A Sustainable Start : Rituals

This is the first day in a series called Sustainable Start, aimed for preservice teachers.  I'm at a place in my career when I still remember the first year really well, but I have a few things I've learned that I'd like to share.  I'm not a formula guy.  I'm not under the illusion that I have all the answers.  However, I hope that some of this series is helpful to a few teachers along the way.

Bad Procedures

At first glance, the metal creature seems innocuous, even cutesy. He's a Wall-E character transplanted on the side of the highway, a boxy metallic head peering out at the traffic. Next he's shooting lightening or red lasers into the unsuspecting glances of motorists; snatching the image in real-time, digitizing humanity for the sole purpose of increasing tax revenue in a state that expanded too quickly and built without ever asking why.

Over time, I grew to hate photo radar. On one evening, the lights blinded me for a moment as a car passed me at sixty five miles an hour. I was driving the speed limit not out of duty or even concern, but because I knew this was a prime location to spy on motorists. I turned away and sputtered into the lane next to me.  

Photo radar was supposed to make us safer, but it missed the bigger picture of law enforcement. It standardized police work through the values of efficiency and uniformity. There was no conversation. No warning. No concept of context. The result was that motorists grow angry, leading to even more agressive driving.  Photo radars were an attempt to create a structural procedure to modify motorist behavior rather than adapting the system to fit the needs of motorists.  

When I began my first year of teaching, I designed the procedures with a photo radar mindset.  I would walk around and catch any student failing to fit the rituals.  I created a list of how things would be done in my class: names,  date, period on the left hand corner; turn in work at the end of each class period (no other time); absolute silence during Bell Work; eyes on me during Direct Instruction (Note the proper noun.  It had to be proper. Always.)

Some students did their best to follow my procedures, growing frustrated with their inability to conform. Others found silent, passive-agressive ways to work around the procedures.  Still, others openly defied our way of doing things, pointing out why the rituals were ridiculous.  I lashed out by treating rituals as rules and sending students to solitary confinement (time-out) and shaming them in front of their peers. Midway through the year, I had to modify my approach.  I had to apologize and ask for their help.

I don't want to approach classroom rituals with the mentality of photo radar.  I don't want students to slow down, speed up and change the way they act because they are afraid of who is watching.  I've learned that when I force students to fit into a system rather than creating a system that meets the needs of the students, the result will be confusion, anger and misbehavior.

The Need for Rituals

When I fix an iced coffee, I slowly unscrew the lid and pour a tiny stream of cream into the coffee.  I watch the brown and tan swirling dance before I add a packet of sugar.   We need rituals.  In our most mundane and most sacred places, we find rituals.  Weddings, coffee, funerals, cereal - these all require ritualistic knowledge.  

Even in horizontal relationships, rituals exist.  It's not a rule, but it is a ritual that I need to be home by five and if I'm going to be late, I should call my wife.  It's an unspoken ritual that dictates our place where we sit at the table.  Christy and I have a general idea of who gets up when the boys wake-up in the middle of the night, but if it's the "late night" shift and she's really tired, I might get up with Micah when he has a nightmare.  

In other words, the rituals are natural, informal, flexible and motivated by love.  

How I Approach Rituals

I begin the first day with a critical thinking question and discussion. Half-way through it, I ask students to define the concept of ritual.  Some talk about church, others family or sports.  We then debrief the current rituals that the class has silently adopted. 

Next, I create a ritual chart with the rituals on the left and then a separate column for individual, partner, small group, whole class and project-based activity.  I start with a general brainstorm of the key things students want to know: Where do I turn in work? What do I put on my paper? (I make it simple by asking for a first and last name only) When can I get up? When can I talk? Can I sharpen my pencil?

We negotiate the rituals, emphasizing the need for a balance between freedom and safety. Sometimes I have to be vulnerable and say things like, "I can't have any noise when I'm talking.  I get distracted and sometimes angry."  This allows students to say things like, "I want to walk around a little more.  How can we add more of that to this chart?" 

The goal is something flexible and achievable for all students in the class. 

Presumptuous, Pretentious and Perhaps Even Practical Advice

• Differentiate between rules and rituals.  Rules are about how things are done rather than whether something is "wrong" or "right."  Thus, a fail to grasp ritual becomes a learning opportunity rather than a chance to punish a kid. 
• Too many rituals and it becomes a bureaucracy. Too few procedures and it's anarchy. The key is to find a balance. I haven't found a magic number, either.  
• There should be a reason for rituals.  My philosophy is "freedom to learn," meaning the rituals allow students as much freedom as possible to make their own decisions. 
• Rituals should be intuitive for the student rather than easy on the teacher. It's why I don't care about the order of name, date, etc. on papers.  Just get your name there without worrying. 
• With older students, it can feel really juvenile to students when a teacher takes extra time to sit there and practice procedures. It starts to feel more like rules where you are daring students to misbehave. It's easier to approach the basic procedures first and then go over new procedures as I progress throughout the school year.