As we begin the new school year, like most schools, we build in time for orientation of new students and transition for all students into our Middle School. As a sixth grade team, we were particularly interested in providing time for our students to build a collective vision of what sixth grade life at our school would look like. As a result, we built on previous work to create the following activity to build our sixth grade beliefs.
Please feel free to use or adapt this lesson. If you do, please leave comments and let me know how it went!
Taking the time to build essential agreements, or rules of behavior, provides the opportunity to present a picture of the best hopes and dreams for the year ahead. Co-creating these agreements allows students to determine their own course for the year and build a set of norms of behavior to adhere to.
At our school, these agreements present:
This activity is presented in 6 blocks as shown below. The blocks can be configured in many combinations as your schedule warrants.
BLOCK 1 (Approximately 20 minutes)
Beginning to Build our Grade Level Beliefs (Advisory)
In Advisory groups, pose the following questions and track the student thinking on a sheet of chart paper or the whiteboard (and then take a photo).
BLOCK 2 (Approximately 40 minutes)
Town Hall Meeting (Grade Level)
Possible Ground Rules:
BLOCK 3 (Approximately 20 minutes)
I Believe Statements (Advisory)
Advisory Classrooms - Look at the thinking generated from the previous discussion and help students translate that vision (combined with anything from the Town Hall) to ‘We believe’ Statements. These statements should be universals that guide our behavior. You might ask them if they’ve built classroom/community beliefs before and how they did that (What worked well? What was challenging?). Write the beliefs on chart paper and bring them to your Gallery Walk.
BLOCK 4 (Approximately 20 minutes)
Gallery Walk (Advisory and/or Grade Level)
To evaluate our Grade Level Beliefs, we will do a Gallery walk with Sticker Support. Each advisory will post their belief statements on the wall. Each student will receive three stickers that they will use to indicate their support for three statements. They will walk around the room at least once reading the statements. Then they will apply the stickers to the three statements they believe to be the most important/most powerful. Choose one student to send to a special meeting to generate the final list.
BLOCK 5 (Approximately 30 minutes)
Committee Work (One representative from each advisory)
To finalize our Grade Level Beliefs, a meeting with one representative from each advisory will meet to review and wordsmith the final list. This list will be shared with grade levels in Block 6 as grade levels choose.
BLOCK 6
Sharing (Advisory and/or Grade Level)
Share the finalized version with the students!
Please feel free to use or adapt this lesson. If you do, please leave comments and let me know how it went!
Grade Level Essential Agreements
Taking the time to build essential agreements, or rules of behavior, provides the opportunity to present a picture of the best hopes and dreams for the year ahead. Co-creating these agreements allows students to determine their own course for the year and build a set of norms of behavior to adhere to.
At our school, these agreements present:
- A way to live our Advisory Vision
- A way to build agency among our students
- A touchstone for our work as communities throughout the year
This activity is presented in 6 blocks as shown below. The blocks can be configured in many combinations as your schedule warrants.
BLOCK 1 (Approximately 20 minutes)
Beginning to Build our Grade Level Beliefs (Advisory)
In Advisory groups, pose the following questions and track the student thinking on a sheet of chart paper or the whiteboard (and then take a photo).
- When everything in advisory is going well, what does our advisory look like?
- What does it sound like?
- What does it feel like?
Town Hall Meeting (Grade Level)
Possible Ground Rules:
- Stand up if you want to say something.
- One person speaks at a time (Speak up loud and clear).
- Refrain from using names (students).
- Keep your contributions respectful.
- Try to brainstorm solutions instead of focusing on problems.
- Keep your reactions to yourself (no vocal, body reactions).
- FIRST PROMPT: What are your best hopes and dreams for your first year in middle school?
- SECOND PROMPT: What are some fears you might have as you are starting sixth grade?
- THIRD PROMPT: What is a community?
BLOCK 3 (Approximately 20 minutes)
I Believe Statements (Advisory)
Advisory Classrooms - Look at the thinking generated from the previous discussion and help students translate that vision (combined with anything from the Town Hall) to ‘We believe’ Statements. These statements should be universals that guide our behavior. You might ask them if they’ve built classroom/community beliefs before and how they did that (What worked well? What was challenging?). Write the beliefs on chart paper and bring them to your Gallery Walk.
BLOCK 4 (Approximately 20 minutes)
Gallery Walk (Advisory and/or Grade Level)
To evaluate our Grade Level Beliefs, we will do a Gallery walk with Sticker Support. Each advisory will post their belief statements on the wall. Each student will receive three stickers that they will use to indicate their support for three statements. They will walk around the room at least once reading the statements. Then they will apply the stickers to the three statements they believe to be the most important/most powerful. Choose one student to send to a special meeting to generate the final list.
BLOCK 5 (Approximately 30 minutes)
Committee Work (One representative from each advisory)
To finalize our Grade Level Beliefs, a meeting with one representative from each advisory will meet to review and wordsmith the final list. This list will be shared with grade levels in Block 6 as grade levels choose.
BLOCK 6
Sharing (Advisory and/or Grade Level)
Share the finalized version with the students!
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