Fostering a Culture of Communication: Essential Agreements (2 of 4)

In many of the classrooms I was in as I was becoming an educator, and now in my own classroom, the year begins by creating Essential Agreements with the class. It’s the “rules” of how we want the classroom to work. I like to do this during the first week so we have a chance to start practicing working in groups and having discussions. The idea is the rules for the year will be created by the students themselves. I like to keep the essentials to 5 or under. We don’t need that many rules and most of them can be combined to fall under a category.

I will group the students and send them off to come up with the rules they think we will need to have a safe and caring learning environment. After some time for discussions, the groups will share the list they have come up with. I write on the board what they say and we put checkmarks next to ideas that are repeated from each group. Then as a class, we discuss if we should use all the rules on the board or if any of them could be combined into one rule? Even if we go over my preferred 5 rules only- that’s okay, this is the student’s essential agreements. This gets posted in front of the room.

Now if we see a rule missing that perhaps we think should be included we can ask a theoretical question and see if students think it should be added- I’m thinking along the lines of speaking in a caring manner towards each other. Usually, this will already have come up-but just because it’s student-led doesn’t mean we can’t suggest things as well- AND we will need to be agreeing with and signing onto the rules too- so while this is the student’s agreements they must also be something we are willing to sign our names to in the end.

I have taken this photo from Janell Bagwell on Pinterest because now as I am starting to blog I see I never take photos of my own classoom walls…so thank you Janell whoever you are….

After the rules are all delcided we sign our names- or give a handprint in the early years to show our commitment to the rules. It’s a great reminder of what we as a class have decided to use as our guide in how to behave this year and starts students having a voice when they feel someone else has broken an essential agreement. “You took my pencil from the bag without asking, and our agreement says we respect other’s property.” It takes about a class period but is worth it when you think about time saved on lessons about each of the agreements themselves or dealing with tattling about items already listed in the agreement. Class culture is not only great for creating community but it also have be a sanity saver.