Student expectations
Before class/beginning of class:
Teacher expectations
Enforcement of policies/procedures
Before class/beginning of class:
- Before every class time, students will pick up a piece of paper located in the front of the classroom. There will be a question that sets up the lesson written on the board for students to individually answer in their seats. After a few minutes, I will ask students to share some of their answers and write their responses on the board. Then, we will go over the class objectives for the day so that students will understand what the lesson will be about and what they will know by the end of the period. I will make sure to make this a routine because according to Emmer and Evertson, management will be increased when there is a daily routine (pg number).
- Students will be expected to bring and use their own materials (paper, pencil, etc). At the start of every year, I will reiterate the materials they will need for the whole year in my class and send a letter to their parents/legal guardians. However, I will also have a set of materials that students can borrow if they forgot their own. To ensure that I get my materials back in good condition so that other students can use it, I will have a borrowing system. Every time a student needs to borrow something from me, they have to leave a personal item (phone, earphones, etc) on my desk. In order to get their item back, they have to return what they borrowed from me.
- Students will be expected participate throughout the instructional period whether it's during whole class discussions or small group discussions. I will give out incentives to those who participate a lot during class time in order to keep them wanting to participate and hopefully encourage others want to participate as well.
- When students are doing individual work, they will be expected to work silently but will be encouraged to ask me any questions.
- When students are doing group work, I will assign them in order to minimize mismanagement and distractions if they choose their own partners.
- Written homework will be expected to be done individually, unless otherwise stated. Students will be encouraged to e-mail me any questions they have in appropriate time.
- In all three cases, I will give specific instructions on how to complete the assignment and how they will be graded.
- I expect students to put a lot of effort into all of their work in order for them to understand the point of the different types of assignments and learn something through the process.
- At the end of every class, students will take an exit slip and answer a wrap up question which will be written on the front board. After silently working on it for a few minutes, students will share their answers with the rest of the class. We will have a discussion about these answers and how they relate to the lesson. Then, we will go back to our objectives slide and see if they met the objectives for the day.
Teacher expectations
Enforcement of policies/procedures
- I will enforce all of these policies and procedures throughout the entire year, with a few exceptions given to certain cases. I will make sure I am fair to everyone in the class by giving everyone the same policies and procedures to follow for the entire year. I will give plenty of help by giving feedback, constantly checking in on students, and letting students know that they can ask me any questions they have.
- Students will be given an oral explanation of their assignment (individual, group, and written) as well as a written one with important instructions. I will give every student a copy of the explanation/instruction so they can refer back to it when they want to (Emmer and Evertson, 56). The grading criteria will also be clear and explained to the students and I will ask if they have any questions. I will also provide a due date, but I will be flexible if I notice that most of the students need more time.
- For every grade a student receives, I will record it in my personal record keeping book as well as online if the school provides software. This way, I will have a backup of all the grades in order there is a loss of student grade information due to software malfunctions (Emmer and Evertson, 53).
- I will also be very specific in what I am looking for in every assignment so students know what to do and what to avoid. For example, I will say that in a paper assignment they will get 5 points for having a clear thesis and 1 point if their thesis is unclear.
- The grading policy for my students will be reiterated to my students at the start of the year. I will tell them exactly what percentage of homework, tests, projects, etc go into their overall grade at the end of the quarter/semester. I will also reiterate how many points a specific assignment is worth at the introduction of the assignment. Then, I will post it on the class website so it will be available to both students and parents. According to Emmer and Evertson, it would be beneficial to make a handout with this information for students to bring home to their parents/guardians for them to sign. This will be helpful later in the year when discussing the child's progress (Emmer and Evertson, 52).
- The time for returning work will be told to students when I am explaining the assignment at the very beginning. If students turn it in on time, they will be told they will get full credit. For every day that it's late, they will lose 10 percent of the their given grade. These policies will be told to students more than once and ahead of time so they aren't surprised by this fact.
- As I expect the quality of work of my students to be excellent, I will also reciprocate that standard in the quality of feedback I give them. I will also give them regular feedback rather than sporadic feedback because it reduces error time (Emmer and Evertson, 53).