Positive Greetings at the Door
A Proactive Approach to Classroom Management
Background
Positive Greetings at the Door (PGD) create:
• enhanced classroom climate
• positive teacher-student relationships
• prevention of classroom problem behavior
“Students have multiple teachers, switch classes, and
often have schedules with academic subjects
organized into short periods. This creates an
environment in which students are anonymous, feel
little belongingness in the classroom, and become
disengaged with the subject matter” (Durwin &
Reese-Weber, 2017, pg. 278)
“Greeting students as they enter your classroom helps
them feel welcome and reduces behavior
problems” (Sprick, 2009, pg. 80)
“Students who exhibit classroom problem behaviors
are likely to experience negative short- and long-term
outcomes including poor grades, absenteeism, […]
conduct problems, school dropout” (Cook et al., 2018,
pg. 149)
Methods
• Providing “specific positive interactions […] with each student” as they enter the
room
• Providing “class-wide pre-corrective statements to remind students of expectations”
as they enter the room
• Privately engaging in a “pre-corrective, encouraging interaction with individual
students who exhibited challenging behavior the previous period or day”
A.
B.
Graph A shows an increase of ~20 % in Time Academically
Engaged (AET) by the group who implemented the PGD strategy in
their classroom. Graph B shows a decrease of ~10 % in Disruptive
Behavior (DB) by the group who implemented the PGD strategy in their
classroom.
(Cook et al., 2018, p. 152 - 155)
Conclusion
PGD strategies work because they are “relatively
quick, easy to implement, and effective” (Cook et
al., 2018, p. 156)
“When they [students] feel noticed and valued,
they are more likely to be motivated to engage in
appropriate behaviors” (Sprick, 2009, p. 279).
Implementing PGD strategies in the classroom
will not only save teachers energy and stress, but
will also help to foster more time spent on
instruction, resulting in more learning
opportunities for students!
References
Cook, C. R., Fiat, A., Larson, M., Daikos, C., Slemrod, T., Holland, E. A., …
Renshaw, T. (2018). Positive Greetings at the Door: Evaluation of a Low-
Cost, High-Yield Proactive Classroom Management Strategy. Journal of
Positive Behavior Interventions, 20(3), 149–159. https://doi.org/
10.1177/1098300717753831
Durwin, C. C. & Reese-Weber, M. J. (2017). EdPsych Modules (3rd ed.).
Newbury Park, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.
Sprick, R. (2009). Champs: A proactive and positive approach to classroom
management, (2nd ed.). Eugene, OR: Pacific Northwest Publishing, Inc.