We are off to a great start this year. Our normal classroom procedures have been taught and mastered by many. I am certain your student has told you much about our classroom. I bet they have come home and explained what we are learning with excitement and FUNtricity. We have created a learning place where students are respected, respect others, and we have fun all while learning through the Whole Brain Teaching system.
Each day we set goals for our learning, we follow our Five Class Rules, we compete with the scoreboard (level 1), and we exceed our goals on the Super Improver Wall (level 2). If you have not had the chance to see our classroom system, it is worth a few minutes of your time. You will walk away amazed.
Even though we have made tremendous progress with classroom behaviors, we are continuing to expect students to follow our rules. Since we are still learning, no one is perfect, we are introducing a new level to our behavior system. This 3rd level is called The Practice Cards. Now I know many of you have had your students behaviors leveled with a green, yellow, red, and black, but this is very different. In our classroom, we do not penalize a student for not getting something right. It is the WBT philosophy that students need more practice. Thus, we have practice cards for when a student is challenged by a classroom rule. Here is an example:
Sarah is a bright student and always wants to do what is right. She is energetic and excited about everything. She often adds great discussion points to our learning. Sarah tends to be challenged with staying in her seat during work time and will wander around the classroom to get a tissue, go to the bathroom, talk to a friend, or sharpen her pencil. Yet the expectation is for her to be working. We have learned that Rule 3 is to ‘Raise your hand for permission to leave your seat.’ Sarah practices this skill and still needs to continue to practice. She has earned stars on her Super Improver Wall for improvement. In order to further her practice, we have begun to use Practice Cards to help remind Sarah of what it looks like to follow this rule.
When Sarah has forgotten to follow Rule 3, I simply place a white practice card in her pocket. She knows that she has 2 minutes of practicing Rule 3 at recess time. I will also send a quick note home to ask that she practice for 2 minutes (or any amount of time that you see fit.) Please sign and return this note and I will let her take this card out of her pocket. If she doesn’t bring this note back, she will continue to practice this skill.
As the year goes on and Sarah is making great progress, I will add in the purple card to reward her for following the rules. This purple card will cancel out a white card she may receive. Students are highly motivated to change their behaviors to cancel out practice time. She will receive a letter to you explaining that she is working hard to correct her behaviors in class.
Once Sarah continues to show improvement, she will be given the chance to monitor her own practice time in the classroom by tally marking on a green practice card, each time she follows the rule. If I see fit, at the end of the day, Sarah many cancel out any white card she may have since she is clearly practicing her rule following.
I thank you so much for your time, and look forward to sending home letters explaining how awesome your child is doing with following the rules. Thank you in advance for your home support. When we join home and school support, students succeed!
Sincerely yours,
Mrs. Long
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