What I’m Doing Differently in the Classroom, Part II

Going beyond student-student relationships to building belonging

Dec 11, 2024

Belonging is a mutual exchange of care, compassion, and courage that binds people together in a way that says you matter. It means that because you are a human being, you have the ordained right to be a member of this group.

- Dr. Shawn A. Ginwright

a sign that says you belong surrounded by plants — Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

Prior to my equity role, I was intentional about fostering student-student relationships so they could get along and work together on classroom activities and projects. I’ve often been complimented for being able to build a positive and supportive classroom community and at times have not been sure how exactly I did so. When I became an Equity Specialist, I learned that it’s important to go beyond fostering student-student relationships (a good and important thing in and of itself) and work towards building a sense of belonging in the classroom.

While healthy student-student relationships means everyone can get along and work together reasonably well, belonging is being accepted for all of who you are. One common misconception of belonging that I’ve encountered is that it only has to do with friendship. The sense is “I belong with my friend group and that’s enough.” I challenge students (and adults when I train them) that belonging extends beyond friendship. I might not be friends with everyone in the classroom, but I can accept all people for who they are (and as my middle schoolers importantly add on - without judgement).

The following are ways I’ve worked to intentionally build a sense of belonging in my classrooms:

September Name Challenge: I remembered from when I taught middle school previously that not all students know the names of their classmates. When I taught elementary, students pretty naturally learned each other’s names because they were with the same 25(ish) students all day. This is not the case in secondary grades, so this fall, I instituted the “September Name Challenge.” For the month of September, if students could correctly say the names of everyone in the class (including correct pronunciation), they were rewarded with a piece of candy. If they could say everyone’s names before I could, they earned two pieces! (Since I was new to the school and the surrounding community, most students who took on the challenge were able to complete it before me).
Throughout the month, students were talking to people who were not their friends asking them their names. I recently asked students, “What’s something we did in class earlier in the year that you wish we’d do again?” Several students said the name challenge (perhaps it’ll make a comeback the first week in January…).
5-Step Greeting: I learned this strategy last summer while I was at the Washington Education Association’s Teaching for Equity Conference. I attended a session led by Dr. Luis Ortega (who was also the keynote speaker). For the activity, students find a partner and come up with a greeting consisting of 5 unique steps. These could include words, handshakes, (appropriate) gestures or a combination. After giving some time to develop the greeting, I then tell students to do their greeting as though they’re walking through honey (at first I said molasses, but lots of kids didn’t know what that was!). Next, I tell them to do their greeting as fast as they safely can. Finally, I tell them to do it at the pace that feels most natural. For the following several days (and some random times afterwards), I have them do their greeting again after class has started. Some pairs have started automatically greeting each other without prompting from me. Seeing this is a joy.
Attendance Questions: As I take attendance each day I ask a question that students answer instead of saying “here.” Fairly early in the year, students recognize this as a way for me to get to know them. They are just now making the connection that it’s also an opportunity for them to get to know their fellow classmates (beyond just their existing friends) and see it as a way to build belonging.
I try to keep these questions to a word or short phrase answer. I have several categories that I rotate through including:
- “What’s your preference - …“ (my take on “this or that” questions)
- “Would you rather…”
- “If you could…”
- “What’s a type of ____ you enjoy?” (a lower-pressure version of “What’s your favorite…”)
I also have several favorites that I’ll repeat throughout the year including:
- “What’s something (or someone) you’re grateful for today?”
- “What’s something you’re looking forward to?”
- “What’s something fun you’ve done lately?”
- “What’s something creative you’ve done lately?” (I love this one because I talk about making sure our categories of “creative” include not just the arts, but also making things and solving problems.)
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Class Meetings: I hold a class meeting once a week where we sit in a big circle and share about different topics. (I previously held them every other week. Then I gave students a class survey to gather some voice, and every class voted to have them weekly.) During class meetings, we talk about topics related to dignity (more to come on how I’m doing this in a later essay). For the last two sessions, we talked about:
- The differences between belonging and fitting-in: After having them write their initial thoughts as an entry task, we watched this video and discussed it in the circle:
- Ways to create belonging, especially how we are welcoming to people as a first step towards building belonging.
These discussions are helpful to both hear students’ thoughts and to be able to clarify some misunderstandings about belonging. Part of our last discussion included a question about what we already do in class to create a community that includes everyone (not just our friends). Students mentioned some of the activities above and now they’re aware that these are intentionally implemented with the goal of building a sense of belonging for everyone.