Creating Classroom Guidelines
Overview
During the first week of class, students identify classroom guidelines/rules to create a safe classroom space. The teacher should use a whiteboard and marker to record the students’ answers as they brainstorm the main question: What do they need to feel safe in the class? Once the brainstorming is finished, the teacher will create a set of guidelines that they can bring with them to every class and leave at the front as a reminder/contract with their class.
Useful for
- Allowing students to voice what they need to feel safe(r)
- Co-constructing a respectful classroom environment
- Building a connection between students and the teacher
Materials
- Whiteboard and markers
- Posterboard where the guidelines can be recorded and shared going forward
- Frame the exercise using positive language. Explain that it is important to you that all students feel safe and comfortable in the class, and that you want to give them the opportunity to create guidelines that they think will keep them from harm. You can begin by offering a couple of suggestions for guidelines that you think are key, but make sure that you really let the students voice the things they think are important. Here are some examples of possible guidelines:
- No personal attacks
- Listen
- Be patient and kind
- Share the purpose of the activity, orally and in writing – typically a slide or even writing on the board to state the goal of coming up with guidelines to create safety for all students. Here are a few points you may wish to make:
- When sensitive material, such as social equity, accessibility, racism, sexism, is under discussion it is important to make sure that all participants are kept safe from harm. These guidelines are a key step in students identifying what they need in order to exist in a brave space.
- The guidelines aren’t just for students; they also apply to me, as the teacher.
- I welcome your feedback not only today, but at any point throughout the course. I welcome your feedback about things included in course content, lectures, assignments that may have, unintentionally, caused discomfort.
- Invite students to brainstorm possible guidelines. Students may want more information on what you are looking for. Simply give them some examples and some prompting questions such as: What type of environment would you need to participate in a discussion? How should a teacher present sensitive material?
- Record all students’ suggestions on the whiteboard, even when repetitive. However, guide the activity away from any harmful or negative language. This is meant to be a positive experience for all students, so discussion should remain positive and focus on what guidelines work, not the things that don’t.
- Use students’ suggestions to create a classroom guidelines poster.
- Refer to the classroom guidelines as needed throughout the semester. As a teacher it is your responsibility to ensure that students feel safe and comfortable within your classroom. These guidelines allow students to participate and name the conditions that are necessary for them to feel safe. Therefore, these guidelines must be respected and reinforced by the teacher at all times.
- Bring the poster to class every day and hang it at the front of class as a reminder of the guidelines established by the class.
- Refer back to the classroom guidelines if a student steps outside of them.
- You may find that certain/specific guidelines need to be underlined at specific times, according to course content. It may be useful to refer back to certain guidelines as you enter modules that may be more sensitive or that may have more risk of students feeling unsafe.
- When you introduce the activity, underline that students only need voice guidelines and ideas they are comfortableProvide students the option of sending you a private email or chatting with you after the class if they have guidelines they’d like added but are too shy to share them in front of the class.
Students should be encouraged to participate in creating these guidelines in whatever way they feel comfortable. They may brainstorm independently first and then all discuss. They may prefer to email answers. They may have ideas that occur to them later in the semester. The idea is that these guidelines are to be brought to each class and displayed prominently to remind students how to conduct themselves; however, these guidelines are also open to change or to be added to as the course progresses. Periodically ask/remind students that they can add to them – such a check in could be done as part of the students’ dialogue journals at week 6 and again at week 12.
- 20 Minutes
- Download Activity PDF