Grade-Level Classroom Policies and Procedures Drafting Tips

The beginning of a school year brings about many administrative tasks, one of which being the creation of classroom policies and procedures. There are a few important writing rules that a teacher should keep in mind during the creation process. As with all professional writing, deciding on a purpose for writing is the first step. When creating classroom procedures, the purpose may need more thought than other areas, because of the need to tailor them to each teacher’s personal rules and beliefs.

Following the professional writing steps, the audience is the next to be considered. Depending on the age of the children each teacher sees during a day, writing policies and procedures in paragraph form may not be an option. Paragraphs could be an option with the 9th-12th grade range, but middle school students tend to need a more basic approach to the introduction of rules. For the 6th-8th grade age group, the use of subtitles and lists work well to get the point across quickly. This also allows for the ease of finding certain rules quickly when a student has broken one, and needs to review the policies.

While writing, a teacher must consider exactly how detailed he or she wants to be in this particular writing process. When going over the policies and procedures, teachers are going to want each rule to be basic and self-explanatory so that there is no room for interpretation. It is very important that the policies cover all possible instances, normal and abnormal, of misbehavior. By following these reminders when drafting your set of rules, you should find your students well informed and positive about the year ahead.

Resources: Mebane Middle School 7th grade Math teacher, and 6th grade Reading/Language Arts teacher.