Developing Self-Discipline Powerpoint
A key part of the DE-PBS MTSS framework, self-discipline is about encouraging students to take ownership and responsibility for their own behavior. There are a number of factors involved in incorporating self-discipline into your MTSS framework, including: relationship building, school-wide policies and practices, student decision making, social and emotional curriculum, strategic use of praise and rewards, and corrective procedures.
Getting Started
Knowing where to start to foster self-discipline in students schoolwide can be a difficult task. The following resources provided in this section allow teams to consider in what contexts they are already developing self-discipline in their students and brainstorm ways to incorporate it into other settings and curriculum.
| Resource | Description | How to Use This Resource |
| Team Questions for Developing Self-Discipline | This worksheet provides teams with questions to consider regarding relationship building, school policies, student decision making, social and emotional curriculum, and praise and rewards in their building. | Teams may want to consider these questions when identifying strengths and weaknesses of their current PBS systems in helping students develop self-discipline. |
| School-wide Success Brainstorm (Activity) | This brainstorming worksheet outlines different facets of a school-wide PBS system with space to reflect on what has worked well. | Teams may benefit from outlining the strategies that are working at their school under different categories in order to identify areas of weakness that may be focused on in the upcoming school year. |
Positive Relationships
Building positive school relationships helps to increase school climate and by linking these relationship-based skills to school-wide expectations and the curriculum, teams may create more cohesive self-discipline development systems. Below are resources that teams may access that include strategies, ideas, and activities for improving school relationships.
| Resource | Description | How to Use This Resource |
| Relationship Building Strategies | These tables outline different strategies that can be used to grow the teacher-student relationship both school-wide and in the classroom. | |
| Improving Peer Relationships | This document lists ideas and strategies that can be used to improve student-student relationships school-wide, in the classroom, and in the curriculum. | |
| Skills Related to Peer Relations | This document provides a list of skills involved in peer-to-peer relationships and a section to enter methods of building those skills at the schoolwide and classroom levels. | Educators may benefit from this visual mapping of the supports in place to develop specific social-emotional skills involved in student-student relations. |
| Mapping Peer Relation Skills to SW Expectations Activity | This table helps teams to graph out the alignment of student-student relation skills under their school’s behavioral expectations with guiding questions to drive next steps. | Teams may benefit from visualizing how the skills in student-student relations fit into their schoolwide expectations and being able to identify any areas where they are unable to cover some of the core skills. |
Social-Emotional Learning (SEL)
One way to develop self-discipline in students is by teaching them through social-emotional learning curricula. Many SEL programs incorporate self-discipline skills into their curriculum and the following resources provide different evidence-based SEL programs that are frequently incorporated into schools.
| Resource | Description | How to Use This Resource |
| SEL Matrix Example (Illinois PBIS Network) | This example behavior matrix illustrates a way to incorporate SEL standards in and make sure they’re being met. | |
| SEL in Curriculum | This document provides an example of how to incorporate SEL practices into already existing lessons along with a blank action plan. | Teams can use this document to discover what contexts they are already teaching SEL and planning out other lessons to tie SEL into. |
| CASEL Website | This website provides information on CASEL’s social and emotional learning curriculum. | Teams can access this website and learn more about the CASEL program. |
| Character Education Resource Guide | This document provides an extensive list of different SEL programs. | Teams can use this document to learn more about various SEL programs. |
| Incredible Years Curriculum | This website provides in-depth information of Incredible Year’s mission and curriculum training. | Teams can use this website to learn more about the Incredible Years curriculum and whether it would be a good program to implement in their schools. |
| Coping Power Curriculum | This website provides in-depth information of the Coping Power mission and curriculum training. | Teams can use this website to learn more about the Coping Power curriculum and whether it would be a good program to implement in their schools. |
| PEERS Curriculum | This website provides in-depth information of the PEERS mission and curriculum training. | Teams can use this website to learn more about the PEERS curriculum and whether it would be useful to implement in their schools. |
| Second Step Curriculum | This website provides in-depth information of the Second Step mission and curriculum training. | Teams can use this website to learn more about the Second Step curriculum and whether it would be useful to implement in their schools. |
| PATHS Curriculum | This website provides in-depth information of the PATHS mission and curriculum training. | Teams can use this website to learn more about the PATHS curriculum and whether it would be useful to implement in their schools. |
Service Learning
Encouraging service learning opportunities in the curriculum can lead to numerous positive outcomes for students. Including students in the planning of these activities and emphasizing their relationship to SWPBS can help lead to an increase in self-discipline. The following resource is an activity to help educators map out these opportunities at their school.
| Resource | Description | How to Use This Resource |
| Service Learning Brainstorm | This document helps guide educators in seeing which areas service learning is incorporated into the curriculum | This document helps teams brainstorm how service learning is incorporated at their school and how to improve the system. |
Student Leadership
Another important way schools can foster self-discipline is through encouraging ways for students to hold leadership positions in their school. The following resources provide an activity for students to voice their opinions on what an ideal school should look like as well as a document for teams to use to action plan ways to involve students in school decisions.
| Resource | Description | How to Use This Resource |
| Ideal School Activity | This document provides activities for educators to use with students to understand their views on an ideal school. | Teachers can use this to determine what aspects are important to have an ideal school and encourage leadership for students. |
| How to Involve Students in School Decisions | This document provides examples of schools encouraging student involvement in school decisions as well as an action plan. | Teams can use this document to determine the extent they allow students to be involved in school decisions and make a plan of action to encourage more student involvement. |
Praise and Acknowledgement
By providing praise and acknowledgement for students when engaging in self-disciplined behaviors, educators can cultivate that as a school-wide standard. The following resources provide suggestions to use for praise and an activity for educators to see how well they are at using effective praise.
| Resource | Description | How to Use This Resource |
| Suggestions for Use of Praise and Acknowledgement | This document illustrates different strategies used to praise and acknowledge students while also providing examples of poor techniques. | Educators can reference this document to better understand the different techniques used in effective praise and ensure these strategies are used at their school. |
| Effective Praise – Activity Worksheet | This activity challenges individuals to create sentences of praise based off a scenario and a specific technique. | Educators can use this document to identify their own level of understanding how to use effective praise and to practice. |
| Effective Praise – Activity Worksheet Answer Key | This document is an answer key for the above activity. |
Preventing Bullying
Part of building a positive school climate is preventing bullying, and self-discipline can be encouraged by teaching students how to lead that prevention effort. The following resources include 10 ways to prevent bullying as well as a list of helpful videos, articles, books, and national resources of bullying prevention.
| Resource | Description | How to Use This Resource |
| 10 Ways to Help Prevent Bullying | This document discusses 10 different, key ways for educators to help prevent bullying. | Teams can use these strategies to have a conversation about whether these techniques are being used in their school or how to implement them. |
| Bullying Prevention Resources | This document provides a list of resources helpful to prevent bullying through state and national resources, as well as videos, books, and articles. | Teams and educators can use this document to learn more about bullying and to access resources that may be more accessible or geared towards their particular school/situation. |
Helpful Websites
| Resource | Description | How to Use This Resource |
| Who Cares about Kelsey – Mini-films | These short films highlight a range of educational issues for students, including topics of PBIS and the value of student leadership. | Educators can use these films to connect these concepts with actual students and to see the effects of these practices in action. |
| I Care By (related to Who Cares about Kelsey film) | This campaign is aimed at increasing compassion and care for students with serious emotional and behavioral challenges in schools. | The action lists and resources provided can be used to help increase student activism and give guidance to families and educators on how they can guide these skills in students to build resiliency. |
| IM40 | This blog from a Delaware educator covers a number of different topics, including how to effectively praise students. |