Attention Seeking

I've been sitting in a lot of meetings lately and one behavior that seems to keep coming up is negative attention seeking.  Some students misbehave because they are trying to attract the attention of their teacher or their peers.  These students don't care if the attention they receive is negative attention or positive attention.  There are some great interventions for attention seeking behaviors at http://specialed.about.com.  I use a lesson from www.projectwisdom.com to talk to students about attention seeking behaviors and I supplement this lesson with the book Millie Fierce.  Millie Fierce is a great example of a student who uses negative attention seeking behaviors.  Millie feels that she is ignored because she is too plain.  Millie decides that she will start being fierce (cutting in line, painting the dog, stealing birthday cake) in order to get attention from others.  Millie gets attention, just not the kind of attention that she was hoping for.  Millie's actions end up being hurtful to others. and the meaner Millie gets the more others stay away from her.

Description from Amazon:  Millie is quiet.  Millie is sweet.  Millie is mild.  But the kids at school don't listen to her.  And she never gets a piece of birthday cake with a flower on it.  And some girls from her class walk right on top of her chalk drawing and smudge it.  And they don't even say they're sorry!  So that's when Millie decides she wants to be fierce!  She frizzes out her hair, sharpens her nails and runs around like a wild thing.  But she soon realizes that being fierce isn't the best way to get noticed either, especially when it makes you turn mean.  So Millie decides to be nice--but to keep a little of that fierce backbone hidden inside her.  In case she ever needs it again.
Connections:
Negative Attention Seeking Lesson Idea:  www.projectwisdom.com.
Books:  Mollie Fierce; Let's Talk About Needing Attention