The problem with Behaviour Charts

Sign up for the Little Learners newsletter to receive exclusive discounts, news and more:

MAKE SURE YOU NEVER MISS A VIDEO!
🚨 SUBSCRIBE
🔔 TURN ON NOTIFICATIONS

[ LET’S GET SOCIAL ]

👉FACEBOOK

👉INSTAGRAM

👉TWITTER

[Stettafire]

I'm nearly 30 and I still remember these awful things. We had a giant chart in the main school hall visible to all students. Each student had their name on it and next to that name was starts for "good behaviour". Lunch took place in the main hall so every lunch all could see who the "good" and "bad" students were and who had the least stars. It quickly became a tool for humiliation. I never got one because I "talked back" (came from a different culture where speaking your mind is the norm Vs the British way to staying demere and quiet). As a child it destroyed my self confidence, because I didn't see myself as a bad kid, but there was the "evidence" shown to me and my classmates on the daily. I was taught to be quiet, to disappear into a corner and be seen not heard. It also was a major driver for a lot of bullying. What was worse was the inconsistency of it. Student A would get stars for just sitting down, while student B wouldn't get a single star even if they were well behaved all day. There was a strong feeling that the teachers had favourites, and it drove a feeling of "why bother". Very negative, and I feel like more teachers need to understand the impact public shaming like that can have on students well into the future. I'm not the confident firey Italian-British woman I should be, instead I lack confidence and self esteem. It shouldn't be this way. These charts are evil.

[noah_ignis]

I agree with you on this topic back in elementary I had poor communication skills and I would get extremely nervous and start stuttering if I didn't know the answer or if I was distracted in class. We didn't use color charts instead we used cards starting from green with red being the worse color to get. First grade and third grade was the worst times for me because I had teachers who would treat small issues like not answering a question correctly, forgetting your homework, acting goofy in class, etc as a big issue. So as a student who couldn't answer a question correctly I would still get my card changed from green all the way to red. I was pretty emotional and of course I didn't take it well because I was confused wondering what I did wrong. During 3rd grade I'm honestly glad my mom didn't care that I got my color changed to the worse color because one I would do my homework and still do my classwork and I still got decent grades because she knew that the color chart system was incredibly flawed. I'm 22 now and looking back I can honestly say that this color chart kinda effected my mental health through middle school and high school because I don't have that much confidence to talk to strangers outside my friend group. I am good at communicating with people now its just that I have trust issues with others and I'm more of an introvert and still like to socialize with people who I feel comfortable around with. This video was great and it made me want to open up more of how I really feel about my health thank you

[Dav-star-SS]

teachers would go on the craziest power trips with these, my name went down for heavy breathing after we came back from gym because it was "distracting" or sometimes I would get my name moved down for harmless fidgeting that nobody except the teacher was looking at.

[julietekpo]

Im a teacher and I agree with you. I have never used the behaviour chart even though most teachers in my school use it.

[guyatfood]

as a student these charts did not affect my behavior at all. I wasn't even a bad kid but instead of feeling punished I just felt embarrassed when I was moved down. It feels essentially the same to being bullied.

[moonlightsweetener]

I remember having a meltdown during to fearing my card was gonna get changed to yellow due to a misunderstanding ( it was resolved and nothing happened )but it made me so upset that there was even a chance because I have adhd and as a kid my behavior wasn’t always normal but I wasn’t what one would call “ a bad kid” and I had managed to stay in green and I feared losing that

[Michelle-vpoz]

OMG you are spot on. Thank you for your great advice and highlighting ways to promote positive behaviour without emphasizing on the negative behaviour. Thank you for great advice, children should not be taught to fear. Learning should be inspiring to do good always. Great message very much appreciated thank you very much.

[rosalindamattera]

I'm not a big fan of the traffic lights, but it can work for a while... And I don't let them fall on the red.. When someone goes on orange, then I praise him/her by putting him back on the green for being quiet, sitting down etc. It's a nice metaphor to explain that broken things have to be repaired by the end of the day because it's better like this... my perspective.

[MissSuesSkillsSuccess]

I agree with you! I don't want any of my students to feel shame bc they're clip got moved down or didn't get moved up. And as Jane Nelson always says, where did we ever get the crazy idea that we have to make children feel worse before they will behave better?
It just doesn't work that way.
Going to watch your behavior management tips video now! 👍

[Lenauh]

when i was younger i was undiagnosed with adhd i was always moved down for distractive behavior, behavior charts should never be used they actively hurt children’s perceptions.

[ofe]

Very helpful with a fresh perspective!

[tastyblox]

I remember my primary had something kinda similar to this called Good To Be Green Charts, basically, if you for example disrupted the lesson, you would get a Yellow Card/Warning Card and if it continued you would get a Red Card/Consequence Card, and
if you actually managed to misbehave more after the Red Card, you would get the Purple Card which was the worst one, this one was pretty hard to get as you would have to be really really misbehaved to get this one, but if you managed to get it, then your pretty much finished, you would miss your break and lunch and would have to sit at this table at the back of the classroom
I legit remember when i would have to put my card on a Warning Card, i would feel ashamed as hell 😭

[Rydrake]

My class had one of these in 1st and 2nd grade. I only got pulled down a few times, but I felt terrible when I did. Also, I'm like 99% Sure that that stupid chart is the reason why I'm a perfectionist now.

[deborahlynch]

I agree with what you are saying about behaviour charts. I'm curious about what you think about achievement charts. Do you think the whole class should know how other children are doing in reading or maths for example. Maybe you could do a video on this.

[PencilTheGamer]

My teachers in kindergarten to 2nd grade used this behavior chart system. Every day I would always fear moving down to yellow and when I did, I still vividly remember crying in front of the whole class 😭

There was one day where I ended up in orange all because that I got accused of something I didn’t do, and also because I simply sat up for a bit during nap time!! Not only that, when I was moving my clip, the teacher went ahead and even told the whole class how I was being a bad kid today. Ok I get it, I might have slipped up that day, BUT YOU DON’T HAVE TO TELL THE WHOLE CLASS WHEN THEY CAN CLEARLY SEE IT ON THE BEHAVIOR CHART!!!

This would happen to every single person that dropped to orange/red. I remember in 2nd grade, when one student was told to move their clip to red, he began crying on the way to the chart and the teacher just went “Wow..” and then a long statement afterwards while the whole class just stared at him. I’m sorry for the ones that have to go through this, because that’s just public humiliation.

This goes for any type of behavioral system out there too. For example, a point system like class dojo. Having a bunch of negative points in class dojo is just as bad as being on red on the behavior chart (if everyone in the class can see how many points every student has).

[happybrewYT]

When I was in the first grade, we had our names on a popsicle stick and they would be put in a little pouch thingy with a colour on top. The colours were purple, green, yellow, orange, red. We started with green
Purple was "Outstanding"
Green was Average
Yellow wad like a redirect.
Orange was a consequence
Red was parent contacting.
The colours even affected recess.
Yellow was 5 minutes on the Yellow line during recess
Orange was 10 minutes on the Yellow line during recess.
Red, well, you were in the principals office.
And let me tell you. I HATED THESE.

[biancagombas]

I absolutely hate that fact that my child has this system in his class and I have tried to talk to the teachers but they just believe in this so much..
I am planning to write them about it and hope I can make something like a change..

What can we say to our children?? How can we help them not to care about this??? I am so so upset.
(He is at the middle or higher and worried to move down)

[mattdotsonrailfanproductio]

We had these in my classes. I refused to move mine, half of the time the teacher had to do it for me. But then I’d just move it back up to green. Eventually they just gave up

[jeanvalentin]

I can understand the concern about feelings of shame and humiliation. I think it depends on how the chart is explained to students. I think the behaviour chart successfully mirrors the disciplinarian and competitive social structure that we live in. We want to make classroom environments safe, but we also need to remind students that there are communal agreements everywhere we go. This also diminishes the cultural context of the classroom. In some settings, disobedience can lead students to extremely dire consequences such as prison or death. In some communities, it’s unfortunately something we need to be cognisant of in order to protect our students. For me, what is most important is emphasising choice and continuously offering resources to help them meet behaviour and academic goals.

The chart can successfully illustrate where they stand through a system as opposed to constant behavioural redirection, and that seems important to me. I do agree that we should strive to use it to reinforce positive behaviour rather than its opposite as much as possible.

I will continue to use the charts for now until I find a concrete alternative that is system and habit oriented. For now, it just seems that a part of the issue is how the chart is used by the educator.

I would suggest that it should be the choice of the educator to consider what management approach works best for them in relation to tools.

Overall, I like to hear dissenting opinions as that is where new ideas emerge.

👍

[PrinceMarcusWilliam]

Other than viewing a clip chart as "public humiliation"... this video given me nothing. As an elementary teacher in California, using a clip chart depends on the teacher. I use post-it notes for both my male and female students. This, method has been very effective, but I wouldn't abandon the clip chart.