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Top 3 Strategies To Build A Strong Classroom Community
In most of the scenarios, teachers tend to miss out on the most crucial aspect of building a strong student community in the classroom. Often, in the rush of completing the syllabus, explaining the texts present in the curriculum, carrying out the online teaching sessions efficiently and maintaining order in the classroom organized via the LMS portals, the important task of developing classroom community gets ignored.
If you are an educator, working towards the creation of a robust student community has to be your prime duty. Of course, a great deal of preparation and thoughtfulness is needed to plan out the entire thing but it will all be worth it in the end. A classroom environment that exudes positivity and unity is destined to bring about greater student outcomes. After all, such an ambience is sure to make the students feel safe and create a sense of belongingness in the middle of the ongoing class proceedings.
In this blog post, we will discuss the top 3 strategies that can prove to be effective in creating a strong classroom community and thus ensure that an inclusive environment full of trust and safety is created. Let’s now have a look at the ideas and strategies that you can use and put into action to make the concept of a unified classroom community a reality.
#1: Connect The Student Fraternity By A Common Goal
The first step towards bringing the entire class together to form a united group or community is to link them towards a common goal. If they can be made to function towards a particular goal, their bonding and unity will be strengthened to a great extent.
If you are a teacher, it is a pretty sure thing for you to know what acts as an enticing thing for the students or say, what kind of rewards can make them happy and alike. You can list down the rewards for the students by specifying the goal for which they need to work and earn the incentive from you.
You can even create a track record of each students’ performance and share it with the students at the beginning of each class to let them know where they stand. In that way, they will be clear as to when they are going to receive their rewards.
By executing this plan of action, you will actually be making your students propel into action to realise the shared goal designated for them. When students will start functioning together, they will no longer work as individuals but as an entity. And, guess what? That is when you realise that you have succeeded in making your students come together to form a community.
#2: Create Classroom Rules Together
A virtual classroom is surely going to have its own set of decorum to ensure discipline is maintained at the time of online teaching. What usually happens is that the educators use their sole discretion and whim to chalk out the classroom rules to be followed by the students.
However, if you let the students participate in framing the rules and regulations and make them work together with you, they will experience a sense of unity, confidence and trustworthiness. Believe it or not, creating a set of rules to be followed in the classroom along with the students is going to be fun and also effective in building a learning community. After all, they will be following the rules…so, why not include them in the process?
#3: Conduct Class Meetings Once A Week
Strengthening the classroom community will be made possible by holding exclusive meetings with your class once a week. It is not necessary that you have to discuss only the class performance of the students. If you do that, things will grow monotonous and students won’t show up for it.
Making the students feel that they are a part of the community and that they have ownership of the class is to induce into their minds the feeling that they have a say and can uphold their own voice. You can use the meeting to organise some productive events or take suggestions and feedback from them to improve their classroom experience.
Together with the students, you can come up with class goals and strive towards fulfilling these together. In that way, your motto of establishing a classroom community will be met effectively.
Final Words
Take action now, and implement these strategies to bring the class together to form a community. Make them feel a sense of belongingness and safety, and see how well they perform in the class. Here’s to attaining success together! All the best in your journey of building a strong classroom community!
