Chapter 5

Expectations
Plan to teach students how to be successful

he school and teacher effectiveness literature has consistently shown that successful teachers are very clear with students about exactly how they expect them to behave during the school day (Cotton, 1999; Kameenui, Carnine, Dixon, Simmons, & Coyne, 2002). Many teachers think that by developing classroom rules and classroom procedures, they have prepared everything they need to orient students to their classroom. Rules and procedures are certainly essential, but they do not provide details on what behaviors are expected and not expected of students in each type of classroom activity (D. M. Baer, 1999). You want your students to behave one way during lectures, a different way during independent work periods, and still a different way during cooperative group activities. If you dont know or dont clearly communicate behavioral expectations to students, then the students have to guess at what constitutes responsible behavior. The problem with this is obvious when you consider the most common student misbehaviors: Talking too much or too loudly or about the wrong things Demanding attention by following the teacher around or calling out to the teacher Doing math when they should be working on science or socializing when they should be cleaning up Doing work together that they should do on their own, or copying another students work, or copying source materials without giving credit Wandering around the room or sharpening pencils when they are supposed to be listening to the teacher Monopolizing classroom discussions or not participating at all Disrupting lessons or sitting and doing nothing during work periods You can avoid most of these problems by clearly dening for yourself and then communicating to your students how you expect them to behave during each activity and transition that occurs during the typical class period. If you do not, your students wont know whether their behavior is acceptable. For example, are they allowed to sharpen their pencils during cooperative group times, ask other students for help during a work period, or ask you questions while you are taking attendance? Keep in mind that the answers to these kinds of questions will be different for different teachers. The important thing is that you know what your answers are. That 135

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is why the rst two tasks in this chapter are designed to help you specically dene your behavioral expectations for students during major classroom activities (e.g., teacherdirected instruction, independent seat work, class discussions, cooperative group work) and common transition times (switching from one subject to another, getting textbooks open to a particular page, correcting papers). The foundation for completing these tasks is the CHAMPS acronym, which is designed to help you clarify the major behavioral expectations for each activity and transition in your classroom (Sprick, Garrison, & Howard, 2002; McCloud, 2005): C Conversation H Help A Activity M Movement P Participation S Success The issues incorporated in CHAMPS and the basic questions to be addressed for each issue are included within task 1. The CHAMPS acronym has been used successfully by many high school teachers to clarify expectations. Some teachers are understandably concerned that their students may consider the CHAMPS acronym to be too elementary. To accommodate this concern, this chapter also introduces a more sophisticated acronym, ACHIEVE: A Activity C Conversation H Help I Integrity E Effort V Value E Efciency The basic questions to be addressed for each issue within this acronym are included in task 1. Samples and blank templates for both CHAMPS and ACHIEVE are included to assist you in deciding which model to use and to facilitate your planning for the rst day of school. Dening your expectations with precision is critical if you hope to have a positive and productive classroom. However, dening expectations alone is not sufcient. You also have to effectively communicate your expectations to your students. Thus, the third task in this chapter has to do with designing lessons to teach students the expectations you have dened. Teaching expectations is the rst step in a three-step process for effectively communicating expectations to students: teaching expectations, monitoring student behavior during activities and transitions, and giving students feedback about their implementation of the expectations (National Research Council, 2000). This three-step process is summarized in gure 5.1. (Detailed information about how to apply this three-step communication process is presented in chapters 7 and 8.)

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Figure 5.1

Three-Step Process for Communicating Expectations

The three tasks described in this chapter are designed to ensure that you will be ready for the rst day of school with clear expectations and lessons for teaching those expectations to students. At rst glance, this may seem too elementary for high school students. HowNote ever, think about effective high school or Even if you are starting this procollege coaches. Coaches start the rst gram partway into the school practice by going over the basic expecyear, it is critical that you attend tations: Attend every practice and game to the tasks in this chapter. Clarif you are not physically sick. Successful ifying and teaching expectations coaches drill their athletes in the sports is especially useful for any activifundamentals throughout a season, teachties and transitions during which ing and reteaching the basics as necessary. student behavior has been conIf students need instruction to know how sistently problematic. to function as a member of a basketball team, then it is reasonable to assume they need instruction on how to function responsibly in a chemistry class (Bell, 1998; Paine, Radicchi, Rosellini, Deutchman, & Darch, 1983; Sprick, Garrison, & Howard, 2002). Three tasks are presented and explained in this chapter: Task 1: Dene clear and consistent behavioral expectations for all regularly scheduled classroom activities. Task 2: Dene clear and consistent behavioral expectations for the common transitions, both within and between activities, that occur during a typical school day. Task 3: Develop a preliminary plan, and prepare lessons for teaching your expectations to students. The focus of this chapter is on student behavior in individual classrooms. However, one other related area needs to be addressed: student behavior in the schools common areas.

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Although this important consideration is not specically covered in this program, students need to know the behavioral expectations for common area settings (hallways, cafeteria, restrooms, bus waiting areas, buses, assemblies) and with substitutes. If your school has not claried schoolwide expectations for these areas, ask your principal what you should teach your students about responsible behavior in these settings. For more information on dening and teaching behavioral expectations for common area settings, you may want to preview one or more of the following programs: Sprick, R. S. (1994). Cafeteria Discipline: Positive Techniques for Lunchroom Supervision [Video]. Eugene, OR: Pacic Northwest Publishing. Cafeteria Discipline provides guidance to a schools staff in how to organize the cafeteria, teach students appropriate cafeteria behavior, and train supervisors to circulate, praise good behavior, and correct misbehavior. Sprick, R. S. (1994). START on Time! Safe Transitions and Reduced Tardiness [Multimedia program]. Eugene, OR: Pacic Northwest Publishing. START on Time! supplies information on how to develop and implement procedures for supervising halls and restrooms as a unied staff, teach students appropriate hallway behavior, and dramatically reduce tardiness. Sprick, R. S., Garrison, M., & Howard, L. (2002). Foundations: Establishing Positive Discipline Policies [Video]. Eugene, OR: Pacic Northwest Publishing. Foundations guides a school-based leadership team to involve the entire staff in implementing a proactive and positive approach to managing student behavior. This three-volume set teaches data-driven decision making, how to set priorities, and how to increase student and staff motivation.

Task 1: Dene Clear and Consistent Behavioral Expectations for All Regularly Scheduled Classroom Activities
The rst step in dening your behavioral expectations for classroom activities is to make a list of the major types of activities your students will engage in on a daily (or regular) basis. Your list might include topics like these: Opening/attendance routines Teacher-directed instruction, lecture Discussion Independent work Cooperative groups Partner work Class meetings Tests/quizzes Labs/stations Peer tutoring sessions Cushion activities

The idea is to identify specic activities or categories of activities for which you will have different behavioral expectations. For example, you may choose not to list teacher-directed instruction and discussion as different items if your expectations for student behavior are exactly the same in both. However, you would list them as two separate items if you require students to raise their hand before speaking during teacher-directed instruction but allow students to speak up whenever they wish as long as they do not interrupt anyone else during discussions. You will likely have the same classroom activities, and thus the same set of