The document discusses eight themes for bringing reflective guidance to the classroom: self-reflection, individualizing experiences, enhancing goodness-of-fit, creating a positive classroom atmosphere, teaching life skills through everyday activities, viewing challenging behaviors as opportunities to build skills, targeting specific skills through intentional activities, and building relationships. It provides guidance on implementing these themes, such as observing children to understand their strengths and needs, planning activities to target specific social-emotional skills, and developing relationships with children and their families.

1. Bringing Reflective
Guidance to Your
Classroom
Chapter 10 from Guiding Children’s Social and Emotional Development:
A Reflective Approach; Katz, Janice Englander; 2014

2. Eight Themes
• Self-reflection
• Individualize experiences
• Enhance “goodness-of-fit”
• Create a positive classroom atmosphere
• Teach life skills in every day activities
• Appreciate challenging behavior as an opportunity to help child build
skills
• Target specific skills through intentional activities
• Build relationships

3. Figure 10.1
• Note Figure 10.1 in your text on p. 187.
• How is “challenging” behavior different from “annoying” behavior?
• Annoying behaviors are those behaviors that bother us because of
lack of “goodness of fit”, incompatibility of temperaments, or other
characteristics that make one type personality at odds with another.
• Challenging behaviors are “actions on the part of a child that are
disruptive, offensive, dangerous, or hurtful; conduct that interferes
with a child’s functioning, learning, or relationships”

4. CSEFEL Pyramid Model
Children with
challenging
behaviors will
need “targeted
social emotional
supports”
and/or
“intensive
interventions”
Most children
will have
positive social
and emotional
development in
an environment
that provides
the first 3 tiers
of the csefel
pyramid model

5. ABCs of Behaviors
• The last questions of Figure 10.1 address the ABCs of Behaviors.
• Following careful observations of child, a teacher should be able to
analyze the information
• A supportive teacher will be able to
• Identify triggers (antecedents) of the behavior
• Identify the behavior in objective terms
• Identify the maintaining consequences – what is happening that keeps this
child doing the challenging behavior rather than the desired behavior?

6. Self-Reflection
• What “stuff” do you bring into the classroom?
• How is it helpful (or hurtful) to your interactions with
children, coworkers, parents, or others?
• Are you able to respond intentionally rather than impulsively when
things happen? If it’s one thing teachers are guaranteed, it’s that
things happen in a classroom full of children!
• Do you have the skills to analyze yourself, classroom, interactions and
relationships, lesson plans, communication, etc., etc. to guide
decisions to provide the best atmosphere for helping children develop
better social and emotional skills or address challenging behaviors?

7. Individualize Experiences
• Remember DAP? Do you know the individual strengths and needs of
each child in your care? Can you use this information to support the
developmental needs of each child?
• Provide a variety of activities
• Activities must be a balance between familiar and enjoyable and
challenging.
• Are the activities respectful of the unique characteristics of the child’s
family?
• Even if we don’t agree with a family’s values and culture, can we use
any information we gather to support the child – not judge or air the
family’s business?

8. Enhance Goodness-of-Fit
• Create an environment that supports the temperament and
personalities of the people in it.
• Have differences? Provide variety that supports everyone while
helping children (and adults) learn to be more flexible in areas in
which they are less comfortable.
• NAEYC Key Element 1c – “Use developmental knowledge to create
healthy, respectful, supportive, and challenging learning
environments.” This speaks to the DAP concepts of knowledge of
child development, knowledge of children as individuals, and respect
for the cultural context of each child’s family.

9. Create a Positive Environment
• How does your space, time, and materials support positive social and
emotional skill development and interactions?
• Provide quiet and active spaces
• Be predictable, yet flexible each day
• Use teachable moments and provide solid lesson plans
• Teach social and emotional skills both directly and indirectly
• Provide familiar and novel materials that are interesting, yet
challenging
• Support positive development in all developmental domains

10. Teaching Life Skills
• Teach life skills in everyday instances
• Provide meaningful play opportunities that enhance skill building
• Games – rule following, waiting turns, solving problems, handling
disappointment
• Unstructured playground time – make choices, conflict resolution
• Dramatic play – autonomy, empathy, creativity, communication

11. Building Skills
• Reframe that thinking (Remember the activity we did early in the
semester?)! Look at challenging behaviors as opportunities to help
children build social and/or emotional skills
• This approach allows us to be more objective and less emotional and
reactive when dealing with challenging behaviors.
• Take the time to observe, analyze, consult with colleagues and/or
parents, and develop direct and indirect approaches to support the
child and help her build those skills.

12. Planning Activities to Target Specific
Skills
• Once you identify problem behaviors and determine specific skills to
target, then
• Identify sub-skills that make up the behavior; for example, anger
management requires
• Self-awareness
• Identification of triggers
• Calming strategies
• Choosing appropriate responses (Katz, 2014)

13. Planning Activities to Target Specific
Skills (cont.)
• Plan specific activities that target desired behaviors in all areas
• Use “teachable moments” and other natural opportunities to address
specific skills
• Help children work through and practice desired behaviors
• Discussion Board or in class – Exercise 3 on p. 194. Work together!
Collaboration provides more support and ideas! Further directions
will be posted.

14. Develop Child and Family Relationships
• Children (and the rest of us) are more likely to cooperate with people they
like and that genuinely like them!
• Get to know each child as an individual
• Develop relationships with each child’s family
• Respect each child’s family as partners
• Remember NAEYC Standard 2: Building Family and Community
Relationships
• 2a: Knowing about and understanding diverse family and community characteristics
• 2b: Supporting and engaging families and communities through respectful, reciprocal
relationships
• 2c: Involving families and communities in young children’s development and learning