What an experience! The institutes in
Hawaii in June and early July were packed full of enthusiastic and thoughtful
educators. It was wonderful!
During the two day teacher institute Sandra
Herbst and I focused our sharing on ways to involve students deeply in the
assessment process so as to promote engagement and learning. During the leaders institute we focused on indicators
of application – what does it look like when adults involve students in every
aspect of their learning by thoughtfully using assessment in the service of
learning.
We made lots of connections to the
beginning days of school and yet, as I was traveling home and thinking about
schools starting in early August, I thought that this post might be particularly
timely.
After all, clear expectations for behaviors
help everyone. Students come to understand what is expected by both their peers
and by the adults in the classroom. When students help establish the
expectations, they understand and are more likely to act responsibly within the
agreed upon limits. The first days of school are the ideal time to work
together – in fact, the first hours of school are the best!
Consider these steps:
1.
Explain to students that
communities that work well together have agreed upon ways to get things done, to
get along with one another, and to take care of one another. Because we are a
new community, we are going to work together to define the way our classroom
community is going to operate.
2.
Ask the students to
individually note a couple of ideas of things they think are important. Ask
students if anyone has ideas they will share with the larger group. Record all
ideas. Start a list on chart paper – large enough so everyone can see.
3.
Then arrange students into
groups of three or four. Ask the groups to think about what else is important
so they will feel valued and respected. Ask for someone in each group to make
some notes so they can remember the ideas from their discussion.
4.
Every few minutes, ask the
groups to share the ideas that are surfacing. Record the ideas on the chart
paper. If an idea surfaces that initially makes no sense to you, ask about it.
“Tell me more about why this is an important idea for you and your group.”
Often the elaboration surfaces more than one idea. Record all the ideas. Be
careful not to dismiss any idea. It is better to have duplicates at this point
than to convey to a student that their thoughts ‘don’t matter.’
5.
Continue this process until all
ideas have been surfaced and recorded. Don’t worry about letting this process
continue over the first few days of school. Sometimes it takes that long to get
everything surfaced. Every interaction that occurs in the community is
potentially a source of ideas to debrief with the class. Interactions that both
‘work’ and ‘don’t work’ are equally valuable.
6.
Once all the ideas have been
surfaced, it is time to group and sort them. A powerful process is to cut the
ideas recorded on the chart paper into strips – one idea per strip. Have
students each take one or two strips.
Each student is to find other students with strips that say similar
things. Once all the strips have been
grouped, it is time to identify the ‘big idea’ that captures the strips in each
group. Then post the T-chart for all to
see.
7.
Every hour or so, for the first
few weeks, pause the class in session and ask them to consider each of the
ideas on the chart. What evidence do they have that they are being a good
member of the community? Do this frequently. It is important to prevent
problems from occurring. If problems do occur then return to the list. What
else do we need to add to our list so our classroom community doesn’t have this
kind of problem again? Regularly ask students to reflect on the way the
community is working. Ask the students
to write in their journals, post on the class bulletin board, and debrief
during class meetings.
The classroom expectations, in this way,
become gradually woven into the fabric of classroom interactions. Part of
developing a community of learners is having everyone take responsibility for
their actions. This process helps teachers and students build a safety net
within which everyone can make positive decisions and become individually
accountable for their actions.
