Ok, so I know I want to have weekly student run class meetings in my future classroom, but what is the best way to structure them. When I was volunteering in a 6th grade classroom a couple of years ago I was introduced to weekly student run meetings. I thought it was such a great idea. The students were able to address issues that were important to them and involved every member of the classroom community. The teacher pretty much stayed out of it, accept in rare circumstances where he felt he needed to intervene or interject.
I have not been in a classroom where they have regular class meetings since I was in the one I previously described. I was wondering if anyone else out there is seeing regular class meetings in their placements. Some important key parts of the meetings I saw were that students ran the meetings and came up with the topics and issues discussed; there were clear guidelines and agreed upon rules that students followed such as being respectful of one another and only the person with the ball could talk. Does anyone else have any ideas or knowledge of resources to help structure student run class meetings? What are some other key parts?
I also really like the idea of student-run class meetings. I think the teacher involvement should vary depending on grade level. I like the idea of the meetings being run by students, but I think the teachers should come up with ideas for the discussion sometimes. I trust kids to come up with important issues to discuss, but I think the teacher could also have great input. I enjoyed how our dyad class has a type of class meeting during their advisor time. I think their discussion of rumors and gossip last week was great because it was timely for that group of students.
ReplyDeleteI have been thinking lately too about how much I want to have class meetings and having them mainly student run is a great idea. What better way for kids to learn how to respect each other, maintain patience and calmness when disagreeing and problem-solving than coaching them through it with their own real examples? I'm sure that's your thinking too. I don't see anything like this in my placements, but when I was volunteering in a 5th grade classroom last year and the year before, I saw daily "morning meetins." They weren't really for problem-solving though, they were for community building and social skill practice. We began by greeting each other in Japanese, then recited the flag salute, and then went around in a circle to greet each other with "good morning, ____" to practice speaking clearly and directly to a person. After that, the color group of the day, so 1/5 of the students, got to talk for a minute about themselves (something they like, did, are looking forward to, are proud of, etc) and then three other students got to ask questions about that (where they practiced asking strong questions that are open ended and not yes/no or repetitive). The teacher also used that time to talk about any notable recent accomplishments of people in the class and the kids congratulated each other. When I told the teacher I really enjoyed these class meetings she let me look through the book she used to build her own ideas on which was, "Class Meetings" by Donna Styles. You may want to check that out as a resource. She took the format and made it her own.
ReplyDelete