Isolation Areas

Ideally, you now have been through the Club (intervention strategies) sections.  You read about isolation areas for Time-outs, Quiet Rooms, In School Suspensions, and Calming Activities.  Some of these interventions can have a student isolated for a half to a full day!  This exercise covers where to build all of these isolation spaces and who is to man them!  Don't despair.  We're not suggesting that your school build a new wing for you to house all of the isolation areas you're going to need if you attempt to run this system.  So, let's figure out how you are going to design your classroom space if you are going to implement the BIL system.

The first thing to keep in mind is that we are not talking about elaborate construction needing to take place in order for you to have effective isolation areas.  What is needed is a space 5'x5' to 6'x6' in an area of your classroom that does not get a lot of student traffic.  It is best to use one of the back corners of your room for your isolation area.  This gives you two existing walls for the space, so you will only need to come up with a third wall.  Some options for a third wall are:

·       A tall and wide bookshelf

·       A portable coat closet

·       A sheet of plywood

·       An old door

·       A section of a business cubicle

The important thing is that there are three walls and that the isolated student will be unable to see his/her classmates.  Bear in mind that 90% of your energy will be spent on 5% of your students, so finding a 5'x5' space in your classroom to design an isolation area should not be a problem.

So now that you have an area, what do you place in it?  I always suggest to teachers that they make sure the area is carpeted.  You can usually go to a carpet store and explain your needs; typically the people there will be happy to provide you with a 5'x5' remnant to carpet the space.  This does not have to be anything elaborate, but you will find that some students end up lying on the floor during times of stress, so the carpet will be used.

Next, there should be a desk and chair.  These do not have to be separate.  This can be a typical student desk where the chair and desk are connected.  Sometimes it is better to have them connected.  These units are much harder to pick up and throw!  You will also want a chair for yourself, or whoever will be completing debriefs with a student, nearby.  This chair should not actually be in the space, but should be close enough to grab when sitting down for a longer debrief session.

Out of reach, but in an area close by, you will want some calming activities for the students to engage in when in the space and needing to de-escalate.  A cassette or CD player with a small selection of relaxing tapes, some drawing materials and paper or objects/pictures to color, Legos, Lincoln Logs, stuffed animals, books, and a sand tray are all good choices.

A sand tray is a plastic bin approximately 2' long, 1 1/2' wide, and 8" high filled with silicone sand about halfway to the top. You place in it farm animals, small vehicles, small plastic plants, small houses or buildings, figurines, plastic army men, plastic bugs, or any small toys (that cannot be ruined by sand).  The sand tray is a place where students can build scenes and act out their fantasies, frustrations, or emotional turmoil.  I have found this item to be the most requested, used, and informational object of all items developed for isolation use.

Again, these are not actually in the isolation area, but available close at hand when needed.  They should not be accessible to the students all the time.  These are items that must be either requested by the student or handed to the student by the teacher/aide.

I do not suggest that you spend much time decorating this area. You will find pen marks, less than flattering words or statements, holes, possibly burn marks, and many other interesting changes in this area at times.  If at all possible you should check this area each time a student leaves.  I have even suggested to teachers that they keep a logbook that the students sign when they leave the area, stating either that the room is clean or what damage they have noticed.

This helps track damage and you can, and should, hold the guilty students accountable for any damage.  In most cases the damage will be hidden or subtle; furthermore, you will usually be too busy with your classroom to religiously check this area for damage.  Try to keep it clean.  The more damaged it looks, the more damage students will inflict on the area.

So now you have an isolation area built.  Great!  Which Club should it be used for?

It can be used for a time-out, the quiet room, an in school suspension, and a calming activity.

How are we expected to adequately use all of these Clubs with only one room? 

Simple!  They are all one room.  The space does not dictate the consequence or the level; you and the students do.  Here's an example.  You are driving one dark and stormy night.  The rain is so heavy that you can barely make out the road.  Your two kids are fighting over whose turn it is to use the Game Boy.  Their volume is escalating and the weather is getting worse.  You have asked them to quiet down so you can concentrate.  Finally the weather and their fights become too much and you snap, yelling, "You're both on time-out!  Now put the Game Boy down, sit there, and don't make a sound!"  Now, are the kids really on time-out?  I mean they are in the same seats, in the same car, on the same dark and stormy road.  So what has changed?

Their perception!  You have told them they are on time-out. From past experience with you, they know this means don't get up, don't talk, don't eat, don't play, don't listen to music, in fact don't breathe until I tell you you're off time out!  The kids have learned that if they do not follow these time-out guidelines, the consequences will escalate, and since they don't want a higher consequence they follow the time-out rules.

Your isolation space should be designed in a similar manner.  A student can receive a time-out for disruptive behavior.  If she refuses to move to the isolation area, argues, throws something, or otherwise does not immediately move in an appropriate manner to the isolation area, the consequence should be raised to Quiet Room.  Now she is in a quiet room.  The isolation space will still be the same, but the consequences will be different, or in this case higher.  She will spend more time in the isolation area than she would have in time-out.  The debrief will be longer and maybe written, and she may have additional consequences or tasks to complete (such as apologies or cleaning) before she can leave the area.

The important thing to remember is that the space is the same; the belief and the consequences change.  A student already in the isolation area for a time-out who continues trying to disrupt the class can be told that he or she is now in a quiet room.  Same room!  Different consequences now!  A student can escalate from a Time-Out clear to an In School Suspension through his actions or behavior and never leave that area.  The consequences increase with the behavior, but the physical space does not have to change.

Now if you have a special needs classroom or a group of difficult students, it is possible that one isolation space may not be enough.  In a regular classroom, one space typically will do the trick.  In a special needs classroom, I would recommend having two spaces.  You'd be surprised at how fast administrators will release funds or materials to help construct this space if they know you are attempting to keep the kids in your classroom rather than sending them to the office!

There will also be times when students fall asleep in an isolation area.  This is not necessarily a bad thing.  Think about the child who stayed up all night waiting for his mother to get home, fearing that this time she has abandoned him.  His mother finally rolls in from her night out at 4:00 AM and he has to be up by 7:00 AM for school.  Or what about the student who is sitting up in her room listening to her father scream at her mother about how incompetent she is?  She fears not only for her mother's safety, but also for her own.  By the time she knows it's safe to sleep it is 3:30 AM, and she gets up at 6:00 AM to help get her siblings off to school.  Sleeping for a few hours in your safe isolation area might be exactly what this student needs.  To be honest, I always kept a few pillows and blankets in my room for just such occasions.

It may seem that you have just built yourself a nice little getaway paradise for your students.  Carpet, music, toys, blankets and pillows--heck, most students should be getting in trouble just to get into the isolation area!  Let's not forget our goals as educators.  Almost anyone can open a book, guide students through it, have the student complete assignments and homework, and then test them; in the end most students will learn the subject matter. These rooms are not built for Most Students, and we are not here merely to help them learn subject matter.  These special students need far more from us.  Our obligation is to help these students learn to deal with life, learn to survive and, ideally, be successful, learn when to take a time-out, when to walk away, when to push forward, when to say when.  If they could do it on their own, they wouldn't be sleeping in our isolation areas!

It is my hope that this final section has helped pull together all the information from the Clubs section. With properly designed Clubs, and a properly designed isolation area, you should see a dramatic change in student behavior, classroom management, and your own personal stress level.  Keep in mind that in the beginning it will take work to get the system running well. How many of us jumped behind the wheel of the car for the first time and were ready to drive in the Indy 500?  Practice makes perfect . . . or at least better!