EDU340

Task 1

Written Description of the

Essential Skills

To be an effective teacher it is important to learn how to create a supportive

classroom environment for students to learn effectively. In order to create a
supportive classroom environment, teachers need to use the ten essential skills,
designed by Christine Richmond, such as skills under the language of expectation
group. The language of expectation skills are comprised of four essential skills,
which are, establishing expectations, giving instructions, waiting and scanning and
cueing with parallel acknowledgement (Queensland Department of Education,
2007, 6). These skills are demonstrated in two videos featuring Miss Sneesby and
her grade three class.
The first skill within the language of expectation group is establishing expectations,
defined as To clearly articulate and demonstrate the boundaries of pro-social
behaviour(Queensland Department of Education and the Arts, 2005). Establishing
expectations in a classroom is important because it gives student social
boundaries (Queensland Department of Education and the Arts, 2005).
Expectations set by the teacher should be short and clear to ensure all students
understand the expectation (Queensland Department of Education, 2007, 8). By
establishing social boundaries for students, the teacher gives students a sense of
appropriate behaviour, as well as establishing consequences for inappropriate
behaviour. An example of establishing social boundaries was in the video when
Miss Sneesby talked about how she establishes the appropriate behaviour through
reward systems and consequence plan. Miss Sneesby encouraged appropriate
behaviour in the classroom through reward systems such as star charts or table
points. Both these type of reward system can be effective in encouraging
appropriate behaviour so long as the students feel the reward is fair and do not
become dependent on receiving the reward. To enforce the established
boundaries Miss Sneesby uses a consequence system of three strikes. Through
this system students are given a warning as a first strike if they act inappropriately.
On the second strike they are given a chance to reflect on their behaviour by
writing down answers to five questions. On the third strike the student acting
inappropriately is given a detention. Unfortunately consequence system is
ineffective because it does not regulate between different inappropriate
behaviours, talking once or punching someone receives an equal punishment.
Robert Gianduzzo

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EDU340

Task 1

Written Description of the

Essential Skills

Establishing an expectation of how students should act by establishing social

boundaries and maintain those boundaries using consequence and rewards
systems to allow for a supportive classroom environment.
Giving instructions is the next skill within the language of expectation group of
essential skills in order to establish a supportive classroom environment. To give
a clear direction about what students are to do (Queensland Department of
Education, 2007, 9,) is the definition of giving instructions to students. Much like
setting expectations, instructions need to be short and clear. However after the
instruction is given the teacher needs to pause and assess the situation in order to
make sure students fully understand the instruction (Queensland Department of
Education, 2007, 9) By giving short and clear instructions during class the teacher
ensures all students understand the tasks. In the video Miss Sneesby
demonstrated both effective and ineffective ways of giving instructions. When first
shown Miss Sneesby teaching she uses a clear voice to instruct students to put
items they have on the floor. This is an example of effective use of instruction
giving because she gives the students a clear instruction and pauses for a
moment to ensure all students have understood and followed the instruction. The
next instruction Miss Sneesby gave the class was an ineffective instruction. She
quietly asked yellow group to stand. Since the instruction was given in a quiet
voice, it is possible students who were sitting in the back of the group could not
hear. Miss Sneesby ended that portion of the video with strong instruction to one
of her students Emily, will you take these books and you might want to go out
Miss Morgans door today. This instruction was not short however was clear so
the student could easily understand and follow the instruction. The next portion of
the video included two instructions from Miss Sneesby First table ready gets a
point and you may start straight away. The first instruction was effectively done
because after the instruction Miss Sneesby paused and scanned the room to
ensure all students had understood. The second instruction was also effective
because it was a short clear message. The final portion of the video featured Miss
Sneesby instructing 1 2 3 eyes on me (pause) waiting for eyes, hands like this
and demonstrates her hands together to the class. The pause during her
instruction could have been longer rather than saying waiting for eyes. However
Robert Gianduzzo

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EDU340

Task 1

Written Description of the

Essential Skills

either would have been effective as both allowed enough time before the next
instruction. Giving clear instructions allows students to clearly hear what is
expected of them and act appropriately to the instruction. This creates a supportive
classroom environment for all students to learn in.
The next skills, waiting and scanning is largely connected with the giving clear
instruction skill. Waiting and scanning involves the teacher simply waiting and
scanning the classroom for five to ten seconds after giving an instruction to the
students (Queensland Department of Education, 2007, 11). This gives the teacher
time to assess if students have understood the instruction and/or gives students
the chance to follow the instruction and prepare to receive the next instruction. In
the video Miss Sneesby attempts to use the waiting and scanning skill after her
instructions. In the first portion of the video, Miss Sneesby used waiting and
scanning after giving the instruction for students to put their stationary away. After
the instruction she did wait and scan to ensure that all students had understood
and followed the instruction. The same applies to the next portion of the video in
when Miss Sneesby instructed the students to sit at their tables. However in the
final portion rather than use the scanning and waiting skill effectively, Miss
Sneesby reinforced her instruction with waiting for eyes. In that scenario, she
should have instead waited and scanned the room longer to wait for the students
to complete the instruction. Through effective waiting and scanning a teacher can
ensure that students have understood and followed the instructions given to them
creating a supportive classroom environment.
The last essential skill in the language of explicit area is cueing with parallel
acknowledgement. This skill is to acknowledge students on-task behaviour with
the intention of encouraging(Queensland Department of Education and the Arts,
2005). This means giving descriptive positive reinforcement to one student who is
on task with the intention of encourage off task students to also behave in the
certain in order to complete the instructions. Descriptive positive reinforcement
helps off task students realise what actions they need to take to receive praise. It
is also useful that the teacher then gives a low-key prompt, such as smiling or
praise, to another student, preferable one that was off task and is now on task until
Robert Gianduzzo

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EDU340

Task 1

Written Description of the

Essential Skills

the other student was acknowledged (Queensland Department of Education,

2007, 12). This creates a supportive classroom environment because they teacher
is guiding off task students to appropriate behaviour without confronting them.
During Miss Sneesbys lesson, she did not use descriptive positive reinforcement
but rather low-key prompting while giving parallel cues. When she had yellow
group stand she would say as each student stood *students name* is focused.
However the parallel cueing would have been more effective had she given the
first student to stand more descriptive reinforcement and then given the other
students low-key prompts. Through effective parallel cueing, teachers do not have
to confront students on minor inappropriate behaviour and instead praise
appropriate behaviour creating a supportive classroom environment for students to
learn in.
A supportive classroom environment gives students a classroom where they can
effectively learn. Teachers need to use the ten essential skills, including the skills
under the language of expectation group to create this desired environment. The
skills within the language of expectation are establishing expectations, giving
instructions, waiting and scanning and cueing with parallel acknowledgement. By
establishing expectations, the teacher creates social boundaries for the students
to establish a sense of appropriate behaviour. Giving clear instructions allows
students to understand what is expected of them at the time. Waiting and scanning
ensure that the teacher notices that students have understood an instruction and
allows students time to follow the instruction. Finally Cueing with parallel
acknowledgement allows teachers to guide inappropriate behaviour of students
without confrontation. With all these skills put into place a teacher can effectively
create a classroom environment for all students to learn in.
References
Queensland Department of Education and the Arts (2005). Microskills. Learning
Engagement Online. Retrieved August 12, 2012, from
http://www.leo.eq.edu.au/microskills.htm

Robert Gianduzzo

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EDU340

Task 1

Written Description of the

Essential Skills

Queensland Department of Education (2007). Better Behave Better Learning: Essential

Skills for Classroom Management. (1st ed.). (pp. 6, 8 ,9, 11, 12). Australia:
Queensland Government.

Robert Gianduzzo

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