Page 75 - Powerful Social Studies for Elementary Students 4th Edition

CHAPTER 2
How Can I Build a Learning Community in My Classroom: Strategies for Including All Children 47
them to get more personally involved in their learning and realize the intrinsic reward of sharing the results with their classmates, which in turn enhances their social skills.
The Teacher’s Role
The teacher’s role pervades the process of building a learning community, implementing cooperative learning strategies, and motivating students to learn. It includes but is not limited to:
1. Creating a climate of mutual caring.
2. Teaching specific cooperative learning skills and techniques.
3. Showing sincere interest in each student’s responses, ideas, experiences, and work
products.
4. Eliciting students’ input on a regular basis.
5. Giving reasons and thoughtful explanations regarding socio-emotional, behavioral,
and academic issues.
6. Giving students the chance to examine and express the importance of what they do.
7. Providing students with opportunities to participate actively in the evaluation of
their academic work.
8. Minimizing their need for extrinsic rewards and their fear of embarrassment.
9. Celebrating their successes while also engaging with them in ongoing dialogue and
reflection regarding their individual and class development.
10. Planning a curriculum that consists of networks of connected content structured
around big ideas, then developing this content with emphasis on its applications to
life outside of school.
11. Sharing your own background and experiences to model connections to the topics
you teach.
Many of the above elements apply especially to powerful social studies teaching. In this role, the teacher has the added responsibilities of building appreciations related to the human condition and civic efficacy, connecting the unit content to life in the class- room and outside of school, and exposing students to learning resources that reflect mul- tiple perspectives and connect to diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds.
Summary
A collaborative learning community will be most effec- tive when it is:
1. Goal-oriented.
2. Pitched at the appropriate level of difficulty for
the academic and socio-emotional levels of the
students.
3. Integrated into the total school day as a way of life
in the classroom.
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4. Deliberate in shaping democratic activities and actions to ensure that they support progress toward overall social understanding and civic efficacy goals, as well as relating to the unit goals that are linked to the social science disciplines.
5. Maintained and monitored on a regular basis.
6. Culminated in producing students who under- stand, appreciate, and are willing to apply social
Rethinking Schools is a nonprofit organization dedicated to issues of social justice in schools. Visit its website at www.rethinkingschools.org for ideas and resources.
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