In my classroom, we have two rules: work hard and be nice. We actually call them our rules for life. Everything we do, I want my students to see the connection to their lives. I tell them that I, as an adult, live by those two rules as well.
In my classroom, "integrity" is common vocabulary and the community benefit is placed over individual. It is a place where students see how their actions today affect their opportunities in the future. It is a place where sitting quietly in the classroom isn't enough, but sitting quietly for the right reasons is expected.
My end goal is to break the cycle of poverty my students are living in and get them into and through college to have careers that they love and, more importantly, living a life they love. Honestly, selfishly, I want my students to not only graduate from college, but to change the world in a way that makes it fairer and more peaceful.
The foundation my classroom is built on are what I call "the levels." These are Lawrence Kholberg's Six Levels of Moral Development. These levels describe people's motivations. This is what it looks like in my class:
I make good or bad choices because:
I am avoiding punishment (level 1)
I want a reward (level 2)
I want to impress someone (level 3)
I follow the rules (level 4)
I am considerate of other people and compromise for the greater good (level 5)
I am living by my own beliefs (level 6)
Whenever I have introduced the levels to a new class, and have explained them thoroughly, I always ask what level my students think they're each on. Typically, they will rate themselves quite high (a lot of 4s, 5s, 6s). I then bring them back to reality and tell them that the vast majority of them are not on any level above two. I also tell them that it's not their fault- the adults in their lives (teachers and parents) have been training them and expecting them to be on levels one and two their whole lives. Usually, at that moment in the conversation I get a few "ohh"s as they start to reflect on their life and see the patterns of bribery and punishment that have paved their way to my class. I also tell them, though, that now they know there's a better way to live. And for that moment on, the upward climb to level 6 starts.
Because part of living on a higher level (5 and 6) is understanding your impact on others, we have Community Meeting in my classroom. This meeting is run by a student by the second month of
school. The order of Community Meeting goes like this:
1. Shout Outs
Classmates recognize each other for kind things that were done that day. The shout out must be specific for the action and the person. Some examples of typical shout ours are:
"I'd like to give a shout out to ____ for lending me a pencil." (They never bother me for pencils when they forget it at home. They take care of each other.)
"I'd like to give a shoutout to ____ for teaching me a new strategy in math."
These shout outs having a pretty wide range. I enjoy secretly listening to them because I find out kind things that my students did that I would never have known. It's tricky teaching students to be on higher levels because the typical "Teacher, look what I did!" rarely happens.
2. Class concerns
This is when the students share any problem they have with each other. They do so in the format of an "I feel" statement. For example, "I felt sad when you snatched the pencil out of my hand." I want them to identify with the feeling they had instead of blaming someone else for "making" them feel a certain way.
The cool thing about this part of Community Meeting is that, as the students start to feel increasingly safer with each other, stuff comes up in this part that I never noticed (or happened when they weren't in my classroom). They also have a chance to stick up for their learning and feel a sense of control and power within their own community. At this point in the school year, they call each other out for more things than I do.
3. Out of Integrity
This is the part where students can admit any part of the day that they had broken their own integrity. Out of integrity goes like this:
1. State how you were out of integrity
2. State the impact of your actions (on self and others)
3. State what you are going to do next time.
The nice thing about out of integrity is they know they can admit anything and they won't get in trouble. It's not about catching the bad guy. It's about coming clean about things that they've done to compromise their own integrity and clean it up with their classmates. It's nice when they can admit it before being called out by their teammates, as well, during the class concerns. It, mostly though, allows the students to feel complete about their day. There's no need for guilt or shame. We all make mistakes, and taking responsibility for them is half the battle.
In my classroom, "integrity" is common vocabulary and the community benefit is placed over individual. It is a place where students see how their actions today affect their opportunities in the future. It is a place where sitting quietly in the classroom isn't enough, but sitting quietly for the right reasons is expected.
My end goal is to break the cycle of poverty my students are living in and get them into and through college to have careers that they love and, more importantly, living a life they love. Honestly, selfishly, I want my students to not only graduate from college, but to change the world in a way that makes it fairer and more peaceful.
The foundation my classroom is built on are what I call "the levels." These are Lawrence Kholberg's Six Levels of Moral Development. These levels describe people's motivations. This is what it looks like in my class:
I make good or bad choices because:
I am avoiding punishment (level 1)
I want a reward (level 2)
I want to impress someone (level 3)
I follow the rules (level 4)
I am considerate of other people and compromise for the greater good (level 5)
I am living by my own beliefs (level 6)
Whenever I have introduced the levels to a new class, and have explained them thoroughly, I always ask what level my students think they're each on. Typically, they will rate themselves quite high (a lot of 4s, 5s, 6s). I then bring them back to reality and tell them that the vast majority of them are not on any level above two. I also tell them that it's not their fault- the adults in their lives (teachers and parents) have been training them and expecting them to be on levels one and two their whole lives. Usually, at that moment in the conversation I get a few "ohh"s as they start to reflect on their life and see the patterns of bribery and punishment that have paved their way to my class. I also tell them, though, that now they know there's a better way to live. And for that moment on, the upward climb to level 6 starts.
Because part of living on a higher level (5 and 6) is understanding your impact on others, we have Community Meeting in my classroom. This meeting is run by a student by the second month of
school. The order of Community Meeting goes like this:
1. Shout Outs
Classmates recognize each other for kind things that were done that day. The shout out must be specific for the action and the person. Some examples of typical shout ours are:
"I'd like to give a shout out to ____ for lending me a pencil." (They never bother me for pencils when they forget it at home. They take care of each other.)
"I'd like to give a shoutout to ____ for teaching me a new strategy in math."
These shout outs having a pretty wide range. I enjoy secretly listening to them because I find out kind things that my students did that I would never have known. It's tricky teaching students to be on higher levels because the typical "Teacher, look what I did!" rarely happens.
2. Class concerns
This is when the students share any problem they have with each other. They do so in the format of an "I feel" statement. For example, "I felt sad when you snatched the pencil out of my hand." I want them to identify with the feeling they had instead of blaming someone else for "making" them feel a certain way.
The cool thing about this part of Community Meeting is that, as the students start to feel increasingly safer with each other, stuff comes up in this part that I never noticed (or happened when they weren't in my classroom). They also have a chance to stick up for their learning and feel a sense of control and power within their own community. At this point in the school year, they call each other out for more things than I do.
3. Out of Integrity
This is the part where students can admit any part of the day that they had broken their own integrity. Out of integrity goes like this:
1. State how you were out of integrity
2. State the impact of your actions (on self and others)
3. State what you are going to do next time.
The nice thing about out of integrity is they know they can admit anything and they won't get in trouble. It's not about catching the bad guy. It's about coming clean about things that they've done to compromise their own integrity and clean it up with their classmates. It's nice when they can admit it before being called out by their teammates, as well, during the class concerns. It, mostly though, allows the students to feel complete about their day. There's no need for guilt or shame. We all make mistakes, and taking responsibility for them is half the battle.
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