Tips For Promoting Group Responsibility

It's important early on to help children realize that they are not only individuals, but also members of many groups: friends, the class, their families, and the community.  For any group to “work,” each member has a responsibility to cooperate with the other members to achieve a common goal.  Each person must feel that he/she is a part of the group and that he/she has a stake in it.

The first way you can establish group responsibility in a classroom situation, family, or any other group, is by having each member take “ownership” of the group.  Often this is a simple matter of semantics – your choice of words.

• If you have been referring to “your” class, start referring to it as “our” class.
• Consciously use the word “we” when talking about behavior, responsibility, or expectations.  Compliment the group on what it is doing right, rather than correcting the one or two members who are misbehaving.
• Use positive statements whenever possible.  Example:  “I know that we understand why it is important to be quiet in a fire drill.”
• When you must correct a child, be sure to let the child know that it is the behavior you disapprove of, not the child.  Example:  “I know that you are a kind person.  That is why it upsets me to see you tease John.”
• If you have problems with follow-through, try reading together selected poems from Shel Silverstein’s collection Where the Sidewalk Ends.  “Sick” and “Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout WouldNot Take the Garbage Out” will not just make you laugh together; they may have a lasting effect on your child’s view of responsibility.