Classroom Meetings - General and specific
Purposes of class meetings
- Talk about and try to solve a problem at school or in a classroom
- Opportunities to suggest creative solutions to concerns, issues and problems.
- To give compliments
- To help each other
- Learn how to resolve conflict
- Learn how to solve problems
- To plan events
- Provide opportunities to learn social skills and implement a social curriculum
- Educational Diagnostic Meetings to discuss the academic curriculum and or teaching methods
Possible benefits
- Students rather than the teacher have proposed the solutions often makes the solutions more acceptable to other students
- Problem solving meetings are usually help when there is a concern that is exerting an influence in the classroom
- Show a connection to what happens in school and real life.
Teacher role:
- Provide guidance to students as they negotiate solutions
- Remain neutral and non-judgmental
- Play devil’s advocate – probe for clarifications of proposed solutions
- Teach about consequences
Suggestion for starting classroom meetings
Tell students you are going to teach them how to solve problems by themselves. Instead of coming to you with their problem they can put their name on the agenda. When there is a class meeting the class will help solve the problem. You might want to tell them that at first they may forget and come to you and you will have to remind them to put it on the agenda. If problems are not solved the first time, then they can put it back on the agenda. If you have a problem as a teacher and want to put it on the agenda, be sure to own the problem and do not look for an opportunity to blame the students.
If you find that students are putting too many problems on the agenda you might want to incorporate a cooling off period by allowing them to only put items on the agenda at certain times of the day. After recess might not be a good time. Maybe as they go to recess, at the end of the day, or both.
It is probably a good idea to meet in a circle during class meetings. You may need to have them practice moving into the circle, particularly if furniture has to be moved. Challenge them to set a class record in an organized quiet manner and see if they take the challenge.
Suggesting Times for meetings
You need to have meetings often enough to create consistency and meaningfully solve problems. You might want to start by having one every day and change to once three times a week as students get the idea that most problems can be solved by themselves. Them maybe to once a mweek to maintain them. A good idea to include during this schueled time is teaching of social skills. That can insure you have time scheduled for meetings and if things are going well, then time can be used to develop and teach social skills. Another idea to keep meetings from draggin on is to schedule a time for them before an event students will not want to miss (recess, lunch, dismissal).
Possible agenda items
- Individual or group problems
- How can we care for each other?
- Why is it disrespectful when more than one person talks at the same time?
- Why is it disrespectful to disturb others?
- Why is it important to take turns talking?
- Why is it important to listen when others are speaking?
- What are social skills and can we get better socially?
General process and meeting format
- Some people like to start the meeting with compliments. They go around the circle and have each student, who wants to, give a compliment. You can go around in order or have students take turns or pass a glitter stick around. Let each student who wants to talk once. Sharing complements can reduce defensiveness and inspire cooperation.
- Ask for agenda items, state an issue to discuss, or begin with open discussion to identify a concern or problem. If an agenda has items that include problems specific students are having with each other, then see a more specific example below.
- Listen
- Identify a problem or state an issue to discuss
- Listen to the feedback
- Consider all variables and avoid all assumptions
- Students propose solutions
- It is important to consider consequences for each proposed solution. A good time to teach logical consequences (see below) before reaching deciding on a solution. This will help when students suggest punishment, you can encourage logical consequences instead. It is also better to work on made-up situations before tackling real life situations with all the emotional involvement of the participants.
- Ask which solution they are willing to try
- Get feedback from each person involved
- Get a commitment from the students to implement a solution
- Use information to improve learning and teaching by improving understanding of the issue and teaching problem solving by developing and testing workable solutions
Specific student problem process for two students and small group problems (adapted from Jane Nelson)
- Ask the person who added the agenda item it if it is still a problem.
- If the answer is no, go to the next item.
- If it is still a problem, have the person explain it.
- If there is another person involved, ask them to tell their story.
- Ask the accused person if they have a suggestion for a solution.
- If the person does, ask the group to vote on the suggestion.
- If the majority agrees, go to the next item.
- If a solution is not suggested or if the majority vote does not go along with the suggestion, go around the circle twice for comments and suggestions, starting with the person who wrote the agenda item.
- Write every suggestion exactly as given.
- If the suggestions are not logical consequences then deal with it (see suggestions on teaching about logical consequences below).
- Consequences that are not logical can be dealt with by asking if the three “R’s” (related, respectful, and reasonable) apply.
- Another way of checking is to ask - How many of you would feel you were being “ganged up” on if you were in this position right now? or Are you imagining how you would feel if you were in the other person’s position? What might we do to help? or Are imagining how the people involved would feel about the solutions being suggested? What might we do to help?
- Read all the suggestions.
- Instruct all students to vote for one suggestion.
- Read the suggestions again one time and write the number of people voting for each.
- When the final vote is in ask the person for whom the solution was suggested when the person would like to do it and give two possible choices. Like today or tomorrow, or during recess or after school.
Additional suggestions:
- At any time during the process you would like to give students an opportunity to express agreement or disagreement with what is being said. You can have them register it with a thumbs up, down, or neutra signal. You may want to talk about doing so with respect.
- Remember the process is more important than the product.
- If something does not work put it back on the agenda.
- It is helpful to find a positive intent behind every behavior.
- If some students tend to always have items on the agenda and other students complain, then put it on the agenda.
- Students will have problems at first with the idea that the agenda is to “get” each other until they learn that the purpose is to help each other.
Logical Consequences information to use as needed
Ask what are possible consequences for these actions:
- If you play on the freeway.
- If you do not sleep.
- If you do not eat.
Tell the students that what they have described is known as logical consequences.
Repeat the above procedure with the following:
- Someone who writes on a desk.
- Someone who stands on the merry-go-round.
- Someone who does not do their work during the day.
- Someone who is late for school.
Dr. Robert Sweetland's Notes ©