How do you make students aware of your expectations?
QUESTION:
I’ve always started the year by setting up classroom rules. Usually I keep it simple—just four rules: 1) Be safe 2) Be respectful, 3) Be responsible, and; 4) Be kind. Would you ever do this as part of the DWS approach? If not, then how do you make students aware of your expectations?
RESPONSE:
Although years ago my teaching partner and I had a list of rules that we routinely discussed on the first day of school, and sometimes displayed on a poster in the classroom, we no longer do this. These days we don’t have any classroom rules. Honestly!
It just seems that everything that we might once have posted as a rule, is now something we would prefer to think of as a procedure to be taught and learned. As well, we find that rules such as “Be responsible” are too vague. We think it’s more effective to teach students exactly what sorts of responsible things we want them to do in specific situations.
Be responsible with your coat by hanging it on your bottom hook in the cloakroom.
Be responsible with your library book by depositing it in the blue Library Return Box.
Be responsible each morning by doing your classroom job as soon as you enter the classroom.
Teaching procedures is an effective way to make students aware of our expectations. Our students understand that we expect them to follow the classroom procedures that we have previously taught and practiced. Teaching procedures is how to make students consciously aware of what appropriate Level C behavior looks like in our classroom.
If a student isn’t doing as we expect, we ask them to reflect on the particular procedures that need to be followed. We ask them to practice again. For example, if a child throws their completed journal on the table instead of putting it in the journal bin, we simply ask, “What’s the procedure for handing in your journal when you have finished writing?”
Focusing on “practicing and following procedures” as opposed to focusing on “obeying rules,” creates a positive classroom atmosphere and a less stressful frame of mind for the teacher. Enforcing rules puts the teacher in the stressful position of being confrontational when a child does something incorrectly, whereas teaching procedures emphasizes learning.
Whereas in the past, we may have had a one-time discussion to introduce the rule of “No running in the classroom,” these days we take the time to explicitly teach our students many different procedures for “walking.”
In other words, we plan many lessons to teach them how to:
- enter/exit the classroom appropriately,
- walk to the carpet for lesson time,
- move around the room during free choice times,
- put a completed assignment in the correct place,
- politely/quietly walk in the school hallways
- walk in the library or computer lab etc.
By carefully teaching our students procedures for “walking,” we are teaching them how to operate successfully with Level C behavior in the classroom. We then expect that they follow these procedures.
On the other hand, we believe that something like “kindness” is really a choice. Genuine kindness cannot be forced by virtue of creating a classroom rule. Certainly, we hope to influence our students to want to be kind, but we don’t feel we can demand that students must be kind.
Genuine kindness doesn’t involve actual “procedures.” We can model kindness for the children and discuss the beauty of kindness but we cannot teach procedures for being genuinely kind. Instead, we teach procedures for good manners and expect students to follow them to ensure a safe classroom environment for all.
A related question/response:
I don’t understand the difference between expectations and rules.
A related article by Dr. Marshall:
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Posted In: C. Classroom Mgt., Procedures in the Classroom
posted On: July 3, 2008: 10:04 am: By Kerry Weisner
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