Description of the Lesson/Program

This lesson is from the book Practicing Judicious Discipline: An Educators Guide to a Democratic Classroom. The purpose of this entire book is to teach students to be successful in a democratic classroom. They would learn the rights and responsibilities they have in their classroom. Judicious Discipline also guides teacher/student professional relationships to function ethically. In judicious discipline, students are recognized and valued in what they bring to the educational experience.

The lesson chosen out of this book is Establishing Judicious Discipline in the Primary Classroom. The objective of this lesson is to encourage students to determine why rules are important and to help them realize that there are reasons for rule use in classroom decisions. The appropriate age group is K-3. The time for this lesson is about 30 minutes. Materials required for this lesson are crayons, paper, scissors, glue, large piece of paper cut to a bulletin board size, an illustration of a scale, and an actual scale.

The lesson begins with the students making a small paper model of themselves. Have the students place their paper model on the actual scale. Ask a student to move his or her model to the side with none. Then ask the students how they could make the scale balance. It is helpful to explain to the children that everyday they come to school and their teacher is trying to balance everyone’s rights and that it is hard to do so without rules.

The next part of the lesson is to ask the students what their rights are. The rights of the students should be asked, explained and corrected if they are not correct.

After the rights have been discussed, the responsibilities in the classroom should be discussed. Examples of balancing the scale should be given. An example of this would be to discuss the difference between running and walking in the hall, which one would be disruptive. The scale should be tipped more to the side of running and little for walking. Students should be informed that when they run they are threatening the safety of others and it is their responsibility to move around other’s safely. A few more examples should then be discussed.

The last part of the lesson should be to review the rights the students have selected. Select a student to represent those rights, then explain that all students in the classroom have these rights. Have the students glue their pictures on one side of the scale to illustrate the side that represents their rights. After this is might be good to review what was covered during this lesson.

Connections to Related Standards, Competencies, and Domains

Establishing Judicious Discipline in the Primary Classroom related to the Minnesota Graduation Standard Number Seven. Standard Seven related according to subparts four, six and seven. Those subparts are diverse perspectives, institutions and traditions in society, and community interaction.

Under the National Occupational Information Coordinating Committee this lesson meets self-knowledge for Elementary. It meets self-knowledge through skills to interact with others.

The Minnesota School Counselors’ Model of Developmental Guidance and Counseling is met through the Personal/Social Domain. This domain is met through self-understanding, social skills, self-identity, personal responsibilities, and positive decision-making skills.

References and Resources

McEwan, B. (1994). Practicing Judicious Discipline: An Educators Guide to A Democratic Classroom. San Francisco, CA: Caddo Gap Press.