When a teacher works to develop a strong classroom community, students are able to be successful in the classroom because they feel safe and comfortable.
During a Science lesson at school one day, I observed that one of my students was acting unusually quiet and lackluster. She is a bright student who normally completes her work successfully and efficiently, but this time she sat at her desk with her head down, refusing to write. When I asked what was wrong, she told me that her group mates were being “mean” to her and that all of the boys in the class were constantly teasing her. With some encouragement, she ended up finishing most of her Science writing, but not all.
This evidence supports this claim because it demonstrates how one student was unable to focus on her work when she did not feel a part of the classroom atmosphere. After this incident, it became clear to me just how important community building is for elementary school students in terms of motivation for school. As a teacher, I continually observe the social interactions in my classroom. While the students do seem to get along with each other for the most part, I have been witness to many students using unkind words or teasing their peers on a regular basis. Similar to the example above, these types of interactions always result in someone having hurt feelings. First grade students tend to be highly expressive of their emotions, so it is always clear when a negative social interaction is causing a student to lose focus and motivation for his/her schoolwork.
It is never too early for students to begin developing social competencies, and community building is an important first step for first grade students as they become acclimated to the school environment. If students are able to interact appropriately and kindly with each other, they will be able to achieve greater success in school.
As I noticed an increase in bullying, tattling, and arguing in my classroom, I wondered what I could do as the teacher to improve the social interactions between the students. For my inquiry project, I chose to explore how student-led class meetings to discuss social issues would affect the classroom community. I wondered if placing students in the leadership role and having them discuss the issues themselves (without much teacher intervention) would give them a greater sense of responsibility for their own actions. I have attached my inquiry paper that I wrote to explain my findings.
Although I did not find the class meetings to be highly effective in terms of improving the classroom community, I did find that all of the students enjoyed being placed in the leadership role. The class meetings allowed the students to feel that they were part of a community and that their opinion mattered. My data showed a high level of student participation across the five meetings, with each student participating at least once in at least one of the meetings. This shows that when the students were in charge of leading the discussion, all of the students felt comfortable to give their own input. This evidence supports my claim because it shows that the students were successful at participating and staying on task when they felt comfortable among their peers.
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