Students Created Lower-School Rules + Poster Contest!

One of the core practices of Responsive Classroom, a social-emotional learning framework used by our Lower School teachers, is student participation in the development of rules that define how the community would like the school to be. We believe in rules because we believe that having clearly articulated expectations and agreements contributes to the joy and the security that children feel at school. Having a set of school-wide rules helps to create a sense of order and predictability for all students, and a climate of respect and security where students can feel safe enough to take risks. Furthermore, our school-wide rules serve as guidelines for behavior to help children learn to self-regulate.

 

In the early weeks of the school year, teachers ask their students, “What do you hope to learn and do this school year?”

While this may seem a simple question, the messages inherent in the question are quite important: What you care about matters at school; your goals are taken seriously here; you have a say in your learning.

After students shared their hopes and dreams for the school year, teachers then engaged them in a conversation: “What rules or agreements do we need in order to ensure that we all can reach our hopes and dreams this year?”

From this conversation, the children developed and agreed upon a set of three to five rules to govern their classroom.

 

This year, as part of their rule-development process, each classroom also identified two students who would represent their class and their rules at a grade-level rules convention. At these meetings, students in each grade level met to review the rules created by the classrooms in that grade. They looked for commonalities. They thought about what was most essential to say. They worked hard, thought deeply, and distilled the various classrooms’ rules into a set of three to five rules to represent their grade level. At this meeting, each grade level also identified two students who would go on to the whole school rules convention.

 

At the whole school convention, students reviewed the list of rules that each grade level developed. Using the same process as the one described for the grade-level meetings, these students collaborated on the creation of five rules that best represented the thoughts of their fellow students and that clearly defined our vision of how the Lower School should be.

 

At Town Meeting on Monday, October 13, 2014, the school-wide student representatives presented the rules to the entire Lower School. As a first step in celebrating and implementing these rules, all Lower School students will have the opportunity to participate in a poster contest! The only criteria are that the poster should be on a standard size poster board (28"x22") and should clearly list each of the rules. 

Submissions are due Tuesday, November 4th. We will select a winner from each grade and a school-wide winner. All posters that meet the criteria will be displayed throughout the Lower School. 

 

The School-wide Rules Student Representative Team (From left): Taylor R, Braden S, Noah, Charlie T, Hope K, Rylee V, Libby C, Shyam K, Luke H, Cruz C

(Not Pictured: Hana I, Bella M)