Making rules visible

In a classroom, it is important that everyone, students, teacher, and every other adult who comes into the room, knows what the rules are. If the rules are not clear, chaos will follow. The teacher may have one set of rules that she follows and other adults might have other rules that conflict.

It is best if the rules are posted. If they are posted, in a very visible spot, then the students have them to refer to and other adults coming into the room, such as substitutes, administrators, aide, student teachers or volunteers, will know what the rules are. Then there is no confusion about whether a student can or cannot do something.

Rules also need to be reinforced. The students need to be directly taught the rules. Not just at the beginning of the year, but regularly throughout the year. This will keep the expectations clear at at the front of their heads. It will also keep them in the teachers mind.

I have seen classrooms where the expectations are not posted, and seems to change regularly. Or perhaps, they are always the same, but the teacher picks and chooses when to enforce them. I can be bad about this myself. I need them posted to remind me. But how many rules can be posted? Just the ones that irritate the teacher most? Or all the rules? Or just general rules "Be Safe, Be Responsible, Be Respectful".

If you use the last, making it clear what it looks like to be safe, responsible and respectful is important. If you are going to post them all, then you better have a lot of wall space. It also may not be easy to refer to them. The number of rules may also depend on the students. If you have first graders, you might want to keep the rules fewer and simpler than if you have high school students. You also will want them simpler of your students are generally well behaved.

You also might want simpler rules if your students are very poorly behaved. If they are poorly behaved, they may not be able to handle a lot of rules. Keeping them simple and working on just one or two things at a time may be easier to handle and allow for more success and therefor better behavior.