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Posts from the ‘Building Community’ Category

Sep 16

A Collaborative Approach to Creating Class Expectations

At the beginning of the school year instead of standing in front of my class and telling my new students my rules and expectations for their class behavior, I like to start with a conversation. So rather than handing out a list of rules, I ask students to make their own lists of what respect actually looks and sounds like in a classroom. This activity gives students a voice in creating the expectations we will follow throughout the year, and turns a typical beginning-of-the-year conversation into an opportunity to collaborate, think, and create.

The Bellringer Brainstorm

I continue to establish our daily routines by starting class with a bellringer prompt focused on the topic. Students spend 2 to 3 minutes brainstorming independently in response to the following question: What does respect look like or sound like in the classroom? By phrasing the question this way, students start the class by thinking of tangible (and repeatable) examples. After each student has had some time to create their own lists, they discuss and add to create a table brainstorm.

Carousel Brainstorm

Next students move around the room in small groups or pairs to complete a carousel brainstorm. At each whiteboard, they add three original, specific examples of respect to one of four categories:

  • Respecting each other
  • Respecting the classroom environment
  • The teacher respecting students
  • Respecting the teacher

I like the final category because it makes the conversation reciprocal. Respect isn’t simply something students are expected to give, but it is something we all contribute to creating.

After visiting each station, students take one final walk around the room to read through all of the ideas. They choose their top “rules”—the expectations they think are most important for creating a respectful classroom.

Make a Visual Commitment

Next, students work together to choose one of their ideas to turn it into a respect poster.

This year, I had students create their posters in Canva, which added another layer to the activity. Students could take and upload their own photographs showing what respect looks like in action. It also gave them a low-stress introduction to a digital tool we will use again later in the year to create and publish projects.

The finished posters are printed, laminated, and displayed at the front of the classroom

More Than Just Rules

What I like most about this activity is that the expectations on the wall aren’t simply my rules. They are agreements students generated, discussed, prioritized, and turned into something they can see every day.

And when we need a reminder about classroom expectations later in the year, I can point back to the posters and the conversation that created them.

Instead of beginning the year with “Here are my rules,” we begin with a much more important question: What kind of classroom do we want to create together?

Kelly Virgin is a WCWP teacher leader who teaches high school English for the Kennett Consolidated School District.

Sep 9

From Conversation to Creation: A Back-to-School ELA Activity

The first week of school is full of introductions. Students are learning their schedules, figuring out classroom routines, and, most importantly, trying to figure out who they will spend the next year learning alongside and from. I like to use this time to get students talking and collaborating right away, but without putting anyone on the spot.

This low-stakes Venn diagram activity is one of my favorite ways to start the year because it does so much more than help students get to know one another. In one block period, students are talking, listening, taking notes, organizing ideas, collaborating, and presenting. These are all skills we will continue to practice throughout the school year.

Start with What You Know

For the bell ringer, students move around the classroom and respond to five prompts:

  • Favorite food
  • Favorite place
  • Favorite person
  • Favorite activity
  • Favorite entertainment

They can write or draw their responses. This gets students moving and thinking while giving them some personal information to use later in the activity.

Partner Conversation

Next, I assign students a partner. Early in the school year, I intentionally avoid having students choose their own partners. This gives them an opportunity to work with someone they might not otherwise approach and removes the anxiety of figuring out “Who am I going to work with?” I made the pairing random and easy – find the person with the same color dry erase marker as you.

Once they are partnered, students participate in five short, three-minute conversation rounds. Each round focuses on a different topic:

  1. Favorites & Likes
  2. Places
  3. Activities
  4. Family & Friends
  5. Entertainment

Students talk, listen, and take notes about their partner’s responses. I provide question stems and model the conversations before they begin, which gives my English Language Learners a structure for participating in the conversations. These scaffolds can easily be adjusted or removed for more advanced classes. However, I find even higer-level students benefit from clear models and structure early in the school year.

From Conversation to Organization

After the conversations, students use their notes to create a Venn diagram comparing themselves with their partner.

Before they begin, I show them a teacher model so they can see what the finished product might look like. Students then work together to add:

  • 5 unique things they learned about their partner
  • 3 things they have in common

This is also a subtle introduction to an organizational tool that students will use throughout the year. A Venn diagram isn’t just something we complete during the first week, but it becomes a visual way to organize similarities and differences, compare ideas, and prepare for writing in response to literature later in the course.

Collaborate, Create, and Share

Once their Venn diagrams are complete, students present them to the class as a way of introducing their partners. Instead of simply saying their partner’s name and a favorite food, students have something meaningful to share because they have spent time listening and organizing what they learned. To support my English Language Learners, I provide sentence stems, model, and give them teacher-supported time to draft their presentations on a notecard.

The activity mirrors the work we will do all year in ELA: We collaborate, we create, and we share. And because the content is personal but low stakes, students are practicing those skills without worrying about whether their answers are “right.”

End with a Listening Challenge

I like to finish the class with a quick listening quiz. Students have about 30 seconds to write down the name, or names, of classmates who fit descriptions they have just heard:

Who is…

  • from Venezuela?
  • loves cats?
  • plays soccer?
  • works at Walmart?

Suddenly, students are looking around the room and realizing, Oh! I know who that is!

It’s a simple way to reinforce the information they heard during the activity while continuing to build classroom community.

Why I Keep Coming Back to This Activity

By the end of the lesson, students have had multiple opportunities to speak with a classmate, practice active listening, organize information, work collaboratively, and stand in front of the class to share. But perhaps the most important outcome is less academic: students leave knowing a little bit more about the people in the room.

For me, that’s exactly what I want from a first-week activity. We are already doing ELA, just without the pressure of calling it ELA yet.

We talk. We listen. We organize. We create. We share. And along the way, we begin to build a classroom community.

Kelly Virgin is a WCWP teacher leader who teaches high school English for the Kennett Consolidated School District.

Jan 4

Learning in Place: Teachers Writing, Exploring, and Learning at Hagley

On December 6th, area teachers were invited to slow down, explore, and learn together at the Hagley Museum. The day centered on two interconnected strands: using primary sources to deepen classroom instruction and engaging in place-based writing inspired by Hagley’s historic landscapes. Through guided learning, independent exploration of the museum and grounds, and shared writing time, participants experienced strategies they can adapt directly for their own students. Made possible by a Library of Congress grant, this session marks the first in a series of free, place-based professional development days for local teachers. Each session is designed by a West Chester Writing Project teacher leader to foster collaboration, reflection, and meaningful connections between history, place, and writing. The slides from our first day are included below as a resource for continued learning and reflection.

Hagley LOC Grant PDDownload

Click here to join us for an upcoming session as we continue to learn together in places that inspire teaching and writing!

  • Michener Museum (2/28)
  • Brandywine River Museum (4/11)
  • Mercer Museum (4/18)
  • Winterthur Museum (5/2)

Kelly Virgin is a WCWP teacher leader who teaches high school English for the Kennett Consolidated School District.

May 20

Saying a Virtual Goodbye to our Classrooms and the Communities we Built Together.

The last few weeks of school are typically some of the best few weeks of school. This is when we get to enjoy all of our hard work and efforts together through writing celebrations, field trips, poetry slams, sharing our favorite reads, and reflecting on the year we spent together while looking ahead at our futures.

So as I  sit here separated from my students by a computer screen, I’m not only mourning the loss of our in-person connections but I’m also pondering how to honor the community we built with an asynchronous goodbye. 

First and foremost, I know I need to give my students choice with how they close out their school year. I realize this school shut down has presented a vast array of challenges for my students. While most deal daily with the boredom and loneliness of social isolation, others have become full time workers, some are trying to navigate online learning while sharing a computer with siblings and a home with 10 or more people, and a few are grieving lost or sick family members. With this in mind, I want to honor the school year we’ve had together while respecting the various hurdles they each have to jump in order to finish it. Accordingly, the following is how I plan to invite students, in their own ways and on their own time, to celebrate the community we’ve built before saying goodbye to it:

Virtual poetry slam: Since we’ve spent the few last weeks reading and writing poetry through our online learning platform, I want to take some time to communially celebrate the creative work we’ve done by inviting students to participate in any or all of several sharing options. Read more

Feb 14

Bulletin Board Battles and Black History Month

by Renee Jacobs

Happy Black History Month! Although we know that good practice is to teach accurate history every day of the academic year, Black History Month is a wonderful time of year to highlight the contributions that Black people have given to the United States and the world. This year, during your school’s preparation, I would advise you to gauge the degree of crazy behavior or avoidance that could ensue.

Every year as February approaches, I see very caring teachers become crazy with trying to get Black history month bulletin boards up in the school. In some cases, the precision and focus involved with making sure things are colored, cut, and mini-lessoned is unmatched. Sadly, we feel accomplished, but the level of understanding that the students have about the importance of such contributions as the pacemaker (invented by Otis Boykin) is dependent upon if the students paid attention during the thirty second speech on the morning announcements or if they noticed the facts on those strategically placed bulletin boards. We don’t teach any other aspects of history with such disregard. I would like to recommend that you take some time to think through your presentation of our shared history because there is actually no Black history, only history. However, our curriculums don’t reflect this fact so we need to continue celebrating the month for now so our students can see and celebrate heroes of every race.

    There are also schools that are so uncomfortable with discussions about race that they choose to avoid any story related to Black History that isn’t sweet or does not have an ending that ties a pretty bow on the way we “should” remember the past. It’s predictable that the same story of Dr. King’s dream, Harriet Tubman’s railroad trip, and Rosa Park’s seat will be on repeat in classrooms all over the country throughout the month of February. Many versions of these stories lack depth and in many cases are not shared accurately at all so that the teacher and our organizations can remain comfortable. Another form of avoidance is the “family heritage” approach. In these schools, teachers assign all students a project that requires them to research their family heritage in celebration of “Heritage Month” or “International Food Day”. This way, we can say that we looked at Black history as we looked at the family history of all our students. 

    In case no one else told you, I will be your Black teacher friend that is going to tell you a bit of truth that will improve relationships and the authenticity of your practice. Crazy last-minute bulletin board frenzies and avoidance are not respectful. Your Black families are often inferring their significance to your school community based on many interactions, and this is one of them. This opportunity is important to connect with families. We need to approach Black History using professional reflection and excellence. For example, do educators ever discuss with students the fact that Harriet Tubman and Susan B. Anthony lived during the same time period? Black history is American history; it must be intentionally integrated. If teachers understood the importance of taking the time to find meaningful resources to engage students in rich conversations about the contributions of Black people throughout the year and also highlight this learning during the month of February with students and families in mind rather than remaining in the personal comfort of the repeating last year’s lesson, it would be so impactful. Our relationships can be strengthened by the amount of effort that we put into community building work such as respectfully and authentically celebrating people. This will be a process, but in the meantime try to remember… it’s not about the bulletin board.

    Nov 29

    NCTE November: Bringing together a Community of Educators

    by Liz Corson

    I arrived at the Baltimore Conference center on Thursday morning and happily bumped into Pauline Schmidt, PAWLP director, who had invited me to join PAWLP fellows to lead a roundtable the next day. This was my third NCTE conference and, by far, the most transformative, because of how much I felt a part of communities of educators.

    One of these is an on-line community of educators. Through @ValBrown’s #cleartheair and #disrupttexts, I began learning from educators of color and reading books such as White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo and White Rage by Carol Anderson and Being the Change by Sara K. Ahmed.

    At a Thursday workshop on Identity, Inquiry, and Equity, Jess Lifshitz, a 5th grade teacher who I followed on Twitter and through her blogs (https://crawlingoutoftheclassroom.wordpress.com/) shared how she teaches a critical reading process. “We can give them a critical reading process that they can apply to the reading they do in the world and the ways in which they live and interact with others in the world” (J. Lifshitz, NCTE 2019). This is something I am striving to do with my students constantly and year round. 

    Another presenter, Sara K. Ahmed, shared the importance of examining our own privileges as well as helping our students to recognize their privileges. On Saturday, I was able to speak with Sara in between sessions in the hall and thank her for her book, Being the Change, that a year ago, gave me the courage to start to explicitly bring identity into my classroom with my fifth graders through choices of texts, topics we study, and discussions we have. 

    Tricia Ebarvia, a PAWLP fellow and #disrupttext founder, led us in creating our own timelines and explained how our students’ time lines can be shared and discussed. Tricia shared Beverly Daniel Tatum’s (2000) work, “Who I am? The answer depends in large part on who the world around me says I am” (Tatum, The Complexity of Identity: “Who am I?”).

    In addition, I grew closer to the PAWLP community. I became a PAWLP fellow two years ago. I had the pleasure of presenting at last year’s PAWLP day and am a part of the Anti-Bias Book club. Hanging out over dinners in restaurants, sharing pizza in a hotel lobby and talking long after the pizza had gone cold, enjoying s’mores and finding more books to buy, and diving deep into our passions and worries as educators, wives, mothers, and citizens, we connected and I felt lucky to be part of the PAWLP community. 

    And that was even before the Sunday brunch when PAWLP directors, Mary Buckelew and Janice Ewing, authors of Action Research for English Language Arts Teachers: Invitation to Inquiry (Routledge, 2019) presented. I had attended their workshop the previous day, along with other PAWLP fellows, and loved being guided by Mary and Janice and Liz Mathews to creatively reflect on my research question through sketching and poetry and sharing. At the brunch, in addition to hearing Mary and Janice talk about action research, we also got hear from Brian Kelley about his use of sketching to help slow down kid watching and noticing, and from Courtney Knowlton who shared her discussion with a colleague that helped her refine her action research, and Liz Mathews’ use of art to reflect. I felt lucky to be a part of such an incredible group of educators and grateful I had been able to spend time with fellow PAWLP educators.

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