My classroom mentor puts into place procedures, expectations, and consequences that manage to be specific and clear while simultaneously not appearing strict, controlling, or punitive. His process for implementing these has been pretty simple. He began by spending most of day 1 covering the syllabus which included a course outline (what topics/books we'd be covering and why), explanation of major rules (such as no cell phones out for anything but approved academic purposes), and description of his teaching style (laid back with high expectations).
He then proceeded to teach class in a way that was consistent from day to day and from week to week. A typical day, for instance, can be expected to follow this series of events: students enter and grab journals, teacher introduces Do Now activity, students complete this activity and share, teacher leads a lesson, students read a piece of literature aloud, students work either independently or in groups, teacher checks back in and reminds about homework, students exit.
The weeks have also followed a certain progression thus far. The beginning of the week is more teacher centered; the teacher spends more time speaking in front of the class while the students take notes. By the middle of the week, things are more student centered; students work on projects reinforcing and deepening understanding through exploration. On Fridays, students present their projects.
A specific part of class that is most explicitly ritualized is the beginning. Students are expected to come in and get to work on their Do Now activity, which is usually a journal entry. This entry relates students' personal experiences to the forthcoming day's lesson. Students are always given the option to share what they've written but are never forced to share. This allows them to connect to each other and the material on whatever level is comfortable for them. My CM also usually shares something from his life that answers the journal prompt and leads into his lesson. This helps him connect to the students on a personal level and also provides flow from one activity to the next.
As far as consequences go, students are told that if they are late to class or talking during the Do Now that they lose points off of their participation grade. When a student loses points in this way, my CM reminds them of it consistently. He states the consequence not as a punishment but more like a simple fact. He then moves on and immediately catches them up on what they missed. I think this sends a strong message along the lines of "You will be held accountable for not meeting expectations; however I'm glad you're here now, so let's get started."
The teacher reminds students of expectations daily at the beginning of class and also any time an expectation is broken. Reminders are a good thing; however, I sometimes think that if it's necessary for the teacher to verbally quiet his class and explain the Do Now (even though it's written on the board), doesn't this defeat the purpose of a Do Now? One purpose is to get students involved and working right away, and yet under the current system the initial two minutes of class consist of students conversing with one another and not starting on the Do Now. This isn't a huge problem; school is a social place, so to expect zero socializing is unrealistic. The students generally do good work when they are working. But there is a noticeable disparity between the expectation being set and the behavior being accepted. This disparity is something that worries me a little with regard to when I start lead teaching