COMMUNITY
A Simple Technique for Affecting Belonging, One Genuine Connection at a Time by Dave Stuart Jr.
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t’s common enough to see a really well-meaning teacher whose chief goal is to create a classroom where kids feel welcome, included, enjoyed, and honored, but to forget that this is only half the battle. Yes, we need kids to all identify with school, to identify with our class culture, to feel that who we’re asking them to be lines up with who they are. And yes, this is very, very challenging with many of our kids. In my own practice, I’ve found this challenging
TRACKING GENUINE CONNECTIONS At the start of the school year, I get all of my kids’ names onto a single piece of paper, clip it onto my clipboard (see Figure 2), and keep track of moments of genuine connection. I don’t always write down what the moment was or what we connected on, but I always at least make a marking (e.g., a green dot) next to kids whom I’ve connected with at least once. I’m going to share some examples of the types of things that get said during these “moments of genuine connection” because I think that’s the clearest
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way of communicating what I mean by “moment of genuine connection.” A student who succeeded after setbacks: “Henry, I know you joined this class late, and I want you to know that I realize the challenges that come with that. When you scored so well on our most recent quiz, that spoke to me of your determination to improve—and that’s exactly what I’m after in you this year. Keep it up, young man.” A student who I know is shy: “Jessica, the last thing I was expecting today for our first pop-up debate was for you to stand up first, boldly making
ROSTRUM | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2019
in Baltimore, MD, Cedar Springs, MI, and in the various substitute gigs I took while living in New York City. Yet belonging alone isn’t enough. Rather, it’s only the first of two difficult steps suggested by one of the five academic mindsets. (See #3 in Figure 1.) The second step is equally critical: belong to what? In this article, I want to examine the efficient means through which I aim to create belonging.
Five Key Beliefs Beneath Student Motivation 1. Credibility: I have a good teacher. 2. Value: This work matters to my life. 3. Belonging: People like me do work like this. 4. Effort: I can improve at this if I try. 5. Efficacy: I can succeed at this. From Stuart Jr., D. (2018). These 6 Things: How to Focus Your Teaching on What Matters Most. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
FIGURE 1: Believing that I belong to this certain kind of class community.
your point. Even now with class over, I’m blown away by that, Jessica, just blown away.”
sophomore slump, but
A former student in the hallway: “Noah, I heard
set your eyes on doing
you saying that you had a
Doing better happens
listen to me: it sounds like you’ve recognized that as a problem and that you’ve better in your junior year.