacting.
- Use active participation and engagement structures. Powerful, engaging instruction is the best preventative tool there is. Look into Pérsida Himmele and William Himmele's Total Participation Techniques, Kagan Cooperative Learning, or Dave Burgess's Teach Like a Pirate.
- Teach routines, procedures, and rules deliberately. Students want clear, consistently reinforced boundaries. When rules and routines are established and celebrated by teacher and students alike, behavior problems drop.
- Keep a growth mindset, and find a mentor. No amount of experience means you've seen everything. Ask other teachers for ideas, even after years in the classroom. Carol Dweck's Mindset research is worth a read here.
7. How Deep Is Your Classroom Management Toolbox?
Experience builds the size of your toolbox more than reading ever will, though both help. If you're working with several students who have significant behavioral needs, or one student whose behavior is explosive, the tools you reach for determine outcomes for the whole class, not just that one student. Exemplary teachers keep expanding their toolbox through mentors, colleagues, and their own reading, because no single strategy works for every student.
Tier 1 is designed to meet the needs of about 80% or more of students through classroom-wide rules and reinforcement alone. Roughly 10-15% may need Tier 2 support, sometimes a classroom behavior plan built with a specialist. About 1-5% may need intensive Tier 3 support, sometimes tied to an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) that names specific behavior goals.
Trauma crosses every culture and every income level, and it shapes behavior in ways that aren't always obvious from the outside. Exemplary teachers stay current on trauma-informed practice and build plans with the student and family that reflect that student's actual situation. Kristin Souers and Pete Hall's Fostering Resilient Learners: Strategies for Creating a Trauma-Sensitive Classroom is a solid starting point.
The real test of a management system is whether it survives a substitute teacher. If students keep supporting each other and taking ownership of the classroom when you're not there, the agency you built is real.
More related readings:
- Creating an Environment of Respect and Rapport
- Establishing a Culture for Learning
- Managing Classroom Procedures
- Organizing the Physical Space in Your Classroom
Frequently Asked Questions
What's the difference between classroom rules and classroom routines?
Rules carry a consequence when broken, and they represent the spirit of the classroom, like respect and safety. Routines and procedures are the daily mechanics, like how students turn in homework or line up for lunch. When a routine breaks down, the fix is more practice, not a punishment.
What is a Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP)?
A BIP is a formal, function-based plan that sets measurable behavior goals, often developed using information from a functional behavioral assessment (FBA). Procedures for when and how a BIP is used vary by school, district, state, and a student's special education status, so there's no single universal trigger for one.
How much of classroom management should come from the teacher versus the students?
In an exemplary classroom, students handle a meaningful share of it themselves, using verbal and non-verbal cues the teacher has explicitly taught. The teacher still owns consequences for broken rules, but day-to-day redirection increasingly comes from peers holding each other accountable.
Do behavior management strategies need to change for students with ADHD or other learning differences?
Sometimes. Predictable routines and non-verbal cues help most students, but some students with ADHD or another learning difference may benefit from more individualized, function-based supports tailored to the factors contributing to their behavior, rather than relying on the whole-class system alone.
How do I know if my classroom needs a formal behavior plan instead of individual interventions?
If disruptions are limited to one or two students, a targeted individual plan, like a BIP, usually fits better than a classroom-wide overhaul. If disruptions are widespread across the class, that's a sign to look at your whole-class rules, routines, and proactive strategies first.
- Rules and routines aren't the same thing. Rules carry a consequence and represent the classroom's values, while routines just need more practice when they slip.
- Prevention beats correction. Front-loading expectations, teaching routines deliberately, and using engagement strategies head off most behavior problems before they start.
- Tiered support matters. Tier 1 supports meet the needs of most students, and a smaller share may need Tier 2 or Tier 3 support, sometimes including a function-based plan like a BIP.
- Verbal and non-verbal cues do real work. A consistent set of taught cues, like proximity or a quiet hand signal, redirects behavior without derailing instruction.
- The real test is a substitute teacher. If students keep managing themselves and each other when you're out of the room, the classroom culture you built is real.
Building a classroom management toolbox this deep usually comes with time, mentorship, and sometimes formal coursework in behavior support or special education. The programs listed here include options built around exactly that kind of practical, classroom-focused training.
As a 5th grade teacher, in 2010 Jon won the Presidential Award for Elementary Math and Science Teaching (PAEMST). As a principal, his school won the 2012 Blue Ribbon Award. In 2018, he won the National Distinguished Principal Award (NDP). In 2019 he won the National No Kid Hungry Breakfast Hero Award.
Jon is the author of three guides published on teacher.org: An Educator's Guide to Combat Bullying & Bully Prevention; Teacher Evaluation: A Transition Guide to Exemplary Performance; and You are the Wild Card: Infusing Fun Back into Curriculum. He has authored a children's picture book that was released January 2019 titled Benjamin’s Visit to Principal Reads Office…again! (available at www.archwaypublishing.com)
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