Why should I do it:

• Easy and fast with good results many times
• Saves instructional time
• Minimizes distractions and misbehaviors
• Improves students’ attention and focus
• Keeps the class on track
• Provides effective prompts with little effort
• Brings students back to the task at hand
• Does not have a significant negative association
• Can be utilized in the middle of instruction, activities, and discussion

When should I do it:

• When students are off task, inattentive, goofing around, talking out of turn, etc
• When students are misbehaving
• When students are getting off topic
• When students are not doing an assignment or task correctly
• When students appear confused or lost

How do I do it:

• Simply provide a student or students with a quick reminder of what they should be doing, where they should be, what the expectations are, the class rules, routines, etc
• Do not make your redirection more than one or two sentences.
• Give your redirection and keep going on with what your were doing
• Be clear and concise with redirection statements
• Make your redirection to the point
• Redirection can also be non-verbal, such as eye contact or proximity control

Resources & Support for technique:
(Items with footnotes link to external websites)

• How To Redirect Off-Task Behavior In The Classroom ¹
• Stop And Redirect Inappropriate Student Behavior ²
• Strategies for Redirecting Child Behavior ³
• Redirecting Child Behavior – The Art Of Distracting Children ⁴

Footnotes:

1. Guerra, J. (2011). How to Redirect Off-Task Behavior In the Classroom. [http://www.ehow.com/how_2330253_redirect-offtask-behavior-classroom.html].
2. SUBstantial News. March 2010. Stop and Redirect Inappropriate Behavior. [http://stedi.org/subs/courses/subskills/classroom-management/responding-to-inappropriate-student-behavior/skill-four-respond-non-coercively/responding-non-coercively-to-consequential-behavior/non-coercive-strategies/redirect-student-behavior/].
3. Cole, R. Strategies for Redirecting Child Behavior. [http://www.ehow.com/way_5244941_strategies-redirecting-child-behavior.html].
4. Long, J. Redirecting Child Behavior – The Art of Distracting Children. [http://ezinearticles.com/?Redirecting-Child-Behavior—The-Art-of-Distracting-Children&id=3159666].