Forming, Norming, Storming--Kicking off the School Year

I often cringe when someone asks a group I'm in to do some "norm setting." It usually feels too soon. Or too late. If it's too soon, the group develops a generic list of expectations that have no teeth to them or grounding in the reality of the work before them. If it's too late, the group develops a list of norms in a passive-agressive reaction to existing irritants ("No screens!"), or the group feels beyond the point of no return and isn't willing to say what they need. Allea iacta est. It's tough to squeeze that toothpaste back into the tube.

So, I was intrigued when this Edutopia post titled, "The Science Behind Classroom Norming" popped up in (teacher nerd alert!) my newsfeed this week. The word "science" caught my eye; "if there's a science to it," I thought, "I should probably try to better understand this!" Not really. I was primed to dislike the article before I even opened it because of my thinking about norm setting. I actually cringed a little bit, already skeptical about what was coming, but then I clicked on the link and found some food for thought for the coming school year.

The author first makes the claim that "the mechanism for norming is group talk" and then goes on to define norming as when a group comes to "an agreement among members of a classroom or school about how they will treat one another." The power of the relationship between action and words, though, should not be discounted in the process. My sophomores set non-verbal norms relative to use of classroom space simply by placing themselves in the same seat each day; habits become norms. So norms will develop--stated or not.

Here is my hopefully less-than-cringe-inducing thinking about norming heading into this new school year:

1. Timing matters. 
Mr. Finley highlights the stages of group development (forming, storming, norming, performing, adjourning); understanding the stage of a group is key to hitting the sweet spot for norm setting. In my facilitation experience, however, groups seldom adhere to the order outlined here by Mr. Finley. They'll form, norm, storm, go back to norming, perform, then storm again. Sometimes, after a storm, they transform because people leave the group.  Most teams go through some sort of storming after a poor performance in a highly anticipated game, for example. Group growth comes when a facilitator can help them move among the stages. Being thoughtful about where a group is allows us to know which conversation to facilitate when.

So I'm not going to do a norm-setting exercise on the first day of school (or the first day of meetings, for that matter). Not on the second day of school, either. I'm going to give my people some time to get over their anxiety about the start of the school year and to get to know one another well enough that I can task them with cooperating on group problem-solving activities. My big plan? I am going to shoot to formalize class norms in the moments before a storm hits. It's the Goldilocks plan--not too hot, not too cold... just right.

2. What's my role? Leader? Guide? Mentor? Consultant? 
A diagram in my experiential education files dated 1999 and credited to Laurie Frank places those four roles on a spectrum for group facilitation. She posits that in the earliest work with a group, the person facilitating must be a leader (although that term is open to broad interpretation). As the group continues to develop, the facilitator can move into a guiding role. It's that point where I'd like to be before I ask the group to set their own norms. In the past when I've facilitated norm setting with a group too soon, my voice has carried too much weight in the room. Mr. Finley mentions that he has his favorite norm: "I always add my favorite norm to the list: enter class with the academic swagger of Matthew McConaughey, ready to take care of business." I love the flair for this norm, but I'm not sure if I am comfortable adding my own ideas to my group's list, however, if I really want the students to own them.

3. Anticipate accountability issues. Norms! 
I ask my students to sign off (really--with a pen!) on the norms after we've come to an agreement on what they'll be. With one class last year, those stuck so well that when a new student joined at the semester, the students asked him to add his signature to our class agreement. Those students bought into the norming process. In my other class, however, the poster hung on the wall, and our stated norms became a room decoration. I'll need to consider my role in holding students accountable to their agreed-upon norms; otherwise, the group may re-norm without any of us noticing (and that won't necessarily be a good thing).

What might be a good thing for accountability, though, is if my students are fans of Cheers and can yell, "Norm!" every time someone breaks one... kidding. Well, only sort of.

George Wendt as Norm in Cheers

4. Revisit and revise--group processing 
I'd also like to think this year about ways to get more bang for our buck out of a norm-setting exercise. I am lucky to have my block-scheduled students all year long. We'll need to revisit the norms periodically (every term?) as the group progresses--performs, storms, re-norms--over the course of the school year. I'd like to make the norms document a living document for my students.

And the year begins...
Mr. Finley shares some of his favorite exercises to support the norming process in his post. Neat ideas. I appreciate the bigger picture questions his post raised for me, though. Wrestle on, friends.