Navigating 10 Student Behaviour Issues

Teachers can respond to student behaviour issues in the classroom in various ways. Some will help the problem, others might make it more challenging, and some will remain ineffective.

The first step is always to consider the guidelines for student behaviour set out by your school or district.

From there, it’s a matter of being realistic.

First steps to address student behaviour

The first step toward addressing student behaviour is to establish expectations for the class from the start. Then, take it a step further and explore students’ expectations for their teachers. This provides insight into student thinking. Addressing everyone’s expectations can help resolve some student behaviour issues immediately.

For example, if students expect to eat in class and that doesn’t fit with your expectations, then it’s easy to indicate on day one what the ‘rule’ will be.

Next, make sure you follow through on expectations and consequences if those expectations are not met. Everyone will eventually get tired, and addressing an issue may require more energy than you might have that day.

If you do not address the issue, it could become more frequent, and you’ll expend more energy dealing with it. Be kind to your future self and address issues around expectations as soon as possible.

Following through can mean:

Talking to the student (privately at your desk, not publicly in front of the entire class),
Calling home to ensure the student’s caring adults are aware,
Writing office referrals when all in-class remedies have been tried and are not enough.

Finally, no matter the issue in class, the tried-and-true advice of focusing on building relationships does matter. It is not an immediate cure-all, but it can often make a difference for students and teachers.

Relationship building can start with something as simple as daily attendance questions, which lets the class get to know each other. Here are 22 Interesting Ways to Use Daily Attendance Questions.

Building relationships also begins with conversations between students and teachers. Learn more about this strategy in these blog posts:

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Navigating 10 Student Behaviour Issues

Cellphones

Do you remember the 90s TV show “Saved By The Bell”? Cell phones were giant and could not be hidden easily. They also only made phone calls.

Today, cell phones have a wide range of capabilities and can be used for more than just phone calls.

Here are some ways to address student behaviour regarding cellphone use.

Follow your school’s or school district’s guidelines regarding cell phones and explicitly communicate those expectations to students. Create a poster explaining and reminding students of these rules.
I am not sure if this rule is from my school district, but I don’t touch students’ phones or take them away personally. I don’t want to be in trouble if one is lost or broken. If a phone is a major distraction students are given a “cell phone spa” to put on their desk (it is a snap-lock plastic container) and store their phone in. Other teachers have shared that they use a paper bag with a staple at the top to contain cell phones. Both of these “storage” ideas have students handling their phones and keeping them on top of their desks, where they can be seen but not used.
Consider setting up a place in the classroom where students can leave their phones when they are not needed for the lesson. Here are some examples of student cellphone holders from Amazon.
Another option is to integrate cell phones when possible. This might mean listening to music, using them for interactive quizzes on Kahoot!, or even typing in the notes app. However, this can be a slippery slope, especially when students are unaware of their addiction to their phones and/or social media. When possible, keep phones out of sight. This option is often more manageable than integrating them into lessons.
One way to have students explore cell phone addiction is through this non-fiction article on smartphone addiction, which includes a non-fiction article in both regular and modified versions, as well as pre- and post-reading activities.
You could also use this media literacy lesson on smartphone addiction to help your students develop a deeper understanding of why people are so attached to their phones. With it, students will learn about the causes and consequences of smartphone addiction.

Whatever strategies you decide to use make sure that you have the support of your school administration and the students’ caring adults. It is very challenging to manage the cell phone issue alone.

Cheating and Plagiarism

Cheating and plagiarism have been on the rise due to artificial intelligence. Sometimes, students cheat because they don’t understand the assignment or are too pressed for time to invest in it.

Students need to be explicitly taught what plagiarism is year after year and in the context of the subject matter. Spend time teaching your students about plagiarism and its consequences. If you are looking for ideas on this topic, try this Middle School Plagiarism Unit, which features nine lessons to help students understand plagiarism and its consequences. This comprehensive package is designed to engage and educate students about plagiarism and how to avoid it.

It is also important to allot as much class time as possible to complete assignments. To check in on student progress, scaffold the tasks with clear deadlines. This means letting the students know exactly what they must complete at the end of each class period. Collect student work and do a quick review to determine who needs more time and support versus those who are on track.

When working on major assignments, each part of the assignment can be broken down into manageable in-class parts that can be completed on paper and then transferred to a digital format once the paper copy has been reviewed. Let students know how much difference they are allowed to have from their paper to the digital copy.

When you are reviewing daily work (for large assignments, not daily practice work), you do not need to add feedback to individual work; instead, note the major issues and deliver a mini-lesson to the whole class or a small group to address them. For other quick assessment ideas, check out this post: Tips and Tricks to Help You Improve Your Assessment Skills.

Another way to help limit cheating and plagiarism is to get to know students’ writing voices at the beginning of the year through many pen-and-paper short writing tasks and conferencing with them. If you are concerned about the authenticity of a submitted piece of writing, keep samples of student writing as a reference. AI is readily available now to most, if not all, students, so it is important that teachers know their students and their writing styles.

While there are AI checkers, their accuracy is uncertain. Instead, try to learn what’s notable about the products created by AI tools. Run a prompt through an AI tool and see what it comes up with – you might be surprised at how repetitious and vague the responses are! You can also look through a Google Doc’s revision history to see if major parts are copied quickly.

Finally, embrace AI for some assignments. Depending on the assignment and the skills you are teaching, you may want to allow students to write their ideas and then submit them to AI for polishing. Students would then need to submit their AI transcript so you can see their thinking and AI prompts, as well as various outputs created by AI. This is not something I would advise teachers to use with their students when teaching foundational skills (sentence structure, paragraph writing), but there may be an opportunity for students to learn how to properly use AI under the supervision of a teacher.

None of these strategies can guarantee that every piece of work you receive will be plagiarism-free. As teachers, it is important that we work together to develop assessments that encourage students to show their knowledge in various ways—it is not always about the five-paragraph essay.

Read 32 Fun Project Ideas That Aren’t Overused For Middle School Students for some assessments you could try with your students.

Difficulty Staying Still or Seated

Sometimes students find it difficult to sit for long periods.

If we are honest with ourselves, let’s think about our behaviour during long meetings or professional development sessions. Do we get up and go to the bathroom or get a coffee? Would we be caught looking at our phones or laptop screens?

Here are some ideas to keep in mind when lesson planning.

One solution, depending on your budget, is to set up flexible seating. Learn some solutions for flexible seating here: 5 Budget-Friendly Flexible Seating Ideas.
Another solution is to bring in some quiet fidget items for hands or feet. Some teachers put resistance bands around the legs of the desks so students can push and pull without toppling everything.
Another solution for this student behaviour is to incorporate more movement into class through brain breaks with stretching, a gallery walkabout, or even a shift in physical location in class with group work or stations. Not all lessons need to have students sit down. Learn how to incorporate more movement here: 11 Fun Ways to Get Students Moving in the Classroom.
Lastly, changing up your classroom routines can be helpful, too. Get some ideas here: ELA Classroom Routines In Middle School.

Punctuality (Late or Absent Students)

With new etiquette or policies about staying home when sick, students might have missed class for longer stretches. Regardless of the reason, more frequent absenteeism or late arrivals are still issues to address.

Figuring out the reasons for students’ tardiness can help you decide on an approach. Once the reason for this behaviour is determined, you can work with the student to figure out a plan. It might be beneficial to contact the students’ caring adults to help resolve this late arrival issue. If this is a major concern, it might be time to be involved in school support like administration, Child and Youth Work or a Social Worker.

Consider using a Virtual Table of Contents to organize your lessons or posting your daily slideshows to your school’s LMS, such as Google Classroom. This will allow students to access the material used in class (where possible) and catch up on missed work.

These strategies only work if the materials you are using are available in digital formats. Nearly all 2 Peas and a Dog resources come with a PDF and digital option for students to learn from.

You can also host a “Ketchup or Catch Up” work period during class time, recess, nutrition breaks, or lunch. This provides students with access to you for questions and a quiet space to work on any missed assignments.

Lack of Motivation or Effort

The usual response to a lack of motivation or effort is to suggest that teachers make lessons more engaging. However, we all know that even the best songs and dances won’t always get people paying close attention.

A solution to this student behaviour issue is choice and voice. Providing choices for texts and assignments allows students to take more ownership of their learning. This does not mean offering the stars and the moon for each task you’re doing in class but pointed and deliberate decisions about giving students a chance to focus on their interests are a great start.

You can build choice into your assignments. Look at the RAFT structure next time you are planning out a summative task. It can work across different subject areas, not just ELA.

Another lesson example: If you are working on an informational writing unit, students can read a mentor text (from a list of approved choices, if need be), pick their topics, and still meet the requirements. Check out this pack of 27 different graphic organizers to help students organize their thinking about any non-fiction text.

If you want to teach Argumentative Essay Writing, once students have learned the skills they need for this unit, they can write their final essay on the topic of their choice. Who wants to mark 30 or more of the same essay anyway?

For classes that need more practice reading non-fiction, grab this full-year set of non-fiction Articles of the Week so students can enhance their reading comprehension and thinking skills with various topic choices. Upload different articles each week and let students decide which one they read and respond to.

Sometimes we just can’t escape having to teach a topic that might not be the most interesting. Here are some tips for teaching these topics: 4 Excellent Tips for Teaching Boring Topics.

Chattiness & Talking in Class

A big student behaviour issue teachers often have to address is constant chattiness in class. When possible, build in time for your chatty bunch through more discussion either in small groups or as a whole class. This can do wonders when students know there will be a chance to talk. They might even be able to refrain at less opportune times. The Think-Pair-Share Teaching Strategy is a great way to build scaffolding and talking into your lessons.

You can also examine the seating arrangement in your classroom. Are your students in rows, groups, or tables? Would they benefit from a change in seating arrangement? Regularly changing seating arrangements can benefit both students and teachers. For example, a weekly seating chart change can allow students to work with new peers. If students complain, tell them it is for a week, not a lifelong marriage.

In the workforce, people do not usually get to pick their co-workers or their workspaces, so learning this valuable skill early in life is good practice. It is important to find ways to have students work in different partners or groups with 7 Creative Ways to Make Partners and Groups in the Classroom when you can.

Sometimes chatty kids are chatty no matter where you put them, so your best strategy is to embrace their chattiness and put them to work! What role can they fulfill in the classroom that embraces their need to talk? Can they be an “assistant teacher”? Can they mentor other students? Do they need a creative outlet for their thoughts? Take a step back and assess if your school has any opportunities to support these students e.g., reading the daily announcements, etc.

Try this Rant Writing Unit, where students can create Rick Mercer-type rants to share with the class. Students rant and complain to each other daily; why not channel that creative energy into some high-quality writing?

Disorganization or Lost Materials

That moment when you notice a student just stuffing papers into their desk or backpack can make any teacher cringe.

A few options exist to help students with organizational skills:

Ensure you hole-punch before giving handouts to students. There’s nothing like realizing after the 20th kid has received a handout that you didn’t hole punch them and then having 20+ kids come up to use the hole puncher.
Teach skills such as adding the date to handouts or notes and keeping them in a binder. The binder could be divided by subject using a colour-coding system.
Set up systems in class, such as shelves or bins with labels to indicate what goes where. These help organize class materials that students regularly use.
Make it a habit to provide time in class to have students organize loose materials.
Create a weekly or monthly desk/locker cleanout and organization task.
Depending on the age of your students, check out these Helpful Tips for Preparing Students for Middle School to get an idea of other things that need to be explicitly modelled for students.

For more great strategies to teach students about organization, check out this post: How To Teach Students Organization Skills. This post, Classroom Organization Ideas, will also give you ideas for organizing your classroom.

Disrespect of Classroom Materials

I think most teachers have a story of something they own getting broken at school. It is a good reminder for us not to bring anything personal to the classroom that we might be sad about losing or breaking.

With most of these issues, start the year by showing what mutual respect looks like in a classroom. Demonstrate how you care for their items (e.g., picking up items they might have dropped on the floor by accident or reminding them that their hoodie is dragging on the floor).

Model for students how items need to be treated. Humour is a good option to exercise. For example, when handing out novels for students to read and use for the first time – you could model all the acceptable and unacceptable behaviours for using books. Turn this into a mini-drama lesson and get students to act out these scenarios e.g., using the book as a rain cover or fixing a wobbly chair or table. Students remember humour better than lectures.

Remember to add your name to everything you own and anything you often lend to students.

Create a lending system in your classroom for commonly lent-out items. For ideas, check out this post: The Pencil Debate: Solutions For Lost Pencils.

If it’s an ongoing issue, it may mean supervised use of certain materials or that certain items get restricted. There also might come a time during the year when things get broken or lost, the budget runs out, and so once materials are gone, they’re gone.

Eating and/or Chewing Gum

Decide if chewing gum and eating are permitted in your classroom. Then, create a procedure for these items. For example, you may choose to allow students to have water only to prevent messy spills and food on a case-by-case basis. Students might need to bring in something small to finish if they were unable to finish breakfast or lunch for a specific reason, or they may have a medical requirement to eat at certain times. Classrooms are not meant for fine dining. Limiting food helps prevent unwanted pests and smells.

Have a rule in your classroom regarding eating and/or chewing gum. Students are there to learn, not to listen to the ripping of bags or their deskmates chewing. This is why there is time between classes, lunch breaks, etc.

Chewing gum is a hard no for me. How often have we put our hands under a desk to find someone’s leftover gum stuck to it?

However, there are times when students forget or just try to do it anyway. As soon as it’s spotted, I have them spit it out. Sometimes it’s quietly asking them to go to the garbage, passing them a tissue, or bringing the garbage can to them directly. The key is to make students aware of your rule and then quietly and kindly enforce it. You could also remind students to spit out their gum when they enter the classroom as you greet them at the door. “Hey, nice hat, is it new? Can that gum find a new home in the garbage?”

Looking out at a classroom and seeing students chewing is awful, especially if they are snapping, blowing bubbles, or chewing loudly.

Exclusionary Behaviour

Student behaviour that involves bullying or exclusion usually needs a whole team approach within the school, but there are some ways that you can help.

Monitoring the social dynamics of class is an ongoing task. This list of student behaviours features many “frequent flyers” who are often the teacher’s focus, but the quiet students might be dealing with a lot. Make quick anecdotal notes to monitor student behaviour, particularly what will need individual or school team follow-up.

One way to help with social dynamics in class is to use student choice for seating plans and/or group formation. For some lessons or units, student choice for seating plans works well. Ask students to write down 3 to 4 students they would want to sit or work with. I always tell students I consider the lists and do my best to meet their requests, but it’s sometimes difficult. Review the lists to see who is being picked often and who is not being picked at all. You can move forward accordingly while also grouping people respectfully and thoughtfully.

Sometimes, whole-class reminders about kindness can help. This free Share Kindness Challenge encourages students to be kind in and outside of school. It teaches students that random acts of kindness matter and that even the smallest thing, like smiling at a classmate or waving to your neighbour, can have great benefits.

Reminders

Turning student behaviours into a power struggle will only worsen things in the long run. Set expectations, follow through, and consider the student first, separate from their behaviour. It is important not to make a huge scene and call students out in front of their peers. This might result in a small issue becoming much bigger. Quietly talking to a student at their desk or yours is a better approach than addressing them in front of the class.

Remember to have fun with your students. Take the opportunity to get to know them, ask them questions, and laugh when appropriate. I try to share funny moments from my life or things that happened in other classes.

Try your best to be patient with yourself and your class. Just like Rome wasn’t built in a day, resolving student behaviour issues takes time too.

For more about classroom management, check out this post with strategies for middle school.

Navigating 10 Student Behaviour Issues

First steps to address student behaviour

Navigating 10 Student Behaviour Issues

Cellphones

Cheating and Plagiarism

Difficulty Staying Still or Seated

Punctuality (Late or Absent Students)

Lack of Motivation or Effort

Chattiness & Talking in Class

Disorganization or Lost Materials

Disrespect of Classroom Materials

Eating and/or Chewing Gum

Exclusionary Behaviour

Reminders

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Middle School Rant Unit

This FREE persuasive writing unit is