Clear Expectations

As a new teacher, I had to come to the realization that student behavior is almost always tied to my expectations and their clarity in both my mind and the minds of my students. If I'm not exactly sure what I want students to be doing, there's a good chance they won't know. If students don't know exactly what they are supposed to be doing, they will decide on something - and chaos is a popular choice, rather than intentional and structured learning. Refining my expectations and making them clear to my students has been a huge part of developing good classroom management.

At my last school we all were trained using the CHAMPS system, using this book:

There's a lot of good advice in the book related to overarching strategies for "proactive and positive" classroom management. Especially when the whole school had the same training, it helped to have consistent expectations and language. Something that I especially appreciated were the "CHAMPS" posted in each classroom, which were a way to give students very specific and clear expectations for each activity: Who students could have conversations with and at what voice level, what students should do if they needed help, what activity or objective the class was working on, what movement was appropriate, what participation should look and sound like, ultimately all adding up to success.

Most teachers had specific sets of CHAMPS for specific activities or procedures: bellwork, transitions into group time, assessments, etc. I liked this because it forced me to really clarify my directions and expectations, and was a way to have consistent and visual reminders for students.

While this is not a program in place at my new school, I have modified the CHAMPS for my own language class. (This is one of the things I did during the very long drive from Michigan to California... thanks to a husband willing to drive a moving truck, and a laptop power converter plugged into the truck's lighter.) I played around with the categories a lot and tried to make a snappy acronym, to no avail. If you are better at acronyms, maybe you have a suggestion. Snappy acronyms aside, here is what I came up with:

I made this chart and had it printed on a large poster for my middle school classes, since I teach them all in the same classroom, and for each activity I circle the appropriate symbols and explain them to the students briefly. I travel to grades 3 through 5, so I have five magnets that I put up on the board for the five categories, and I draw a quick symbol next to each depending on the activity. (It means I frequently show off my lack of hand-drawing ability, but I remind my students that no soy la maestra de arte.) Once students are familiar with the expectations that correspond to each symbol, it is even easier to give more directions in the target language.

If you would like this poster for yourself, files are below. Use and modify as you wish - I have no rights to any of the images, since they are all clip art images from the internet.

• PDF with color (as shown above)
• PDF in black and white

The expectations symbolized on the poster are as follows:

• Actividades (Activities)What language skills are we focusing on during this activity? Listening, speaking, reading, or writing? Often we are doing all of the above, but I highlight the skills specifically related to our daily objectives. After we have translated our objective for the day, I usually ask students to volunteer which skill they think we will be focusing on.
• Conversación (Conversation)Will students be having conversations during this activity? If so, at what voice level? I model my four levels of conversation after the level in the CHAMPS book. Level 0 is silence, which is our voice level during instructions, listening activities, or during silent assessments. 
• Level 1 is a whisper, which initially we practice with our hands on our throats, so students can feel the lack of vocal chords in a whisper. I ask students to use level 1 if I only want them to ask their partner for help occasionally. 
• Level 2 is normal conversation voice levels, especially used for group work. We do sometimes have to practice what "normal conversation" might sound like, depending on the group. I tell students that normal conversation voices means that only your group should be able to understand what you are saying - not people across the room, or in the classroom down the hall.
• Level 3 is a presentation voice, so the whole room can hear you. This is the voice I use when talking to the whole room, and probably the reason I lose my voice at least once a year. This is also the voice used when students present to the class, or contribute to class discussions so everyone can hear.
• Levels above 3 ideally will be reserved for recess, sporting events, rock concerts, and other things that happen outside my classroom, so they do not appear on my chart.
• Ayuda (Conversation)What should students do if they need help or they don't understand? Can they ask a partner, raise their hand to ask me, or use a dictionary? I will often prioritize these steps - first use your resources, then ask your group for help, and then raise your hand for me to help. I am trying to minimize the implementation of "teacher as dictionary."
• Grupos (Groups)What groups are we using for this activity? Are students working individually, with a partner, with a group, or as a whole class? (For example, when we do practice with whiteboards we often do it as a whole class.)
• Movimiento (Movement)Where should students be, and what movement is allowed? Can they get up freely to sharpen a pencil, get supplies, turn things in, or ask someone for help? Do they need to raise their hand to get up? This has been one of the trickiest procedure to train students on, but also one that is huge for the classroom environment. My goal is to find the sweet spot between "raise your hand for every time you need a pencil" and "everyone is off task and scattered around the room." This is a quick way to deal with students who tend to wander around the room. I can quickly ask them what movement is permitted during this activity, and whether that is why they are up.

A few logistical observations:

1. If I could go back in time to the beginning of the year, before I went and paid for a big poster, I would probably have stuck with the magnets (and my own dubious drawing skills) that I use for the younger grades, or I would have sprung for the actual whiteboard surfacing rather than regular laminate. Dry erase marker does not come off easily from the surface, so I need to try some different marker types to make it easier for me and my board-eraser minions to erase the poster for each new activity.
2. For daily activities (like bellwork, or writing things in our agenda) that always has consistent expectations, one of my class jobs is to set up the Expectativas board. In my experience, strategies are always more likely to be put into action when they are tied to class jobs. (More on that later.)

Do you use something similar in your classroom? Do you have a better arrangement of categories that might provide a snappy acronym?