e teaching itself, or as suggested by Colvin, Sugai, and Patching, one may teach correct behavior along with the content of other disciplines (1993, p. 143). These writers call their instructional strategy "precorrection," an effort to set up sequences of occurrences in the classroom so that children are guided to the correct behavior. Seasoned teachers might call this "catch them being good."
These authors view classroom management as a type of instruction that is more than incidental. For example, if a particular student is often loud and unruly upon entering the room, it does no good to repeatedly correct his wrong behavior. This is merely a type of reinforcement that conditions him to keep behaving in the wrong way. But, precorrection entails reminding him as he leaves the room that upon entering the next time, he will be expected to enter quietly. The astute teacher greets this student at the door with facial expression and body language indicating that the correct behavior is expected. This could be in the form of finger to the lips to indicate "Shhh," a friendly hand on the shoulder, or eye contact and a smile.
This precorrection form of instructional management focuses on the correct, appropriate behavior, and provides strong reinforcement for the expected behavior. The skilled classroom teacher will intuitively or deliberately set up the various parts of the preferred behavior sequence and guide the student through it. The authors suggest tha
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