What is a classroom community?
When considering my answer to this prompt, i googled the question to see what other people online had to say about what a classroom community was. Oddly enough, the search engine did not deliver results for an answer to the question but rather information on how to develop one. I did find an article by Mishael Hittie that stated "By definition, a community is a group of people who work with one another building a sense of trust, care, and support. This means that in our classrooms, part of our job is to provide opportunities and structures bywhich students can help and support one another. It also means that we provide explicit instruction and support so that students learn how to do this." The ideas and tips presented ranged from getting to know you games to teaching models (cooperative learning). While all of those things are good, having a child with an autism spectrum disorder has given me both the parental and educator's perspective of just what a classroom community means to THE CHILD. We as educators can think all we want that we are doing a great job for the class as a whole but if we are missing what is best of fair for one child, we do NOT have a classroom community (my opinion). The definition of fair that I use is that from Rick Lavoie who says that everyone gets what they need...not that everyone gets the same thing.
One example that I like to use is that of a child who is overly active, or even a child who is on the spectrum and we are seeing an impending "meltdown". Quite often, these children get into trouble, are seen as odd, poorly behaved, and usually end up "having all their tickets pulled" or are "on red" at the end of every single day. My suggestion has been over and over that these children be given socially acceptable tasks to alleviate their need. So, if a child needs to move, give them a job where they can move. Have them return a book to the school library, take a message to the office or a teacher next door...even if it is something that is not truly necessary...perhaps a pre-arranged task will alleviate the classroom disruption, allow the active child the physical outlet he or she needs (or allow the child on the spectrum some cool down time). This will keep the child out of the "red-zone" and not put a target on the child's back. Children who are often in trouble a lot end up getting tattle-taled on by their peers, particularly in the younger grades. In the older grades, they may socially withdraw or deliberately disrupt the class because they don't stand a chance anyways.
Another example. I knew a student who was suspected to have Fetal Alcohol effects. He displayed some severe behavior disorders in the classroom and one in particular was improper use of scissors. This was a kindergarten classroom and the scissors were kept in group supply boxes at each table. This student was eventually removed from a group table and sat at a desk by himself. Considering that he was ALWAYS in trouble, his peers ratted him out on everything he did, how was this teacher helping to facilitate the classroom community? I was friends with her and my suggestion to her had been to remove the scissors from all of the tables, put them in a bin and only get the scissors out when the students actually needed to cut so they were not available to him on a constant basis. Her response was that she was not going to do that the she had taught for 30 years and had never had to do that before and he needed to learn. But...the thing is...we KNEW his brain was NOT normal!!!! What if he was not capable of learning...or just not capable of learning then? So he was isolated from his peers and a bull's eye on his back. Shameful.
Sometimes, looking at things from each CHILD's perspective and giving each CHILD what he or she needs individually can make a classroom community for the ENTIRE class. That is truly no child left behind. All the getting to know you games in the world will not accomplish that.
Why is it important to promote classroom community?
Failure to promote classroom community can be a life or death situation. Having been involved in education for 6 years as a substitute teacher (two years of which i was attending graduate school), I have had one student commit suicide who had Asperger Syndrome....the same diagnosis as my son. I am not saying that his suicide is the result of failure on the educator's part because I do not know all that transpired in the classroom and between the parents. But, I do think that there was failure somewhere when a 14 year old kills himself by hanging himself in a tree.
What else can happen if we fail to promote classroom community? During my student teaching, I had a student who was on the spectrum but on no IEP. His teacher was so bothered by him, she sat him as far away from her as she could. Again, a student always losing all of his "tickets" and being "on red". Classic case of a teacher demonstrating to the class just who the "problem child" is and therefore he was shunned by his classmates. No one would play with him at recess. Children said out loud to him that they were not going to play with him, they did not want to sit by him. During my 10 weeks of student teaching, the behavior of the student did not improve with her behavior management system but worsened. He began to retaliate against other students. Additionally, two students bullied him at recess one day...on the merry-go-round, one of them pried his hands off the bars while the other shoved him off of it while it was moving at high speed. How old was this child? Six. One day, he said to me, "Mrs. A, I hope those two ladies don't hurt my feelings ever again and I hope Mrs. X (name withheld) dosen't hurt my feelings again either." He was talking about his classroom teacher, the intervention specialist and the principal. He had become fixated on the fact that another first grade classroom did not have a tornado drill sign and only a fire drill sign. Instead of the teacher in the room doing what was best for the CHILD (making one up quickly so he could relax) and the others in the room (she would have been able to focus her teaching time back on the group instead on him), she kept having to tell him to sit down and do his work for 20 minutes. Afterwards, he got berated by his homeroom teacher for 15 minutes....and a week later boisterously reminded of his misbehavior in front of the class. What this shows me, is that children with autism disorders may not DISPLAY emotional feelings but they HAVE them.
Failure to promote classroom community from the CHILD's viewpoint...it hurts self-esteem, sets a precedence for how others in the classroom can treat another student and can lead to bullying.
What can we do in general as teachers to build classroom community?
Think beyond the normal. Think CHILD first. Think about what you are saying to parents. I have lived the life of a parent who picked their child up every single day to hear what my son did wrong at school today. Silly, ridiculous stuff...he dumped over her pencil cup...ok...he has 10,000 things he has to work on. Can YOU the teacher solve ONE by putting your pens and pencils in your desk for a year? The answer I got was no....he had to learn and none of the rest of the kids in the class had the problem. Did I feel like I and my son were a part of the community? No.
Think about how each child feels at the end of every day. Evaluate whether THEY feel a part of the community. All of the tips, games, tricks, teaching models in the world are meaningless if there in ONE in the class who is hurting. Figure out what YOU need to do, change, rearrange, communicate to reach that ONE child.
Integrate community building through critical literacy. Many wonderful books are available especially for junior high students including Missing May by Cynthia Rylant, Rules by Cynthia Lord, A Corner of the Universe by Ann M. Martin, Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine and so many others.
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