Establishing Expectations at the Beginning of the Year
The opening weeks of a term or year are the prime time to ensure solid under- standing of expectations, establish routines, and begin to build class cohesion. It is useful to think of this period as one of teaching or training for the students. Training requires practice; thus, if students are noisy and disruptive in the hall- way, the teacher can say, “I can see we need more practice in hall walking from the way we just came back from gym,” and take the class out for some practice right then. This is not punitive; it is logical as a consequence.
Example: Nick Aversa, an eighth-grade teacher we worked with, spent the first part of every period in the first weeks of school rehearsing his students in how to enter class and get right to work. The routine in- cluded crossing the threshold to class and stopping all talking, finding a seat, getting out their notebook, and working on the opening activity for class. Initially, he taught them why this is important and then walked them through a series of practices from hall to classroom. From then on, anytime someone forgot the procedure, the consequence was to go back out into the hall and reenter correctly. Nick would signal this by simply establishing eye contact with the offending student and then looking at the door. The student would know what he had to do.
We have seen classes where the teacher’s expectations for student behavior are lowered by the students; their behavior is so poor that the teacher concludes they can’t behave any better. Watch out, though; the minute a person starts jus- tifying behavior (or academic achievement for that matter) by saying, “What can you expect, given their environment,” the students are in trouble. We are convinced that what you expect is what you get—not right away, of course, but eventually. The students may have to be taught how to meet higher behavioral standards, but they are not constitutionally, genetically, or environmentally un- able to.
There are examples all over the country that demonstrate that children from the most chaotic and disadvantaged families and neighborhoods can behave perfectly well in school if the adults demand it, teach them how to do it, and believe in them. This last factor, “believe in them,” is the subject of Part Three on “Motivation” (Chapters 14, 15, and 16). Students who don’t believe school has any value for their future, especially in secondary grades, are much more likely to be discipline problems; they feel they have little to lose. Maybe they are frustrated and angry. So building their motivation to succeed in school has a strong bearing on their willingness to respond to the environment of respon- sibility and self-discipline that this chapter is about. Our point here is simply to alert readers to our responsibility, both in our individual classes and collec-
The opening weeks of a term or year are the prime time to ensure solid understanding of expectations, establish routines, and begin to build class cohesion.
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PART TWO | MANAGEMENT | DISCIPLINE
tively for the school, to maintain the highest standard for civil and respectful behavior for our students.
In Chapter 14, “Expectations,” we describe four areas of classroom life where teachers set standards of performance: (1) the quantity and quality of work, (2) work habits and procedures, (3) business and housekeeping routines, and (4) interpersonal behavior. When it comes to discipline, we are primarily focusing on setting and communicating expectations in the last three areas.
Clarity and Conviction About Expected Behavior The starting point here is the teacher. Do we (teachers) have clarity about what we want from our students? Do we have conviction about what we can reason- ably expect from our students? The distinction here is an important one. Clarity about what we want a student to do or measure up to sets standards of behavior; what we think a student will do—or is capable of doing—is about our beliefs and expectations. Each plays a critical role in the results we get from students. If we aren’t clear about standards of performance, students won’t know what we are asking of them. If we don’t have conviction that students are capable of achieving a standard of performance, we aren’t likely to inspire them to do so.