7. Revisit your rules

At some point during your lesson, though earlier is better than later, revisit your classroom rules. The following approach works well.

  1. Shush activity

Cover your rules display. Tell the students that they have two minutes to write the classroom rules down exactly as they are written on the (now covered) display. It does not matter if they can or cannot remember the exact working; what matters is that they are thinking about the rules and are invested in finding out what the correct wording is.

  1. Paired work

Students share their written responses with their partner, editing their own wording if needed.

  1. Read and show – whole class activity

Teacher chooses a student to read what they have written down for rule 1. Teacher then displays rule 1. This ‘read and show’ approach is repeated until all rules have been displayed.

  1. Shush activity

Students are presented with the following question: Which of the rules is the one that will help you learn best in this classroom? The students have 30 seconds thinking time followed by two minutes writing time. The written answers must include the word ‘because’.

  1. Share responses – whole class activity

The teacher calls on two or three students to read out their responses. The teacher drills down for deeper thinking if needed. As with all activities, there is a crisp transition to the next activity.