Collaborative Norms in the Elementary Classroom

Why Norms? In an NGSS inspired classroom, students will be collaborating during laboratory investigations and when creating explanations and models. Students need to learn and practice collaboration skills over the course of the school year. Norms guide students in developing collaboration skills

Why Norms? Students who are partners in composing class norms are more likely to experience a level of ownership, participate in instruction, and engage in mutually respectful and cooperative relationships.

How to Establish Norms Start the year with an interesting project that spans several sessions and that requires collaboration. As student work in teams, ask them to reflect on what behaviors helped them accomplish their goal and what behaviors made reaching the goal more difficult.

Establishing Norms in Your Classroom Engage the class in a discussion of the kinds of behavior that facilitated their work in a team Summarize the student responses Post the list of norms Continually remind students about the norms If behavior problems arise, have students revisit the norms. Add onto or revise the norms as needed

Have Students Attend to the Norms Developed by the Class Ask the students to choose one norm to be aware of during a class activity or discussion Allow time after the activity for students to reflect on how well their behavior followed the norm Have a discussion about student experiences with following the norm they have chosen

Have Students Attend to the Norms Developed by the Class Have students use a rating scale to reflect on their attention to the norms. Have students share their reflections with others in their group 1. Everyone in the group participates in the investigation. Strongly Agree Neutral Disagree disagree

Have Students Attend to the Norms Developed by the Class The teacher may notice that the class in general is having trouble attending to one of the norms Engage the class in a discussion in specific behaviors that will lead to attending to the norm Also, discuss behaviors that detract from students following the norm

Have Students Attend to the Norms Developed by the Class Use an “Exit Ticket” to have students reflect on the norms What norm were you thinking about today? How did this norm guide your behavior today? How can you change your behavior to better attend to the norm?

Have Students Attend to the Norms Developed by the Class Have students write in a journal the last few minutes of class Provide the students with a writing prompt to guide their journal writing In additional to prompts about the science ideas, include some about students’ attention to the norms

Revisit the Norms After a few weeks of school, revisit the norms with the class Discuss the following questions: Do we need to change any of the norms? Do we need to add to any of the norms? Do we need to add new norms to make our class work better?

Revisit the Norms The teacher and the class may decide to delete, change or add to the list of norms Once again, post the updated norms on student work tables and around the classroom Continue to revisit the norms throughout the school year

Students who are partners in composing class norms are more likely to experience a level of ownership, participate in instruction, and engage in mutually respectful and cooperative relationships.