Classroom routines are effective tools for classroom management. Routines comfort students by providing a stable environment where everyone knows the procedure. Routines also help teachers reduce discipline problems. Finally, routines have positive effects on student achievement. Repeated routines help students spend less time thinking about procedures so they can focus on the lesson’s content.
Routines rarely occur naturally. Teachers create routines for their classrooms through deliberation and reflection. One way to create routines is by multiple small activities that can be regularly deployed. These activities should be short, no more than a few minutes, and implemented often. A short questionnaire can help teachers develop routines that best fit their subjects and students.
Routine Activities Sample Questionnaire
- Why should this activity exist?
- Exactly what should the students do and what benefits will it bring them (academic or disciplinary)?
- How does the teacher fit into this routine? What will they be doing and how does it help the class?
- Will this be a regular activity or used only when needed?
Bellringers are excellent routine activities because they help with class transitions. My bellringer activity is five minutes of silent reading. My students are allowed to read books or magazines of their choosing. The only requirement is they can not read textbooks. How does this work in my classroom?
Five minutes of silent reading helps prime the students for English class. I do not want them thinking about chemistry homework or upcoming math tests. Giving them ownership over what they read is a secondary goal. I hope they enjoy reading their own material enough to read at home for fun. Five minutes is not enough for actual silent sustained reading, this is mostly a disciplinary activity. It gets students quiet and in their seats before class begins. During this time, I take attendance and easily check homework. If I see a common mistake made by many students, we can address it during the lesson. This reading time happens every class unless special circumstances intervene. My students sit and start reading as soon as they walk into my room.
Any repeated activity can and should be developed into a routine. I have routines for homework collection, peer-review work, open class feedback using the whiteboard, and many more. These routines help my lesson planning. When thinking about how to deliver class content, I find it easy to imagine what the instruction, practice, and feedback will look like with my students. Developing these routines has improved my classroom management and it can help you as well.
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