COPYING SENTENCES OR ESSAYS

For more ideas about less controversial discipline assignments, click on this link:  Discipline Assignments For Art

WARNING!
We do NOT recommend any teacher assign "Sentence/Essay Copying" without carefully researching it themselves AND checking with their school administration first. This method is controversial, is based in behavior modification techniques, and may create problems with parent relations. The American culture has the common perception that punitive Sentence/Essay Writing is ineffective at best and could harm children's love of learning at its worst. Opinions are not evidence, however. I have heard from many adults who were made to write sentences as children and still grew up to love the art of writing. 

We list this strategy on our website because we know from experience that it could potentially help teachers who are struggling with classroom management AND there is a lack of available research we've found (not opinion based, but empirical) that proves sentence writing is harmful. Case in point; teachers in the United Kingdom regularly still use this method in good conscience. Another example of sentence writing used effectively can be found in Amy Zschaber's blog article, Classroom Management In the Art Room, When You Need Help.

After all, holding students accountable by providing a consequence is part of caring for them. We care enough to do the difficult, uncomfortable thing; gently and calmly assigning a consequence in the hopes of helping them correct poor behavior. I love my students and would never do anything to harm them; my number one priority is to keep them safe.  

See below for more evidence of the effectiveness of this strategy to protect students and their right to learn. 

"...the most frequently used and also the most effective of the strategies employed by teachers was the use of rote punishment (i.e., writing sentences, copying rules, etc.)."  Children's Perceptions of the Effectiveness of Classroom Management Techniques, Journal of Instructional Psychology, Michael Tulley & Lian Hwang Chiu, 25 no3 189-97 S '98

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THE most controversial classroom management practice I have ever come across is Rote Sentence/Essay Copying. Some school systems even equate Sentence Writing with corporal punishment! I heard my college professors disparage this practice and when I started my full time teaching career as a middle school art teacher in 2004, I was shocked to see that many of my colleagues still used this archaic "punishment." One social studies teacher assigned hundreds of sentences at a time to misbehaving students. I couldn't believe it. 

Didn't they know how ineffective this outdated practice is? 

However, as a new teacher I was also being sorely tested by my students' poor behavior. I tried verbal redirection, positive recognition of good behavior, ignoring the bad behavior, moving students' seats, you name it. Finally, I tried assigning a few sentences as well as copying a behavior essay that another teacher had.

Would you believe that it worked? The kids needed a quick, immediate consequence to deter the bad behavior and this strategy actually did the trick! Maybe it was the school culture, maybe it was the conservative community, but the whole time I worked at that middle school this was my "instant" magic potion for managing those squirrelly middle schoolers. Now that I work at a private school (teaching PK-12th grade), I hardly ever use this method. It just isn't often necessary. I do sometimes use math worksheets for elementary students, though. 

"Some aspects of writing-based punishments can be beneficial for your child. Sentence-writing exercises promote fine motor skills and provide practice with spelling and handwriting. When a parent makes a child sit down in a quiet area and write for punishment, her focus and attention becomes occupied in a way that can prevent angry outbursts, temper tantrums and other misbehaviors that result from boredom or restlessness during unstructured time-outs." livestrong.com

"Asking your child to write a sentence, or more, about what she did wrong can help her to think more critically about her behavior. Instead of just nodding her head when you tell her that she is misbehaving, or tearfully accepting a time-out or grounding, writing sentences about her actions means that she has to actually think about what she has done and how it effects her and those around her." everydaylife.globalpost.com

Below are a few examples of Rote Sentence/Essay Writing that I have successfully used. 

EXAMPLES:
One example of a sentence writing discipline assignment is a "TICKET" for talking at the beginning of class. I used this system when I had enormous classes and I needed the kids to be quiet and focused for the first 5 minutes of class. It really helped to provide an immediate consequence to those chatty kids if they did not heed their warning! I only assigned 5 or 10 sentences and the kids did them during class, before they started on their art projects. 

I copied and pasted this in Microsoft Word, printed it out, and made copies that I cut up. When the kids kept on talking at the beginning of class instead of settling down and working on the bellringer, I gave them a paper "ticket." 

Also, I sometimes assigned a few sentences at any point during class if the student broke a rule after being warned. I just phrased the sentence in a positive way, and asked the student to write however many I thought were appropriate (never more than 20 or 30 at a time, usually about 10)....

• "I will respect my teacher and classmates by doing my work quietly, without disturbing others." 
• "I will speak with permission in Mrs. Nichols' classroom." This one was assigned most often, after we had gone to "Silent Art" because students were off task and/or too noisy. Many students didn't care that I'd told them to be quiet and talked anyway, so I assigned them this sentence to copy. 
• "I will respect my teacher and classmates by using the art supplies appropriately."

One more note about sentence writing; this strategy was one facet of a multi-layer plan I came up with when I was dealing with an impossible situation at my middle school a few years ago. The elective and PE teachers had been asked to supervise a study-hall of sorts, and I had between 60-90 students to monitor. Yes, I had to keep huge numbers of 8th graders quiet in the hallway while the core academic teachers worked with small groups in their classrooms. It was awful, but because I had Sentence Writing in my tool-belt at the time, AND I disciplined myself to focus on positive behaviors more than negative, I survived that trial successfully. If I didn't have some way of holding students quietly accountable, that situation would have gotten the best of me. It nearly did me in as it was!  

DISCIPLINE ESSAY:

The below assignment was given for students to copy at home and turned in with a parent signature. I only assigned it after the student broke 3 rules in quick succession. I adapted it for art; it was originally a discipline assignment I got from another teacher my first year of teaching. 

This is a heavy-duty task, and one that I did not use very often. However, the student who completed it was almost always much better behaved afterward. If the student refused to do it, I referred him or her to administration. 

One final note about Rote Sentence Writing:

As I was researching online for this post, I found an interesting article about school discipline on the British Council website. They listed "Writing Lines" as a common punishment currently used in UK schools: "... a pupil has to write a sentence many times (100 times) on a sheet of paper: An example sentence: I must not shout in class. This punishment is sometimes given during detention too."




article by Mrs. Anna Nichols
September of 2018