Everyone remembers the classroom teacher with a million rules posted on their wall:
No gum
No food or drink
Stay in your seat
Raise your hand
Listen to the speaker
Use indoor voices
No voices!
I could go on.
For a student with special needs, these are just too many rules. For a student who is a smart aleck, these rules don't cover enough!
How Do I Pick The Rules?
When creating a set of rules, you must keep these two principles in mind:
1. Rules need to cover every aspect of the day
2. Rules need to say WHAT to do
What Rules Cover Everything?
Through out my time working with students [elementary and middle school], I have found that these 4 little rules cover everything [and I mean everything!].
Respect Rules [The Only Rules You'll Ever Need]
1. Respect Yourself
2. Respect Others
3. Respect Materials
4. Take Responsibility for Your Actions
That's it!
How Do I Make The Rules Work?
Simple: Show and Tell
- Everyday, start your day off by reciting the rules as a group. I like to do a "3, 2, 1...ACTION" to make things fun.
- After reciting the rules together, ask a student to answer the following: "What is one way you can follow a Respect Rule WITHOUT saying 'no, don't' ?". This way, students know what to do rather than what NOT to do!
- When redirecting students, bring it back to the Respect Rules: "Which Respect Rule were you not following?" If you are consistent with reciting the rules and using the Respect Rules as your script, you'll have students who understand your expectations.
If you don't set the expectations, kids won't know how meet them.
-Crystal
