Teach Procedures

“But by this age they should know how to sharpen pencils!” the frustrated teacher protested. “I should not have to teach simple things like lining up and waiting until the teacher is not talking to sharpen pencils.”

“So, the procedure in your room is, ‘when you need to sharpen your pencil, if the teacher is not talking, form a line and sharpen your pencil,’ correct?” I asked.

“Yes,” she said. “It is that simple.”

Indeed it does sound simple. But then I asked the rest of the participants what the procedure was for sharpening pencils in their classrooms. One teacher has the helper of the day to sharpen pencils at the end of each day and put sharpened pencils in a box. To get a sharp pencil, the children were to place their dull pencil into the dull box and get a sharp one from the sharpened pencil box.

Another teacher said he never lets the students sharpen pencils during class because of the noise and distraction of having students line up. “Inevitably, some kid will be standing in line in front of the class to sharpen his pencil and will distract the whole class by clowning around.” As such, he tells the kids they must sharpen pencils before the bell rings or they will be counted tardy. If their pencil lead breaks during class, they better have another pencil ready or borrow from a neighbor.

One teacher protested, “I don’t like them borrowing pencils from each other, so I let them borrow one from me. However, I make them leave an item of value with me so I make sure I get the pencil back.”

Another teacher said we were making a big deal out of nothing, “As long as no one was addressing the class, just let them sharpen their pencils.”

“So,” I said, “clearly there is no National Policy on Pencil Sharpening!”

Imagine that you are a student going to 6 classes per day, plus home room and you have to guess at each teacher’s pencil sharpening procedure. It is going to be difficult enough to remember each one’s procedure once you have gone through the trial-and-error phase of learning the right procedure by doing it wrong enough times.

Now throw into the mix that there are numerous other procedures that teachers do differently: in Mrs. Smith’s class we hand papers in from front to back, in Mr. Jones’ class we hand papers in from right to left, in Mr. Thomas’s class a student helper picks up all papers, Mrs. Santo picks up the papers herself, and in Mr. Washington’s class you just put the papers in the “Finished” basket.

So what is the procedure for lining up, going to the bathroom, going to the nurse, getting a tissue, asking for help, and on and on it goes. And what about dismissal. Does the teacher dismiss or is the bell the signal to leave?

The solution: It is actually pretty simple. Teach procedures and expectations. I encourage teachers to spend a good portion of the first two weeks of school to “direct teach” classroom procedures and expectations. Of course I get the push back that it takes too much academic time. I assure them, and you, that the time invested will be more than made up for in not having to deal with it throughout the semester.

Once the procedures and expectations have been taught, every time a new student moves in, when we come back from a break, or when semesters change, a quick refresher on expectations and procedures will make sure everyone “gets it.” By having well thought-out procedures and expectations taught and practiced, teachers can hold students accountable and time for academic engagement is maximized.

Another important time to revisit procedures is if and when students are consistently not following the procedure. If this happens, either I did not teach the expectation clearly or students are not following it. Either way, let’s re-teach that skill just as we would re-teach an academic concept that the class was not “getting.”

With Spring Break happening now for many schools, you have the opportunity to make the rest of the year run smoother than ever. Think about procedures in your classroom. What is working? What is not? Once you have decided what your procedures are going to be, and why, on your first day back after Spring Break, teach those procedures and expectations to your students. If you consistently hold students to those procedures, they will be more confident and your life will be so much simpler.