Limited Choices Teacher Tool

Excerpt from Positive Discipline in the Classroom by Jane Nelsen, Lynn Lott, and H. Stephen Glenn

Many difficult problems seem easier to solve when choices are presented as solutions. As the teacher, you can help your students succeed by offering an appropriate choice between at least two acceptable solutions. The key words here are appropriate and acceptable.

Many times a choice is not appropriate. For instance, it is not appropriate to give students a choice as to whether they want to learn to read, go to school, hurt someone else, be in a dangerous situation such as climbing on the roof, and so on. Other choices are appropriate but limited, such as “You may read this book or this other book.” or “You can do your homework during free time or at home.” “What would help you most right now—to use the Four Problem-Solving Steps or the Wheel of Choice?”