Classroom Routines: Structure & Engagement

• Routines are repetitive, predictable tasks that students carry out in the classroom
• They provide clear expectations for student behaviors and academic requirements
• Routines can include transitions, attention-getters, entries/exits, group work, and homework
• Routines have long-term impacts on students

Importance of Routines

• Offer structure to the classroom
• Optimize limited learning time
• Create a safe learning environment
• Provide predictability for students, helping them navigate learning and transition between tasks smoothly
• Increase engagement and active participation
• Improve students' executive functioning skills

Implementing Routines

• Routines should be chosen based on student needs or in response to challenging situations
• Routines MUST be explicitly taught, involving introduction, modeling, practice with support, and independent completion
• Thoroughly explain routines to students, including their necessity and expectations
• Re-teaching may be needed in some situations to maintain effectiveness, along with praise from the teacher

Changing Routines

• Managed via a feedback system where the teacher constantly assesses student needs in relation to the routine
• Changes can reduce unwanted outcomes and behaviors
• Changes can be short-term or long-term, depending on situation-specific circumstances
• Routines must be flexible enough to adapt to student needs
• Routines serve as pedagogical decisions supporting teachers and students on individual, classroom-specific, or organizational levels
• Long-term and short-term changes can be effective, but differentiation between the two can be vague

Visual Thinking Routines

• Multifaceted, instructional approach to routines
• Make student thinking visual through mindmaps, lists, diagrams, etc.
• Individual and collaborative VTRs build skills of induction, deduction, reasoning, and classification
• Having students show their thinking visually allows them to recognize relationships between facts, form a deep understanding, and use instructional time effectively
• Visual thinking routines support instruction, explore materials, synthesize ideas, and develop patterned behaviors with clear expectations

Executive Function and Regulated Learning

• Routines are powerful in developing student executive functions like working memory, cognitive flexibility, and inhibition
• Improvement can be targeted by routines centering around emotional regulation
• Developing executive functioning skills lessens cognitive load for everyday tasks through improved organization, time management, self-monitoring, and emotional control
• The impact can be life-long
• Routines and emotional regulation are connected
• Core elements of regulated learning:
  • Appropriate goals
  • Use of regulation strategies
  • Feedback loop during learning
  • Learning is embedded socially, requiring individual and collaborative regulation
• These elements introduce new routines effectively and smoothly, positively impacting student emotional regulation

Key Takeaways

• Routines are valuable in the classroom
• They have positive, long-lasting impacts
• They meet student needs, optimize class time, and manage behaviors
• Routines communicate expectations effectively acting as a classroom management and learning assessment tool