The Detention Intervention

I have written about my thoughts on my lunch detention duty before.  The last couple of days have been out of control with the number of students in detention.  Maybe it's just spring fever, but there are at least 9 kids in detention every day for everything from swearing to cell phones to cutting class.  I don't have a problem with the number of kids, but when you stick 9 kids, who are angry about being there, in a small, windowless classroom with a teacher who's only recourse is to write a referral, you have a recipe for chaos.  We have kids who are swearing, others yelling at us, others trying to cut detention.

So I was thinking today, as I was begging for the students to be quiet for the 10th time, that the reason my students act out in class is because they are not engaged in the lesson.  When these students are put in this room, they have nothing to do for the 56 minutes they are there so the only thing left for them to do is act out.  Plus, most are simply going through the motions of school and don't bring homework with them to complete. I need to give them something to do, something that I can't require of them, but will still be of interest.

So Wednesday begins the Detention Library.  I found a list of the best books for teenagers on Goodreads.com.  Many I already had on my bookshelf at home and the rest I am going to supplement from the school library.  Maybe if I offer them something to keep their attention occupied, I can have 1 day of no frustrations.

*The above was written on Monday evening, mostly in frustration.  Below is an update*

Today I went to our librarian to see how many of the books on the list she could help me obtain and boy did she come through!  Not only did they give me nearly everything on my list, but they started adding others that are popular with the other students in the school.  Then they started asking about the personality of the students to try and suggest books directed toward their needs like graphic novels and car magazines.  I am so impressed with our library staff!

Excessive talking

A former student of mine was given lunch detention by a substitute for "excessive talking."  Our school policy is if a referral is written you get detention or some other punishment depending on the "crime."

But maybe we are looking at this all wrong.  Maybe we should tap into the skills of the kid instead of punishing the behavior for lack of obedience.

What if...

http://goo.gl/grdFL

• the excessive talker was put on the debate or forensics team?
• the kid who drew graffiti in the bathroom was asked to design a mural for that same bathroom?
• the kid who cut class to smoke outside was asked to be part of the leadership team for the REBEL anti-smoking club?
• the student who hacks the school firewall is hired as an IT person to design safer Internet protocols for the school?
• the kid who is always tipping in his chair (or worse, breaking furniture), works with the administration to find furniture that is more comfortable and suits the students' physical needs?
• the student who cuts school is found an internship to give him meaningful work to do during the day?

Obviously, there are indiscretions that require actual negative consequences.  However, what these students must do as "punishment" should not just eliminate the problem, but should create better people in the end.

Just my thoughts.

A better use of time

I thought I lucked out this year by being assigned lunch detention as my duty.  This would be a great opportunity to sit in a room by myself and grade papers.  Sure, once in a while some student would get detention, but that shouldn't happen that often.  

Well, except for the first 2 days of school, there has been someone in there every day with me.  Still, not so bad and can still get a lot done.  Then the rules came out.

http://goo.gl/3AJQo

No cell phones

No talking

No ipods

No sitting near each other

No sleeping

Students are to do school work or sit quietly

Students are expected to have the same behavior as found in your classroom

I had been struggling with some of these rules as I see the fact that the students are being pulled away from their friends and put into a room with no windows for 52 minutes as punishment enough.  But the last comment is what was really bugging me.  If you are a reader of my blog you know that I encourage collaboration, cell phone use, iPods every single day.  My students are encouraged to make the classroom as comfortable a learning environment as possible.

So Thursday comes and a student walks in absolutely radiating anger.  This was now his 7th day of detention out of 10 days of school.  He had no school work so he spent about 10 minutes muttering a stream of very unpleasant phrases while he colored on scrap paper.  He put on his iPod at some point when I wasn't looking and I only noticed it because the music was loud enough for me to hear.  I told him the rule on iPods, but since it calmed him down (music soothes the savage beast?) I let it slide.  But this angry teenager got me thinking:

1. If detention is designed to be so miserable that no one wants to come back, why is this student back for the 7th time?
2. This student is going to sit in a room for 52 minutes and fume over the fact that he is there.  Now he is going to be released to a classroom for 80 minutes where he is likely to lash out at another student, or worse the teacher, and get suspended for some new infraction.

On my drive home, I decided that I didn't want lunch detention anymore because it went against everything I believe in.  Isn't the point of being an educator to develop relationships with the students and to find innovative ways to educate them about the world around them?  So as I am discussing my day with my wife a thought popped into my head:

If a student was found to be on drugs during school, the school would find ways to help the student get over the addiction and rehabilitate his/her life.  Why don't we do the same thing with lunch detention?  If a student is being assigned to multiple detentions, shouldn't we be taking steps to stop the bad behavior in the first place?

Here's my idea:  develop a character building program within lunch detention.  We have different punishments for different offenses so we will develop a tiered system depending on what the students have done.  If a student is 1st time offender and is only given 1 day, they may get nothing.  A student who has received several days or is returning for a different offense might have to watch a TED talk and complete some critical thinking questions.  A student like I mentioned above might have to read a thought provoking book, again with guiding questions, and discuss what his thoughts were with the lunch detention proctor.  In all of these, the students would report back to the administrator who assigned the detention to build that relationship, measure growth and understanding, and have meaningful conversations about the behavior.

Doesn't this approach make a lot more sense?

If your school is using something like this, I would love to hear about it.  All thoughts/comments are welcomed.