Hi, I have a little dilemma with the Guff Counter. After I introduced it and modeled it with a student, it didn't take long for someone to talk back. The whole class automatically responded with a "Please, stop!" (along with gestures) towards the offending student. I thought, "Great! They're doing it!" But the student kept talking back! It was a back and forth brawl; one student versus the rest of the class! I swear it went on for seven minutes before I told the rest of the class to ignore the student.

Has anyone experienced this before? Any advice on how to deal with this?

Here are several solutions

1. Let several days go by and then rehearse the proper use of the Guff Counter with your students ... just as described in "Teaching Challenging Elementary Students" ... then have a student, a "good" one, role play the proper response when someone keeps guffing ... the proper response is for your students to say nothing to the student, but keep their hands up in the "please stop" gesture ... if the guffing continues, then the students, with their hands still up don't even look at the student ... explain that it is responding to a guffing student that encourages more guff ... and then, make a mark on the positive side of your Scoreboard because students did such a good job in rehearsal ... repeat this rehearsal several times so that it is clear how everyone should respond to ongoing guff ... and so that the guffer knows what is waiting
2. Let several days go by and then use either the Bullseye Game or the new Agreement Bridge ... the latter is a new download on this site and the former is described in "Teaching Challenging Elementary Students"
3. If you are in elementary school, use the Card Practice System with the guffing student ... if you are in middle school/high school use Power Detention ... these are described in "Teaching Challenging Elementary Students" and in "Teaching Challenging Teens" respectively.

... keep us posted on the results!

Chris has given some great advice. Any of those will work. My choice would be as follows:

First, don't let it go on that long anymore. When the student ignores the first couple of corrections by his classmates he has elected to move to the next level. Set the rest of the class to working on something and have a hall conference with that student alone, or conference with them as quickly as you can.

Inform the student they have now moved to the next level, and he is playing independently with you. He is playing for an afterschool detention, or an ISS with an accompanying phone call home, and having the principle informed of what he is doing.

Tell the student in no uncertain terms that listening to correction by his classmates is in place to his advantage. If he had chosen to listen to them then you did not have to be involved and it would have been no big deal. Now that he has chosen not to listen to their advice it IS a big deal.

Playing Independent he is playing to avoid a detention. He has his own section of the scoreboard just labeled "Independents" or something similar. If the class does something that gets a frowny/teacher point he gets one on his scoreboard too. If he alone does something that would result in a negative point then only he will get that point.

If he loses the game he gets the detention. He is not playing for any reward other than not serving the detention, which will automatically come with a phone call home and a note to the principal detailing what happened in class.

Does that help?

Need clarification. What will determine "losing" for the student playing as an independent? I guess this goes back to another one of my posts about the scoreboard game and the reward system. Can you guide me to a specific example of how the scoreboard works best, how to establish rewards /points needed to earn reward.

The side that has the most points wins. That simple. Establish your reward at the start of class. It could be less homework, or could be 5 minutes of Mind Soccer at the end.

If the students or smiley side ends up with more points they get the reward. If the teacher or frowny side has more points then they do not get the reward.

With the independents the main thing they are playing for is to not get a detention, or whatever consequence you have established with them. If they win, because their behaviro was exemplary, then they do not get the consequence.