Rules/Procedures I use in my classroom

In my classroom, rules and routine are the first things I establish. Creating a sense of order is the best way I can connect with my students, especially the lower level ones. Because I ask the same questions every morning to start class, they can anticipate what my questions will be. After practicing at home, they can join in class conversation where they otherwise might be too shy to join in.

Every morning, I say “good morning students”, and wait for them to say “good morning teacher.” If they’re lackluster or not paying attention, we do it again. Anything to get them focused for a short time, aware that it’s time to start. Sometimes the previous class runs a bit late, or there’s some activity that prevents us from starting on time. I don’t mind if we start late, or if the students talk amongst themselves before we start, but they know that once I say good morning, it’s time to be quiet.

After that, we do a warmup of some easy questions, chosen based on grade level. My grade 4 students are always asked, “How are you today?” and “How is the weather?” Grade 5 students are asked what they did this weekend, and grade 6 is asked what they will do next weekend. These are all simple questions and tenses that the learned how to answer in the previous year. Occasionally I will ask questions specific to a lesson (holiday lessons: what day is it today?), but not often.

Another routine I establish in the first day of class is the call and response. I tend to let my kids talk amongst themselves for a lot of projects, depending on the lesson, and rather than me yelling, I started a call and response to get their attention. I say their grade (“grade 6”), and they respond with their class number (“class 4”). If after 3 calls and 3 responses students are still talking, the whole class stays after for 2 minutes. This way, they police each other to avoid mutual punishment. I find it’s much more effective than me losing my voice trying to yell for attention.

As far as actual rules go, I only have 2 standing rules.

1. No phones. If I see your phone, it’s mine for the end of the class. When you come to get it, you have to tell me 3 key expressions from today’s lesson. If they can’t do it correctly in 2 tries, they have to come back at the end of the day and try again.

2. No talking while others are talking. If a student is answering a question and someone else interrupts them or talks to their friends at the same time, the offending student has to stand up, apologize, and make a heart with their hands until the first student is done speaking.

Simple enough, right? These are my standing rules, meaning these are the ones that I bring into my classroom. But in addition, I also ask my students on the first day of class what rules they’d like to have. These rules can change between classes and grades, but they usually follow the same pattern. No talking, be nice, no food in class, etc. They also get to choose their punishments, which are more varied than the rules. Some classes vote for physical punishments (holding their books over their heads or doing pushups), while other prefer embarrassment (doing heart signs and singing). We spend the first 2 weeks of class repeating the rules at the beginning and reaffirming the punishments to make sure everyone remembers. This method of scaffolding is invaluable to teaching, and allows students to learn by doing.