Covenant Writing
Covenant Writing: Q&A with students
Q: What is something you have enjoyed about covenant writing?
A: "Designing parts of the covenant."
A: "Being able to have my own team."
A: "Everything about it."
Q: What is something you find difficult about covenant writing?
A: "It takes a long time."
Q: Why do you think covenant writing is important?
A: "To make sure everybody follows the rules."
Steps for writing a class covenant
Step 1: Think about what's hard about being in a community.
Adventurous brainstormed about these more specific questions. We wrote our thoughts ON our tables!
What's hard about working with one another in STEAM?
What's hard about sharing the room?
What's hard about traveling to different activities with one another?
What's hard about being kind to one another?
What's hard about listening during class?
What's hard about keeping our things organized?
What's hard about park and lunch?
Step 2: Choose themes
We reflected on our ideas and came up with several "themes" we could use for our covenant. We voted and decided on four themes for our covenant:
1) Fairness
2) Fun
3) Empathy/caring for one another
4) Space
Step 3: Write commitments.
Each student wrote commitments we can make, based on each of these themes. Here are some commitments students came up with:
Because we care about having fun, we commit to not wasting time so people can spend more time doing fun things.
Because we care about our feelings, we commit to being aware of each other's feelings. (And ours)
Because we care about neatness, we commit to cleaning our personal space so our whole space is neat.
Step 4: Start publishing the covenant.
Students began the publishing process yesterday in teams. Each team was in charge of writing up the final draft of their assigned section. Our covenant will have four sections:
1) How we will be fair.
2) How we will have fun together.
3) How we will care for one another.
4) How we will share our space
Step 5: Choose a personal goal.
Students are also beginning to reflect on their individual selfs as part of this covenant. Each student will celebrate a way they have already been able to hold this covenant. Each student will choose an area of the covenant that they personally want to grow in.
