WORK TIME Be Sure Your Classroom Offers Kids a Safe and Supportive Learning Community Teachers, it is always important for you to regularly pause your teaching in order to take stock of your students and of the social life for children in your classroom. As children research, observe with these questions in mind: “Which of my children may feel invisible in this classroom? Which partnerships may need support?” Don’t make the mistake of priori- tizing academic skills and overlooking the need for kids to feel safe and seen. According to John Hattie (2012), it is incumbent for schools to, at a minimum, ensure that all students have a sense of belonging. Here are some ways to help your students feel safe and seen: z Lead a small group in which your rally suggests that one way for students to practice the work of today’s minilesson is for them to teach each other, not what they have just read about plants, but something they know well from their own lives. Ask each youngster to think of something he or she does at home—for example, something the child cooks or plays or celebrates—and to plan how to teach that to another child, using an explaining voice and gestures. The youngster can then transfer those teaching methods to teaching about a plant-related topic from the text set. One of the tenets of Responsive Classroom ® is this: “Providing opportunities for students to share about themselves and learn about each other helps build a positive classroom community, which is foundational for building positive cultural connections and understanding.” (2020). z Consider ways in which you can draw on Responsive Classroom ® work to help listeners understand their role when partners are working together. Ask one partner to teach you about whatever that person has been learning, and model what less-than-ideal listening looks like, contrasting that with responsive listening. Emphasize the importance of body language that says “I’m interested.” Help youngsters know that eye contact can be a way to show interest. It is a big deal for listeners to keep their eyes on the speaker. Support listening as well as teaching gestures. After listening, the listener can say “I heard you” by summarizing what the speaker said. z Believe a student into being. According to the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), students need a teacher who believes that they can succeed. When conferring one-on-one with a student, start with a compliment that is rooted in authenticity and specificity. For instance, when sitting next to a student who has lots of topic words but is struggling to come up with a main idea, praise the student first for the work of gathering all the content vocabulary. Then, exclaim, “You’ve got this part down so well, you are totally ready for the next part!” This kind of authentic feedback rooted in praise helps students see themselves as capable and up for the task. z Gather meaningful student artifacts that highlight strengths within the skill and strategies of the unit. Through the use of a gallery walk, invite students to admire each others’ work. This presents an opportunity for students to identify a class expert who could be a thought partner when a skill or task feels especially difficult.
Delon Gray, a professor of psy- chology at North Carolina State College, says that students who feel a sense of belonging at school are typically more ener- gized, more likely to spend time on-task and return to activities, and more likely to choose to be in the school environment.
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Bend I • Strengthen Nonfiction Research Skills: Researching Plants
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