Learn how to create classroom rules and support them through procedures, routines, and strong classroom management. This page (which is excerpted from The Cornerstone book) will help you create rules for the classroom and set the tone for positive classroom discipline.
Classroom rules vs. procedures
Let’s clarify what purpose rules serve and how they differ from routines. Rules set the tone for the classroom. They provide broad guidelines about what should or should not be happening as a whole in the classroom. Procedures and routines are specific steps that kids are supposed to take in specific scenarios.
A possible analogy for this difference can be made using our federal speed limit laws. The rule on a particular road may be for cars to go no more than 55 miles per hour. But the procedure is to keep an eye on your speedometer. The procedure is to keep both hands on the wheel and stay focused on the road ahead of you, not talking on a cell phone or listening to really loud music that will distract you from monitoring your speed. The procedure tells you how to be successful at keeping the rule. The procedure is practiced over and over until it is automatic. The rule will be broken and consequences will need to be enforced far less often if the procedure is practiced diligently.
Similarly, you will get better results with practicing how to line up quietly (over and over and over) than with saying, “Running in the classroom is against the rules”. Rules are what help set the general tone for your classroom, but routines are what keep your classroom running smoothly.
You will need rules so that students have a framework for the routines you set. Children should follow the routines for keeping their desks neat because that’s part of the rule about being a responsible student. They should follow the routines for passing in papers without disrupting others because that’s part of the rule about respecting other people. They should follow the routines for raising their hands because that’s part of the rule about respecting the teacher.
Instead of rules, make goals
Another way to think about and explain rules is to set them as goals (i.e., Goal #1: Respect Yourself, Goal #2: Respect Others). The routines and procedures help children meet those goals successfully. If you phrase things this way with the children, the statement “Hitting is against the rules” changes to, “Our class goal is to be respectful to our friends. Hitting does not help us meet our goal.” Following the ‘rules’ then becomes a team effort to meet the goals that children agreed upon from the beginning of the year.
Choosing logical consequences
In general, consequences should be logical and related to the offense. It is typically more effective to tie a misbehavior to a natural consequence than a teacher-derived one. For example, if a student loses his crayons, he can’t color his paper. If a student continually disrupt the others around her, she should have to sit in a place where she can’t bother others. Logical consequences make sense to children, especially when explained calmly to them and enforced consistently. In a young child’s mind, pushing someone during reading groups is totally unrelated to missing recess at one o’clock. It would make more senseto have that child talk about what happened, and then move his/her chair apart from the group to keep the other children safe.
Good luck!
