Guide to Tripod's 7Cs Framework - Classroom Management -Tripod Education Partners

Guide to Tripod’s 7Cs™ Framework

Classroom Management

Message to Students:

“Our class will remain orderly, on task, and respectful, with learning as our first priority.”

Download 7Cs™ Guide

Sample Student Survey Items

(for different grade levels)

Our class stays busy and does not waste time.

My classmates behave the way my teacher wants them to.

Students in this class treat the teacher with respect.

Indicators of an Exemplary Classroom

Teachers demonstrate effective classroom management through practices like these:

Managing activities

The classroom environment is organized and time is used efficiently.

The teacher explains, models, and implements routines and strategies to systematize classroom processes.
Classroom activities run smoothly due to materials being readily accessible and time being managed effectively, including during transitions and interruptions.

Managing behavior

The teacher effectively guides students in managing their behavior.

The teacher explains, models, and implements routines and strategies that elicit positive student behavior.
The teacher establishes and regularly encourages high standards for student conduct, coaches students on how to meet those standards, and holds students accountable in a fair and consistent manner.

Reflection Questions

Consider these questions as you reflect on your classroom practice:

What expectations and routines do you establish for student behavior?
How quickly do you get students settled and working at the beginning of class?
How do you make sure students in class are busy learning and not wasting time?
How long before the end of class do you start to wind down the work?

How do you respond when it appears that students are off task?
How do you respond when students treat you or each other disrespectfully?
How do you respond when students ignore or disobey what you have asked them to do?

Sample Strategies

Try implementing teaching strategies like these in your classroom:

Organize the classroom for optimal efficiency to enable student access to materials, equipment, and other resources. For example, make sure students can easily locate their classroom folders, notebooks, or texts without disrupting others.
Establish classroom routines for individual and group work, transitions, and class discussions.

Work with students to develop an agreement about expectations for classroom behavior, ask everyone to sign it, and post it publicly for regular reference.
Respond with logical consequences when students do not comply with agreed upon behavior expectations.

TEACHING RESOURCES

We’ve curated a set of teaching resources for Classroom Management. As you set goals and pursue professional learning opportunities, use these resource collections to access additional strategies, tools, and examples of effective practices in action.

Classroom Management: Managing Activities

Teachers who are effective at classroom management foster orderly, respectful, and on-task classroom behavior. They create conditions that enable learning, including establishing a positive classroom climate, teaching self-management skills, monitoring student conduct, and redirecting unproductive behavior. Find resources offering classroom strategies that support the practice of organizing the classroom environment and using time efficiently.

Student-Led Guidelines for Using Materials and Space | EL Education

eleducation.org/resources/student-led-guidelines-for-using-materials-and-space In this video, teachers engage their students in establishing and implementing classroom guidelines for efficient and productive use of tools, materials, and spaces to optimize learning. These classroom snapshots offer helpful illustrations of the power of engaging students in determining guidelines for thoughtful and productive use of learning materials …
Read More

19 Big and Small Classroom Management Strategies

www.edutopia.org/blog/big-and-small-classroom-management-strategies-todd-finley This teacher’s blog post offers a variety of practical classroom management tips and strategies that can help to establish a positive classroom climate, elicit cooperative student behavior, and keep students productively engaged in learning …
Read More

8 Tips and Tricks to Redesign Your Classroom

www.edutopia.org/blog/8-tips-and-tricks-redesign-your-classroom This article offers tips for redesigning classroom space that can help teachers strategically customize learning spaces with student input. These ideas can help teachers foster classroom conditions that promote specific modes of learning and allow for smooth and productive learning activities …
Read More

Mastering Classroom Transitions

www.edutopia.org/article/mastering-transitions-todd-finley This helpful article describes the importance of efficient transitions in the classroom and recommends a procedure for establishing effective cues to guide students in transitioning fluidly in order to make the most of instructional time. The author then offers useful suggestions for troubleshooting common problems during transitions that result …
Read More

Instructional Pacing: How Do Your Lessons Flow?

www.edutopia.org/blog/instructional-pacing-tips-rebecca-alber This blog post describes seven essentials of pacing to keep students engaged and events running smoothly in the classroom. These teaching tips include a variety of easy-to-implement strategies for keeping instruction moving at pace that maximizes learning time and keeps students focused and engaged …
Read More

Critical Practices for Anti-Bias Education: Classroom Culture

www.tolerance.org/publication/classroom-culture This resource describes teaching practices and strategies that promote a safe and respectful classroom culture in which all students can thrive. These practices include building positive relationships with students as well as establishing and reinforcing shared expectations for student behavior and interactions. Recommendations address the value of building community …
Read More

Tricks of the Trade: Classroom Management Tips for Teachers (Video Playlist)

www.edutopia.org/classroom-management-teacher-tips-video The first in this series of brief videos illustrating effective classroom management strategies features a teacher who connects personally with students as they enter his classroom with a handshake, a greeting, and a review question. This daily routine helps to foster orderly, respectful behavior, build relationships, and create a …
Read More

The Science of Effective Learning Spaces

www.edutopia.org/article/science-of-effective-learning-spaces-melina-uncapher This article articulates several factors for teachers to consider when designing a learning environment in order to promote students’ well-being and academic success. It describes how physical conditions such as light, noise, temperature, and seating arrangements can have an impact on learning and offers suggestions for how to minimize …
Read More

Morning Meetings: Creating a Safe Space for Learning

www.edutopia.org/practice/morning-meetings-creating-safe-space-learning This video and accompanying article explain and illustrate how morning meeting routines can help to create a safe environment for learning, including suggested structure and sample activities. Featured teachers demonstrate how they show concern for students’ emotional well-being and offer helpful tips to help build rapport in the classroom …
Read More

The Optimal Seating Plan? Letting Your Students Choose

www.edutopia.org/article/optimal-seating-plan-letting-your-students-choose-emelina-minero This video and accompanying article offer strategies for organizing the classroom in ways that optimize student engagement in learning. The featured teachers explain and model how they use flexible seating to meet a variety of student learning needs. Students use self-management skills and make responsible choices to create seating …
Read More

Is Your Classroom Organized for Learning? | Responsive Classroom

www.responsiveclassroom.org/is-your-classroom-organized-for-learning/ This article offers helpful suggestions for organizing classroom spaces to help students feel welcome and stay positively focused on learning. It provides useful questions and checklists to guide the design of classroom environments that accommodate a variety of learning activities and foster smooth transitions and productive learning conditions in …
Read More

Procedures for Classroom Talk

www.ascd.org/publications/books/108035/chapters/Procedures-for-Classroom-Talk.aspx This article explains the benefits of facilitating classroom discussion and offers a variety of strategies for ensuring that student conversation promotes learning, that everyone participates, and that student perspectives are respected. The authors discuss the importance of classroom talk for English language learners, and they provide practical tips for …
Read More

First Five Minutes/Last Five Minutes

eleducation.org/resources/first-five-minutes-last-five-minutes This brief video demonstrates strategies for maximizing learning time at the beginning and ending of a class, including ways to focus students, check for understanding, and consolidate learning. It offers a variety of useful examples of how teachers use entry tickets and exit tickets to establish clear routines for …
Read More

Adapting Curriculum to Learners’ Needs

eleducation.org/resources/adapting-curriculum-to-learners-needs The teacher featured in this video demonstrates how she differentiates instruction based on individual students’ learning needs so that everyone can engage in the lesson with confidence, feel supported and challenged, and achieve success. She models and explains how she personalizes instruction during a close reading lesson in ways …
Read More

From Scattered Unreadiness to Winning Teamwork

www.originsonline.org/newsletters/spring-2011-dd/scattered-unreadiness-winning-teamwork This teacher’s authentic and informative account of solving the common problem of students coming to class unprepared provides a good example of the power of positive reinforcement and of engaging students in collaborative problem-solving …
Read More

Small Groups, Big Gains

www.originsonline.org/newsletters/fall-2009-dd/small-groups-big-gains In this article, a teacher describes how she worked with students to implement, monitor, and adjust procedures to support focused student collaboration in her classroom. She tells the real story of a her efforts over time to help students become more productive in small group work, including bumps in …
Read More

Classroom Time Analysis Tool

www.timeandlearning.org/our-services This online tool is designed to help teachers track and analyze use of classroom time, which can assist in monitoring and reflecting on pacing, transitions, disruptions, engagement, and balance of learning activities. The tool makes it easy for teachers observing each other’s classrooms (or their own classroom video) to …
Read More

Reciprocal Teaching | Reading Rockets

www.readingrockets.org/strategies/reciprocal_teaching This article and video explain how to use designated group roles in order to promote interaction through student-led peer group discussion about a text. Reciprocal teaching is a technique that engages students in reading comprehension strategies including questioning, clarifying, summarizing, and predicting. Accompanying resources support classroom implementation in a …
Read More

Assigning Roles for Group Work

www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/teaching-strategies/assigning-roles-group-work This classroom strategy involves establishing roles within groups in order to focus discussion, manage time effectively, and efficiently guide student learning. Creating roles and routines for group work enables student learning by systematizing classroom procedures, distributing responsibilities for group work products, and creating structures that hold all students accountable …
Read More

Classroom Management: Managing Behavior

Teachers who are effective at classroom management foster orderly, respectful, and on-task classroom behavior. They create conditions that enable learning, including establishing a positive classroom climate, teaching self-management skills, monitoring student conduct, and redirecting unproductive behavior. Find resources offering classroom strategies that support the practice of effectively guiding students in managing their behavior.

Language and Mindset for Effective Redirection

www.originsonline.org/newsletters/winter-2011-dd/language-and-mindset-effective-redirection This article describes ten effective verbal deflectors and when to use them to to address potential conflicts before they erupt, keep students in a positive frame of mind, and maintain the momentum of a lesson. It also offers general tips for maintaining order in the classroom. These tested strategies …
Read More

Responding to Defiance in the Moment | Responsive Classroom

www.responsiveclassroom.org/responding-defiance-moment This article addresses the intertwined nature of social, emotional, and academic well-being and identifies common underlying causes for defiant student behavior. It offers practical tips for de-escalating defiance in the classroom, avoiding power struggles, redirecting unproductive behavior, and minimizing distraction for other students. It explains the value of understanding …
Read More

Talking Circles: For Restorative Justice and Beyond | Teaching Tolerance – Diversity, Equity and Justice

www.tolerance.org/blog/talking-circles-restorative-justice-and-beyond This teacher’s blog post explains how she uses Talking Circles in a variety of ways to build relationships, establish a safe and respectful learning environment, and check for understanding. She describes how she establishes norms and how she uses circles weekly in her advisory meeting and during her reading …
Read More

Contracting

www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/teaching-strategies/contracting This article describes how to create a class contract in order to establish a classroom climate where students feel respected, valued, and emotionally safe when sharing their views and offering differing perspectives. It includes recommendations for engaging students productively and collaboratively in developing shared expectations for a “reflective classroom …
Read More

Three Types of Logical Consequences | Responsive Classroom

www.responsiveclassroom.org/three-types-of-logical-consequences This brief article describes three broadly applicable strategies that can help teachers foster student self-management skills and redirect unproductive behavior in order to establish an orderly, on-task, positive classroom climate that enables student learning …
Read More

19 Big and Small Classroom Management Strategies

Mastering Classroom Transitions

The Power of Positive Relationships

www.amle.org/BrowsebyTopic/ClassroomManagement/ClassDet/TabId/183/ArtMID/787/ArticleID/185/The-Power-of-Positive-Relationships.aspx This article offers general suggestions for building positive relationships with and among students and specific strategies for putting them into practice in the classroom. The list includes recommendations related to clarifying expectations, getting to know students individually, and holding their attention during instruction …
Read More

Critical Practices for Anti-Bias Education: Classroom Culture

Social Contract, Proactive Discipline Help Science Students and their Teacher

www.originsonline.org/newsletters/winter-2012-dd/social-contract-proactive-discipline-help-science-students-and-their In this article, a middle school science teacher explains her success in shifting from a reactive to a proactive approach to discipline and how establishing positive relationships can help to maintain a smoothly functioning classroom. Beginning the school year by surveying students about their learning needs and developing a …
Read More

Building a Positive, Trusting Classroom Environment

www.edutopia.org/blog/building-positive-trusting-classroom-jose-vilson This teacher blog post articulates the importance of cultivating an emotionally safe learning environment in the classroom. The author offers a few helpful strategies for developing supportive relationships with students, encouraging positive behavior, and responding to students in ways that take into account their social and emotional learning needs …
Read More

Tricks of the Trade: Classroom Management Tips for Teachers (Video Playlist)

Using Dialogue Circles to Support Classroom Management

www.edutopia.org/practice/stw-glenview-practice-dialogue-circles-video In this video, a teacher describes and demonstrates how she uses dialogue circles to cultivate an emotionally safe learning environment and respond to students\u2019 social and emotional needs in order to help them stay focused on achieving their full potential. The accompanying article suggests strategies for using circles to …
Read More

The Science of Effective Learning Spaces

Helping Troubled Students, One Relationship at a Time

www.edutopia.org/article/helping-troubled-students-through-relationships-david-bulley This article explains the intertwined nature of social, emotional, and academic well-being and provides tips for developing supportive, personalized relationships with students in order to cultivate an emotionally and academically safe learning environment. The author grounds his suggestions in his experience working with students and colleagues, and he tells …
Read More

Conversation Management

www.originsonline.org/educator-help/conversation-management This article articulates methods for cultivating productive classroom conversation and establishing a climate that encourages participation. It offers helpful guidance on establishing and maintaining conversation norms, as well as a variety of practical strategies for managing participation, including what to model and practice for each …
Read More

Morning Meetings: Creating a Safe Space for Learning

Why Restorative Practices Benefit All Students

www.edutopia.org/blog/why-restorative-practices-benefit-all-students-maurice-elias In this brief interview, a research scientist explains the negative impact of stress and punitive disciplinary measures on students and urges teachers to use preventive restorative practices with all students. The approach described helps to foster students’ self-management skills and build a greater sense of community in order to …
Read More

Creating Community All Day Long

www.originsonline.org/newsletters/winter-2009-dd-0/creating-community-all-day-long In this article, a teacher recommends several strategies for building relationships with students and inviting their input on classroom activities. She makes a good case for why investing time in developing positive relationships and building community promotes engagement and assists with classroom management, and she shares some practical strategies …
Read More

From Scattered Unreadiness to Winning Teamwork

Cracking the Behavior Code

www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/oct12/vol70/num02/Cracking-the-Behavior-Code.aspx This article offers practical strategies for addressing the behavior of students who are oppositional, withdrawn, or anxious, sharing tools for uncovering the source of the behavior and responding productively. It articulates a useful framework for creating plans that address issues with disruptive students and includes specific strategies that work …
Read More