Student Contributor: M. Murphy
This tool is used for students to create three big rules for the classroom that students decide and agree upon at the start of the year. Students work together to come up with their three big rules they promise to follow and design posters that are hung and visible throughout the whole year.
This tool is created to have students collaborate with one another and decide on the three rules that the students promise to follow throughout the school year. This happens at the start of the school year. In my experience, this tool was paired with the book “I Promise” by Lebron James and is read aloud to students before doing the activity. There are a lot of books that could be paired with this as well. Students work together to brainstorm some ideas they have. Then the ideas are voted on and revised until the three final rules have been agreed upon. Then students are broken up into three groups to design their posters. The posters should hung somewhere in the classroom where students are able to refer back to them.
I placed this in the preventative phase because having a few rules that students made and agreed upon will limit unwanted behaviors in the classroom. It is something that happens before the learning that can help prevent issues when the learning takes place. This tool relates best to student-directed and collaborative because the students are the ones who collaborate with one another to agree upon rules and design the posters. This tool could also be collaborative because the teacher may help generate ideas or facilitate the discussion. However, students are the ones responsible for creating the rules following them throughout the year, and holding themselves and others accountable.
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Tool Source: Mentor teacher
Classroom rules are one of the very first things you determine with your students. This is a great idea as it is very student-centered and has students involved in creating their ideas for the classroom. These could also be a great point of reference when a student is misbehaving, you could draw attention to the poster and ask if they are following class rules. Having students take initiative in this activity will help prevent future disruptive behaviors.