ABC 1

Teaching Tolerance ran The ABCs - The Anti-Bias Classroom Series - from 2006 to 2008. The ABCs were online curriculum packages for educators and each installment of The ABCs offered classroom activities and professional development resources for teachers at all grade levels. From women’s history to service learning to hip hop, each thematic unit allowed for educators to “click, print and use” materials immediately.

The ABCs gave Jeff the opportunity to co-write with some of the most prominent scholars in the field of multicultural education, scholars like Bill Bigelow and Linda Christensen of Rethinking Schools Magazine, Carl Grant of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, Jacqueline Jordan Irvine of Emory University, Christine Sleeter of California State University, Monterey Bay, and Paul Gorski of EdChange.org. These scholars have contributed to the classic works that multicultural educators use to teach and cite as core pieces of literature in research.

The ABCs of Building Community

August 15, 2006 - In a new feature, “The ABCs,” which stands for Anti-Bias Classrooms, Teaching Tolerance offers an array of resources and ideas tied to a particular theme. The first theme, to coincide with the new school year, is Community Building

Compiled by Jeff Sapp and Brian Willoughby

Introduction

What do a garden, spiral notebook, disposable camera, bunch of blocks and student-written constitution have in common? They’re all tools teachers have used to build a stronger sense of community in their classrooms.

As any educator knows, community building is essential to a healthy and productive classroom. A strong sense of community promotes both academic success and social/emotional competence. Creating connections across lines of race, ethnicity, religion, class and other differences is a powerful way to reduce prejudice and improve intergroup relations.

But community doesn’t just happen in a classroom. It requires planning and practice.

The following ideas and materials - all tested by other equity-minded educators across the country - are designed to engage students in community-building activities. Working together, you can launch a new school year with a strong sense of classroom community.

Many of the ideas tie to core subject areas (e.g., civics, history, social studies, language arts, art) making them readily usable in your planned curricula.

This edition of The ABCs was compiled by Jeff Sapp, former curriculum specialist/writer for Teaching Tolerance, and Brian Willoughby, managing editor.

Ideas to Start the School Year

Early Grades

• At Kensington Avenue School in Springfield, Mass., teachers build community every day through Morning Meetings that encourage daily greetings, sharing and group activities.
• Lisa Anderson of Hull Elementary School in Livonia, Mich., embraces the chaos of the first week of school, using it to create a sense of community. She asks students to describe the best and worst classroom they could imagine, then works with them to create a behavior contract for the year.

Middle and Upper Grades

• As the migrant education coordinator in Aubrey, Texas, Kristan Taylor learned a simple spiral notebook can help create a profound sense of community.

All Grades

• Invite even the youngest of students students to learn about the U. S. Constitution and Bill of Rights by working together to build a classroom constitution. What “rights” will guide your teaching this school year?
• A garden plot, small or large, can become an effective tool for building a sense of community. Tie it to a service-learning project and that sense of community broadens beyond the classroom. Read A Garden of Honor and A Bountiful Harvest to learn about garden projects in various cities.

TEACHERS SPEAK: The Classroom as a Community

Early Grades

Elementary educator Terry Shaneyfelt uses wooden blocks to help 2nd-grade students exercise their imaginations and build a tolerance community in their classroom.

Middle and Upper Grades

Armed with disposable cameras, Caroline Dunnum’s students take pictures of what is important to them in their communities and share the photos with each other.

All Grades

English teacher Kristen Ogden uses poetry to develop a deeper fellowship in the classroom.

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