Dear Kid Whisperer,

I’m reading your book and having a hard time with how this works for seventh-graders. If I use Strategic Noticing as many times as you suggest, 34 times in one of my 50-minute periods, I think it will actually annoy the kids and they’ll turn it into a joke. Do you have any thoughts on seventh-graders?

Answer: No.

Not really.

Let me explain.

As teachers, we want kids to do lots of stuff. We may want them to sit down, be quiet, work, carry the “1,” cross the “t,” show their work, solve for “x,” line up, keep their eyes on their own paper, on and on, ad infinitum.

So, traditionally, we educators will do what makes sense: We just tell kids what to do.

“Sit down.”

“Be quiet.”

“Carry the 1.”

Kids in Non-Behavioral Leadership schools are often told what to do hundreds of times per day.

Not only is it annoying for them and for you, it also systematically reinforces all of the behaviors you don’t want to see. Have you noticed that kids love attention and love having a feeling of control over you? Did you ever notice that the 20% of your students who take 80% of your time don’t care what kind of attention and control they get (positive or negative)? So, when we tell students what to do when they are not yet doing what they are supposed to be doing, we reinforce them doing the things we don’t want them to do!

This is a problem, no?

So, instead, Behavioral Leadership educators do this completely bizarre thing that is uncomfortable and weird but also may be the most important behavior-management strategy ever devised for schools. We give attention and, thereby, a healthy feeling of control to kids right when they do the things we want them to do.

Kid Whisperer: I noticed Kid #3 is seated.

Kid Whisperer: I noticed Kid #24 is silently working.

Kid Whisperer: I noticed Kid #10 carried the “1.”

Part of the beauty of this is that when kids overhear other kids getting attention and thereby control over the adult when they are doing something right, they usually start doing the right thing without ever being told to do the right thing.

This noticing should be done, at an absolute minimum, every 90 seconds.

Wait, what?

Yes. Every 90 seconds.

I know what you are thinking: “When am I going to have time to teach if I notice every 90 seconds?”

To that question, I have a question of my own:

How often do you tell kids what to do?

I bet it’s more than every 90 seconds. What if you didn’t have to do that anymore?

So, to answer your question about seventh-graders--you are worried about your seventh-grade students being annoyed.

In all of my years doing this, I've never seen a teacher of any age kid use Strategic Noticing for a few days with fidelity whereby they had students still being disruptive about Strategic Noticing. Plus, if you are making constant demands, they are already annoyed. Strategic Noticing will be far less annoying than being told what to do over and over.

Will the kids mock it and laugh about it at first? Of course. They're middle schoolers. They think anything that isn't on TikTok with more than a million views should be mocked. Will they think you are uncool if you use Strategic Noticing? Of course. They are 13. They already think you're uncool because you are older than 18. You might as well be highly effective while they think you're uncool.

If you stick to this, you can avoid getting caught in power struggles. You can avoid your students feeling bossed around. Strategic Noticing will make kids more cooperative while making you feel more and more positive by refocusing you on the positive things happening in your classroom.

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