{"id":1434,"date":"2014-10-06T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-10-06T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thecornerstone.wpengine.com\/the-2x10-strategy-a-miraculous-solution-for-behavior-issues\/"},"modified":"2022-02-05T21:29:09","modified_gmt":"2022-02-06T02:29:09","slug":"the-2x10-strategy-a-miraculous-solution-for-behavior-issues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/truthforteachers.com\/the-2x10-strategy-a-miraculous-solution-for-behavior-issues\/","title":{"rendered":"The 2×10 strategy: a miraculous solution for behavior issues?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve been blogging since 2003, and I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever used the term \u201cmiraculous\u201d in relation to behavior\u00a0management (or anything in education, for that matter).<\/h2>\n

But this is a technique that might be\u00a0as close as it gets. If you have a student for whom no other solutions seem to work, read on.<\/p>\n

The \u00a02\u00d710 strategy is\u00a0simple: spend\u00a02 minutes per day for 10 days in a row talking with an at-risk\u00a0student about anything she or he\u00a0wants to talk about<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no mystery to the reasoning here, of course\u2013the strategy\u00a0builds a rapport and relationship between teacher and student, and lets the child see that you genuinely care about him or her as a person.<\/p>\n

The miracle\u00a0is in how it turns\u00a0that abstract, overwhelming, where-do-I-start concept of relationship building into something easily manageable with an\u00a0immediate payoff for everyone involved.<\/em><\/p>\n

And the miracle is in how well it seems to be working in real classrooms, at all grade levels, across the country.<\/em><\/p>\n

I heard\u00a0about this strategy through a teacher in a Facebook group. A group member who wishes to remain anonymous shared this story:<\/p>\n

One of my\u00a0kindergarten girls has been pretty disruptive. During rest time today, I called her over to just talk and we spent more than the two minutes. I learned that her dad has been in jail lately. I learned she loves tarantulas and spiders. I learned she likes it when her mom lets her practice writing her name. Of course then I let her write her name using\u00a0sticky notes and highlighters and she positively loved it.\u00a0I learned she thinks her handwriting looks bad so I encouraged her that she will get better with practice. She wanted to know how to spell my name then said, \u201cHow do you spell \u2018you are beautiful’?” I let her take the sticky notes with her name and put them in her backpack. She danced to her backpack and wanted to keep one of the notes stuck on her shirt. She came back over and said she wanted to stay and learn more. Silly girl, I am the one who was learning!<\/p>\n

This experience touched my heart today. I am confident that this small investment of time and others in the future will yield major changes in this little girl\u2019s classroom behavior. It is not easy to find the time. I had high priority things I could\/should have been working on but I wouldn\u2019t trade today\u2019s experience for anything.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

An update from the same teacher a few days later:<\/p>\n

Her\u00a0behavior was different \u2014 better \u2014 today! She had a gleam in her eyes. I am a believer now. The way I teach has changed forever.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Of course, other group members read this and wanted to\u00a0try it out. Here\u2019s another story:<\/p>\n

I am not sure who posted the other day about 2\u00d710, where you just chat with a student for 2 minutes for 10 days, but THANK YOU! I tried it yesterday and today with one of my first grade boys, who has already been written up twice for hitting since the beginning of the school year. For\u00a0the rest of the day and today he was much for attentive in class. Today he chose to read right next to my table during read-to-self.<\/p>\n

I also tried it today with a girl who is repeating first grade, is on meds for ADHD, and possibly will be diagnosed with ODD. Since the beginning of the year, she has needed constant reminders to stay on task. After the chat, she needed very few reminders to stay on task. Yes, I had assessing paperwork I could have been doing instead of talking, but I learned so much more from my 2 minute chat with my students. Thank you again, for reminding me what teaching is all about \u2026 making connections and building relationships.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

So where did this strategy originate? Some people say\u00a0it\u2019s just what good teachers do<\/a>. But I did some digging around online\u00a0and found an\u00a0article from ASCD<\/a>\u00a0based on the research of\u00a0Raymond Wlodkowski. He reported\u00a0\u201can\u00a085-percent improvement in that one student\u2019s behavior. In addition, he found that the behavior of all the other students in the class improved.\u201d I was especially impressed by this anecdote:<\/p>\n

Martha Allen, an adjunct professor at Dominican University\u2019s Teacher Credential Program in San Rafael, California, asked her student teachers to use the Two-by-Ten Strategy with their toughest student. The results?\u00a0Almost everyone reported a marked improvement in the behavior and attitude of their one targeted student, and often of the whole class.<\/em>\u00a0Many teachers using the Two-by-Ten Strategy for the first time have had a similar corroborating experience: Their worst student became an ally in the class when they forged a strong personal connection with that student.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Pretty impressive, right? I absolutely LOVE the idea of the 2\u00d710 strategy. Considering how much time many of us spend addressing classroom disruptions and disciplining students, a 2 minute a day investment seems like a no-brainer.<\/p>\n

Additionally, I love that this strategy helps teachers focus on the\u00a0good<\/em>\u00a0in their most challenging students\u00a0so we can\u00a0avoid falling\u00a0into the trap of viewing a disruptive kid as a problem instead of a person. It\u2019s much easier to muster up the enthusiasm and patience you need for working with challenging kids if you have genuine empathy for them and get to spend time enjoying\u00a0their company rather than always correcting them.<\/p>\n

Bottom line: As much as teachers would like to have one-on-one convos with every student every day about anything the student wants to talk about…time restraints make that hard. The 2 x 10 is an easy structure to make sure it gets prioritized.<\/p>\n

If you try this strategy out with one of your students, will you report back and let us know in the comment section how it went? I\u2019d love to\u00a0hear about your experiences.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"building-relationships-with-kids\"<\/a><\/p>\n

UPDATE OCTOBER 12th: \u00a0Thank you all for the tremendous response to this post. I\u2019m happy to hear so many of you are already doing this, and I\u2019ve written\u00a0a\u00a0follow-up post to address questions about the 2\u00d710 strategy<\/a>. I\u2019ve shared advice on\u00a0what to do if:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n