Hey Teachers, today I am going to give you five keys on how you can respond to dawdling or reluctant compliance. I know you’ve got kids in your class that you give instructions too and it’s like the world goes in slow motion. They might get it done but they definitely don’t do it at a pace that you would like, sometimes they do not do it at all !

The First key to dealing with the dawdling or reluctant responses to your instructions is this; you need to be on time and organized. If you don’t take time schedules seriously you can’t expect your students to do the same.

We all know that children learn by mimicking. So they will watch the adults in their world and they will mimic or will copy the behavior of the adults. So if you are a teacher who tends to turn up late, who tends not to get things done in a timely fashion, tends to be chaotic, who tends to be disorganized, what you are inadvertently doing is you are communicating to students that you don’t have to take rules, instructions and schedules seriously. If I can’t get myself organized, how can I expect my students be organized

Tip One – Be Organized

So the first key is this,  you’ve got to make sure that you are an organized person and that you Stick to schedules. Stick to time frames, get to class on time, don’t be late from the staff room, get to your duties on time. I know things come up but as much as possible you’ve got to model the importance of timely response and importance of urgency when instruction is given. You model it by the way that you behave in the way that you conduct yourself according to Schedules.

Tip Two –  Be prepared to Listen

The second thing is this, you’ve also got to prioritize the importance of listening to your students when they need to talk. Don’t just be dismissive, if you’ve got a student that really wants to engage or interact in the classroom, Of course manage the way they talk. Don’t let them call out, don’t let them just talk unnecessarily. You need to give them opportunities to talk and you need to pay attention to them. This actually shows them that what they’re saying is important. I’ll tell you why because if you don’t value what they are saying, they will not value what you’re saying. 

You see good leadership (that’s what you are as a teacher) leading in the classroom. Good leadership is always about demonstrating a willingness to hear and listen to the people that you’re trying to lead. In the classroom you need to demonstrate a willingness to hear and listen to your students. 

show them that you care about what they care about, why because you want the same from them. You want them to listen to you, you want them to give you attention when it’s required, you want them to place value and importance on what you say. Well the way you do that is by modeling, by doing the same for them. so of course manage talking, manage conversation in the classroom so that it’s appropriate.Always remember not to be dismissive. Don’t shut the conversation down if maybe it is inconvenient for you. Find ways to give them an opportunity to talk. 

Also don’t be too quick to jump on kids who are doing something and dismiss what they’re saying without hearing first. Maybe they did something in the class that you didn’t approve of or you didn’t like. Sometimes we don’t know the full story. If they’re trying to tell you their side of the story, be willing to step back and say okay I’ll hear you but then you need to hear me. 

If you want kids to listen you have to be a listener yourself, so that’s number two.

Tip Three – Give Lead in time

Number three, you need to give lead in time. This is especially important for boys. Boys very much get engrossed in what they’re doing, they don’t ever grow out of it. This is a problem I have, my wife will be talking to me about something I’m very engrossed in what she’s saying but if she changes topics sometimes I don’t change with her. I’m still thinking about the first topic we were talking about. Boys in your class are like that and maybe some of the girls are too.

You’ve got to give leading time if you’re changing tact, changing activities, changing routines or if you’re changing direction. You’ve got to let them know that it’s coming up e.g okay five minutes we’re going to end this task then I want you to pack up we’re going to get ready for the next task, or in two minutes time you need to be finished with what you’re writing we need to be moving on to our reading activity. 

Give them lead in time, that will give them an ability to prepare themselves mentally and be ready to follow the instructions when you give it, rather than you just saying okay pens down were changing.Well some of your kids won’t be ready to change and they will become reluctant or have delayed compliance. They will become the kids that don’t follow your instruction immediately, so that’s number three; Give lead in time. 

Tip Four – Establish Routine and Schedules

Number four is this; you need to clearly establish routines and schedules in your classroom. Kids need to know what’s coming up in the day, what’s coming up in your lesson. Then they can actually be mentally prepared for it, surprise surprise what kids are thinking about is sometimes not the stuff you’re thinking about. What kids care about is sometimes not the stuff you care about. So if you want them to care you’ve got to at least let them know what’s coming up. 

Make sure you have really clearly established routines and schedules so that it doesn’t come as a shock or a surprise. They’re going to be more willing to get on board in a quick and timely fashion. What is very helpful, especially again for boys and also for children with autism or ADHD is to have visual cues for their schedule. Have some kind of time table for the day. Make it very clear on the board every day that in session one this is what we are doing, session two this is what we’re doing. This helps them visually manage themselves throughout the day by looking at that visual calendar. We need to enforce that routine for them as well.

Tip Five – Watch your pace

Number five, Watch your pace. When my eldest son was only five years old, I picked him up from school one day. I was in a hurry to get somewhere and I was getting a little agitated and a little bit grumpy because he was fumbling with the seat belt. I turned around to him and I said “would you please hurry up we have to go” and his response was I’m trying dad I’m trying, but as far as I was concerned he wasn’t trying hard enough, he was just mucking around. My mom who happened to be in the car, injected a bit of wisdom into the situation, she said what you find easy, he is still learning how to do. 

Sometimes as teachers there are things and activities that we find so easy because we’ve been doing it for so long. We’re adults and we’ve been teaching the same thing over and over again. We forget that for somebody learning it for the first time it takes much longer. Sometimes we need to pace our lessons, we need to pace our instructions in such a way that we account for the deficit in the learning. 

Don’t expect them to move at your pace, don’t expect them to think of answers as quickly as you can. Don’t expect them to respond in an activity as quickly as you can respond in an activity. Their delay may not be because they’re refusing an instruction but it may be that they don’t quite grasp what you’ve said yet. Maybe you are moving at a pace that’s too fast for them. Manage the pace that you teach, manage the pace that you give instructions and the pace that you expect responses. 

Understand that depending on the age and depending on the ability of the group that you’re teaching that they will have a different level of response to what you might be able to do. 

So that’s our five keys for today, how to respond to Dawdling or reluctant compliance with instructions. The first one, you need to be on time and organized. When you value schedules and you model the importance of timeliness for your class they will follow it. The second one is, be prepared to listen, value the importance of what they say so they value the importance of what you say. Third thing, you need to give a lead in time. Give warning before you change the activity or you can change the instructions. Fourth thing is to clearly establish routines and schedules. Have a visual schedule so that they can reference it. The last one is, Watch your pace. Remember that as an adult, as a teacher you are way more experienced. We are way faster at most activities than your children are. So don’t have unreasonable expectations of their ability to respond because you may just disappoint yourself.  

I hope those five tips have been really helpful for you. I’m Tarun Stevenson from Calmer Classrooms and i would love to hear your thoughts, why don’t you share them in the comments Section.

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