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The #1 Mistake Teachers Make with Procedures

Thinking through procedures is a lot of work. Teaching those procedures is even more! But what happens when we don't spend time and energy on procedures? Listen in as Linda shares why not prioritizing procedures will sabotage your classroom management.

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The Importance of Classroom Procedures

Today we're talking about the number one mistake teachers make when it comes to procedures in the classroom, and this is one that can seriously make or break your classroom and your classroom management. And here's the mistake. Too often we as teachers do not insist that our procedures are followed. In fact this can have really devastating consequences that go far beyond what you might realize. 

Getting Rid of Chaos

Why? When a classroom has good procedures and they're followed consistently, it creates a relatively smooth running classroom, or at least it diminishes a lot of chaos. On the other hand, if procedures are haphazard, meaning they're not really well thought through, or they're not followed consistently by the students, that leads to a whole lot of chaos. 

Now, let's understand why. If we have a procedure for lining up, it's supposed to make that smooth and not chaotic. Likewise we have a procedure for when students enter our classroom at the beginning of a period, it's supposed to reduce chaos. So when our students follow the procedure, it does reduce chaos. When they don't follow it or when the procedure just isn't very good, then there is more chaos. 

Send Students The Right Message

The second reason is that how we uphold or enforce our procedures sends intangible signals to our students about how seriously we take our classroom and how seriously they need to take it.

So if we set a procedure for coming into the classroom and we tell our students what is expected, but then we don't actually insist that they do it, or do it completely, we are subtly saying they donโ€™t really need to follow the procedure. We are intangibly saying that the procedures are not important. 

Take the classroom seriously

Because of that, we are saying we donโ€™t take our classroom seriously. And when students start to pick up on those signals, they don't just apply it to procedures, they apply it to other things like rules and work.

Whenever we are not upholding procedures in the classroom, we're setting a tone that we really don't want to set. On the other hand, when we do take them seriously, and insist they are done correctly, that sends very good intangible signals to our students.

It says, โ€œI take this seriously and you need to too. I mean what I say. We're going to actually stick with what we say in this classroom.โ€ All of those intangible signals, once again, don't just apply to procedures. Students realize we are going to hold them accountable in behavior and in schoolwork.

Set Yourself Up For Success

Now, does this solve every single classroom issue? No, but we're setting ourselves up much better to handle other issues. Those good intangible signals are going to have ripple effects one way or the other. Given that, we want those intangibles rippling in the right direction.

Are you really taking procedures seriously? What procedures can you think of where students half-follow them or even a third of the students don't do them? This is not sending the right message. What can you do? 

Well, you can do two things. First, we're going to talk about creating high quality, helpful procedures in the classroom. Then we're going to talk about how to teach procedures (or reteach them) in the middle of the year.

Creating Effective Procedures


First of all, you want to make sure that the procedure is good. Take a moment and think right now of one area in your classroom where there is some chaos. Entering the room, cleaning up, transitioning activities, going to lunch. Now, the procedure is either not the best or it's not being followed.

The first thing you want to ask yourself about that is, is the procedure itself good or not? Sometimes the procedure itself is great, it's just not being followed. But sometimes the procedure is actually kind of problematic. 

An Example

For example, if we have kids lining up to go to lunch or recess in an elementary classroom, but they are lining up right in front of the mailboxes that at the same time that I want students to put things in, that's not going to work because I'm going to have this continual traffic jam.

Or at the beginning of class students are coming in and they're not going straight to their desk. They're milling around, and it is causing all this chaos because we donโ€™t have a good procedure in place.

In light of that, change the procedure. Begin by asking if there is a different procedure or is there a way to do the procedure a little differently that would work?

Teaching and Reinforcing Procedures

Once you are confident with your procedures, then you actually need to teach it to the students. Now, in the beginning of the school year, you want to do this with every single procedure that you teach. In the middle of the school year, you might need to reteach only some procedures. These four steps work for teaching originally and reteaching or reinforcing procedures: explain, practice, correct, and redo.

Explain

Most teachers are pretty good at this, but just to be clear, you need to be very detailed in your explanation of procedures in the classroom. Don't just say, come into the room correctly. That's assuming students know what that means. Even if they're high school seniors, don't assume they know what you mean. You need to tell them what it looks like to come in correctly, what it doesn't look like to come in correctly.

This is where modeling can come in. The younger the student, and the more complicated or nuanced it is, the more we might need to model exactly what we mean. Older students can benefit from modeling as well. So that is step one, explain the procedure. 

Practice

After we explain it, we practice it. This is really important. Don't ever teach a procedure without practicing it. Students will not remember the procedure by the time it's time to do it. You really need to practice it right then and there with the students. 

For example, let's say you're practicing a start-of-class procedure and you already started class. You would send everyone out of the room and have them come in and practice the correct procedure. This helps them to remember and know whether they have done it correctly or not.

Correct

When they practice procedures in the classroom, they're going to do some things right and some things not right. In light of that, you need to correct, and give feedback. This can be positive and negativeโ€”what did they do right? What needs tweaked? Be specific, and have them try again. Celebrate success. It makes a huge difference for students.

Redo 

Finally, if needed, redo. If they went through and did not do very well, rather than just moving on, we want to insist that it's followed. The redo is where you really show them that you mean what you say and you are going to take procedures seriously. To drive that home, the redo can be used in two ways.

Firstly, it can be used with individual students. In general, if my procedure for coming into my classroom is that students walk and donโ€™t run, and I have a student run into the classroom, I might tell that individual student to go out and walk back into the classroom.

Secondly, you can have the whole class redo the procedure. If we're practicing this procedure for students coming into the classroom in the beginning of the period, we can give feedback and then have them try one more time. 

You might hesitate to do the redo. Maybe you feel bad or wonder if theyโ€™ll be annoyed. But it is worth it. Despite your doubts, it's worth it to do that redo because of all those intangible messages that are going out to them about what is important. Also, actually doing the procedure correctly once or twice will make such a difference in making that procedure the norm in your classroom. 

Where to begin

Good procedures are the backbone of a smooth running classroom and they are worth investing in for your classroom. And so I want to encourage you to think about a procedure in your classroom. Begin by thinking about an area that's been a little chaotic.

Maybe just pick one to start and then you can do further ones in the coming days and weeks. Then evaluate the procedure:  is it good or do I need to revise it? And then go through this four step process to teach or reteach it.

Troubleshoot + Keep Going

Sometimes people ask how many times is it worth redoing? I don't recommend getting into like a battle of wills where you're redoing something three, four, five times at once. If the second time's not great, I would give feedback again. And you can use your discretion. You could practice a third time, or you could practice it the next day instead.

If you have students who are simply refusing to follow the procedure, not because they need practice, then you need to deal with that as a discipline issue. So be prepared to address  a discipline issue with students who might not cooperate. But don't go into this looking for a battle.

Don't assume because they did it wrong that they don't care or they're just trying to cause problems.

Practice and Have Grace

Remember, especially in the middle of the year, they are used to doing it the old way, or they're used to not actually having to do the procedure. So we have to acknowledge that bad inertia and those bad habits are there and work to correct them without getting frustrated. 

But if you do pick up on the fact that students are doing it intentionally, then that's a discipline issue. If it's not intentional, then it just needs practice. 

Now, once you do this revision of the procedure with your students, make sure you're really vigilant then for the next few days or weeks until it becomes habitual. In other words, you do all this work to reteach the procedure on Monday. On Tuesday, when that same procedure comes up, be ready to repeat some of those steps.

You are going to need to give feedback again. And same thing on Wednesday and Thursday. You have to really stick with it for the first week or so until they've got it. Then you can move on to work on other things. 

Procedures Make A Difference

So those are some of our tips for working with procedures in the classroom. It's really worth it in the time that you save, the chaos you reduceโ€”it's really going to make such a difference. As you're thinking about adjusting procedures, invite God into this. You are God's child, and he cares about every single aspect of your life.

Just like if you have your own kids, you care about everything they're involved in, big or small. God cares about  your procedures in the classroom.

Ask him for wisdom. and for help to know what to do, and who to go to for advice. Remind yourself that he is with you, encouraging  you in every single moment as you deal with your students. So lean on him, rely on him, and that makes just such a difference.

Classroom Management Resources

Finally, if you need more help with procedures or classroom management in general, we have some great resources to help!

Frustration Ends Here!

In Classroom Management 101, you'll implement a classroom management plan that works so you can stop being frustrated by student misbehavior & actually enjoy teaching again!

Need ideas on what procedures to actually teach?

In Classroom Procedures that will Save Your Sanity, you'll discover 50 procedures in just one hour that will help you make your classroom calmer & more efficient...and walk away with resources & templates to put them to practice easily!

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