Q/A: Procedures

From time to time we can post questions we come up with and think about ways to respond or comment to support one another's practice. We've brought up many interesting questions so far and these two are a synthesis from several:

1. How can students process a lengthy list of procedures like the list we see in Wong's book The First Days of School or the list we brainstormed in class?

2. How much time can I spend teaching and practicing routines as opposed to teaching content?

Dr. Fred Jones says, "Pay me now, or pay me later. Do it right, or do it all year long." Research has repeatedly shown that teachers with the best run classrooms spend most of the first two weeks of the semester teaching their procedures and building them into routines. Teachers who do not make this investment deal with the same behavior problems over and over all semester long. Few teachers actually make the investment, especially at the high school level where the teacher attitude is "You've got to be kidding. They should know how to behave by now. I don't have two weeks for that. I would never make up the time."

"The students do know exactly how to behave in class. They always have. The question is, do they have to? The standards in any classroom, to put it bluntly, are defined by whatever the students can get away with. If teachers do not take the time to carefully teach their rules, routines, standards, and expectations, they will get whatever the students feel like giving them." (Tools for Teaching 147, 148)

I would say a high school teacher with only 40 minute periods needs to spend the first 4 to 6 weeks explaining, rehearsing, and reinforcing procedures for at least part of the period (10 to 15 minutes) every day. The next concept is called "gradual release of responsibility" as more and more students become independent with a particular procedure. Responsibility will gradually shift from my teaching/reinforcing the routine to their acting as "independent doers." Then I will deliberately cut back on the amount of time spent. When I've posted certain procedures and routines, they serve as reminders, which also helps my students manage themselves.

I would decide which procedures to teach at "the point of instruction" when that procedure is most needed and appropriate. They can't process them all at once. The difficulty is also showing students with my movement and voice that I mean business -- that these procedures are not optional, that these are the ways to success in my class. Even after the six week mark, my consistency and reinforcement of the routines is crucial. The language I use to convey my expectations must also be rehearsed so it sounds like I've been expecting this procedure from all my students for years. This is how we do things here.

The axiom "Less is more" never made sense to me until I began to see how much more learning can and will happen in the long run if I don't give in to the temptation to teach more content early on.