Classroom Rules 101

From the Marshall Memo #449

In this thoughtful Teacher blog, teacher Nancy Flanagan questions the time-honored practice of having students formulate classroom rules at the beginning of the year. Yes, it models the democratic process and should increase student “buy-in”, but does it result in improved rule-following for the rest of the year? Not in Flanagan’s experience. And she has other concerns. Students come up with the same rules every year: Keep your hands to yourself. Don’t hit. Don’t swear. Raise your hand. It seems like an exercise in remembering rules from previous classrooms. “It never felt as if we were wrestling with the really important issues,” she says: “Building a functioning community. Safety. Personal dignity. Kindness. Order. Academic integrity. Democracy.”

And speaking of democracy, how democratic should things get? “What happens when the students approve rules that the teacher doesn’t like?” Flanagan wonders. “Who determines what happens when rules are broken – does that get turned over to students? Even the criminal justice system provides judicial flexibility in sentencing.” 

She’s learned her lesson, and suggests the following seven ideas for creating more helpful, durable classroom rules:

• Aim for influence, not control. Nothing that teachers do works perfectly, especially rules on the wall. Flanagan’s Big Idea: “You want kids to behave appropriately because they understand that there are rewards for everyone in a civil classroom.” 

• Modeling matters more than anything. “Behave the way you want kids to behave,” she says. “Ignore minor, brainless bids for attention. Make eye contact with speakers. Don’t be an attention hog – your stories aren’t more important than theirs. Don’t be rude to kids. Apologize publicly when you’re wrong. Remember that you’re the adult in the room. It’s your calm presence that institutes order, not rules.” 

• Don’t restate the obvious. No cheating and Bring a pencil to class are not helpful rules, says Flanagan. “Any rule that begins with ‘don’t’ is a challenge to the rebels in every class.” Respect is the big idea that needs little elaboration.

• Use common sense. If it becomes obvious that a rule is dysfunctional or unhelpful, drop it.

• Give clear instructions about what students don’t know. Tornado procedures. What to do in a lockdown. Where the used pencils are kept. How to feed the guinea pig. How to check out a book. Big idea: “Order facilitates learning and makes the class a pleasant place to be.”

• Integrity helps build community. “The most important directives in democratic classrooms are around ethical practices,” says Flanagan – for example, what constitutes cheating in the digital age; why substandard work is never okay; why trust and personal best are more important than winning.

• Carrots and sticks are, at best, temporary nudges and ultimately destructive. Flanagan hates the idea of “catching students being good” – it leads to phony good behavior, not real goodness. In her classroom, she’s looking for decent (and yet self-interested) behavior based on a real understanding of her bedrock principle: “We want kids to behave appropriately because they understand that there are rewards for everyone in a civil, well-managed school.”

“Who Makes the Rules in a Classroom? Seven Ideas About Rule-Making” by Nancy Flanagan in Teacher, Aug. 14, 2012, http://bit.ly/SkL2Oi