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Using the Chancellor’s Discipline Code in Grades 4-12
Charlene Davis

Have you received your blue copy of the DOE’s Citywide Standards of Discipline and Intervention Measures?  Did you think, “Great, more useless reading material?” I invite you to open the booklet up to pages 10-11, the Student Responsibilities section; you may be surprised at what you’ll find.

As I scanned the booklet, looking for classroom management manna, I paused with giddy glee when I came to these pages! What excellent material for:

• Getting students involved in analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating their expected roles in their schools (yep, good ole’Blooms)! 
• Meeting several of the Principles of Learning, such as Academic Rigor, Socializing Intelligence, Accountable Talk, and Self-Management of Learning.
• Infusing elements of Cambourne’s Conditions of Learning: Responsibility, Employment, Approximation, and Response.
• Fulfilling the ELA Standards: E2a (produces an informative report), and E3b (participates in group meetings).

The plan would unfold in this way (adjust it as you see fit):

Goal
Using meta-cognitive strategies (text-self and text-world), students will evaluate the importance and necessity of each student responsibility.

Activity One:

• “Jigsaw” the 24 student responsibilities among your students: for example, six groups each having four responsibilities to work with. Assign a scribe to each group to jot down the conclusions. Each member is required to participate (I can see students being eager to voice their beliefs!). Refer to a rubric for this type of task—adjust it, where needed. Also, utilize Accountable Talk protocol.
• Each cluster of statements is written or typed onto cards, one card per statement. The following are the Accountable Talk questions: Is the statement fair? Is it necessary? Is it “do-able” or realistic? Is there a negative impact on either the student, the school, or the community if it’s not followed? Would parents/the community be in support of it? Be able to support and provide a rationale for all responses.
• Groups formulate a creative presentation summarizing their findings (book, film, posters, song, poem, etc.).

Activity Two:

• Class distills or condenses their findings and creates/adjusts their own class rules. They may also seek to evaluate the school’s Discipline Code.

Activity Three:

• Students scan the responsibilities and pull power words from them--examples: attend, achieve, prepare, etc. Discussion follows.

Activity Four:

• Students pull words pertaining to career or life skills, examples: attendance, punctuality, preparedness, etc.  Discussion follows.

Try these activities in your classroom; I'd love to hear about your results.

As always, if you have any questions or comments, feel free to e-mail me.