Title: Cooperative Classroom Rule Making

Goal: To begin to develop a cooperative classroom environment while at the same time developing an effective classroom management plan.  To provide the students with a sense of ownership and responsibility for the rules and procedures of the classroom.  To begin to develop a sense of pride and belonging for all members of the class.

Abstract: The students work in small groups and then as a whole class to decide on a class name, to decide what makes a classroom a good place to be, and to develop a class contract (rules to follow) for all of the students and the teacher to sign.

Materials:  Paper, pencils, and one large sheet of strong paper and a marker to write the contract (must be neat enough to read and strong enough to last the remainder of the year)

Procedure:

1. The teacher should begin the morning with a challenge for the students.  Tell the students that today they will have to decide as a group what to name our class and what the rules of the classroom should be.  The teacher should remind the students that they will need to be positive and that all names and rules should be positively stated.

2. Then the teacher should begin a class discussion about what makes it possible for people to live and work together without having problems.  At this point let the children provide as many ideas as they can think of but be sure that someone mentions things like: not interrupting, being kind, not putting others or their ideas down, doing what they are expected to do on time, and safety (as well as any other concept that is important to you as the teacher).  This discussion should last about 6 to 10 minutes and it is a good idea to write down some of these ideas on the board so that the students can refer to then latter during the group work.

3. Next the teacher should break the students up into groups of 3 or by asking the students to count off numbers that results in a group of 3 number 1s, 3 number 2s, etc…

4. The teacher should then give each group a small slip of paper, a large piece of paper, and a pencil.  The teacher should instruct the groups to each choose one person to be the secretary and write down the ideas of the group, another to be the materials manager and pass out and clean up the materials for the group, and another to be the group speaker.

5. The teacher should then tell the groups that they each have two jobs: first they have to decide on a name for the class, and second they have to come up with a list of at least 3 to 5 rules that will make the classroom be a good place to be.

6. The teacher should instruct the groups that they have 3 minutes to decide on the name for the classroom and write it on the small slip of paper before she collects the slips.  Then they should begin work on the rules and write them on the large piece of paper.

7. The teacher should collect the classroom names after about 3 minutes and monitor the groups without hovering to ensure that they are working well.

8. Then when it looks like all or most of the groups have a good list going have the students reconvene as a classroom unit.  The teacher should then tell the class that they are going to vote on the classroom name (the teacher should have vote too).  They should do this by taking all of the suggestions and having all of the students vote by raising their hands for the one they like the best (if you fear that the groups will just vote for their own names you may wish to just pick 3 out of a hat and have the class vote on those three).

9. Then the teacher should write the name of the classroom at the top of the large sheet of paper for all of the students to see along with the words “classroom contract”.

10. Next the teacher should ask each of the group speakers to present one of their rules at a time.  The teacher and the class should then work together to decide if this is a good rule and how they should word it to include it in the contract.

11. The teacher should then write it on the contract for all of the students to see.  This procedure should be continued until the contract is complete and if necessary the teacher should add rules that are important to her with the classes permission.

12. Finally, all of the students and the teacher should sign the contract and it should be placed in a highly visible spot in the classroom.

13. The teacher may then conclude the lesson by discussing what they did as a class, how they plan to remind their classmates about the contract if it is being broken, and possibly what can be earned for following the contract.
 

Positive Interdependence: The goal of the groups is to work together to come up with a classroom name and a list of rules and the goal of the class is to choose a name and develop a classroom contract.  They must all work together as a group and then as a class to accomplish these goals.

Individual Accountability: All of the members of the class must agree to follow the rules and sign the classroom contract holding themselves accountable.

Social Skills: The students must be able to work together by listening to each others ideas, taking turns, clarifying and deciding what to write down as a rule.

Face-to-Face Interaction: This is accomplished by breaking up the students into small groups and placing the group members into a close proximity to make it easier to work together.

Heterogeneous Grouping: This is accomplished by having the students count off by numbers to form the groups.

Evaluation: Is accomplished by having the group speaker provide the list of rules and having the class as a whole complete the contract.

Processing: The teacher directs the reflection at the end of the lesson by asking the students to think about what they did, how they will remind each other to positively follow the contract, and the possible rewards they could receive for following the contract.

This lesson encompasses the beginning steps of creating a cooperative community based classroom.  In terms of the Schmuck’s ideas about group development this lesson would fit under the first two stages of facilitating psychological membership and establishing shared influence.  After completing the classroom activity the students should begin to feel like they belong to the class and that their ideas about the class name and the rules of the class were taken into account and had an impact on the Classroom Contract that was developed.  Because of this the class as a whole should be much better prepared to begin working together to pursue academic goals in a cooperative fashion.
In terms of Shapon-Shavin’s book the students should have begun to develop a community-based classroom environment throughout this lesson because they were able experience open communication.  They were also able to experience a sense of security in that the classroom now belongs to them and they belong to it.  Also by working together to create the rules of the classroom they were able to develop shared goals and objectives based on how they can make their own classroom a safe and good place to be.  They have also probably begun to develop a sense of trust and expectations for their fellow students and they now know how they should act and how they should expect others to act in return.
Overall, this lesson is a very good start in laying the groundwork for developing a classroom community.  The teacher should continue to incorporate other shared experiences and cooperative learning experiences to continue to build on the foundation that s/he had begun.