Creating Classroom Norms and Community

by Mary Ellen Daneels, Civics Instructional Specialist

One of the proven practices embedded in the Illinois civics course requirements for 6-8 and 9-12 grades is current and societal issue discussions. Facilitating student-to-student discussions in remote or hybrid learning environments takes a reimagination of traditional strategies used in the classroom. Two weeks ago, we shared tools to help students reflect on the past to inform the present in hopes that classrooms would use students’ lived experiences with remote learning in the spring to recalibrate practices for the fall. Today we will explore how to create norms and community in the classroom. These ideas are excerpts from our IllinoisCivics.org Remote Learning Toolkit which provides a wide range of supports for families, students, and educators.

Engage Students in Creating Norms

One of the essential questions addressed in any classroom is "How Should We Live Together?" Students must feel safe and secure in the learning environment. Student voice should also take center stage in creating and maintaining norms for in-person, hybrid, or remote instruction. Here are some tools to help.

• Ask students to imagine an online space that was educational, productive, and comfortable for learning. What does it look like? What does it feel like? What does it sound like? Capture these ideas in a collective online document and then discuss the norms that both teachers and students can operate under to make that vision a reality.
• Class Contracting from Facing History and Ourselves can be used to help students discuss expectations and norms of how class members will treat each other.
• Have students jot down their needs for a successful online learning experience with a common google doc or with a tool like Padlet. Then, assign students to small groups to organize the ideas into categories and share with the larger group to reach consensus.

#MaslowBeforeBloom: Take Time to Build Community

Many of your students belong to one or more online communities. Why? They feel a connection, they are curious, the community adds value to their life. Successful online communities are built with intention. You will have to build your online community with intention, too. Here are some resources to start with.

• Teaching Tolerance shares the importance of creating a Classroom Culture to foster respect for oneself and others and uses What is your FRAME? to encourage students to reflect on their own backgrounds and enlarge their perspectives.
• Edutopia has 10 Powerful Community Building Activities that can be iterated with ease online.
• Dave Stuart Jr. has great tips on How to Humanize Your Classroom or School When You’re Teaching from a Distance: Principles and Practices.
• Ditch That Textbook shares 50 Back to School Activities for the Remote Learning Classroom.
• Award-winning educator Pernille Ripp responds to the questions, But How Do We Build Community? Ideas for Virtual and Hybrid Learning.
• Cult of Pedagogy has a 4-Part System for Getting to Know Your Students.

Consider engaging in these activities in smaller groups of students in blocks of 10-15 minutes. These brief, but intimate interactions can help you really “see” your students and help them build rapport with one another in a way that is not possible in a larger group. Those not engaged can be working independently before all are brought back together for debriefing.

What are you doing to create classroom norms and community this fall? Please comment below. Together, we can prepare ALL students for college, career, and civic life in face to face, hybrid, or remote learning classrooms.