Re-Establishing Structure: Ten Suggested Strategies
Re-Establishing Structure: Ten Suggested Strategies
Re-Establishing Structure: Ten Suggested Strategies
S t r a t e g y # 1 : Te l l Yo u r S t u d e n t s i t i s a N e w “ D a y O n e . ”
Once your plan for new procedures and routines is crystal clear in your own
mind, have a discussion with your students to clearly explain how and why
things will be different from this point forward. It is important that when you
are doing this your tone is calm, confident, and matter of fact.
• Tell them that you will be raising your expectations for how smoothly
and orderly the class runs in order to allow more time for teaching and
learning.
o “We have been having some problems in this class. I am very
conscious of these problems and I’m sure you are as well.
Because we have to create a classroom where you can learn
what you need to learn this year, these problems have to stop.
Together, from this point forward, we are going to work toward a
classroom where I can teach and you can learn. Today and over
the next several days, we will spend some class time revisiting
the rules of the classroom and how things should happen in order
to maximize your learning. We’re going to start right now…”
• A confrontational approach like the following would probably be
counter-productive and would not motivate students to learn and work
together for change.
o “I can’t take it anymore. You all are acting up, not listening,
being disruptive, and not acting your age. From now on, things
are going to be different around here, so you better shape up or
expect to get shipped out.”
S t r a t e g y # 3 : Te a c h Yo u r N e w E x p e c t a t i o n s .
Teach your new expectations for one or two high priority classroom
procedures as you would any other academic content. Remember that it is
not enough to simply set expectations and communicate them to your
students – you need to teach them until they are learned. Teaching
behavioral expectations for procedures involves the same process as
teaching anything else, including modeling, checking for understanding, and
assessment. A sample lesson for teaching students the correct procedure for
entering the classroom is included at the end of this document.
S t r a t e g y # 4 : E x p e c t t o b e Te s t e d .
This is less of a strategy and more of a mindset, but it is important
nonetheless. You must expect testing of your new expectations. Be
prepared to be extremely consistent and to demand perfect execution.
Some students will have to be asked to repeat the procedure multiple times
(on this day one and on future days) to be convinced that you mean what
you say and you say what you mean.
S t r a t e g y # 5 : Re i n f o rc e a n d As s e s s U n d e rs t a n d i n g i n
C r e a t i v e Wa y s .
Sure, you need to model, ask students to demonstrate, and expect the whole
class to execute the procedure. But you can do more than that to reinforce
the correct procedure to students. Here are some ideas:
• Have students draw a comic strip of students following the procedure
correctly and incorrectly.
• Write skits and role plays have students perform in front of the class.
Make them funny.
• Provide written, humorous, scenarios for students to critique. Involve
famous people in them.
• Give quizzes. Make them multiple choice, with 2 of the 4 options being
ridiculous, off the wall answers.
S t r a t e g y # 6 : D o n ’ t Pu n i s h . J u s t Re p e a t .
The consequence for a poorly followed procedure is…to do it again. Robert
Kelty, New Mexico ’01, said that “the best thing I learned to do in my
classroom when teaching procedures was to calmly say, ‘Start over.’”
Consider this excerpt from the Classroom Management and Culture Course:
S t r a t e g y # 7 : I n t ro d u c e O n e N e w P ro c e d u re E v e r y Fe w
Days.
Don’t overwhelm students with multiple procedures at once, but don’t just
introduce one and then wait three weeks to introduce the next. Repeat the
process of teaching a new high-priority procedure every few days. Again,
remember to teach your procedure as you would any content.
Strategy #8: Re m e m b e r the Connection Between
Instruction and Management.
If students have mastered your procedure for entering the classroom but the
warm-up activity is too challenging or so easy that students complete it in 60
seconds, the first 5 minutes of your class period could still spiral into chaos.
As asserted in the Classroom Management & Culture course, “students will
become disengaged – and then off task - if they are sitting at their desks
simply watching Anthony complete the math problem on the board during
the guided practice stage of your lesson. Students who finish an
independent activity and don’t have anything else to work on will find “other
things” to occupy their attention. When you plan, you should ask yourself
not just, ‘What will I be doing every minute of the class?’ but more
importantly, ‘What will my students be doing every minute of the day?’” The
connection between instruction and management cannot be understated.
S t r a t e g y # 9 : I n v o l v e Pa re n t s .
Communicate to parents that there will be changes in your classroom. Send
them a letter explaining your new procedures and your expectations for your
students. Provide suggestions for how they can support you at home (for
example, if you are no longer going to be loaning pencils out, ask parents to
make sure students have enough writing implements.) Ask
parents/caregivers to review the information with the child.
S t r a t e g y # 1 0 : Re - t e a c h Pro c e d u re s As N e e d e d … U n t i l t h e
Last Day of School.
Highly effective teachers who are committed to maximizing instructional
time realize that the consistent reinforcement of procedures is never done.
This is especially true after long holidays or if the procedure hasn’t been
used in a while. Remind students of the need for the procedure(s),
demonstrate the procedure your self, ask for a small group of volunteers to
model the process, critique their performance, and then ask the entire class
to complete the procedure properly.
Sample Lesson Plan for Teaching a New Procedure
Opening
Narrate and simultaneously model how you want students to enter the
classroom. Go through each step, explaining what you are doing as you do it.
To check for understanding, ask one student to verbally repeat what you just
modeled, and ask another student to note whether their classmate correctly
repeated the process. Make sure you affirm the student if they are correct
and offer feedback for things they didn’t articulate correctly.
Guided Practice
Ask a small group of students to demonstrate the correct process for the rest
of the class. Ask the observers to comment on how accurately that small
group of students followed the process. Make sure you offer praise and
feedback as well; narrate the behavior you want to reinforce, “Janerio took
her notebook from the shelf and went directly to her seat.” “Darnell
immediately got his warm-up page out.”
Independent Practice
Ask the entire class to line up outside the classroom and then enter as you
have explained and other students have demonstrated. This is where you
need to be prepared to be especially calm, matter of fact, and 100%
consistent in your expectations. If even one student does the procedure
incorrectly, ask all students to return to the hallway to try again. KEEP saying
in a conversational tone, “we need to start over, that wasn’t correct. I know
you can do it properly!” (For an example of this process, see Fred Jones’
article at http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/jones/jones002.shtml) Do
not stop until your class as a whole has executed the procedure properly. Of
course, as students do pieces of the procedure correctly, offer lots of positive
feedback!
Closing
Thank students for their effort and tell them that tomorrow they will be
expected to enter the classroom this way as well.