No More Taking Away Recess and Other Problematic Discipline Practices

Frustrated by ongoing difficult student behavior? You’re not alone: classroom management issues are a leading cause of teacher burnout. But there is a solution. No More Taking Away Recess and Other Problematic Discipline Practices shows how to promote good behavior, address interruptions, and keep everyone moving forward.

“Management and control are not the same,” write teacher and school leader Gianna Cassetta and noted researcher Brook Sawyer. If trying harder to exert control is sapping your energy, watch as they show how to transition away from the roles of disciplinarian or goody dispenser and toward an integrated, professionally satisfying model for classroom management. You’ll find everything you need to get going, including:

• the rationale for abandoning rewards and consequence tactics
• research on more developmentally appropriate—and efficient—management
• a plan that integrates instruction and management to decrease interruptions
• specific strategies for addressing misbehavior and refocusing on learning goals
• ways to analyze problematic behaviors and help students connect and stay motivated.

Ease your frustration with classroom management and return dozens of hours lost each year to addressing problematic behaviors. Take a page from No More Taking Away Recess and Other Problematic Discipline Practices and turn your classroom into a community that helps students become their best selves—and helps you rediscover the joy of teaching.

About the Not This, But That Series
No More Taking Away Recess and Other Problematic Discipline Practices is part of the Not This, But That series, edited by Nell K. Duke and Ellin Oliver Keene. It helps teachers examine common, ineffective classroom practices and replace them with practices supported by research and professional wisdom. In each book a practicing educator and an education researcher identify an ineffective practice; summarize what the research suggests about why; and detail research-based, proven practices to replace it and improve student learning.

Read a sample chapter from No More Taking Away Recess and Other Problematic Discipline Practices.

Gianna Cassetta is coauthor of Classroom Management Matters: The Social and Emotional Learning Approach That Children Deserve; No More Taking Away Recess and Other Problematic Discipline Practices; and, The Caring Teacher: Strategies for Working Through Your Own Difficulties with Students. She began her teaching career in New York City, where she became one of the first 25 National Board Certified Teachers in the state. Her passion for education led her to co-found and lead a public-to-charter conversion school in Harlem, NYC, which outperformed the district it was housed in as well as the city. She helped launch the Office of School Reform and Innovation at Denver Public Schools, where she shepherded aspiring school leaders through a new school application and start-up process, before starting her own school in Far Northeast Denver. Gianna has led statewide professional development initiatives and consulted nationally. She is a certified Goleman EI Emotional Intelligence Coach and an International Coaching Federation Associate Certified Coach. Contact her at The Plain Red Horse Coaching and Consulting.

Ellin Oliver Keene has been a classroom teacher, staff developer, non-profit director and adjunct professor of reading and writing. For sixteen years she directed staff development initiatives at the Denver-based Public Education & Business Coalition. She served as Deputy Director and Director of Literacy and Staff Development for the Cornerstone Project at the University of Pennsylvania for 4 years. Ellin works with schools and districts throughout the country and abroad. Her emphasis is long-term, school-based professional development and strategic planning for literacy learning. Ellin recently published The Literacy Studio: Redesigning the Workshop for Readers and Writers which is focused on an up-to-date conceptualization of Readers/Writers' workshop. She is the author of Engaging Children: Igniting the Drive for Deeper Learning (2018), is co-editor and co-author of The Teacher You Want to Be: Essays about Children, Learning, and Teaching (Heinemann, 2015); co-editor of the Not This, but That series (Heinemann, 2013 - 2018); author of Talk About Understanding: Rethinking Classroom Talk to Enhance Understanding (Heinemann, 2012), To Understand: New Horizons in Reading Comprehension (Heinemann, 2008), co-author of Comprehension Going Forward (Heinemann, 2011), co-author of Mosaic of Thought: The Power of Comprehension Strategy Instruction, 2nd edition (Heinemann, 2007, 1st edition, 1997) and author of Assessing Comprehension Thinking Strategies (Shell Educational Books, 2006) as well as numerous chapters for professional books and journals on the teaching of reading as well as education policy journals.

Brook Sawyer is coauthor of the new Heinemann title Classroom Management Matters as well as No More Taking Away Recess and Other Problematic Discipline Practices, part of the Not This, But That series. Brook was a middle school language arts teacher and an elementary guidance counselor and is now an assistant professor in the College of Education at Lehigh University. Her research aims are interdisciplinary and center on promoting the development of young children who have disabilities or who are dual language learners (DLLs). Specifically, her work aims to support the development of preschoolers who are at risk for poor school performance by examining and enhancing the practices of teachers and teachers as well as by enhancing partnerships between educators and parents. She has published her work in numerous journals, such as Early Childhood Research Quarterly, Journal of Early Intervention, and Journal of Research in Reading. She has presented her work at national and international conferences.

Nell K. Duke, Ed.D., is a professor in literacy, language, and culture and also in the combined program in education and psychology at the University of Michigan. Duke received her Bachelor's degree from Swarthmore College and her Masters and Doctoral degrees from Harvard University. Duke's work focuses on early literacy development, particularly among children living in economic poverty. Her specific areas of expertise include the development of informational reading and writing in young children, comprehension development and instruction in early schooling, and issues of equity in literacy education. She has served as Co-Principal Investigator of projects funded by the Institute of Education Sciences, the National Science Foundation, the Spencer Foundation, and the George Lucas Educational Foundation, among other organizations. Duke has been named one of the most influential education scholars in the U.S. in EdWeek. In 2014, Duke was awarded the P. David Pearson Scholarly Influence Award from the Literacy Research Association, and in 2018 she received the International Literacy Association's William S. Gray Citation of Merit for outstanding contributions to research, theory, practice, and policy. She has also received the Michigan Reading Association Advocacy Award, the American Educational Research Association Early Career Award, the Literacy Research Association Early Career Achievement Award, the International Reading Association Dina Feitelson Research Award, the National Council of Teachers of English Promising Researcher Award, and the International Reading Association Outstanding Dissertation Award. Duke is author and co-author of numerous journal articles and book chapters. Her most recent book is Inside Information: Developing Powerful Readers and Writers of Informational Text through Project-based Instruction. She is co-author of the books Reading and Writing Informational Text in the Primary Grades: Research-Based Practices; Literacy and the Youngest Learner: Best Practices for Educators of Children from Birth to Five; Beyond Bedtime Stories: A Parent's Guide to Promoting Reading, Writing, and Other Literacy Skills From Birth to 5, now in its second edition; and Reading and Writing Genre with Purpose in K - 8 Classrooms. She is co-editor of the Handbook of Effective Literacy Instruction: Research-based Practice K to 8 and Literacy Research Methodologies. She is also editor of The Research-Informed Classroom book series and co-editor of the Not This, But That book series. Duke has taught preservice, inservice and doctoral courses in literacy education, speaks and consults widely on literacy education, and is an active member of several literacy-related organizations. Among other roles, she currently serves as advisor for the Public Broadcasting Service/Corporation for Public Broadcasting Ready to Learn initiative, an expert for NBC News Learn, and advisor to the Council of Chief State School Officers Early Literacy Networked Improvement Community. She has served as author or consultant on several educational programs, including Connect4Learning: The Pre-K Curriculum; Information in Action: Reading, Writing, and Researching with Informational Text; Engaging Families in Children's Literacy Development: A Complete Workshop Series; Buzz About IT (Informational Text); iOpeners; National Geographic Science K-2; and the DLM Early Childhood Express. Duke also has a strong interest in improving the quality of educational research training in the U.S.