Lessons · Teaching · a consequence ladder
A ladder you follow rather than invent
A consequence ladder is written before the week starts, has a small number of steps, and is applied in order; the point of it is that it is predictable, not that it is severe.
Hone is a place to practise a career, one idea a day. This is one of its lessons, written out in full and free to read without an account.
What it is for
On a bad Thursday you invent a consequence three steps too big, and then you cannot follow through on it, and the room learns that the ladder is a mood. Written down and followed, it stops being about you at all.
How to think about it
Three or four steps, written, visible, in order. Name the behaviour rather than the person, say which step you are on, and move one step at a time. Reset to the bottom at the start of every lesson.
Worked example
Step 1: a quiet reminder, naming the behaviourClose, quiet, about ten words.
Step 2: a second reminder, with the next step said out loudThey hear what comes next, so nothing is a surprise.
Step 3: a short move, such as a seat change or two minutes outside the doorSmall, immediate, and over.
Step 4: the referral your school usesThe last step, and it belongs to the school rather than to you.
Your turn
A ladder has four steps and resets at the start of every lesson. Write the line that says where it resets to.
Every lesson starts the ladder again at step .
Solve one, graded on the server
The trap
Skipping to step three because you are tired. The whole value of the ladder is that the next step is known, and skipping teaches that the steps are random, which puts you back to negotiating.