Classrooms with clear systems, routines, expectations, and workflows run more smoothly, eliminating behaviors that can derail a class. Our work as educators is not simply to teach students content and skills related to our subject areas. It’s our responsibility to cultivate independent, self-directed learners capable of sharing the responsibility for learning with us, their teachers.
As we integrate more technology and online learning into our courses, students must develop stronger self-regulation skills and the ability to drive their learning. This is easier to do when students know what to expect in both their physical classroom and online learning environment. This is why establishing and maintaining clear classroom routines and procedures is critical. It helps students develop confidence in navigating both the space and the learning activities.
Begin Every Class with a Welcome Routine
When I coach teachers who request help with classroom management, the first question I ask is, “Do you start each class with a welcome routine?” Beginning class with a consistent student-directed welcome routine is the best way to eliminate unproductive behaviors at the beginning of class and maximize our time with students.
The goal of a welcome routine is to get students to 1) enter the room and take a seat, 2) access the activity (online or offline), and 3) get started without any prompting from the teacher.
The benefits of a student-directed welcome routine include:
- Giving teachers the time to greet students at the door as they enter.
- Improving classroom management.
- Eliminating downtime as teachers deal with administrative tasks (e.g., taking attendance).
- Providing consistency and structure for students who struggle with anxiety.
- Prioritizing tasks that might get neglected in a normal lesson (e.g., self-assessment or retrieval practice).
The activity or task can change daily, but the routine of entering the classroom and accessing the welcome task must be consistent. Some teachers use the welcome routine for retrieval practice or spiral review, others encourage students to write in response to prompts, while others use it to develop metacognitive skills, like goal setting and reflection.
Establish Clear Protocols and Classroom Procedures
Clear workflows, protocols, and procedures eliminate unnecessary chaos and confusion in a classroom. It is critical that students know where to:
- Access work (e.g., videos, resources, handouts)
- Submit work (e.g., digitally via LMS or physically in a class bin or tray)
- Find and complete absent work
It is helpful to provide video overviews of these workflows and post them in your LMS or on your class website so students and families can review the expectations for accessing and submitting work. Teachers can create short video tutorials with Screencastify or Loom to provide a clear explanation. If a student joins the class late or needs to revisit a workflow, they can watch the video.
In addition to the literal and digital workflows in a classroom, students need to know where to get supplies and how the technology and materials in a classroom should be used, treated, and sanitized.
Technology Tools
Students need to know:
- Where to find devices & headphones
- How to log onto the device
- What to do with the device when working offline or when the teacher makes an announcement (e.g., close it or tilt the screen)
- Whether shared tech needs to be cleaned
- Where in the room they can charge devices
Learning Materials
Students need to know:
- Where basic materials are stored (e.g., paper, pencils, scissors)
- How to clean up materials provided for a specific activity (e.g., station work)
- How materials, like manipulatives, get cleaned or sanitized (e.g., disinfectant wipes)
- What to do if materials are missing or broken
Teachers using blended learning models should consider how they will transition students between learning activities. For example, if teachers are using the station rotation model, they can project a timer so students can track how much time they have for a task. When the time allocated for a specific task is over, teachers can use a simple 1-2-3 transition strategy like 1) wrap up and clean up, 2) stand behind your chair with your belongings (until everyone is ready), and 3) walk to the next station. Without clear transition strategies, movement around the room can suck up precious instructional minutes.
Set Up Your Classroom Spaces to Support Learning
When setting up our classrooms, safety and accessibility should be top priorities. Some teachers have more room to work with than others. In a perfect world, teachers want to arrange their rooms to:
- Minimize the distances students need to move between learning activities.
- Create open spaces and clear pathways between workstations (e.g., wheelchairs, crutches).
- Have a clear expectation for backpack placement.
- Keep anchor charts at eye level for visually impaired students and to eliminate unnecessary movement.
Once teachers have set up their space to increase physical safety and accessibility, it’s helpful to think about how we are arranging the furniture to support learning. When I coach teachers, I encourage them to set up the furniture so it reinforces the task students are doing. For example, tables grouped together suggest that students will be collaborating so conversation and interaction are encouraged. By contrast, if desks are arranged in rows, it suggests that students will be working independently.
I realize teachers do not always have access to furniture that is flexible or moveable. For years, I had bulky two-seater desks that were heavy and hard to move. I positioned them in an L-formation running the length of both sides of my classroom. When students were working independently, the desks stayed in the L-formation. When they were working in groups collaborating around a shared task, they swung one side of the desk around to create one big table group. It wasn’t ideal, but teaching is one make-it-work moment after another. So, when you are planning your lessons, think about whether the furniture is set up to reinforce the task or create management issues.
End Every Class with an Exit Activity
As a coach working in various classrooms, it’s not uncommon for me to observe students packing up with several minutes left in class. Once they’ve put their instructional materials away, many spend the last minutes of class chatting or crowding by the door. Given how short on time teachers always feel, this pattern of student behavior doesn’t sit well with me. I want teachers and students to maximize their time together, and an exit activity can keep students working until the end of class.
An exit activity should provide closure to the lesson, collect formative assessment data teachers can use to measure how successful the lesson was at meeting learning objectives, and/or encourage a reflective practice. You can end class with a simple 3-2-1 activity that asks students to share 3 things they learned, 2 questions they have, and 1 thing that surprised them. You can tailor the actual prompts to work for your specific lesson or group of students. Alternatively, you can have students complete an exit ticket designed to gather formative assessment data or ask students to reflect on what they learned, how they learned it, and what they are still confused about.
The goal of the exit activity is to have students pause to think about their learning in an intentional way before packing up and heading off to the next class. This routine can create a higher level of awareness about the impact the work they are doing in class is having on their content knowledge and skill set, while also providing you with useful information about their progress.
It does not matter what grade level you teach–kindergarten or 12th grade–students need to practice routines and procedures. Like most things in education, the more time we invest on the front end in establishing clear systems and workflows, the more effective and efficient our classrooms will run. Not only will we have more time to dedicate to working directly with learners, but they will have the structures in place to be more confident, independent, and self-directed.
11 Responses
Classroom routines are essential to student learning! It is a huge focus for my school and is apart of what we call the strong start rubric. It is essential for teachers and students to be able to establish clear routines and systems in the classroom. When students know what is expected of them there is more success in the classroom for everyone.
I absolutely agree, Jaquay! Without clear structures and expectations, it is hard to create dynamic student-centered learning environments.
Take care.
Catlin
Hi Catlin, thanks for sharing such an amazing topic about the students learning. As we all well know classroom learning is much more essential for all students. As we have not forgotten the pandemic period all are well known about how students and teachers manage to do their best. We can not deny the essential role of online learning. Both in the learning process students, internal development should be the priority.
Great post Dr. Tucker! I really appreciate the simplicity and clarity of your words as you seek to provide educators with effective and practical examples of classroom routines. I also find your reasoning behind each routine to be intriguing, valid, and insightful. As a future educator, I have found many practical routines within this blog post that I hope to implement in my future classroom. One question I have is how to implement these routines. Do we simply tell our students that we are going to begin these new routines? I assume that it is always best to start these routines at the beginning of the year so that students have ample time to get used to them. How might we get our students “on board” with these routines if they appear to be disengaged or uninterested?
Thank you for your great work and helpful blog posts.
All the best,
Skylar
Hi Skylar,
It’s ideal to begin the year with these routines. That way, as you said, students get used to them as standard parts of their class experience. However, if you are taking over a class mid-year, I would still implement these to maximize class time and minimize unproductive behaviors.
When students are disengaged, there could be many factors. They may not feel the activity is interesting or relevant to their lives, or they may be comfortable in their role as passive observers after years in school, where they have been given little to no agency and autonomy. The best way to combat that is to keep welcome activities interesting and relevant to their lives or use them as opportunities to encourage connection and conversation among your students. I would also explain that the exit activity will help you better understand where each student is in their progress and what they might need from you regarding additional instruction or support. Making the “why,” or value, behind these routines clear may cause some students to lean into the learning in a way they would not if they don’t see the point or understand the purpose. For those students who are not engaging, I would sit with them and have a conversation about what is going on for them and why they are choosing not to engage. At the end of the day, we cannot make students learn. We can only provide opportunities for them to learn. They must take those opportunities. So, I would not focus too much on the “what if kids won’t do it or are disengaged” and instead invest energy in establishing the value, providing structure and consistency, and connecting with learners who choose not to engage.
Take care.
Catlin
Dr. Tucker, I really like the idea of having an exit activity to end a class. Not only is it a great way to close out the lesson, but it also makes it more memorable when the students engage in an activity that allows them to reflect. The students will be able to engage and learn from each other as they share what they have learned, and ask any questions they may have. They can answer each other’s questions which can provide learning opportunities and classroom community. I think they would enjoy hearing what surprised each other about the lesson as well, and this will lead to great conversations and new ideas. This is an idea that I will implement when I become a teacher. Thank you!
You’re welcome, Sheila! I also love an exit activity because it can create some closure while collecting informal data to understand what worked in the lesson and what we may need to design for in future lessons.
Catlin
And remember to set expectations and practice routines.
Yes, yes, yes! Thank you for emphasizing those points, Alex.
Catlin
Dr. Tucker,
I appreciate the classroom routines that you shared that eliminate chaos and confusion. The inclusion of meeting students at the classroom door as a means of greeting them is commendable. That is one of my favorite things to do. My kids exhibit considerable enthusiasm upon my presence and accessibility, eagerly seizing the opportunity to communicate the progress of their morning activities, often expressing their greetings through physical gestures such as hugging me.
The absence of repercussions for non-compliance with everyday routines, such as the establishment of explicit norms for digital usage, is noticeable in your response. In the educational setting, students receive a cautionary notice when they fail to employ technology in an appropriate manner. Following the issuance of a second warning, individuals will be prohibited from utilizing technological devices on the subsequent day, and this pattern will continue in a similar manner. In our educational district, a regulation has been implemented wherein parents, students, instructors, and the administration are required to sign their signatures to a document that outlines the potential repercussions associated with the improper utilization of technology.
What course of action would you propose in the event that the administrative body fails to adhere to the stipulations outlined in the technology agreement? Once students become aware of the possibility of evading accountability, they tend to overlook the potential repercussions. Furthermore, the principal assumes accountability for the teachers in the event that the children fail to remain focused on their computer tasks. As an educator, it is impractical for me to effectively supervise the screens of 31 students. In my previous district, financial resources were allocated for the implementation of a program known as GoGuardian. The software enabled educators to simultaneously observe many screens.
All the best,
Lauren
Hi Lauren,
I consider technology one of the many tools students use in a classroom, so it is treated the same way as other expectations and norms. I encourage teachers to talk with students about why they are using technology (what is the purpose or value). Then work to co-create expectations for how they are used to ensure they enhance and improve the learning instead of distract from it. Students need help understanding how their technology use beyond the classroom (often for social connections and media consumption) is different from how they will use it in the classroom. Then create a clear path of consequences (in your classroom) for misusing technology.
I don’t think it is realistic for a teacher to monitor 30+ screens, nor do I think that is the best use of their instructional time with students. I want technology to be used strategically to empower students to drive their learning, and I advocate for a blend of online and offline learning activities so students are not staring at a screen for an entire class. There is no perfect solution to ensure all students are on task all the time. Just like adults in training, they are tempted to check messages and search for things they are interested in. However, the more technology is used to enhance individual power and potential by providing students with agency and choice and the more it is used to connect learners around shared tasks instead of always isolating them for individual work, the more likely they are to use it for the tasks assigned.
When a student demonstrates they cannot use technology responsibly in a moment, that is when consistent consequences are key. I always handled those in my classroom instead of relying on administration. Technology is such an important tool for most teachers that they consequence of taking the devices away for a day or more to punish students is hard to enforce. It makes a teacher’s job harder and often sets the student back in terms of their academic progress in multiple classes. Finding another way to handle this in a class where an issue has occurred would be my preference. I had students lose a device for a class period and work offline on their own separated from peers. That always included a structured reflection practice that required the student to think and write about what they did, how it violated a class norm and negatively impacted the learning environment, and we had a follow up conversation before they left class and received their device back. The first time we did not involve the family. After the first incident, the student had to communicate with their parents or families about what happened.
Learning how to use technology responsibly is an important skill, so my approach tends to be the same as any other social or academic skill. Be proactive in teaching them how to be responsible users of technology and also be clear and consistent when reinforcing expectations.
Take care.
Catlin