Teaching Students to Take More Responsibility

Encouraging More Responsible Behavior in the Classroom

Dec 10, 2008

It is important to teach your students to be more responsible for themselves, their classwork and their classmates.

Students forget their homework, leave their name off of assignments, pass notes in class and make excuse after excuse for poor behavior. Teaching them to take more responsibility for their actions and school work is an excellent lesson not only for your class, but for life as well. Here are some simple ideas that will help these students begin to be more responsible for themselves.

Scaffold Student Privileges

Create a reward system out of classroom privileges that encourages student responsibility. The Bible says in Matthew 25:21 "His master replied 'well done good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things..." [New International Version]. Using this Biblical concept in your classroom will teach students that the more responsible they are with the little things, the more privileges and responsibilities they will be given.

Make a list of simple responsibilities such as remembering to put your name on your paper, and turning in homework. This list should be comprised of any responsibilities your students frequently neglect. Then create a list of privileges. This list can include classroom jobs like paper passer, board cleaner and errand runner. You can also create bigger "responsibilities" to reward students with, such as class note taker who keeps notes of everything learned in class for any student who may be absent.

Once your two lists are created, take all of the things listed on the privileges list away from your students, and explain that as they prove that they can be responsible in the little things, they will be given more responsibility. Be sure to reward students as quickly as possible, and make a big deal about each student who moves up the list of privileges. This should motivate the rest of the students to try to be responsible as well.

Student Challenge to Responsibility

Set a goal for your students that upon reaching, they receive a great reward. For example, if there is a problem in your classroom with students not turning in homework, tell the students that once everyone in the class turns in their homework, they will all get a second recess that day. You can also use this idea to motivate students to all pass a test with a certain grade. For example, if everyone passes this math test at an 80% or better, they will get a pizza party.

Teamwork to Encourage Responsibility

Pair students up as support partners and provide each pair with a list of responsibilities. These should include things like completing homework, paying attention in class, and any other things that seem to be problematic in your classroom. Then explain that each student is to hold their partner responsible for completing each responsibility on the list. There can even be a prize for the pair who proves to be the most responsible over the course of a week.

When struggling to get your students to show more responsibility for themselves and their work, a little creativity can go a long way towards teaching them a lesson. Teaching them teamwork, responsibility and how to work towards a goal will not only help your students in the short term while in your classroom, but will provide important life lessons as well.

The copyright of the article Teaching Students to Take More Responsibility in New Teacher Support is owned by Jennifer Wagaman. Permission to republish Teaching Students to Take More Responsibility in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.