Culture by Design: Part 2

culture planning routines Jan 01, 2025
Culture by Design: Part 2

Estimated Ready Time: 5-7 minutes

By Rob Chilton

In Culture by Design: Part 1, we discussed an overview of twelve essential elements of classroom culture:

  1. Routines
  2. Procedures
  3. Behaviors
  4. Discipline
  5. Instruction
  6. Learning
  7. Relationships
  8. Community
  9. Values
  10. Beliefs
  11. Goals
  12. Results

In case you you missed it, don’t worry—the articles in this series are designed to work both as a set and as standalone reads. You can catch up later. So, let’s dive into routines. Routines are regular sequences of events or activities that bring structure and consistency to the learning environment. Their purpose is to establish predictability, ensuring students know what to expect each day—and predictability is essential for learning. To understand why, let’s consider the opposite: unpredictability.

Unpredictability Hijacks the Brain

Humans are naturally averse to unpredictability and uncertainty–what I call the unknown. It’s theorized that this is a result of our evolutionary past. Early humans lived in a world full of threats, and the unknown represented potential danger. To cope, we developed a variety of cognitive biases, two of which are worth considering, and how they affect learning:

  • Ambiguity Aversion: Our brains push us to avoid uncertain situations, even when the potential outcomes are beneficial. For example, given a choice between (a) guaranteed reward and a (b) non-guaranteed reward of greater value but with unknown odds, most people will choose the sure thing. This stems from our brain's deep desire to minimize risk and uncertainty.
     
  • Negativity Bias: Our brains often focus on the negatives over the positives in ambiguous situations. Again, this likely evolved as a way to prioritize survival. For example, it’s safer to assume an unfamiliar animal might attack rather than assume it’s harmless and risk being wrong.

While these cognitive biases—and others like them—are almost entirely subconscious, they can significantly influence our conscious behaviors and decision-making. In an unpredictable classroom, this can manifest as students struggling to follow behavioral expectations, process new information, engage in productive work, and take meaningful risks. Put simply, unpredictability hijacks the brain, leading to increased caution, reduced cognitive flexibility, and a focus on immediate over long-term goals and growth.

It’s also worth noting that every child’s home and living situation is different and it does affect their schooling. Some live in highly-organized and predictable environments, while many do not. Those that don’t are more likely to arrive at school in varying degrees of dysregulation. For some, their dysregulation is highly visible. For others, it lies quietly beneath the surface inhibiting performance. For all students, but especially those experiencing any degree of dysregulation, predictability is a requirement for their success. We must provide them a structured environment that brings out their highest potential.

Four Categories of Routines

So now that we’ve considered the importance of predictability, let’s discuss four broad categories of routines:

  • Daily
  • Weekly
  • Grading Period
  • Concert Cycle

These will all be expanded into their own articles another time. For now, I’ll provide a broad overview of each and I’ll discuss a few ideas for your consideration.

Daily Routines

As a middle school band director, I had daily routines for my beginners (1st year players) and routines for my full ensembles (2nd/3rd year players). Here’s an example of my daily routine for my full ensembles:

  • Entry
  • Set-up
  • Materials Check
  • Greeting
  • Fundamentals
  • Announcements
  • Literature
  • Dismissal

From what I’ve observed, this is a fairly standard routine, but did you happen to notice I do my announcements after fundamentals? This is for two reasons: (1) late students are less likely to miss them, and (2) most importantly, it helps me prioritize starting class and locking in student engagement. The point here is to plan not only what you’ll do, but also in what order you’ll do them to maximize efficiency and student learning.

Weekly Routines

Regarding weekly routines, I prefer to start my week by frontloading new learning in both my beginners and full ensembles. Here’s an example of my beginner routine, which you can read more about in my article, A Weekly Routine that Emphasizes New Learning:

While sometimes challenging to start the week with new material, I found that the more consistent I was with it, the more the students arrived on Monday expecting to learn and work. It also allowed us ample time to complete content. There’s nothing worse than running out of time at the end of the week and having to cram literature. Doing so almost always results in gaps in learning.

Grading Period Routines

My grading periods were often in six or nine-week intervals–depending on the campus. A few items we did every term included:

  • Binder Inspections
  • Instrument Inspections
  • Objective Completions

Each grading period, I set aside a full day to inspect every student’s binder and instrument for a grade. Binders were carefully checked for organization, while instruments and supplies were meticulously inspected for playability and signs of proper stewardship. These inspections, along with the completion of objectives, are topics I plan to write more about in the future.

Concert Cycle Routines

Concert cycles can follow routines too. The challenge with concert cycles is they sometimes overlap and don’t always align with grading periods. Some steps in my concert cycle routine include:

  • Literature selection
  • Score study
  • Sheet music distribution
  • Measure numbering (and checks)
  • Supporting materials (such as rhythm charts, range builders, etc.)
  • Micro rehearsal
  • Macro rehearsal
  • Full run-throughs
  • Stage preparation
  • Performance

These will be discussed in more detail at another time. For now, I’d like to encourage you to make time in advance of your first rehearsal of a new concert cycle to select quality and appropriate literature, do basic and necessary score study, prepare sheet music for distribution, measure numbering, and prepare any supporting materials. Speaking from experience, it’s all too easy to overlook these tasks, especially midyear.

Many times, I’ve found myself narrowly focused on a single performance, only to realize afterwards that I was unprepared to begin the next concert cycle. Sometimes, I hadn’t yet selected new music, or I rushed through the selection, choosing pieces that were not the best fits. Other times, I made my selections but failed to prepare it for distribution, or I prepared it but didn’t do enough score study to feel sufficiently prepared to rehearse. Each lapse disrupted the routine, resulting in a loss of momentum.

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Q: Shouldn’t we mix things up on occasion?

Depending on the group, occasionally and temporarily changing routine can be beneficial. I sometimes intentionally mix things up to reignite engagement. What’s important is that when we change a routine, it’s intentional and not a forced pivot caused by insufficient planning, preparation, or similar issues.

An Intentionally Designed Classroom Experience

Finally, routines are the first step in fostering the idea for students that their classroom experience is intentionally designed. In addition to creating predictability, routines often lead to increased trust and participation. My hope is that this article inspires you to reflect on your own routines and consider how you might refine them. Stay tuned for Part 3 where we’ll begin our discussion on procedures!

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About the author:

Rob Chilton is the creator and owner of Readymade Music, LLC and its content. Previously, Chilton was a middle school band director from 2007-2021. His most recent teaching position was the Head Band Director at Killian Middle School in Lewisville, Texas from 2014-2021.

Under his direction, the Killian Honors Band was named the 2018 Texas Music Educators Association CC Honor Band and performed at the annual 2018 TMEA Clinic/Convention. In 2019, the Killian Honors Band was invited to and performed at The Midwest Clinic in Chicago. Additionally, the Killian Honors Band was named a National Winner in the Mark of Excellence National Wind Band Honors Project in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019.

Chilton is a graduate of Southern Methodist University where he had the opportunity to study music education under the tutelage of Lynne Jackson and Brian Merrill. During his years as a middle school band director, Chilton continued his professional growth under the guidance of his primary clinicians, John Benzer and Brian Merrill.

Chilton’s mission for Readymade Music is to promote the overall well-being of music education and support school music teachers by providing solutions to help make teaching music more efficient and inspirational while increasing engagement for 21st century learners.

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