Creating Classroom Norms with Sam Horne in 5/6 Social Studies
Creating classroom norms at the beginning of each year is a way teachers in the FCS Middle School build community and establish common expectations. Instead of choosing classroom rules and announcing them to their students, teachers help facilitate collaborative conversations with students that get them thinking about the classroom experience and what best supports their learning. Teachers ask students about what works well and what doesn’t, and what they need from teachers and classmates alike in order to succeed. Then, the students formulate norms that they collectively endorse and can refer back to as they take on the year together. This hands-on, student-centered process gets to the heart of what students want and need out of their classroom experience, and is an integral part of community building.
This year, 5/6 Social Studies teacher Sam Horne had a new approach to facilitating conversations around classroom norms: creating a class archipelago. To prepare, Sam arranged the desks in the classroom in different formations with around 3-5 desks at each cluster. Once students were seated, Sam explained that each formation represented a different ‘island’ that was a part of the classroom ‘archipelago’. After giving the groups a few minutes to come up with a name for their island, Sam posed the question: “What boundaries or values do we need to have in order to make our islands work?”
Students brainstormed as groups and then shared answers as a class. Soon after, many students made the connection that the activity was a metaphor for classroom norms. While still maintaining the spirit of the activity, this realization helped them reflect on how their responses were applicable to the classroom environment.
When the norm “do not have conflict” was raised by the group, Sam helped extend the conversation by asking the students if they considered all conflict as negative. The group then discussed how conflict does not have to be negative if disagreements are approached with respect by all parties. Afterward, the students amended the norm to specify that the group should avoid ‘bad conflict,’ which they defined as conflict that made others feel small or unheard.
Some other mutually accepted norms included: collaborate, share resources, respect the island/archipelago (desk groups and classroom), do not disrupt others on the island (their space and their learning), respect others’ ideas, make sure everyone’s voice is heard, and come to decisions together. After all, like an archipelago, a class should work together.
Sam is following up this lesson with continued conversations about how communities, even at the classroom level, develop and reflect culture.
Located in College Park, MD, Friends Community School is a progressive Quaker K-8 day school, founded on the belief that every child is a valued member of our community. We offer a challenging curriculum imbued with strong values of equality, integrity, community, environmental stewardship, simplicity and peaceful conflict resolution, rooted in our Quaker heritage.
Friends Community School
5901 Westchester Park Drive
College Park, Maryland 20740
301-441-2100
5901 Westchester Park Drive
College Park, Maryland 20740
301-441-2100
