Creating and successfully implementing a behavior rubric in middle school is a tough task - but we’re here to help!
When our little 5th graders returned to school in the fall, they were not so little anymore - in stature or attitude! In many districts, 6th grade is the official start of middle school. How I managed students in 6th grade was much different from how I managed them in 5th.
Even today, all of my middle school teacher friends tell me the same is true for how they treat their 7th graders versus their 8th graders. To help students succeed, it is important to have a clear and consistent middle school behavior rubric.
Arguably, it may be the most important period in a student’s academic career to implement this. It may also, very likely, be the first time they are seeing one.
A behavior rubric is a tool that can be used to assess student behavior. It can help teachers identify areas where students need improvement and provide them with feedback. It also tracks progress over time.
Any behavior rubric should be specific and measurable and aligned with the school's expectations for student behavior. It should also be as clear and concise as possible. Most important, it should ensure that all students are held to the same standards.
Behavior management challenges in middle school grades are very different from elementary school. As they leave elementary school and prepare to go to high school, students face all sorts of new academic and social demands.
Oftentimes middle schoolers don’t know how to respond or react in a variety of new situations they are confronted with. You regularly hear about students who may have never exhibited behavior issues before, suddenly starting to “test the waters.”
But this is normal, as frustrating as it can be sometimes. Middle schoolers are learning to navigate relationships all around them, including those with their teachers and administrators.
Creating and successfully implementing a behavior rubric in middle school is no easy task, especially when folks in your school building may be brand new to it. Like most things that are worthwhile, it takes time, planning, and patience, but it does pay off.
Behavior rubrics will be and should be unique to each school. No two schools have the same dynamics, and therefore there is not a “one size fits all” approach.
But you can learn a lot by previewing how other schools are managing behavior on their campuses. Here are a few examples of middle school rubrics that have been effectively implemented:
This approach uses your general values as the basis of your rubric, such as the 3 Rs: Respect, Responsibility, and Ready to Learn. For a great example of a values-based rubric, take a look at the rubric at Cardinal Middle School.
SEL skills help students regulate feelings and emotions, leading to growth and maturity. Giving points for things like focus and leadership, grit, and determination, really help to build students’ self-esteem.
For a great example detailing how you can mesh SEL with PBIS, take a look at the behavior rubric being utilized at Freedom Crossing Academy.
Organize your rubric by area, such as gym, cafeteria, hallways, etc. Give each location a set of specific behavior expectations.
South Valley Middle School submitted an excellent example of a location-based behavior rubric that you can use to model your own.
Each letter in the acronym serves as a rubric category with expected behaviors as the rubric items under each. Hemlock Middle School uses PAWS acronym for their rubric.
Keep in mind that you don’t have to pick one specific type of rubric - it can be a combination of these. Again, middle school behavior rubrics are designed to meet the needs of individual schools, so everyone will look slightly different.
Let’s take a look at some tips and advice for creating your own behavior rubric.
When developing your behavior rubric, consider the behaviors you want to encourage and those you want to discourage. This might sound straightforward, but take the time to consider which are the most important.
Another approach to creating a behavior rubric is to take a rubric(s) already developed (such as the examples in the previous section) and modify it to meet your school’s needs.
Ideally, you’ll want to get a small team of people to create an initial draft of the rubric. You could even include students in the process, as Wirt High School does.
They should represent a nice cross-section of your building. But even after the first draft, be sure to get feedback from all stakeholders.
Take their recommendations and suggestions strongly into consideration. If everyone feels they are contributing to the process, you are much more likely to get widespread buy-in.
Consider piloting the rubric with a small group of students to get feedback before using it with a larger group. When you create a rubric, the decision of whether or not to use positive and negative points is up to the individual school.
Many schools choose to give positive PBIS points only. There are both pros and cons to both approaches, and it is important to weigh the benefits and drawbacks of each before making a decision.
Even after the rubric has been rolled out, it is not set in stone. Take time to regularly gather feedback on what everyone feels is working well, and perhaps could be better, and make adjustments to your rubric accordingly.
There are more obvious benefits of a middle school behavior rubric, such as creating a positive and productive learning environment, improving student behavior and academic achievement, and reducing discipline problems.
And then there are the less obvious, but perhaps even more beneficial, outcomes.
The creation and implementation of a behavior rubric helps to build a positive culture in your building.
In the past few years, school culture has suffered immensely and many schools find themselves in a rebuilding process. Forming a team of staff and students that can create and implement a behavior rubric can help forge relationships that are otherwise unlikely to occur.
The team you form and the rubric itself should have these three basic goals in mind:
In addition, by having both adults and kids take part in the middle school behavior rubric process, you are reminding all parties involved of the core values you cherish in your building.
Things like respect, dedication, excellence, safety, and accountability, should be at the forefront of everyone’s minds, in all that they do.
If you choose to include SEL traits like self-awareness and self-management in your rubric, it will force everyone to make a more conscious effort to include these in their teaching and learning practices as well.
At the end of the day, one of the biggest benefits of behavior rubrics is that they ensure all students are treated fairly. It establishes a code of conduct for everyone to follow, and hopefully, one that students will carry with them throughout their lives.
Middle school behavior rubrics can be useful for:
Be sure to include all stakeholders - staff, students, parents, board members, etc. - in the implementation process. When everyone is on the same page and feels their voice matters, you are much more likely to be positively met.
When our little 5th graders returned to school in the fall, they were not so little anymore - in stature or attitude! In many districts, 6th grade is the official start of middle school. How I managed students in 6th grade was much different from how I managed them in 5th.
Even today, all of my middle school teacher friends tell me the same is true for how they treat their 7th graders versus their 8th graders. To help students succeed, it is important to have a clear and consistent middle school behavior rubric.
Arguably, it may be the most important period in a student’s academic career to implement this. It may also, very likely, be the first time they are seeing one.
A behavior rubric is a tool that can be used to assess student behavior. It can help teachers identify areas where students need improvement and provide them with feedback. It also tracks progress over time.
Any behavior rubric should be specific and measurable and aligned with the school's expectations for student behavior. It should also be as clear and concise as possible. Most important, it should ensure that all students are held to the same standards.
Behavior management challenges in middle school grades are very different from elementary school. As they leave elementary school and prepare to go to high school, students face all sorts of new academic and social demands.
Oftentimes middle schoolers don’t know how to respond or react in a variety of new situations they are confronted with. You regularly hear about students who may have never exhibited behavior issues before, suddenly starting to “test the waters.”
But this is normal, as frustrating as it can be sometimes. Middle schoolers are learning to navigate relationships all around them, including those with their teachers and administrators.
Creating and successfully implementing a behavior rubric in middle school is no easy task, especially when folks in your school building may be brand new to it. Like most things that are worthwhile, it takes time, planning, and patience, but it does pay off.
Behavior rubrics will be and should be unique to each school. No two schools have the same dynamics, and therefore there is not a “one size fits all” approach.
But you can learn a lot by previewing how other schools are managing behavior on their campuses. Here are a few examples of middle school rubrics that have been effectively implemented:
This approach uses your general values as the basis of your rubric, such as the 3 Rs: Respect, Responsibility, and Ready to Learn. For a great example of a values-based rubric, take a look at the rubric at Cardinal Middle School.
SEL skills help students regulate feelings and emotions, leading to growth and maturity. Giving points for things like focus and leadership, grit, and determination, really help to build students’ self-esteem.
For a great example detailing how you can mesh SEL with PBIS, take a look at the behavior rubric being utilized at Freedom Crossing Academy.
Organize your rubric by area, such as gym, cafeteria, hallways, etc. Give each location a set of specific behavior expectations.
South Valley Middle School submitted an excellent example of a location-based behavior rubric that you can use to model your own.
Each letter in the acronym serves as a rubric category with expected behaviors as the rubric items under each. Hemlock Middle School uses PAWS acronym for their rubric.
Keep in mind that you don’t have to pick one specific type of rubric - it can be a combination of these. Again, middle school behavior rubrics are designed to meet the needs of individual schools, so everyone will look slightly different.
Let’s take a look at some tips and advice for creating your own behavior rubric.
When developing your behavior rubric, consider the behaviors you want to encourage and those you want to discourage. This might sound straightforward, but take the time to consider which are the most important.
Another approach to creating a behavior rubric is to take a rubric(s) already developed (such as the examples in the previous section) and modify it to meet your school’s needs.
Ideally, you’ll want to get a small team of people to create an initial draft of the rubric. You could even include students in the process, as Wirt High School does.
They should represent a nice cross-section of your building. But even after the first draft, be sure to get feedback from all stakeholders.
Take their recommendations and suggestions strongly into consideration. If everyone feels they are contributing to the process, you are much more likely to get widespread buy-in.
Consider piloting the rubric with a small group of students to get feedback before using it with a larger group. When you create a rubric, the decision of whether or not to use positive and negative points is up to the individual school.
Many schools choose to give positive PBIS points only. There are both pros and cons to both approaches, and it is important to weigh the benefits and drawbacks of each before making a decision.
Even after the rubric has been rolled out, it is not set in stone. Take time to regularly gather feedback on what everyone feels is working well, and perhaps could be better, and make adjustments to your rubric accordingly.
There are more obvious benefits of a middle school behavior rubric, such as creating a positive and productive learning environment, improving student behavior and academic achievement, and reducing discipline problems.
And then there are the less obvious, but perhaps even more beneficial, outcomes.
The creation and implementation of a behavior rubric helps to build a positive culture in your building.
In the past few years, school culture has suffered immensely and many schools find themselves in a rebuilding process. Forming a team of staff and students that can create and implement a behavior rubric can help forge relationships that are otherwise unlikely to occur.
The team you form and the rubric itself should have these three basic goals in mind:
In addition, by having both adults and kids take part in the middle school behavior rubric process, you are reminding all parties involved of the core values you cherish in your building.
Things like respect, dedication, excellence, safety, and accountability, should be at the forefront of everyone’s minds, in all that they do.
If you choose to include SEL traits like self-awareness and self-management in your rubric, it will force everyone to make a more conscious effort to include these in their teaching and learning practices as well.
At the end of the day, one of the biggest benefits of behavior rubrics is that they ensure all students are treated fairly. It establishes a code of conduct for everyone to follow, and hopefully, one that students will carry with them throughout their lives.
Middle school behavior rubrics can be useful for:
Be sure to include all stakeholders - staff, students, parents, board members, etc. - in the implementation process. When everyone is on the same page and feels their voice matters, you are much more likely to be positively met.
When our little 5th graders returned to school in the fall, they were not so little anymore - in stature or attitude! In many districts, 6th grade is the official start of middle school. How I managed students in 6th grade was much different from how I managed them in 5th.
Even today, all of my middle school teacher friends tell me the same is true for how they treat their 7th graders versus their 8th graders. To help students succeed, it is important to have a clear and consistent middle school behavior rubric.
Arguably, it may be the most important period in a student’s academic career to implement this. It may also, very likely, be the first time they are seeing one.
A behavior rubric is a tool that can be used to assess student behavior. It can help teachers identify areas where students need improvement and provide them with feedback. It also tracks progress over time.
Any behavior rubric should be specific and measurable and aligned with the school's expectations for student behavior. It should also be as clear and concise as possible. Most important, it should ensure that all students are held to the same standards.
Behavior management challenges in middle school grades are very different from elementary school. As they leave elementary school and prepare to go to high school, students face all sorts of new academic and social demands.
Oftentimes middle schoolers don’t know how to respond or react in a variety of new situations they are confronted with. You regularly hear about students who may have never exhibited behavior issues before, suddenly starting to “test the waters.”
But this is normal, as frustrating as it can be sometimes. Middle schoolers are learning to navigate relationships all around them, including those with their teachers and administrators.
Creating and successfully implementing a behavior rubric in middle school is no easy task, especially when folks in your school building may be brand new to it. Like most things that are worthwhile, it takes time, planning, and patience, but it does pay off.
Behavior rubrics will be and should be unique to each school. No two schools have the same dynamics, and therefore there is not a “one size fits all” approach.
But you can learn a lot by previewing how other schools are managing behavior on their campuses. Here are a few examples of middle school rubrics that have been effectively implemented:
This approach uses your general values as the basis of your rubric, such as the 3 Rs: Respect, Responsibility, and Ready to Learn. For a great example of a values-based rubric, take a look at the rubric at Cardinal Middle School.
SEL skills help students regulate feelings and emotions, leading to growth and maturity. Giving points for things like focus and leadership, grit, and determination, really help to build students’ self-esteem.
For a great example detailing how you can mesh SEL with PBIS, take a look at the behavior rubric being utilized at Freedom Crossing Academy.
Organize your rubric by area, such as gym, cafeteria, hallways, etc. Give each location a set of specific behavior expectations.
South Valley Middle School submitted an excellent example of a location-based behavior rubric that you can use to model your own.
Each letter in the acronym serves as a rubric category with expected behaviors as the rubric items under each. Hemlock Middle School uses PAWS acronym for their rubric.
Keep in mind that you don’t have to pick one specific type of rubric - it can be a combination of these. Again, middle school behavior rubrics are designed to meet the needs of individual schools, so everyone will look slightly different.
Let’s take a look at some tips and advice for creating your own behavior rubric.
When developing your behavior rubric, consider the behaviors you want to encourage and those you want to discourage. This might sound straightforward, but take the time to consider which are the most important.
Another approach to creating a behavior rubric is to take a rubric(s) already developed (such as the examples in the previous section) and modify it to meet your school’s needs.
Ideally, you’ll want to get a small team of people to create an initial draft of the rubric. You could even include students in the process, as Wirt High School does.
They should represent a nice cross-section of your building. But even after the first draft, be sure to get feedback from all stakeholders.
Take their recommendations and suggestions strongly into consideration. If everyone feels they are contributing to the process, you are much more likely to get widespread buy-in.
Consider piloting the rubric with a small group of students to get feedback before using it with a larger group. When you create a rubric, the decision of whether or not to use positive and negative points is up to the individual school.
Many schools choose to give positive PBIS points only. There are both pros and cons to both approaches, and it is important to weigh the benefits and drawbacks of each before making a decision.
Even after the rubric has been rolled out, it is not set in stone. Take time to regularly gather feedback on what everyone feels is working well, and perhaps could be better, and make adjustments to your rubric accordingly.
There are more obvious benefits of a middle school behavior rubric, such as creating a positive and productive learning environment, improving student behavior and academic achievement, and reducing discipline problems.
And then there are the less obvious, but perhaps even more beneficial, outcomes.
The creation and implementation of a behavior rubric helps to build a positive culture in your building.
In the past few years, school culture has suffered immensely and many schools find themselves in a rebuilding process. Forming a team of staff and students that can create and implement a behavior rubric can help forge relationships that are otherwise unlikely to occur.
The team you form and the rubric itself should have these three basic goals in mind:
In addition, by having both adults and kids take part in the middle school behavior rubric process, you are reminding all parties involved of the core values you cherish in your building.
Things like respect, dedication, excellence, safety, and accountability, should be at the forefront of everyone’s minds, in all that they do.
If you choose to include SEL traits like self-awareness and self-management in your rubric, it will force everyone to make a more conscious effort to include these in their teaching and learning practices as well.
At the end of the day, one of the biggest benefits of behavior rubrics is that they ensure all students are treated fairly. It establishes a code of conduct for everyone to follow, and hopefully, one that students will carry with them throughout their lives.
Middle school behavior rubrics can be useful for:
Be sure to include all stakeholders - staff, students, parents, board members, etc. - in the implementation process. When everyone is on the same page and feels their voice matters, you are much more likely to be positively met.
Becky Thal currently works as an edtech consultant in the field of marketing. Previous roles have included 5th grade math/science teacher and advertising executive. Becky is active in many online communities, as well as her local community. She is always open to collaborating on new projects! In her spare time, Becky enjoys trips to the beach, trying new restaurants, and attending her kids’ various sports games and events. She lives with her husband, three children, and Labradoodle, in New Jersey.
When our little 5th graders returned to school in the fall, they were not so little anymore - in stature or attitude! In many districts, 6th grade is the official start of middle school. How I managed students in 6th grade was much different from how I managed them in 5th.
Even today, all of my middle school teacher friends tell me the same is true for how they treat their 7th graders versus their 8th graders. To help students succeed, it is important to have a clear and consistent middle school behavior rubric.
Arguably, it may be the most important period in a student’s academic career to implement this. It may also, very likely, be the first time they are seeing one.
A behavior rubric is a tool that can be used to assess student behavior. It can help teachers identify areas where students need improvement and provide them with feedback. It also tracks progress over time.
Any behavior rubric should be specific and measurable and aligned with the school's expectations for student behavior. It should also be as clear and concise as possible. Most important, it should ensure that all students are held to the same standards.
Behavior management challenges in middle school grades are very different from elementary school. As they leave elementary school and prepare to go to high school, students face all sorts of new academic and social demands.
Oftentimes middle schoolers don’t know how to respond or react in a variety of new situations they are confronted with. You regularly hear about students who may have never exhibited behavior issues before, suddenly starting to “test the waters.”
But this is normal, as frustrating as it can be sometimes. Middle schoolers are learning to navigate relationships all around them, including those with their teachers and administrators.
Creating and successfully implementing a behavior rubric in middle school is no easy task, especially when folks in your school building may be brand new to it. Like most things that are worthwhile, it takes time, planning, and patience, but it does pay off.
Behavior rubrics will be and should be unique to each school. No two schools have the same dynamics, and therefore there is not a “one size fits all” approach.
But you can learn a lot by previewing how other schools are managing behavior on their campuses. Here are a few examples of middle school rubrics that have been effectively implemented:
This approach uses your general values as the basis of your rubric, such as the 3 Rs: Respect, Responsibility, and Ready to Learn. For a great example of a values-based rubric, take a look at the rubric at Cardinal Middle School.
SEL skills help students regulate feelings and emotions, leading to growth and maturity. Giving points for things like focus and leadership, grit, and determination, really help to build students’ self-esteem.
For a great example detailing how you can mesh SEL with PBIS, take a look at the behavior rubric being utilized at Freedom Crossing Academy.
Organize your rubric by area, such as gym, cafeteria, hallways, etc. Give each location a set of specific behavior expectations.
South Valley Middle School submitted an excellent example of a location-based behavior rubric that you can use to model your own.
Each letter in the acronym serves as a rubric category with expected behaviors as the rubric items under each. Hemlock Middle School uses PAWS acronym for their rubric.
Keep in mind that you don’t have to pick one specific type of rubric - it can be a combination of these. Again, middle school behavior rubrics are designed to meet the needs of individual schools, so everyone will look slightly different.
Let’s take a look at some tips and advice for creating your own behavior rubric.
When developing your behavior rubric, consider the behaviors you want to encourage and those you want to discourage. This might sound straightforward, but take the time to consider which are the most important.
Another approach to creating a behavior rubric is to take a rubric(s) already developed (such as the examples in the previous section) and modify it to meet your school’s needs.
Ideally, you’ll want to get a small team of people to create an initial draft of the rubric. You could even include students in the process, as Wirt High School does.
They should represent a nice cross-section of your building. But even after the first draft, be sure to get feedback from all stakeholders.
Take their recommendations and suggestions strongly into consideration. If everyone feels they are contributing to the process, you are much more likely to get widespread buy-in.
Consider piloting the rubric with a small group of students to get feedback before using it with a larger group. When you create a rubric, the decision of whether or not to use positive and negative points is up to the individual school.
Many schools choose to give positive PBIS points only. There are both pros and cons to both approaches, and it is important to weigh the benefits and drawbacks of each before making a decision.
Even after the rubric has been rolled out, it is not set in stone. Take time to regularly gather feedback on what everyone feels is working well, and perhaps could be better, and make adjustments to your rubric accordingly.
There are more obvious benefits of a middle school behavior rubric, such as creating a positive and productive learning environment, improving student behavior and academic achievement, and reducing discipline problems.
And then there are the less obvious, but perhaps even more beneficial, outcomes.
The creation and implementation of a behavior rubric helps to build a positive culture in your building.
In the past few years, school culture has suffered immensely and many schools find themselves in a rebuilding process. Forming a team of staff and students that can create and implement a behavior rubric can help forge relationships that are otherwise unlikely to occur.
The team you form and the rubric itself should have these three basic goals in mind:
In addition, by having both adults and kids take part in the middle school behavior rubric process, you are reminding all parties involved of the core values you cherish in your building.
Things like respect, dedication, excellence, safety, and accountability, should be at the forefront of everyone’s minds, in all that they do.
If you choose to include SEL traits like self-awareness and self-management in your rubric, it will force everyone to make a more conscious effort to include these in their teaching and learning practices as well.
At the end of the day, one of the biggest benefits of behavior rubrics is that they ensure all students are treated fairly. It establishes a code of conduct for everyone to follow, and hopefully, one that students will carry with them throughout their lives.
Middle school behavior rubrics can be useful for:
Be sure to include all stakeholders - staff, students, parents, board members, etc. - in the implementation process. When everyone is on the same page and feels their voice matters, you are much more likely to be positively met.
When our little 5th graders returned to school in the fall, they were not so little anymore - in stature or attitude! In many districts, 6th grade is the official start of middle school. How I managed students in 6th grade was much different from how I managed them in 5th.
Even today, all of my middle school teacher friends tell me the same is true for how they treat their 7th graders versus their 8th graders. To help students succeed, it is important to have a clear and consistent middle school behavior rubric.
Arguably, it may be the most important period in a student’s academic career to implement this. It may also, very likely, be the first time they are seeing one.
A behavior rubric is a tool that can be used to assess student behavior. It can help teachers identify areas where students need improvement and provide them with feedback. It also tracks progress over time.
Any behavior rubric should be specific and measurable and aligned with the school's expectations for student behavior. It should also be as clear and concise as possible. Most important, it should ensure that all students are held to the same standards.
Behavior management challenges in middle school grades are very different from elementary school. As they leave elementary school and prepare to go to high school, students face all sorts of new academic and social demands.
Oftentimes middle schoolers don’t know how to respond or react in a variety of new situations they are confronted with. You regularly hear about students who may have never exhibited behavior issues before, suddenly starting to “test the waters.”
But this is normal, as frustrating as it can be sometimes. Middle schoolers are learning to navigate relationships all around them, including those with their teachers and administrators.
Creating and successfully implementing a behavior rubric in middle school is no easy task, especially when folks in your school building may be brand new to it. Like most things that are worthwhile, it takes time, planning, and patience, but it does pay off.
Behavior rubrics will be and should be unique to each school. No two schools have the same dynamics, and therefore there is not a “one size fits all” approach.
But you can learn a lot by previewing how other schools are managing behavior on their campuses. Here are a few examples of middle school rubrics that have been effectively implemented:
This approach uses your general values as the basis of your rubric, such as the 3 Rs: Respect, Responsibility, and Ready to Learn. For a great example of a values-based rubric, take a look at the rubric at Cardinal Middle School.
SEL skills help students regulate feelings and emotions, leading to growth and maturity. Giving points for things like focus and leadership, grit, and determination, really help to build students’ self-esteem.
For a great example detailing how you can mesh SEL with PBIS, take a look at the behavior rubric being utilized at Freedom Crossing Academy.
Organize your rubric by area, such as gym, cafeteria, hallways, etc. Give each location a set of specific behavior expectations.
South Valley Middle School submitted an excellent example of a location-based behavior rubric that you can use to model your own.
Each letter in the acronym serves as a rubric category with expected behaviors as the rubric items under each. Hemlock Middle School uses PAWS acronym for their rubric.
Keep in mind that you don’t have to pick one specific type of rubric - it can be a combination of these. Again, middle school behavior rubrics are designed to meet the needs of individual schools, so everyone will look slightly different.
Let’s take a look at some tips and advice for creating your own behavior rubric.
When developing your behavior rubric, consider the behaviors you want to encourage and those you want to discourage. This might sound straightforward, but take the time to consider which are the most important.
Another approach to creating a behavior rubric is to take a rubric(s) already developed (such as the examples in the previous section) and modify it to meet your school’s needs.
Ideally, you’ll want to get a small team of people to create an initial draft of the rubric. You could even include students in the process, as Wirt High School does.
They should represent a nice cross-section of your building. But even after the first draft, be sure to get feedback from all stakeholders.
Take their recommendations and suggestions strongly into consideration. If everyone feels they are contributing to the process, you are much more likely to get widespread buy-in.
Consider piloting the rubric with a small group of students to get feedback before using it with a larger group. When you create a rubric, the decision of whether or not to use positive and negative points is up to the individual school.
Many schools choose to give positive PBIS points only. There are both pros and cons to both approaches, and it is important to weigh the benefits and drawbacks of each before making a decision.
Even after the rubric has been rolled out, it is not set in stone. Take time to regularly gather feedback on what everyone feels is working well, and perhaps could be better, and make adjustments to your rubric accordingly.
There are more obvious benefits of a middle school behavior rubric, such as creating a positive and productive learning environment, improving student behavior and academic achievement, and reducing discipline problems.
And then there are the less obvious, but perhaps even more beneficial, outcomes.
The creation and implementation of a behavior rubric helps to build a positive culture in your building.
In the past few years, school culture has suffered immensely and many schools find themselves in a rebuilding process. Forming a team of staff and students that can create and implement a behavior rubric can help forge relationships that are otherwise unlikely to occur.
The team you form and the rubric itself should have these three basic goals in mind:
In addition, by having both adults and kids take part in the middle school behavior rubric process, you are reminding all parties involved of the core values you cherish in your building.
Things like respect, dedication, excellence, safety, and accountability, should be at the forefront of everyone’s minds, in all that they do.
If you choose to include SEL traits like self-awareness and self-management in your rubric, it will force everyone to make a more conscious effort to include these in their teaching and learning practices as well.
At the end of the day, one of the biggest benefits of behavior rubrics is that they ensure all students are treated fairly. It establishes a code of conduct for everyone to follow, and hopefully, one that students will carry with them throughout their lives.
Middle school behavior rubrics can be useful for:
Be sure to include all stakeholders - staff, students, parents, board members, etc. - in the implementation process. When everyone is on the same page and feels their voice matters, you are much more likely to be positively met.
I taught 5th and 6th graders my whole teaching career, and often saw the same students both years. My colleagues and I would joke that something happened the summer between the 5th and the 6th grades.
When our little 5th graders returned to school in the fall, they were not so little anymore - in stature or attitude! In many districts, 6th grade is the official start of middle school. How I managed students in 6th grade was much different from how I managed them in 5th.
Even today, all of my middle school teacher friends tell me the same is true for how they treat their 7th graders versus their 8th graders. To help students succeed, it is important to have a clear and consistent middle school behavior rubric.
Arguably, it may be the most important period in a student’s academic career to implement this. It may also, very likely, be the first time they are seeing one.
A behavior rubric is a tool that can be used to assess student behavior. It can help teachers identify areas where students need improvement and provide them with feedback. It also tracks progress over time.
Any behavior rubric should be specific and measurable and aligned with the school's expectations for student behavior. It should also be as clear and concise as possible. Most important, it should ensure that all students are held to the same standards.
Behavior management challenges in middle school grades are very different from elementary school. As they leave elementary school and prepare to go to high school, students face all sorts of new academic and social demands.
Oftentimes middle schoolers don’t know how to respond or react in a variety of new situations they are confronted with. You regularly hear about students who may have never exhibited behavior issues before, suddenly starting to “test the waters.”
But this is normal, as frustrating as it can be sometimes. Middle schoolers are learning to navigate relationships all around them, including those with their teachers and administrators.
Creating and successfully implementing a behavior rubric in middle school is no easy task, especially when folks in your school building may be brand new to it. Like most things that are worthwhile, it takes time, planning, and patience, but it does pay off.
Behavior rubrics will be and should be unique to each school. No two schools have the same dynamics, and therefore there is not a “one size fits all” approach.
But you can learn a lot by previewing how other schools are managing behavior on their campuses. Here are a few examples of middle school rubrics that have been effectively implemented:
This approach uses your general values as the basis of your rubric, such as the 3 Rs: Respect, Responsibility, and Ready to Learn. For a great example of a values-based rubric, take a look at the rubric at Cardinal Middle School.
SEL skills help students regulate feelings and emotions, leading to growth and maturity. Giving points for things like focus and leadership, grit, and determination, really help to build students’ self-esteem.
For a great example detailing how you can mesh SEL with PBIS, take a look at the behavior rubric being utilized at Freedom Crossing Academy.
Organize your rubric by area, such as gym, cafeteria, hallways, etc. Give each location a set of specific behavior expectations.
South Valley Middle School submitted an excellent example of a location-based behavior rubric that you can use to model your own.
Each letter in the acronym serves as a rubric category with expected behaviors as the rubric items under each. Hemlock Middle School uses PAWS acronym for their rubric.
Keep in mind that you don’t have to pick one specific type of rubric - it can be a combination of these. Again, middle school behavior rubrics are designed to meet the needs of individual schools, so everyone will look slightly different.
Let’s take a look at some tips and advice for creating your own behavior rubric.
When developing your behavior rubric, consider the behaviors you want to encourage and those you want to discourage. This might sound straightforward, but take the time to consider which are the most important.
Another approach to creating a behavior rubric is to take a rubric(s) already developed (such as the examples in the previous section) and modify it to meet your school’s needs.
Ideally, you’ll want to get a small team of people to create an initial draft of the rubric. You could even include students in the process, as Wirt High School does.
They should represent a nice cross-section of your building. But even after the first draft, be sure to get feedback from all stakeholders.
Take their recommendations and suggestions strongly into consideration. If everyone feels they are contributing to the process, you are much more likely to get widespread buy-in.
Consider piloting the rubric with a small group of students to get feedback before using it with a larger group. When you create a rubric, the decision of whether or not to use positive and negative points is up to the individual school.
Many schools choose to give positive PBIS points only. There are both pros and cons to both approaches, and it is important to weigh the benefits and drawbacks of each before making a decision.
Even after the rubric has been rolled out, it is not set in stone. Take time to regularly gather feedback on what everyone feels is working well, and perhaps could be better, and make adjustments to your rubric accordingly.
There are more obvious benefits of a middle school behavior rubric, such as creating a positive and productive learning environment, improving student behavior and academic achievement, and reducing discipline problems.
And then there are the less obvious, but perhaps even more beneficial, outcomes.
The creation and implementation of a behavior rubric helps to build a positive culture in your building.
In the past few years, school culture has suffered immensely and many schools find themselves in a rebuilding process. Forming a team of staff and students that can create and implement a behavior rubric can help forge relationships that are otherwise unlikely to occur.
The team you form and the rubric itself should have these three basic goals in mind:
In addition, by having both adults and kids take part in the middle school behavior rubric process, you are reminding all parties involved of the core values you cherish in your building.
Things like respect, dedication, excellence, safety, and accountability, should be at the forefront of everyone’s minds, in all that they do.
If you choose to include SEL traits like self-awareness and self-management in your rubric, it will force everyone to make a more conscious effort to include these in their teaching and learning practices as well.
At the end of the day, one of the biggest benefits of behavior rubrics is that they ensure all students are treated fairly. It establishes a code of conduct for everyone to follow, and hopefully, one that students will carry with them throughout their lives.
Middle school behavior rubrics can be useful for:
Be sure to include all stakeholders - staff, students, parents, board members, etc. - in the implementation process. When everyone is on the same page and feels their voice matters, you are much more likely to be positively met.
I taught 5th and 6th graders my whole teaching career, and often saw the same students both years. My colleagues and I would joke that something happened the summer between the 5th and the 6th grades.
When our little 5th graders returned to school in the fall, they were not so little anymore - in stature or attitude! In many districts, 6th grade is the official start of middle school. How I managed students in 6th grade was much different from how I managed them in 5th.
Even today, all of my middle school teacher friends tell me the same is true for how they treat their 7th graders versus their 8th graders. To help students succeed, it is important to have a clear and consistent middle school behavior rubric.
Arguably, it may be the most important period in a student’s academic career to implement this. It may also, very likely, be the first time they are seeing one.
A behavior rubric is a tool that can be used to assess student behavior. It can help teachers identify areas where students need improvement and provide them with feedback. It also tracks progress over time.
Any behavior rubric should be specific and measurable and aligned with the school's expectations for student behavior. It should also be as clear and concise as possible. Most important, it should ensure that all students are held to the same standards.
Behavior management challenges in middle school grades are very different from elementary school. As they leave elementary school and prepare to go to high school, students face all sorts of new academic and social demands.
Oftentimes middle schoolers don’t know how to respond or react in a variety of new situations they are confronted with. You regularly hear about students who may have never exhibited behavior issues before, suddenly starting to “test the waters.”
But this is normal, as frustrating as it can be sometimes. Middle schoolers are learning to navigate relationships all around them, including those with their teachers and administrators.
Creating and successfully implementing a behavior rubric in middle school is no easy task, especially when folks in your school building may be brand new to it. Like most things that are worthwhile, it takes time, planning, and patience, but it does pay off.
Behavior rubrics will be and should be unique to each school. No two schools have the same dynamics, and therefore there is not a “one size fits all” approach.
But you can learn a lot by previewing how other schools are managing behavior on their campuses. Here are a few examples of middle school rubrics that have been effectively implemented:
This approach uses your general values as the basis of your rubric, such as the 3 Rs: Respect, Responsibility, and Ready to Learn. For a great example of a values-based rubric, take a look at the rubric at Cardinal Middle School.
SEL skills help students regulate feelings and emotions, leading to growth and maturity. Giving points for things like focus and leadership, grit, and determination, really help to build students’ self-esteem.
For a great example detailing how you can mesh SEL with PBIS, take a look at the behavior rubric being utilized at Freedom Crossing Academy.
Organize your rubric by area, such as gym, cafeteria, hallways, etc. Give each location a set of specific behavior expectations.
South Valley Middle School submitted an excellent example of a location-based behavior rubric that you can use to model your own.
Each letter in the acronym serves as a rubric category with expected behaviors as the rubric items under each. Hemlock Middle School uses PAWS acronym for their rubric.
Keep in mind that you don’t have to pick one specific type of rubric - it can be a combination of these. Again, middle school behavior rubrics are designed to meet the needs of individual schools, so everyone will look slightly different.
Let’s take a look at some tips and advice for creating your own behavior rubric.
When developing your behavior rubric, consider the behaviors you want to encourage and those you want to discourage. This might sound straightforward, but take the time to consider which are the most important.
Another approach to creating a behavior rubric is to take a rubric(s) already developed (such as the examples in the previous section) and modify it to meet your school’s needs.
Ideally, you’ll want to get a small team of people to create an initial draft of the rubric. You could even include students in the process, as Wirt High School does.
They should represent a nice cross-section of your building. But even after the first draft, be sure to get feedback from all stakeholders.
Take their recommendations and suggestions strongly into consideration. If everyone feels they are contributing to the process, you are much more likely to get widespread buy-in.
Consider piloting the rubric with a small group of students to get feedback before using it with a larger group. When you create a rubric, the decision of whether or not to use positive and negative points is up to the individual school.
Many schools choose to give positive PBIS points only. There are both pros and cons to both approaches, and it is important to weigh the benefits and drawbacks of each before making a decision.
Even after the rubric has been rolled out, it is not set in stone. Take time to regularly gather feedback on what everyone feels is working well, and perhaps could be better, and make adjustments to your rubric accordingly.
There are more obvious benefits of a middle school behavior rubric, such as creating a positive and productive learning environment, improving student behavior and academic achievement, and reducing discipline problems.
And then there are the less obvious, but perhaps even more beneficial, outcomes.
The creation and implementation of a behavior rubric helps to build a positive culture in your building.
In the past few years, school culture has suffered immensely and many schools find themselves in a rebuilding process. Forming a team of staff and students that can create and implement a behavior rubric can help forge relationships that are otherwise unlikely to occur.
The team you form and the rubric itself should have these three basic goals in mind:
In addition, by having both adults and kids take part in the middle school behavior rubric process, you are reminding all parties involved of the core values you cherish in your building.
Things like respect, dedication, excellence, safety, and accountability, should be at the forefront of everyone’s minds, in all that they do.
If you choose to include SEL traits like self-awareness and self-management in your rubric, it will force everyone to make a more conscious effort to include these in their teaching and learning practices as well.
At the end of the day, one of the biggest benefits of behavior rubrics is that they ensure all students are treated fairly. It establishes a code of conduct for everyone to follow, and hopefully, one that students will carry with them throughout their lives.
Middle school behavior rubrics can be useful for:
Be sure to include all stakeholders - staff, students, parents, board members, etc. - in the implementation process. When everyone is on the same page and feels their voice matters, you are much more likely to be positively met.
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