Ensuring That Students Know How to Meet Your Expectations

This was a frequent occurrence in my elementary classroom: I would explain the routine. I would demonstrate it. I would ask if everyone knew what to do. Students would nod their heads, and then when I asked them to try it, almost every student in the room was doing something different. I was treating classroom routines as directions to give students rather than skills they needed to develop. Knowing what a teacher expects isn’t the same as being able to actually do it independently.

Once I changed my approach to routines and started teaching them the way I would any other academic skill, I saw that my students not only were able to follow the routines more effectively, but also began taking ownership over those routines.

TREATING ROUTINES LIKE ACADEMIC SKILLS

Think about how we teach an academic skill: We wouldn’t explain how to write a paragraph once, ask if everyone understands, and then expect students to produce strong paragraphs independently. We instead model the process, practice, give feedback, and gradually step back.

Classroom routines deserve the same attention. Even a direction like “Get your math materials out and get started” contains more decisions than we might realize: What materials? Where do I get those materials? What if someone else is using them? Where should I work? What does “get started” look like?

Routines become even more complicated when other people are involved. What do I do if my partner disagrees with me? What if I need help while the teacher is working with someone else? What if I finish early? What if I make a mistake?

These aren’t just procedures that students need to memorize. They’re skills that students need to develop. In Montessori classrooms like mine, we often think of many of these everyday skills as practical life skills: skills that help children navigate their environment with increasing independence. Classroom routines provide an opportunity for students to build that kind of independence.

USING A TEACH, PRACTICE, RELEASE MODEL

In my Montessori elementary classroom, teaching a routine usually followed this progression: I would model the routine, my students and I would practice, my students would then practice together while I monitored to provide feedback, and then my students would be ready to carry out the routine independently.

This gradual release approach helped my students get multiple opportunities to review the expectations and practice before they were expected to do it alone.

One way I helped students move through this progression was through role-play. Rather than waiting for a classroom routine to fall apart during an actual lesson, we could rehearse it when the stakes were low.

For example, instead of simply telling students, “If you need help, ask two classmates before the teacher,” we might act out what happens when you’re stuck: Who could you ask? What could you say? What if the first classmate doesn’t know? What if the second classmate is busy? What if you still don’t understand?

Students could try different approaches, talk about what worked, and try again.

Another way to have students role-play to practice a classroom routine is by asking students to show how they would teach the routine to a new student. I’ve found that if students can explain the steps, demonstrate them, and troubleshoot common problems, they have a strong understanding of what is expected of them.

It’s tempting to teach routines as though everything will go according to plan. But real classrooms aren’t predictable. A student might finish early. A partner might disagree. Materials might be missing. Someone might accidentally knock over another student’s work. A student might make a mistake and not know what to do next. These moments are part of the classroom routine, too.

When preparing students for partner work, for example, I might ask, “What could you do if your partner has an idea you disagree with?” We could act out a few possibilities, then discuss what happened: Which response helped the conversation continue? Which made it harder? What could you try instead?

The goal isn’t to give students a script for every possible situation. It’s to help them develop strategies for figuring out what to do when things don’t go exactly to plan.

EMPOWER STUDENTS TO IMPROVE ROUTINES

Once students had experience with a classroom routine, I could hand some of the responsibility back to them.

If a transition wasn’t working well, I’d ask, “What could we change to make this easier?” Students might suggest moving materials, changing the order of steps, or figuring out a better way to share supplies.

This shifted the conversation from “How do I get students to follow my routine?” to “How can we create a routine that works for everyone?” I found that my students were far more likely to take ownership of and follow classroom routines they had a role in shaping.

The goal of any routine in my classroom was always to help my students more efficiently and effectively move throughout their day, allowing them to spend more time on learning and removing any unnecessary barriers to their success. By teaching routines explicitly, and ensuring that students have ample time to practice and evaluate those routines, teachers can set their students up to navigate their school day confidently and successfully.