Here is a brief commentary on each of the classroom rules:
1. Listen with the intent to understand. Such an obvious thing is rarely done by students in schools. They listen with the intent to get a grade on a test, if they even do that, and there is a difference. If they do not cultivate this first and most important of the rules, if they think that school is a game about testing, then they must be constantly reminded to listen with the intent to understand.
2. One person speaks and the others listen. Kids get used to controlling classes with little side talking. Stop it before it happens. If you see a child getting into a side conversation, explain to them that you are going to be doing most of the talking this year because you are the only one in the classroom who speaks the language and we will be speaking the language in the classroom. If they are not o.k. they must leave.
3. Suggest cute answers, avoiding English. Most of us avoid but do not exclude English. Some of the cute English comments the kids throw out can really ramp up a story. Thus, I allow very limited English in the suggesting of cute answers to my questions as we build stories or do PQA. I used to allow two word answers as a rule, and I did that for about two years before realizing it is a bad idea. Blaine makes them suggest things only in Spanish. I just can’t do it. So seriously avoiding English is the way I roll now. The problem with that is that it can create waves of other comments in English. All of us will end up with our own version of this rule, depending on our teaching style, but those with the best discipline will be those who allow the most severely limited amount of English.
4. Clarify if you don’t understand. Other Students support all clarification requests. The key to this is speaking slowly. If we do that, we are in close contact with their eyes as they focus on meaning. Then we learn, when they fail to clarify (hand over head is what I do), to prompt them to do that by passing our own hand over our head, coaching them, as it were, to self-advocate. It is best if the group sitting around the student who wants clarification see that and pass their own hands over their heads. That doesn’t work for me, though.
5. Sit up…Squared shoulders….Clear eyes. This is the most-used rule by far in my classroom, as students generally don’t know how to do this. It is so important to call a kid immediately on slouching and averted eyes and, God forbid, the head on the desk. Why? Because if they are not sitting up and focused, they poison the atmosphere of learning in the classroom. They signal to all that they are in charge and that you are not. I did not work as hard as I have to learn to become a teacher to allow some kid to ruin my class by the way they sit. Traditional teachers are screwed in this respect. There is no way they can keep kids’ heads off of desks. What they do is just too boring.
6. Do your 50%. This is another very frequently used rule. It informs the students that they don’t exist in a vacuum and that the only way we can learn is by having a responsibility to each other, them to me (their half) and me to them (my half). They listen and I speak simply because they are not yet able to speak in the TL. So they have to listen. Get over it. It’s what doing their 50% means. Comprehension based instruction is a reciprocal and participatory endeavor. Rule 6 is a big time rule.
7. Actors – synchronize your actions with my words. This rule avoids chaos during stories. Absolutely do not allow a child to take over the stage. Stop the story, engage the offending actor, laser point to the rule, and insist on compliance. Be aware when a child next to you does not do what you are saying when you say it. Some kids who cannot handle this rule must not be allowed to act. By this time of the year you know who those kids are. There is nothing wrong with using your best actors frequently. They can handle the privilege.
8. Nothing on desks unless told otherwise. This rule must be enforced in the first five seconds of every class. Kids commonly use backpacks to hide iphones – it is the first strategy they learn in Texting in Class 101. Do not start class without enforcing Rule 8 every day in every class, as things get started. Compliance with this simple rule sets the tone for the entire class, sending the message that you, not they, are the one in charge of the proceedings. Students who refuse to comply by immediately removing their backpacks from their desks MUST be sent out of the room to whatever place your school provides for serious discipline problems. Failure to do that on your part is admitting defeat before the class even starts.
