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Heading back into the classroom at the beginning of a new school year, I know that one of the things on your mind as you set up your music program is how to develop classroom expectations, norms, or rules. As you consider how this will look in your music or ensemble room, I want to encourage you to place the cultivation of community at the center of your thinking around classroom expectations, or norms.
So, let’s talk about boundaries, community, and how we can utilize class norms in order to encourage a healthy music classroom community.
Boundaries: Necessary for Every Healthy Relationship
Rules, expectations, class norms: whatever they are called, the ultimate goal is for there to be boundaries in the music classroom environment. A common misconception about centering learner voice and choice (which is a critical component of Culturally Responsive Pedagogy), is that learners are running “wild” and doing whatever they want. This is untrue.
Every good relationship has boundaries. In fact, boundaries are necessary for every healthy relationship, and developing relationships are such an important part of a supportive music classroom environment! Boundaries are how we communicate the needs that one has. Expressing your own boundaries and respecting the boundaries of others are how we show care for both ourselves and others. And showing care is an essential part of cultivating a culturally responsive music classroom environment.
Where I think some music educators get off track with classroom expectations is that they are only expressing their own boundaries and not making space for the boundaries of their young musicians. We see this in class rules/expectations that say something to the effect of “Only speak when called on” or “Use the bathroom before class.” Here, the teacher is expressing their boundaries, or their needs in order for them to feel respected and cared for and to do their best work as teachers. Unfortunately, these types of expectations don’t make room for the boundaries, or needs, of their students.
Let me clear, teachers absolutely should express their own boundaries! We are human beings with needs after all and in order for us to do our best work, we need our needs to be met as well. AND we need to be sure that in addition to our own boundaries as the teacher in the room, that we also make space for the boundaries of our students.
Encouraging Community
Cultivating a community is hard work. It requires us to both account for our own needs and wants AND for the needs and wants of others. Culturally responsive music programs are built upon strong and affirming communities of musicians. In order to partake in the kind of deeper level thinking and understanding that is a critical piece of Culturally Responsive Pedagogy, all of our learners must be learning in an environment that feels safe, affirming, and where they feel that they belong. You can’t do your best work if you don’t feel safe, and you certainly will not take the risks needed to get to deeper levels of musicianship if you don’t feel safe.
As we consider how to cultivate a safe and affirming music community in our programs, being clear about the boundaries is an important piece.
Making space for all students to share what they need (boundaries) and working together to figure out how to make sure everyone’s needs are met is critical for establishing a strong musical community where all of our young musicians thrive.
Two Approaches For Developing Music Class Norms that Affirm and Encourage Community
Let’s talk about two approaches you can take when developing your music class norms that will affirm your young musicians and also encourage community.
The first approach is that you select three or four basic needs or expectations. For example: “Be safe, be respectful, be responsible.” I encourage you to select ones that are not music dependent so that you can help your young musicians to see how these are basic needs that people in general need and that by tuning into them it will be helpful not just in the singular space of the music or ensemble room, but in their lives.
Using these three or four basic needs as the jumping off point, encourage discussion with and among your students about what each one means to them, how it feels, what it would look like, and how it would sound.
It’s especially important to hear from your students what each of the basic needs or expectations you’ve selected mean to them, because everyone’s perspective is different. What being respectful to one person looks like, will look different for another person. Much of that is cultural, and this is why it’s important to make space for student voice here so that you can directly hear from them what it looks like from their perspective.
Oftentimes, miscommunication occurs because we forget that we can only really operate from our own perspective (which is informed by our own culture) and we sometimes forget that others’ perspectives are different—not better or worse, good or bad—just different.
As you facilitate discussion with your young musicians about each of the expectations/norms, also help them to articulate what each will mean for their particular musical community. For example, showing respect in one particular band class may look like not talking over each other so that everyone gets a chance to share. Place an emphasis on caring for oneself and each other during these discussions.
I will also mention that these kinds of discussions where the students are sharing what they need and want require vulnerability. Feeling safe enough to be vulnerable and speak to what your specific needs are does not happen in one or two class periods! I encourage you to NOT have these conversations about expectations and norms during the first few times you meet with students. Instead, use the first few class meetings to welcome everyone, set a few basic expectations, and begin to develop positive rapport. During these first few class periods you’ll want to of course give guidance and some basic expectations for safety’s sake (and your sanity!), but then once you’ve established some rapport, you can facilitate deeper discussion about expectations and norms and begin to co-create them with your students.
The second approach, is that you don’t create any expectations or norms at all, and instead facilitate your young musicians’ creation of them.
As I just mentioned, this requires vulnerability so you wouldn’t do this in the first few class meetings. But once you feel good about the students feeling comfortable and that they’re beginning to develop positive rapport, then you can facilitate them creating their own class norms.
Consider asking questions like:
- What do you like to learn?
- How do you like to learn?
- What do you need in order to be successful in music class and enjoy learning?
Guide your students to make a big list of what norms they would need in order to do their best work. They could do this individually, in small groups, or even in whole group (although I will say that quieter students will have an easier time expressing their needs individually or in small groups).
After you have a big list from the students, group their statements together based upon similarities and help them to narrow the list down to three to four class norms.
I’ll also mention that if you have a whole lot of classes (ex. Elementary general music teachers often see every class in the school!), you may not want every single class to have their own set of class norms because that is not sustainable for you—and that’s ok! You may instead have each class or ensemble narrow down their list, then you look for similarities across all classes, and then choose three to four expectations.
Pro tip: I have found the most success with this working in schools where all or most teachers were engaging in this kind of common class norm/expectations development. Coming together as a team with your colleagues to narrow the norms down so that students are encountering the same norms across classroom settings is preferable, even if it’s just one grade level at a time, or the other Visual and Performing Arts teachers. It increases students’ sense of psychological safety when there is only one set of norms rather than five.
For some additional guidance, be sure to download your free copy of my resource, “Guide to Cultivating a Welcoming Environment In Your Music Program“!
Defining Boundaries to Define a Community: An Important Facet of Culturally Responsive & Accessible Music Rooms
However you decide to establish and communicate classroom norms or expectations in your music program, be sure that you are centering student voice always. It serves two purposes: 1. Creating the norms and expectations themselves, and 2. Demonstrating through action that their voices are important.
I would love to know how you establish classroom norms and expectations in your music program at the beginning of the year! Share below or share on social media and tag me: I’m @ACuthbertson10 on Twitter & Instagram, and @ACuthbertsonConsulting on Facebook.
Also, let me know what you think of this post! If you haven’t already, be sure to sign up for my email newsletter where I send blog posts and other music ed resources and tips each week to help support you ensure all of your young musicians thrive.
Until next time,
Ashley