Creating community in the classroom: Part 4 (rewarding improvement)

The fourth lesson in a series on improving classroom learning climate, this lesson provides an opportunity to evaluate student progress and to provide positive reinforcement for improvements in behavior. Using a one to ten continuum, students will subjectively evaluate class progress on the ten adjectives listed as class climate goals. After this process, students will publicly recognize those classmates who have helped the class improve or who have personally improved.

A lesson plan for grades K–8 Guidance

By Pat Nystrom

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Related pages

• Creating community in the classroom: Part 1 (setting goals ): This series of lessons is designed to help develop a sense of classroom community. Group goal-setting, brainstorming, peer feedback, group decision-making, positive reinforcement, and positive peer pressure are used to create a safe, supportive environment for learning in the classroom.
  
  In Part 1, students are introduced to the goal-setting process. They will practice the first step of the process as they set individual and class behavioral goals.
• Creating community in the classroom: Part 2 (cooperative planning): This series of lessons is designed to help develop a sense of classroom community through use of group goal-setting, decision-making, brainstorming, peer feedback, positive reinforcement, and positive peer pressure. The lessons will help students create and maintain a supportive environment for learning. Part 1 focused on goal-setting process and practice. In Part 2, students will apply knowledge of the goal-setting process by cooperatively creating a plan to work on group goals.
• Creating community in the classroom: Part 3 (monitoring progress): This series of lessons is designed to help develop a sense of classroom community through use of group goal-setting, decision-making, brainstorming, peer feedback, positive reinforcement, and positive peer pressure. The lessons will help students create and maintain a supportive environment for learning. Part 1 focused on goal-setting process and practice. In Part 2, students applied knowledge of the goal-setting process and cooperatively created a plan to work on short-term group goals. In part 3, students will monitor the effects of their plan by determining whether short term goals are being achieved.

Related topics

• Learn more about character education, community, goal-setting, guidance, and life skills.

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Learning outcomes

Students will:

• express admiration/appreciation again for the positive behaviors observed during previous sessions.
• review the steps in the goal-setting process and relate steps to the activities of the three previous lessons.
• practice two more steps in the goal setting process by evaluating progress and rewarding success.
• be given the opportunity to work cooperatively as a class.
• explore the importance of planning and confirm the value of goal-setting as they track their progress on class goals.

Teacher planning

Time required for lesson

45 Minutes

Materials/resources

• The ten adjectives which describe the class goals should be written on the board or a wide chart with space for a continuum on either side of the list.
• The counselor’s notes should be on hand for possible reference. Two writing implements will be needed for the writing surface you are using.

Pre-activities

This lesson is fourth in a series. Part 1 of Creating Community in the Classroom focused on goal-setting as students set long term group and individual behavior goals. Part 2 focused on (1) considering options as students identified and listed obstacles to success, and (2) making a plan as students chose specific behaviors that needed improvement and agreed to improve. Part 3 created an opportunity to monitor progress and improve the plan for reaching the class goals.
Part 4 will focus on the next steps in the goal-setting process by providing opportunity to monitor progress and to reward improvement.

Activities

1. Begin the session by acknowledging cooperative behavior and good classroom interpersonal skills observed during previous lessons.
2. Have volunteers orally list the steps in the goal-setting process, write the steps on the board, and then connect steps to the activities of the previous sessions. (The class set long range goals when they decided “where they wanted to go” by choosing ten “wish list” adjectives in the Part 1 session. In the Part 2 lesson, they considered options as they found ways to work toward goals by identifying behaviors that prevented them from succeeding. Also in Part 2, they created a plan by deciding to target specific behaviors and to have classmates make a commitment to improve in those areas. The Part 3 lesson provided opportunity to monitor progress and further implement the plan for improvement.)
3. Explain that the activities of the day will focus on the next steps in goal-setting — monitoring progress and rewarding success.
4. Write the ten adjectives/goals chosen during Part 1 on the board or on a wide chart. Draw a one to ten continuum on each side of the list of adjectives, explaining that the two drawings will help the class do a “before and after” assessment. The continuum on the left will show how well the students think they were doing on the adjectives in the beginning of the year and the continuum on the right will show how the class rates itself now.
5. Ask the students to think of the number between one and ten that best describes how well the class matched the adjective list in the beginning of the year. (Ten would be a perfect match, one would not match in any way.) In doing this, students are considering how well the whole class acted like the whole list of adjectives.
6. As students call out their “before” ratings, keep track of the highest and lowest numbers mentioned and estimate the class average rating. Mark the estimated class average with a large “X” on the continuum and note the range on the board. Process with questions like: “Was there anything in particular that caused you to give that rating for the beginning of the year?” “What do you notice about the ratings?” “Do you think people gave their real opinions with the numbers?”
7. Ask students how much their class is like the adjective list today. Have each student give their rating by passing out markers or chalk so students can one or two at a time go to the board and mark an “X’ on the continuum. Students are asked to give an honest rating and to carefully observe where others put their “X’s.” Process by asking for observations about the ratings and ask if there were any surprises when people made their marks.
8. Congratulate the class on any improvements reported and ask the classroom teacher for his/her input on improvements. Call attention to the adjectives where ratings showed the most improvement.
9. Ask which students in the class have shown the greatest improvement. Before having students call out names, encourage students to look all around the room and to re-read the list of adjectives. Ask how they feel when they make improvement and no one notices. Ask how they feel when they try to improve and are then recognized for their efforts. Ask the class to call out the names and ways classmates have improved. Insist that “nominations for improvement” give the name of the student and the area of improvement. Keep discussion positive. If any want to offer negative feedback, intervene quickly. Point out that our goal is not to make people feel bad, but to improve as a class. (When you are criticized in front of people, how does it make you feel? Does it make you feel like improving?) If a student disagrees with a complimentary statement, interrupt and point out that while everyone’s opinion matters, no person sees everything. Just because you didn’t notice improvement, doesn’t mean someone didn’t improve.
10. Give opportunity for seven or eight students to recognize another’s improvement, then ask for raised hands from those who were recognized for improvement. Ask how it made them feel to hear what people said. Ask the whole class if they hoped they would be mentioned when they heard the activity described.
11. Proceed with more student feedback but notice whether more people offer comments, whether different students are mentioned, or whether there is an effort to mention everyone. If any of those trends are observed, interrupt the feedback to ask if anyone noticed a difference since finding out it made people feel good to be recognized. Usually they notice and say so, but you can point out trends if students don’t notice. Ask: “What do these changes in the way people did the activity tell you about your class? Does it mean they care about how classmates feel? Or when classmates find out how to make other people happy, they try to make them happy?)
12. Ask whether the day’s activity had any effect on the class trust level. Ask how many think the trust level went up? Down? Stayed the same? What took place that affected trust level? You can do a trust level check to investigate student observations, using the one to ten scale with ten the highest.
13. Thank the class for any positive or supportive behavior observed during the class. Ask “How did we evaluate class progress today? Then ask “How did we reward the class members for progress toward the class goal?”
14. This lesson may be modified for periodic use, i.e., at the middle of the school year and at the end of the year. Keep notes on the “before and after” ratings given by students on different dates and be able to give examples of improvements recognized during different lessons.

Assessment

• Number of students recognized for improvement.
• Number of students offering positive reinforcement to peers.
• Teacher and administrator observations of class behavior.
• Number of mediations provided for class members.
• Number of discipline referrals for class members.
• Changes in student perceptions of class trust level.