Establishing Classroom Expectations

We work together to establish classroom expectations.  These expectations are our rules.  They go hand in hand with our school-wide PBIS expectations.  Our process?

Whole Group Brainstorm:  Students share ideas for classroom expectations.  We try to aim for expectations that meet t he three school-wide PBIS behaviors – Be Respectful, Be Safe, Be Responsible.  As students call out expectations, I simply type them into a word document.  I project the list on the SMARTboard, so students can see the growing list.

Whole Group Sort:  We take our list of brainstormed expectations and use highlighters from the SMARTboard to sort them into three categories (respectful, responsible, safe).

Teacher Sort: While the kiddos are at a specialist class, I retype the list into three categories.

Whole Group Discuss and Decisions:  We look at our three lists one at a time.  As we go through each list we combine similar ideas.  We decide on a finalized list.  Some questions we ask ourselves as we whittle each list down to THREE or FOUR expectations:

• Is this an expectation elsewhere in our school?  If it is a school-wide expectations, we take it off the list as those expectations are also classroom expectations.
• Is there an easier way of saying this expectation?  We want the expectation to be simple and easy to remember.
• Is it an expectation that is for everyone in the classroom?
• Do we all agree that it should be an expectation?

Share Out:  We share our expectations by posting them in our classroom; sharing them with our school principal; and sharing them with parents via our BEE books, classroom newsletter, and classroom website.

Related Posts:

• CHAMPS
• Bucket Filling
• Class Incentives/Rewards
• Behavior Tracking
• RtI Progress Monitoring
• Classroom Procedures and Routines
• Establishing Classroom Expectations