Chapter 11 page 246
Withitness. The first behavior that prevents misbehavior is withitness, an ability to constantly
monitor student behavior. Teachers who display withitness are aware of what is happening in all areas of
the room and communicate this awareness to their class, thereby preventing many opportunities for
misbehavior to occur. They watch students constantly and vigilantly to notice student behavior that could
lead to discipline problems and to head off serious discipline problems before they occur. It is as if they
have eyes in the back of their heads. Those teachers who catch misbehavior just as it is beginning are much
less likely to have disruptions (Emmer & Gerwels, 2006). Two examples of teachers’ withitness are:
Ɣ May, a sixth-grade math teacher, is working with two students at the front table as students do math
problems in the back of the room. As she scans the room, she sees that one boy appears distracted. She
says, “Mike what number are you on?” He looks up at her and gets right back to work. May displays
withitness because, although she was working with one child, she was able simultaneously to monitor
other students’ behavior and get the boy back on task quickly, before he became disruptive.
Ɣ As Bill, a third-grade teacher, collects lunch money at the beginning of the day, he periodically scans the
room. He sees that Emily has finished her “Do Now” and is now looking around the classroom (possibly
unsure of what to do). As Bill continues to collect money, he says, “Emily, remember, next you choose a
nonfiction book to read in the reading corner.” Emily nods and makes her way to the reading corner.
Bill’s withitness kept Emily on task and may have prevented misbehavior.
Withitness places heavy demands on working memory. Teachers must use some of their working
memory to monitor student behavior while using the majority of their working memory to process what
they and their students are saying. This requires a lot of practice. Through practice, teachers develop a
capacity to monitor students and handle class routines more automatically, which frees up working memory
to focus on the academic content of the lesson. Teachers must also be extremely familiar with the lesson
plan so that they move from activity to activity smoothly. If teachers are unfamiliar with their lesson, so
that their working memory is fully occupied with trying to remember what comes next, they will leave too
little working memory to effectively monitor students’ behavior. Thus, to exhibit withitness, teachers must
prepare thoroughly, and they must constantly practice this skill so they can do it more and more
automatically over time.
Overlapping. A second strategy identified by Kounin is overlapping, the ability to do more than
one thing at a time. Overlapping is important because teachers are constantly interrupted during the day,
and it is important for teachers to keep the flow of the lesson going while responding to the interruption at
the same time.
Here is an example of overlapping: Nina, a high-school history teacher, is in the middle of
explaining directions for a homework assignment when one student returns from the nurse’s office with a
note indicating that he is sick and needs to pack up his things to go home. Nina continues to speak to the
class as she simultaneously scans the note. After reading the note, she signals to the student, indicating he
needs to wait one minute. Next Nina calls on a student to read a famous historical speech that plays an
important role in the homework assignment. As that student is reading the speech, Nina quietly helps the ill
student copy his homework and pack up his bags. She then sends the child back to the nurse’s office. Then
Nina begins a discussion about the speech that the student has just read. Nina’s ability to overlap in this
situation avoided downtime that would have lost instructional time and could also have led to students
misbehaving.
Like withitness, overlapping places heavy demands on working memory because teachers must
perform two tasks at once for a short time. If teachers are not very familiar with their lesson plans (so that
they can continue running the lesson without using all of working memory), they will be unable to use the
overlapping strategy. If teachers are so familiar with their lesson plans that they can implement them
without constantly thinking about what they are doing, they are more likely to have the working memory
capacity needed for overlapping, as well as for withitness.
Signal continuity and momentum. A third key behavior that effective classroom managers