Rules and Routines in English Lessons
Why do rules and routines play a key role in English lessons?
- Have you had problems with your students’ behavior?
- Have you ever found yourself standing silent in the middle of a lesson, trying to get your students to listen to you?
- Have you ever had students who were nervous in their first lesson because they feared the unknown?
If you answered “yes” to at least one of these questions, this article may be useful for you.
Most of you would agree that creating a positive and effective environment is easier than solving problems with students’ behavior and, as a result, with their progress in developing language skills. Rules and routines are tools for creating a favorable environment for teaching and learning English.
Rules are often taken for granted, but we need to make sure students know them. When preparing for your first lessons, do not forget to define the behavior you want from your students and how to achieve it. Set the rules right at the start of the term and be persistent, so that you get a comfortable working environment where everyone knows what is expected of them and what to expect from others.
There are several extremely important reasons for setting rules in an English class, including online:
- Rules reduce stress. Remember your students in their first lessons? You may have noticed that children are not very talkative, are shy about sharing their ideas and prefer to stay silent in the first lesson. They find it hard to understand and follow instructions. So knowing what to expect from a lesson helps reduce stress. If your student knows that nobody will make fun of them for making a mistake, they will be more flexible and relaxed.
- Having rules builds trust. Feeling accepted by the other participants in the learning process will certainly boost a child’s confidence and self-esteem. That is what we need to improve their performance.
- Rules guide behavior. If everyone accepts the rules and starts following them, it becomes easier to focus on learning rather than on solving interaction problems.
- Rules help students feel comfortable. Setting rules and a daily routine helps create a safe and positive atmosphere where everyone is respected. Students know that nobody will harm them and they do not need to defend themselves.
- Rules improve the learning process. The less time a teacher spends explaining the basic rules of interaction, the more time can be devoted to improving students’ knowledge and individual skills.
- Rules = equality and fairness. A sense of equal and identical conditions (not better or worse than others) in rights, responsibilities and treatment builds an effective support group. This increases cooperation and collaboration. Everyone matters and is responsible for the learning process.
Does routine mean monotony and boredom?
What do you associate with the word “routine”? Monotonous and boring lessons? Not necessarily.
A classroom routine is a well-practiced response to the teacher’s instructions. It is needed so that children know what to do and how. Routines give students confidence and independence in lessons.
There are many reasons to introduce routines in the classroom at the start of the learning process, but one of the main ones is creating a calm and predictable learning environment. This is vital for children who are vulnerable or need extra support. Setting up a classroom routine reduces the chance that a student will get distracted and disrupt the learning process.
A single lesson can contain a large number of routine tasks, and they can all be divided into three categories:
- Administrative tasks
- Instructions
- Interactive tasks
By administrative tasks we mean organizational matters such as starting and ending the lesson; checking self-study; using the bathroom (or breaks in online lessons); the testing process; and receiving or giving feedback on homework or test results.
Instructions include getting students’ attention before announcing homework, confirming the order of the lesson, creating silence during written tasks and other important announcements.
And interactive tasks include knowing how to take part in discussions, behaving properly in groups and following the rules for getting the teacher’s attention. Once these routine tasks are defined, teachers should set clear, separate procedures for handling routine events that are simple, easy for students to understand and quick to carry out.
How to set up a consistent routine
- The introduction process. First, introduce and use the most important procedures and traditions, such as greetings, classroom language, pair and group work, a 5-minute movement activity, taking turns to answer and ending the lesson. This will make your work as a teacher easier and minimize stress for both you and your students.
- Once you have worked on the basic procedures, you can start introducing new ones according to your and your students’ needs.
There are also a few important points to consider when working in class:
- Take time to explain the routine. At first this may take more time, but afterwards, students knowing the routine will improve how lessons run and cut the time spent giving the same instructions again and again. After that, do not forget to practice the routines so they become a habit. Your students may also need to practice routine actions.
- Do not forget to praise your students every time they carry out the target procedure (this builds a positive attitude).
- Provide some visual or audio cues for classroom routines (gestures, specific choice of words and phrases, facial expressions).
Some routine ideas your students may enjoy:
- Sharing (discussing current news related to culture, education, film, music or sports)
- Making “Top 3…” lists (books read, tasks, or great moments of the week)
- Mood boards (using different pictures to show emotions and feelings)
- Trackers (of habits, or of using target vocabulary or grammar)
- A motivation system (drawing stars, hearts or balloons for good work)