Crowd-Sourced Tips for Creating Shared Norms and Expectations

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Crowd-Sourced Tips for Creating Shared Norms and Expectations (Image: Retired teacher Yurrliq Nita Rearden shares Yup’ik language and values.) Family members on the Alaska Family Engagement Center’s Family Advisory Board (the FAB!) recently talked about the challenges — and benefits — of creating shared norms and expectations between home and school. One example we loved came from Yup’ik elder and former kindergarten teacher Nita Rearden. At the start of the school year, she would ask her students questions about what their rules were at home on how to treat their siblings. All answers were written on a chart: no kicking, no hitting, no punching, no biting, no stealing, and many more. Children were asked to role-play behaviors in front of the whole class. Then, the squirmy five-year-olds were asked: “Do we do this at school?” Within a few days, the students had generated a list of ways to behave. She then asked the students to think about how to phrase those expectations in the positive: No running -> we walk No shouting -> we talk nicely No kicking, hitting, punching, stealing -> we keep our hands and our feet to ourselves Once the students generated their classroom list, Nita shared it with her students’ families so they could reinforce the expectations at home. Even better, the kindergartners helped each other — and their families — uphold those expectations. Some general tips the FAB shared when creating norms are to: Keep norms short, positive, and memorable, such as respect, responsibility, and empathy. Be curious (don’t assume): Ask what a behavior means in a family’s culture. Share expectations and norms with families at the start of the year. When norms are broken, let families know (but beware of shaming). Create space in schools for elders, dads, and respected members of the community to be present; they can help communicate and uphold community expectations. Pro-tip: Share your classroom norms and expectations during your parent-teacher conferences. Be sure to include open-ended questions like: “What has your child shared with you about school? What have you noticed at home? What might be helpful for me to know about your child?”