Logical Consequences

Logical Consequences

“True learning takes place when children have the ability to respond to their experiences with important life skills, such as accountability, learning from mistakes, problem solving and understanding the consequences of their choices—to themselves and to others.”
Jane Nelson, author of Positive Time Out

Children will break the rules. They will forget or they will test the limits. All of your proactive strategies-from creating rules, to modeling and practicing expected behavior, to using careful teacher language-have built a strong foundation for a caring community. Nonetheless, you will need to be ready with reactive strategies, especially the use of logical consequences.

Purpose

• To help fix problems that result from children’s words or actions
• To help children regain and develop self-control
• To allow children to make amends and maintain positive relationships
• To maintain a safe and orderly classroom
• To balance the needs of the group with the needs of each individual

Three Types of Logical Consequences

You break it, you fix it

• To fix something that has been broken
• To repair hurt feelings

“You break it, you fix it” can be used to mend emotional messes as well as physical messes. A child can rebuild a block tower after accidentally knocking it over. A child can repair hurt feelings by making amends and doing something to soothe the injury, such as drawing a picture or playing at recess.

Loss of privilege

• To learn to use privileges responsibly

Temporary loss of privilege is a simple way to remind children to use that privilege (art materials, choice time) responsibly. Losing a privilege for a class period or a day can help a child pause to remember or relearn a rule.

Time-out

• To help students learn self-control

Time out, or take a break, is a strategy to help children learn self-control. A child who is disrupting the work of the group is directed to leave for a few minutes. Once the child regains composure, he/she returns to the group. It allows the teacher to go on teaching while the child regains control.

Introducing Logical Consequences with Students

• Consult Rules in School, p. 124-139, 174-186
• Creating Rules with Students DVD

Parent Communication

• Open parent communication is a vital component of a successful social skills curriculum. Ideas for communication include:
• Having students share what they have learned about this topic with a parent
• Addressing this topic in your weekly newsletter home
• Sending home a letter to parents addressing the topic in your classroom. An example letter is available in the Social Skills Dropbox. Additional sample letters are included in Rules in School.
• Explain logical consequences and the philosophy behind them to parents at Back to School night.

From the Classroom….

Introducing Time-out to Children

• First set the tone.
• “We’ve worked hard to establish our classroom rules. We’re practicing them together. Our rules are helping us make our classroom a place that is safe and fun for everyone. Nevertheless, we all break rules (even the teacher) and this is a natural part of life.”
• The teacher might tell about a time that he/she broke a rule in school, or about a rule that is hard for him/her to follow.
• “When I was in school I sometimes forgot and whispered to my friends during lessons. I still sometimes want to whisper to some of the other teachers during faculty meetings.”
• Encourage open and honest discussion about following the rules.
• “What are the hardest rules to follow? What makes them hard to follow? Why is it hard to follow rules sometimes? What kinds of feelings do you have when you are/aren’t following the rules?”
• Present the need for logical consequences.
• “When children are not in control of themselves or not following the rules, it is the teacher’s job to help them get their self control back. The teacher needs to help children get back to being safe and doing good thinking and problem solving.”
• Discuss and model some concrete examples of respectful, relevant and realistic ways that teachers can help children get back on track.
• “Let’s pretend that someone is talking to her neighbor during a lesson. I might give a reminder at first and then I might say to that person, “Take a break,” and that person will quietly go and sit in our ‘Take a break’ chair.”

*It is important to model appropriate procedures for taking a break in the classroom and to be explicit about the purpose of time-out. Tell the students that time-out is not a punishment, but rather, a strategy to help them regain control so that they may rejoin the lesson in an appropriate and productive manner.

Literature Connections:

• K-2: When Sophie Gets Angry, Really, Really Angry, by Molly Bang
• 3-5: Alexander and the No Good, Horrible, Terrible, Very Bad Day, Judith Volt