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Item A

 

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

On the first day of class, we had three posters posted on the walls of the classroom (Items A, B, and C).  The posters had the following three questions:

 

  • How should students treat one another?
  • How should students treat teachers?
  • How should teachers treat students?  

After having students brainstorm ideas in their notebooks, they were divided into three groups.  Each group was assigned a poster.  In order to add anything to the poster, students had to reach consensus, a concept that was also explained in greater detail before the activity began.  After about 5 minutes, the groups rotated to the next poster.  On these posters, they underlined things they disagreed with, and put their initials so that they could explain later, or put a star next to the things they agreed.  After another 5 minutes, they rotated to the final poster and repeated the previous steps.  After another 5 minutes, they returned to their original poster and one person from each poster shared out what was on the poster.

 

On the second day in class, each student had a personal copy of the constitution that was constructed from all the things they generated during the poster activity.  They now had the chance to add anything or change wording on a more personal level.  The final product of these edits is Item D.

 

The class constitution was especially useful during the summer when students spoke over each other.  One of the norms reads, One voice at a time. If you’ve been talking a lot, step back. If you haven’t talked, step up. Work towards including everyone, but also respect silence. This one in particular relates to allowing space for one voice to be heard at a time and to make space for everyone to be heard but also for silence to be respected.

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.