One of the most important skills you will learn and practice in high school is communication through speaking in front of and listening to your peers. In order to practice this in class, we must agree upon some norms:
NORMS for Participation in the Classroom
Here are my suggestions, originated from my observation of classrooms that have modeled this skill at a high level.
When someone else is speaking (front of the classroom/acknowledged at desk), the rest of us will:
- LISTEN - note how LISTEN has the same letters as SILENT
- L - LOOK at speaker - LOOK interested
- I - INVOLVE self by getting INFORMED
- S - SIT UP - STAY FOCUSED - offer SAFE environment
- T - TEST understanding - jot questions
- E - EVALUTE message - jot summaries
- N - NOD - please refrain from cheers, jeers, claps, snaps, taps - other noise makers
- PARTICIPATION POINTS - 5 per discussion
- Speaking 2
- Listening 2 and Respect 1
- ACADEMIC CONVERSATION Guidelines to be discussed and practiced soon, i.e., How do we respectfully AGREE-DISAGREE-ADD-CLARIFY-QUESTION-SUMMARIZE ?
