Strategies for Building Culture Through Expectations in Middle School

As a member of the AMLE Teacher Leaders Committee, I recently had the opportunity to contribute to an article that became the foundation for a larger conversation about one of the most important parts of starting a new school year: building a strong middle school culture. Our Teacher Leaders group began by exploring the question: How do we establish expectations that build culture rather than simply manage student behavior? That conversation led to our AMLE article, Strategies for Building Culture through Expectations in Middle Schools. I was fortunate to contribute alongside fellow Teacher Leaders Megan Balduf, Marri Bayour, Corey Cohen, Ralph Covino, Beth Fabijanic, Laurie Rigg, Cheryl Robertson, and Kate Strein. But what I really appreciated about this process was the article was the beginning of the conversation and launched our first ever AMLE Teacher Talk round table focused on Setting Expectations and Norms in the New School Year. Expectations are more than just rules!

Middle school students are navigating an incredible amount of change. They are moving between classrooms, teachers, subjects, and social groups while simultaneously developing their identities and independence. Predictability matters, but so does having a voice. When expectations are clear, consistent, and meaningful, students don't have to spend all of their energy trying to figure out how to navigate their environment. Instead, they can focus on learning, relationships, and taking the kinds of risks that are essential to growth. It is important to Give Students a Voice!

One of my biggest takeaways from our Teacher Leaders conversation was the importance of co-creating expectations with students. Too often, expectations are developed by adults and presented to students on the first day of school. There is certainly a place for teacher and school leadership, but students are more likely to invest in expectations when they have a genuine role in shaping them.

The article explores strategies such as brainstorming what students want their classroom to look, sound, and feel like; discussing their hopes and concerns; and using collaborative structures that give everyone an opportunity to contribute. Another idea that resonated with me was the importance of keeping expectations simple. Think about the experience of a sixth grader entering middle school. Instead of having one teacher and a relatively small set of classroom expectations, they may suddenly have six or seven teachers, each with their own procedures and rules. Rather than creating increasingly long lists of rules, schools can identify a small number of shared values and consistently model, teach, and reinforce them across classrooms and spaces. For me, this is where expectations become part of the culture rather than just another thing students have to memorize.

The Teacher Talk gave us an opportunity to move beyond the ideas in the article and hear how educators are approaching these challenges in their own classrooms and schools. One of the things I value most is learning from other educators - we all bring different experiences to the conversation. There isn't one perfect formula for building classroom culture. Different schools have different communities. Different teachers have different approaches. Students have different needs. Some schools may use clearly defined school-wide norms, while others may rely more heavily on student-created commitments. Some teachers use structured frameworks, while others allow expectations to emerge through classroom conversations.

What matters most is that the approach is authentic to the community. Expectations should reflect the values of the community and, importantly, the voices of the students who experience that community every day. Culture Before Compliance!

Perhaps the biggest takeaway for me from both the article and the Teacher Talk is that expectations should ultimately be about culture, not compliance. When students understand why expectations exist, see them modeled by the adults around them, and have opportunities to help shape them, expectations become something much more meaningful than a list of rules. They become a shared commitment to how we want to treat one another and how we want to learn together. That distinction is especially important in middle school. Young adolescents want to be challenged, but they also need to feel safe. They want independence, but they also need structure. They want their voices heard, but they also need adults who provide consistency and support. Strong expectations can help us create that balance.

As I reflect on the process—from our initial conversations, to writing the article, to continuing the discussion through the Teacher Talk—I keep coming back to one idea: The goal isn't to create the perfect list of expectations. The goal is to create a community where students know what is expected, understand why it matters, and feel empowered to contribute to the culture around them. That requires listening to students, keeping expectations manageable, modeling them consistently, and revisiting them as the community grows.

As we begin another school year, I'm reminded that the first days aren't simply about teaching students our routines and jumping right into the curriculum. They're an opportunity to establish the kind of community we want to build together. When students can look around their classroom and say, “This is a place where I belong,” we've accomplished something far more important than simply establishing expectations.

We've started building a culture.

I'm grateful to my fellow AMLE Teacher Leaders for the opportunity to be part of this work and to continue the conversation beyond the article. The article gave us a foundation, but the Teacher Talk reminded me that the best professional learning often happens when we have the chance to listen, question, share, and learn from one another.

If you're thinking about how to build or strengthen your classroom culture this year, I encourage you to read "Strategies for Building Culture through Expectations in Middle Schools."

Because sometimes the most important question isn't “What are my classroom rules?” It's “What kind of community do I want my students to experience?”

Read article here.