Classroom Expectations and Why You Need Them
For some, the thought of whether or not to have classroom rules might sound insignificant. You may think, “I will just tell them the rules the first day of school and they will be fine.” A few reminders here and there isn’t harming anyone, right? Wrong.
Classroom expectations should be one of the first things you create when you start off the year. These expectations are going to serve as the backbone of whatever classroom management plan you may decide to implement. While it may be true that in a general education classroom at least 80% of students may not seem to “need” a visual of the classroom expectations, there will always be around 20% that do. If you teach resource, self-contained, or are a service provider, you need these even more. It is unrealistic to expect students of any age to know and remember exactly how to act in all the different environments across the school day.
So why exactly are clear, positive, visual classroom expectations so important?
- You have something to reference
Best practice states that reviewing expectations prior to each activity promotes positive student behavior. Saying them once at the start of the day isn’t enough to carry you through a three-hour period. Having a poster of classroom expectations is a necessary starting point for any instructional block. Before starting, let’s say…math, refer to the visual of the rules. Review the expectations so they are fresh in your student’s minds before they settle in to listen to a mini-lesson or work independently. It can also be helpful to close the activity with a check-in of how your students did in terms of following each expected behavior. - Clarifies the expectations from the beginning
We see many teachers run into this problem: They don’t spend time creating and teaching classroom expectations the first week of school. Suddenly, it’s December and multiple students are struggling with their behavior. They have had four solid months to practice anything but the appropriate behaviors and expectations, and now it’s almost too late. Starting to teach and reinforce classroom expected behaviors from day one sets your student’s muscle memory up to engage in the appropriate behaviors you want to see, rather than the inappropriate ones. In addition, suddenly coming up with classroom rules mid-year is likely to get you some behavioral pushback at this sudden change of expectations, and it may be harder to reverse the behavior, rather than prevent it from the start. - You have clear behaviors to reinforce
Positive reinforcement is the top behavior-change strategy that we all need to be using. By creating clearly established expectations you immediately are giving yourself and your students at least three-to five behaviors you can consistently look for reinforce across the school day. These also serve as a foundation for any classroom reinforcement system you decide to set up.
What are the criteria for a good set of classroom expectations?
- Identify between 3-5 expectations.
You should have no more than three to five expected behaviors. Any more and your students will likely get overwhelmed and forget what’s what. At the same time, less than three might not cover all of the needs throughout each activity, environment or situation. - Stated positively
Most people have heard about the idea behind stating expectations in positive terms. To reiterate, the reason is so that the students are clear on what to do instead. Everyone knows running in the hall is not a school norm for safety and learning reasons, but stating, no running doesn’t tell the student what he or she should do instead. You might think they know, but even if they do it doesn’t mean they will choose the appropriate alternative behavior you want to see (walking). By stating, “no running” you are really opening up for the opportunity for other creative behaviors to occur like skipping, hopping, etc. (and let's face it, kids are creative...)
Examples might include:
Instead of "no yelling," the rule should be, "quiet voice."
Instead of "no cursing" the rule should be, "kind words."
Instead of "no hitting," the rule should be, "hands to self."
- Clear and understandable
Sometimes school or classroom expectations can be too vague. Be responsible is a common one, but for some students it isn’t specific or observable enough to guide them to the right behavior. For students with autism or other related disabilities, they don’t usually pick up on all of the different nuances and situations that might call for this rule. Be responsible is an expectations that requires students to be able to differentiate all actions that are responsible vs. irresponsible, know when and how to use them, and generalize them across people, settings, and times – that is difficult for even students without disabilities! Whatever rules you and your students come up with, make sure they are clear and specify what observable or measurable behaviors you want to see. - Visual representation
The term “out of sight, out of mind” couldn’t be more true in this situation. We think it’s fair to say that most humans process things faster and understand things more easily when they have a visual representation of the concept. For younger students, add pictures to each expectations. For older students, just having the written expectations might suffice if they can read fluently and comprehend, but even they too can benefit from visuals (think about times during escalation when the brain doesn’t process language like it typically does). Visuals are a must for students with cognitive impairments, receptive language difficulties, or other related disabilities because they will help get the message across in a way that they can comprehend.
