As a society, collaboration and community does not come very easily for us. So much of our cultural narrative is built upon the idea that people just have to tough it out on their own. If you want to make it in this world, you have got to take matters into your own hands and power through. You can’t depend on others, and anyone who does not do their share is simply a freeloader. Additionally, we are not very trusting. We are more likely to be suspicious of our peers than we are to engage them in conversation, or get to know them. In fact in the classroom, “creating community” which too often is lumped in with “collaboration” is more often than not dreaded by students. Inevitably, students complain about the ugly side of group work where one or two participants end up doing a disproportionate amount of the work.
Students also come to class with histories that might get in the way. They come to class with perhaps bad experiences with other class members, making them less interested in making themselves more vulnerable or willing to work in groups. Or maybe they have history with other teachers, who had poorly planned attempts to create community which only ended in humiliation or frustration.
Even as a teacher, I have struggled with creating community. Growing up, I was one of those students who just wanted to get my work done without everyone getting all up in my business. And whenever I design activities where students do have to work together, I have this sinking fear that they won’t do it.
With that said, I am often surprised by these magical moments when those groups really do come together. Not too long ago, I had an activity where students were randomly assigned a partner with whom they would read an article. After describing the process and assigning partners, there was this moment when I remember thinking, “Oh, I don’t know if this is going to work.” But eventually, students moved to their respective spaces, and for the next 25 minutes they would sit across from each other reading and interacting with the text and one another. It was one of those beautiful moments where they simply bought into the activity and went with it.
I use this as an example to show that generally our fears as teachers keep us from trying these community building activities. And I will not lie, there have been times when my activities were weak or student involvement was quite minimal. It isn’t entirely unusual that at least one individual will simply “opt out” of the activity, no matter how much I encourage them to join the group. And that’s okay. The resistance of a few should not deter us from prioritizing community building activities. Pushing our students to make connections with others and to finding ways to solve problems together helps them to use muscles and skills that many of them never knew they had.
Here are a few things I’ve learned about building community.
Have a seating chart. I know this seems like a weird tip for “building community” but I found that when I do not have a seating chart, students seem to settle into their social cliques more. Forcing them to interact with people they might not normally interact with, I hope, forces them into some new circles.
Tone. Establishing tone is a bit more abstract, but throughout my career, I have had to make some adjustments to improve my sense of community, and one of them was to check my humor and sarcasm. While I still enjoy being playful throughout my lessons, I am so much more careful of the little jokes and asides that I make. Beyond that, I have worked really hard to virtually eliminate all expressions of sarcasm. It has made a noticeable difference. When I do tease or use sarcasm, it creates an atmosphere for others to do so as well, which inhibits or frustrates community building. And whatever benefits one might gain by making the class laugh are greatly outweighed by the damage of laughing at someone’s expense.
Notebook Trick. This is such a petty trick that I almost hesitate to include it. However, I subscribe to using as many tools as possible, and in some cases the notebook trick inspires a little more effort. During group time, as students are working on things, I’ll just circulate throughout the room with my small notebook, periodically writing some things down. In honesty, I am making lists for what I need to do during my prep or some writing ideas that I have had, but students generally assume that I am taking notes on them. On the rare occasion where a student actually asks what I am writing down, I tell them, but I suspect that most believe that they are being assessed on their small group skills or general engagement.
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