•“You really persistedon that problem.”- “You listenedto Danielle and empathizedwith her feelings.”
•“I’ll give you some more time. I know you are metacogitating.”
•“That is an intriguing problemyou are posing.”
•“I see that in your checkingover your story for accuracy, you found
some errors needing correction.”
•“That problem really intriguesyou.”
•“You were thinking interdependently when you worked with
Nicholas.”
Discipline
When disciplining children, decide which behaviors to discourage
and which to reinforce. Disciplining is another opportunity to speak mind-
ful language and to pose questions that cause children to examine their
own behavior, search for the consequences of that behavior, and choose
more appropriate actions (Bailis & Hunter, 1985). Consider the following
examples:
Instead of saying... Use mindful languageby saying...
“Be quiet!” “The noise you’re making is
disturbing us.”
“Sarah, get away from “Sarah, can you find another place
Catherine!” to do your best work?”
“Stop interrupting!” “Since it’s Maria’s turn to talk, what
do you need to do?”
“Stop running!” “Why do you think we have the rule
about always walking in the halls?”
Te a c h e r s a n d o t h e r a d u l t s mu s t di s c u s s c o u r t e s y, a p p r o p r i a t e b e h a v -
ior, and classroom and school rules with children if the children are to
learn appropriate alternatives. Then, when students forget, they can
search their memory for what was learned. Soon they will monitor their
own behavior, an important dimension of metacognition (Costa, 2001).
126 Learning and Leading with Habits of Mind