Creating a Self-Managed Classroom

Self-management is the explicit teaching of the structures and routines needed to create a culture that gives students the power to make wise choices and to maintain a respectful classroom community where students and teachers have self-knowledge, self-discipline, and self-control.

Crafting Classroom Norms Together

Rules, constitutions, guidelines, expectations—the behaviors we wish students to exhibit have many names. EL Education calls them “norms.” Norms are the foundation for respectful behavior among students, between students and teachers, and among teachers. (MAC 27)

Through a process of co-creating norms, students appreciate immediately that they are not being asked to regurgitate their thoughts, but are genuinely included in the process of governing themselves and their classroom. Co-creating norms is a great opportunity to raise awareness of how different students are comfortable interacting interpersonally at home, socially, and academically, and to integrate these routines into the classroom. Because they have authored the guidelines themselves, students understand the intent behind them and are invested in respecting them. The key to creating norms is to generate a positive, thoughtful discussion and for the teacher to distill student suggestions into a clear and effective list. Norms are then discussed often and used daily to guide interactions and behavior. (MAC 30)

Imagine Learning Education’s curriculum promotes student self-assessment. Even the youngest students learn how to reflect upon and articulate their growth and then set goals for themselves. Creating and reflecting on norms is a vital first step in the yearlong process of setting and reflecting on goals.

In Teaching Children to Care, Ruth Charney describes how to create norms by first asking each student to reflect on hopes for the coming year. Charney starts by modeling. She states her own hopes and dreams, translating them into concrete behaviors that children can understand: “I hope that our class will work together and learn from each other” or “I hope our class helps the whole school be a friendly place to learn.” Next, students generate their own hopes and dreams in writing or in pictures. From this list, students, with teacher guidance, create norms that reflect their hopes and dreams. (The teacher may start by using the class brainstorm of norms on chart paper.) Then the teacher consolidates and simplifies the ideas into the positive norms that students will use throughout the year. She turns all the “don’ts” into “dos” (e.g., “Don’t run” becomes “Walk”). As Charney says, “Rules are to do” (70). The norms are then published and posted prominently in the classroom. If your school has school-wide codes of conduct, the last step is to connect the classroom norms to the school-wide ones. Both documents should be a living part of the school culture and understood by students. (MAC 29, based on Teaching Children to Care)

Habits of Character