Building Community in the Classroom

Sean Coffron

Summer 2001

In my experience in the classroom, I have learned that the developing a classroom community of respect and trust is paramount to a learning environment. By focusing on the classroom as a community, the teacher can direct the class and govern the norms of the classroom in such a way that the students feel they are an integral part. For students to maximize their capacity to learn through empowerment, they must feel that they have power over their own education. One way to facilitate this is by involving the students in the construction of this community.

I have worked with two teachers over the past year. I have shared classrooms with Ms. Mary Nasatka, and Ms. Kaylene Brummett. Ms. Nasatka and I taught two classes of College Preparatory 11th grade, and Ms. Brummett and I taught two classes of English 12. Although they are two different teachers working with two different curricula, they both approached their classroom with the student as the focus. In this way, they were able to show the students that they were important parts of the classroom, not recipients of the classroom. This encouraged student participation and facilitated higher‑level education.

Ms. Brummett's classroom was predominantly composed of students who did not plan to go to college. Although not necessarily the same students, around 50% of each class was identified as having special needs. Another interesting factor that I did not expect to play a role in the environment was that these were morning classes, an attribute that ended up playing heavily into the student interactions with the materials and the teachers.

Ms. Nasatka's College Preparatory classes were, of course, very different. The difference came primarily because the students were Juniors rather than Seniors. Their comparative youth was very apparent, as was their relatively high level of enthusiasm, unencumbered by the longing for graduation known playfully as "senioritis." These students were predominantly sons and daughters of college professors who had no doubt that they were going to college and into white‑collar professions. Interestingly enough, there were a considerable amount of students in both classes who were identified as having special needs. Nonetheless, the other factors involved with the classroom's construction left this fact without notable effect overall.

That is not to say that those students had no impact on the classroom. Indeed, every student played an important role in these classrooms. It was this attention to individual contributions that led the community to grow together and develop. Both teachers' attention to the individuality of the students as well as the formation of a community of learners allowed students to feel accepted as people first, as well as members of a high school English class.

I was particularly interested in how these communities were formed. Both Ms. Brummett and Ms. Nasatka went to great lengths in the beginning of the year to promote a group effort and an atmosphere of cooperation. How? What exactly did they do to create this magic? As one walks into Ms. Brummett's classroom and sees the students give their senior speeches, the observer might recognize that every student is actively engaged in what each of their peers have to say. What caused that interest? Surely these students were not all that close at the beginning of the year. And in Ms. Nasatka's classroom when students talk about their weekend every Monday, what causes the most silent of students to speak up? Surely there must be something compelling them to speak.

In order to find the roots of this, I began to look back on the way Ms. Brummett and Ms. Nasatka began the year. I had worked with Ms. Brummett from the beginning so I had the luxury of personal notes. With Ms. Nasatka, I had to rely on conversations with her and piecing together the process by observing the results. I found a commonality in both classrooms in the form of a set of five characteristics that were shared by the classrooms: Students knew the social norms of the classroom and were compelled to follow them with little enforcement on the part: of the teacher.

Many times I observed students beginning to misbehave, and calm down by the mere gaze of Ms. Brummett. One particular student was talking with his neighbors and continued to do so for some time. It was obvious to the other students that class had started and we were waiting on him, but he remained (perhaps selectively) oblivious. When Ms. Brummett caught his eye, she politely asked him to stop, and he did. This is a student who has been in trouble throughout his school life and is in danger of failing out of school. Why does he listen to her?

A similar student in Ms. Nasatka's class frequently walks around the room during group work and distracts other students. One particular day, he was becoming increasingly loud, and Ms. Nasatka asked him to please sit down. He continued talking and the student speaking with him stopped and told him to do what Ms. Nasatka had said. Reluctantly, he took his seat. What prompted that student, who was not in any particular trouble herself, to support the teacher over her friend in that instance? Students felt safe to express their opinions without ridicule from their peers or the teacher.

"A student in Ms Brummett's class thinks a unit is boring and stupid. I find this out in a way I never expected. He told the teacher in front of the whole class. My initial reaction was to quiet him and move on, but she glanced over at me to hold me at bay. She then began to explain with infinite patience and brilliant simplicity the objectives of the unit. While I was expecting an even louder rebuttal, I was surprised to hear the student continue to debate his point relatively calmly until he had been satisfied. At this point, he took his seat (yes he was standing) and Ms. Brummett calmly picked up where she left off and continued having diffused a potentially dreadful situation.

After most units, Ms. Nasatka holds a unit evaluation during which students evaluate the unit's effectiveness. The students get a chance to talk about their feelings of the unit and what they liked and didn't like. I was incredibly skeptical at first; especially because it was the unit I had spent time designing under scrutiny. As the students began tearing my work apart, I was insulted by Ms. Nasatka's acceptance of such destruction. And yet, afterwards, I found myself agreeing with many of the students' points and making some notes of my own on how to improve the unit for next time. I gained some valuable insight that my pride would have otherwise not allowed. What gives Ms. Nasatka's students the freedom and confidence to speak out against the person with the red pen and detention slip? Students were well aware of how they were being assessed, and did not become overly concerned with grades but instead trusted their teacher to be fair.

During Ms. Nasatka's class, students would frequently ask about assignments that were due and check to see if there was anything else coming up. Her answers were always consistent with what she had said earlier in the week. What I learned early on was that no matter how many times a teacher gives the class information, there would be some students who still ask. Nonetheless, it was Ms. Nasatka's ability to fall back on what she had said previously that gave her statements credibility and constancy. Students may have not liked a particular assignment, but by Ms. Nasatka's endless reminders of what was expected and when it was expected left little room for doubt, or question, when grades were handed back.

Ms. Brummett and I worked together on several occasions designing rubrics. What I found most interesting was although the rubrics seemed at first glance very rigid and demanding, their interpretations became increasingly flexible and accommodating. That is not to say Ms. Brummett would give away grades. Rather it gave her the ability to consider a student's personal condition and ability when assigning a grade to his or her work. Interestingly enough, kids rarely argued with grades. Most students knew what they were getting before they received any feedback at all. This was largely due, again, to Ms. Brummett's constant reiterations of what is expected in her classroom.

One of the prominent features of both classroom settings was that the students rarely contested grades. I have always envisioned grading as a process of negotiation, and dreaded the students' rebuttal to my feeble attempt to tell them how they did. My mistake had been putting grades at the forefront of the classroom. Instead, assessment should take the form of personal evaluation, in that it becomes a constant exchange of feedback to the student rather than a carat or dagger to be wielded at will. Such an interaction with the student creates a bond of trust, and student look forward to seeing what the teacher has to say, rather than dreading the red pen. Incidentally, neither teacher used red pens, and responded to my question by saying that red pens were very offensive and could offset the student. By choosing a softer or more neutral color, the grader can set the student at ease to receive the feedback.

This concept of the grade as feedback begins with the first week. If students learn that the teacher is in the class to help rather than judge, the exchange has begun. Both teachers made an effort in the beginning of their years to communicate to the students their status as academic learners. Although they maintained a sense of expertise in their field, their constant questioning of ideas, including their own, left them in a position one would hardly call authoritarian. In assessment, as well as classroom interaction, this allowed students to set aside their worries of grades and focus instead on what was being taught.

Students were confident in their teacher's ability to lead them through a productive and fun year.

As a student teacher, I constantly felt I had to prove myself to the students. Throughout the year, my roller coaster of emotions was fashioned by my expectation to always be right and the students to respect me from the start. What I soon learned, but did not realize until well into May, was that a class's respect must be earned. It can easily be done, but a teacher must actively pursue the cause. In order for a class to have faith in my ability as a teacher, I have to prove that I am competent in the classroom and in the field.

In my first week of classes, I told a student to remove his gum and throw it away. He refused and turned away, and I instantly found the class's eyes upon me. That was the first time I realized that every move I make is under careful scrutiny and affects not only my relationship with that student, but with the class as well. Unfortunately, I spoke uninformed, stating that the school handbook says no, chewing gum in class, which of course it did not. When I was further challenged, I could not continue. Ms. Brummett stepped in and saved the situation, but I learned in talking to her later that I must choose what battles to fight and which battles I could win. Losing such confrontations only hinders my ability to teach students and gain their trust.

Overall what I learned from my experiences in these classrooms is that how one develops the classroom community and interacts with students depends heavily on the individual's personality and the composition of the classroom. Because of this, it is very difficult to give the definitive word on how one goes about creating classroom community, or even what the ideal community looks like. Even in the seemingly general list of assumptions I propose above depends on other attributes that are not always the case.

First of all, most students spoke English as their first language and were relatively comfortable with their cultural environment. If this were not the case, the issues surrounding culture and language may stand in the way of even the most elementary of tasks. Likewise, any number of curricular objectives, such as an emphasis on a standardized performance test or Advanced Placement test, would have a drastic impact on the culture of the classroom.

Education occurs within a community and participants are heavily influenced by each other. However, because each community is defined by its members, there is very little one can say in general terms about these different communities. Interestingly enough, there is evidence to suggest that all "communities" in general share commonalities in their development, but I would hope that as education begins to favor the individual and focus on the student more and more, even these rules will not apply to the classroom as each student embarks on a personal relationship with the educator and education at large.