Procedures and Routines

Action Plan and Reflection

Much like rules, procedures and routines give students a sense of structure, thus making

students feel safe and comfortable in their learning environment. Effectively using procedures

and routines in the classroom can minimize the need for discipline (Wong & Wong, 2005). As

the authors say in “Better Than Sticks or Carrots,” students do expect that there will be rules to

follow, but the rules should be fair to all (Smith, Fisher, Frey, 2015). Procedures should be

tailored to their audience, as younger students will need different boundaries than will older

students (Smith, Fisher, Frey, 2015). Essentially, procedures help facilitate a more streamlined

learning experience for all students.

I plan to explain to my students any procedures I decide upon at the beginning of the

school year, and will continue reminding students of them throughout the year. Besides

procedures regarding how to behave and treat one another in class, I’d like to implement

procedures dealing with class schedule. Doing the same types of things on the same day every

week is nice for students to be able to know what to expect, such as critical reading day on

Mondays, grammar lessons on Tuesdays, homework day on Wednesdays, presentation work on

Thursdays, and games like Kahoot, Scrabble and Boggle on Fridays. This type of structure

seemed to work well in my ELL class this year because the students could come in, sit down, and

knew exactly what they needed to do for class that day without the teacher even having to say

anything.

As in real life, procedures in the classroom exist to bring order to an environment.

Having expectations gives people boundaries to work within. Younger children thrive when

given parameters because they haven’t yet learned how to behave in the world. We, their
teachers and parents, tell them the rules and help them follow these rules, and eventually they

become ingrained in students’ everyday lives. As students grow older and more mature, they

need fewer rules and procedures as they are better able to govern themselves. High school

students will thus need different rules than students in middle and elementary grades.

I want to create a classroom environment that is structured in a way that gives my

students a sense of safety in knowing what is expected of them, as I believe that children learn

better when they aren’t having to navigate chaos. Providing students with an organized learning

environment and procedures tailored to their, and the school’s, needs, will ultimately help them

excel in their academic career.