A Sample Classroom Management Plan That Works

A classroom management plan is meant to be a working document that you refer to frequently. You should interact with it, add more details, try and test ideas, drop them if you think they don't work. Think of it as a work in progress, that is your servant not your master.

After a while it will be clear which parts of the plan you can leave in place and what you need to change, depending on your priorities at any given time.

This particular example is a plan used by a teacher in a UK high school.

Notice that the plan starts with the teacher's statement that he will take responsibility for what happens in class and his commitment to sound core values and principles.

The sample plan is drawn up using the concept of building your plan on compass points.

So the four main 'directions':

• Philosophy
• Rules and Routines
  
• Behaviour Management
• Ideas

are starting points but notice that this plan also includes the aim of achieving excellence as this particular teacher considers this an important direction to pursue at this point in time.

Individual Responsibility

I will take responsibility for leading and managing learning in my classroom by using the unique human attributes of self awareness, freedom to choose, imagination and independent will. I will be guided by the acronym CEBDATE to maintain the highest standards.

Principles, Values and Experience

Commit to these core value principles:

Fairness / Justice / Respect Honesty /Integrity

• hear all sides before judging
• act in the fairest way depending on the circumstances
• criticise the behaviour not the student
• treat students of both sexes equally
• protect students from unfairness from other students
• model the behaviour I expect from students
• apologise when I’m wrong
• explain all the decisions I take in the classroom
• help students learn in different ways
• make learning engaging, challenging and fun
• insist that everyone talks respectfully
• treat students as individuals
• be assertive without being aggressive
• insist we all respect personal space, property and personal safety
• avoid ‘put downs’
• respect students right to high quality learning experiences
• maintain a positive attitude

This is an extensive list but covers all aspects of the core value principles and as such is the foundation of this teacher's classroom management and lies at the heart of this plan.

Philosophy

• All students can learn
• All students want to learn, at least some of the time
• Most students want to learn most of the time
• All students can succeed if context, activity and method of assessment are appropriate
• Students learn in different ways, at different times and for different reasons, so I need to offer activities that give all students opportunities to learn effectively
• Students are motivated by being engaged, being successful, being encouraged
• Students learn best when they enjoy the learning activities
• My personality puts me in the middle of the autocratic – democratic continuum; I see this as being receptive to a wider range of solutions to problems rather than ‘sitting on the fence’
• I seek to be an authoritative teacher, as opposed to an authoritarian or permissive teacher
• Pragmatic solutions to problems are acceptable as long as they are congruent with my core value principles
• My classroom management must reflect the general ethos of the whole school

These statements outline what this particular teacher's personal classroom management philosophy is, based on theoretical study and personal observation and so appear in the classroom management plan

Behaviour Management

• Engage students in purposeful activities
• Prevent rather than cure whenever possible
• Be calmly assertive using 4 steps [1 ask nicely, 2 remind politely, 3 tell firmly, 4 insist]
• Explain and model good behaviour [Good behaviour looks like…sounds like…feels like…]
• Match student energy when necessary to establish control in non-aggressive ways[eg tone of voice, body language, repetition of instructions]
• Tactically ignore some behaviour when appropriate [Bill Rogers’ technique]
• Use partial agreement when appropriate [Bill Rogers’ technique]
• KKK ‘Kiss Kick Kiss’ [not literally!] in individual one on one student review if necessary [say something positive [Kiss] – then reprimand for unacceptable behaviour [Kick] – then finish with another positive [Kiss]]
• Keep sense of humour and proportion
• Smile !

There may be other behaviour management techniques this teacher will try but this is the list of stategies to focus on initially

Routines

• Greet students at the door at the start of lessons
• Get students to complete a settling activity as soon as they enter
• Students sit according to designated plan
• Change seating order regularly so students get used to working with different groups of other students
• Depending on age of students allocate ‘jobs’ – giving out books, paper, writing date on board, taking class register
• Countdown from 10 to 0 is the attention signal to students
• Insist on silence whenever I’m talking to whole class
• Depending on length of lesson give students a 2 minute ‘giggle break’ half way through lesson – students allowed to talk to friends, ‘stretch their legs’ within classroom
• Numbered cards instead of hands raised – students know their individual numbers
• Brief review of learning at end of lesson before orderly exit

Ideas

Currently….

• Trialling some learning activities where different students become ‘experts’ about a piece of information: eg four groups of students each study one different aspect of a topic / theme / text and then report back to their ‘home’ group what they have learned – home groups consequently contain at least one student from each of the expert groups and therefore put all the information together like a ‘jigsaw’

• Making more explicit use of assessment criteria for speaking activities, and encouraging students to assess each others’ performance according to criteria; students explain to each other and to rest of class how they arrive at their assessed mark

This list may grow as the year progresses or as different priorities become obvious and this part of the classroom management plan can be amended later.

Achieving Excellence

• Take all opportunities to grow professionally
• Undertake at least one major classroom management ‘challenge’ per year
• Be aware of how I might inspire others

Of course your classroom management plan may look different from this example but you could use this example as a starting point for a workable classroom management plan that you can use very day.