Now that break is over, are there any good ways to review the classroom rules and procedures? I don't want it to be daunting or boring for the kiddos, but I do want to make sure it is reinforced. (I teach 7th grade). At the beginning of the year, I had them do a scavenger hunt based on the rules/procedures posted around the room. Any other suggestions? Thanks, and I hope you all had a restful break! : )
I've been giving this a lot of thought as well. After Thanksgiving break I gave them all a "SURPRISE POP QUIZ! YAY!" That freaked them out but when it ended up being just about the rules and procedures, they were relieved, and most did very well on it. We corrected it as a class and I gave them points for the ones they corrected as well (which means everyone got 100% on it). What I'm going to do this time is simply send a letter home because I'm changing my rules and procedures a little bit, so I want to inform the parents. We'll review the letter as a class before it gets sent home so the students will review our rules as well. Our kick-off will be a rules and procedures related question tomorrow.
JEOPARDY! Make a game board with general headings relating to rules and procedures - Supplies/On Task/Rights/Diligence/Accuracy/ Transitions etc. Whole class plays at same time and writes questions for answers. Exchange paper with neighbor to correct each question. Make values in the millions or larger not the measly $100 stuff. Game can be on-going, reviewing each day.
If you spend more than two minutes on this I really think you're wasting their time. They knew how to behave before they ever showed up to your class and they certainly know it now. Greet them at the door, remind them that they know what to do in the room and get back to it. If you've had a specific problem by all means address it, otherwise you'll get much better results from just expecting them to be proper students.
I don't spend any time reviewing them. I just go back to the normal routine. I think this works best because most students know what is expected of them by now. I do a review of the content, but I don't waste time reviewing procedures.
I just started back today and I did spend 2-3 min reviewing specific policies that I had seen some slacking on as we rolled into Winter Break. I just talked through it though and jumped back into content.
I think that it's a good idea to review procedures only for a minute or two (and honestly probably less time than that) as the need arises. Spending more time than that is probably a waste of instructional time and will be boring for your students.
