When students and teachers collaborate to create shared behavior expectations, the whole class is invested in the norms.
The Social Contract used at John C. Haines Elementary School in Chicago is built from the responses of four essential questions. “How do you want to be treated by me? How do you want to be treated by each other? How do you think I want to be treated by you? And how do you want to handle violations of the contract?”
With a “social contract” in place, students feel a sense of empowerment. They work collaboratively and monitor their own interactions. Students develop positive relationships with the teacher and their peers alike.
Watch this video from Edutopia, part of the Schools That Work series:
Source: Edutopia | Social Contracts Foster Community in the Classroom, https://www.edutopia.org/video/social-contracts-foster-community-classroom | © 2019 George Lucas Educational Foundation
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