Table of Contents Principals and Practices
For the most part, when are rules usually addressed?
Rules are often addressed at the being of an activity to orient people to the activity. That is a time when a student may have little concrete experience of the activity, so the rule is actually rather abstract. At that time students may be excited or anxious, or frequently distracted.
The other time that rules are frequently address are--- just after they are broken. At that movement students and also teachers may be feeling angry, ashamed, afraid. Something is torn, crushed, in pieces, soaked, lost, erased, indelibly painted, burnt, bruised or crying. This is a horrible time to talk about rules.
How about when a group has just successfully completed an exercise. Students are happy, fairly relaxed. Their minds are open. This a a time for learning. Here is when we can say. "Wow is this cool. Did notice that while we did that, no one tossed their stick. No one hit any one. People waited their turn. How did you manage that?"
Now we have cognitive availability plus positive emotional tone. Learning can happen. Students can more learn how to follow the rules and hopefully make the connections to see how these rules serve their well being.
Celebrating Negative Behavior?