Building Character and Trust

Question 1

What is the “Positive Framing” technique?

Answer 1

Make corrections consistently and positively. Narrate the world you want your students to see even while you are relentlessly improving it.

Question 2

What are the six rules of positive framing?

Answer 2

1. Live in the now, talking about what the student should do next and focusing on what the students should do right now to succeed from this point forward.
2. Assume the best. Do not attribute to ill intention what could be the result of distraction.
3. Allow plausible anonymity. Let them make good faith efforts anonymously.
4. Build momentum, and narrate the positive.
5. Challenge! Set up all kinds of competitions.
6. Talk expectations and talk up aspirations.

Question 3

What is the “Precise Praise” technique?

Answer 3

Praise three times as much as criticism and correction. Acknowledge when expectations have been met, but praise when they are exceeded. Praise loudly and genuinely.

Question 4

What is the “Warm/Strict” technique?

Answer 4

You must be both warm and strict:
Caring, funny, warm, concerned, nurturing…
Strict, relentless, and sometimes inflexible.

Question 5

What are some ways to be warm and strict at the same time?

Answer 5

1. Explain to students why you’re doing what you’re doing.
2. Distinguish between behavior and people.
3. Demonstrate that consequences are temporary.
4. Use warm, nonverbal behavior.

Question 6

What is the “J-Factor”?

Answer 6

Teach students to find JOY in the work of learning. People work harder when they enjoy working on something, when their workday is punctuated by moments of exultation and joy.

Question 7

What are several J-Factor activities that produce joy?

Answer 7

1. Fun and games.
2. Create an “us,” a sense of belonging to a group or an organization.
3. Drama, song, and dance, even just some kind of movement, raise spirits and produce inner joy.
4. Humor. Laughter is a great engine for joy.
5. Suspense and surprise. Breaking a good routine with fun, silly, surprising, and inspiring moments produces joy.

Question 8

What is the “Emotional Constancy” technique?

Answer 8

Moderate your emotions and keep them tied to student achievement, not your own moods or the emotions of the students. Remember that adolescence is a time of experimentation with exaggerated emotions.
An emotionally constant teacher earns students’ trust in part by having them know he is always under control.

Question 9

What is the “Explain Everything” technique?

Answer 9

Be willing to give the logic behind grades, classroom policies, and more.

Question 10

What is the “Normalize Error” technique?

Answer 10

Error followed by correction and instruction is the fundamental process of schooling. You get it wrong, then you get it right. If getting it wrong and then getting it right is normal, teachers should Normalize Error and respond to both parts of this sequence as if they were totally and completely normal.

Question 11

What are two axioms of the Normalize Error technique?

Answer 11

1. Wrong answers: don’t chasten, don’t excuse.
2. Right answers: don’t flatter, don’t fuss.