While many of you began with the same students you have had since the beginning of the school year, some of us started anew with either new classes or new students. For instance, I now have 3 preps instead of 2, and several new students. I also have a student teacher (who's fantastic, by the way).
As I began to reflect upon which parts of last semester I would want to bring forward to this semester, I considered one aspect that had gone particularly well, and had helped create the type of atmosphere I felt was most conducive to learning. In keeping with my commitment to character education, I decided to allow students to set their own norms for the classroom. In previous years, I had come in with my own set of rules that I prescribed to my students. This came from a philosophy that viewed the classroom as my personal space within which my students learned. As I shifted my thinking to the idea that the classroom was ours (mine AND the students) and that it was a place of learning for all of us, I determined that we should be collaborators in determining what norms we would follow in order to make that environment what we wanted it to be.
In order to arrive at our norms, I followed the below steps to gain my students' input.
Video Introduction:
1. Do Now (or Bell Ringer): I provided students with a journal that allowed them to start thinking about bullying and the idea of character. For example:
žDo Now Journal
- You and your best friend have fallen out, and now he/she is organizing your other friends to bully and isolate you.
- What would you do to deal with the situation?
- What would you do if you were one of the friends?
3. I then asked students to think about the following questions: What norms should we all follow in order to make sure that no one feels the way that Shane reveals in the video? What do we need to do to make sure that everyone feels emotionally and physically safe? Students were given 3-5 minutes to think about and write down the norms they thought were most important.
4. Students them paired up, and we used a cooperative learning activity called Rally Robin and List to share the norms.
5. The pairs were then asked to decide upon 5 norms they wanted to present to the whole class. They wrote these rules down on a piece of poster paper (we use butcher block paper) and hung them on the wall for others to view.
6. I then asked students to go around and view each pairs' norms. Once they did, I provided them with four stickers each so that they could vote on the ones that they thought were most essential to establishing a safe environment.
7. Overnight, I compiled the list into an agreement document that allowed for both students and teachers to sign and then presented it to students during the following class. Some norms that I thought were extremely important, I added, but italicized for the sake of honesty.
The agreements that my senior English students came to this fall are listed below:
Agreements
and Expectations
English
IV
H.
Fleming
Group-Determined Expectations: Per our group feedback, the
following characteristics are important to maintaining a safe, comfortable
learning environment. These
characteristics are followed by the agreements we created in order to display
these characteristics in the classroom. (Those expectations that I have added
are italicized.)
1.
Integrity
a.
We will do
what is right, even if no one is watching.
b.
We will be
“good noodles.”
c. We will
not plagiarize other people’s work, whether online or a friend’s.
2.
Honesty
a.
We will always
tell the truth to one another.
3.
Determination
a.
We will focus
on the tasks before us, and keep working until we achieve our goals.
b.
We will help
others to understand, and provide them with encouragement.
4.
Humility
a.
We will not
make fun of others when they do not understand what we understand.
b.
We will accept and understand that struggle is part
of the learning process.
5.
Respectfulness
a.
We will listen
to others and honor their voices.
b. We will be
conscious that others in the classroom may be of a different ethnicity, gender,
religion, etc., but that differences should be observed and respected.
c. We will
not use any derogatory language to refer to one another or others.
d. We will
provide feedback, both positive and constructive, in a respectful manner for
the purpose of helping each of us to be the best we can be.
6.
Responsibility
a.
We will work
hard and play hard, when each is appropriate to what we need to accomplish in
the classroom.
b.
We will
complete all of our work on time.
c.
We will arrive
to class on time.
d.
We will bring
all the materials that we need to each class.
e. We will
use technology when it is appropriate for learning.
f. When
absent, we will use the teacher’s website, friends, and time during academic
lab in order to make sure that each student remains current with his/her
learning.
One aspect that I stress throughout the process is that the rules must be applicable to everyone in the classroom. That included me, and excluded rules like, "we will listen to the teacher." I feel that this gave all of my students a sense of ownership in the learning community and cemented the idea that this was our classroom. It also gave me a greater sense of accountability for demonstrating the values of our classroom in the ways that I interacted with students.
These agreed-upon norms help tremendously when dealing with disciplinary problems while maintaining relationship and a sense of community. To give you an example, I had to be absent last week because my son was entering the Navy, and I wanted to see him off. While I was out, a couple of my class were less than cooperative. Instead of the usual admonishment and disciplinary action that I would use to to deal with these behavioral concerns, I was able to use the agreements to handle it.
First, I let students know that the report from the sub had not been positive. Next, I passed the expectations back out to students and reminded them that these were the norms they created and agreed to follow. Then I asked them to write a journal reflecting upon their behavior from the previous class and consider what they did to contribute to the environment of the class. What did they do that positively contributed to the environment and what did they that negatively impacted the learning environment? Next, we had a class discussion over what went well and what didn't. I thought that it was extremely important for students to understand that their behaviors have an impact on what we're able to accomplish together. Finally, we talked about what we would do differently next time I had to bring in a sub.
We talked about all of this prior to discussing consequences. The result is that students were able to discuss how to maintain high expectations, and I was able to discipline and not punish.
It made all of the difference.
