Building a Classroom Community
This summer I renewed my teaching certificate by taking two college courses, one on differentiated instruction, and the other on teaching the foundations of reading. Both were superb! I’ll write about reading in my next blog, but today I wanted to share an often overlooked part of differentiated instruction, a students’ affective needs. Our textbook, Differentiation and The Brain: How Neuroscience Supports the Learner-Friendly Classroom by the famous researcher, Carol Ann Tomlinson, explains that students’ affective needs were first articulated by the researcher Abraham H. Maslow in the 1940s. Maslow outlined the five basic, hierarchical needs of human beings, including, of course, children, and each higher need can only be reached once the lower-level needs are met. The physiological needs of food, shelter, and sleep are the first foundational level, followed by a need for safety at the second level. A basic need for belonging and affection is at the third level. Achievement, the very thing educators want for all of their students, can only be reached if the other three levels are maintained, along with receiving the esteem and respect needed for this fourth level. The fifth and final basic need is becoming self-actualized.
I was happy to read that brain research proves what I already intuitively knew as a teacher. When I taught first, second, and third graders, I used a program called Conscious Discipline by Dr. Becky Bailey which I absolutely loved! I greeted my students every day at the door. They chose how they wanted to greet me and of course they all wanted a hug, even in third grade! We also had a meeting every morning where students would pass a stuffed animal around and take turns sharing with the class anything that was on their mind. This was in a Title 1 school with students struggling at home in many ways. As we became closer and closer, some of the things students shared as the year progressed would absolutely melt my heart that they trusted me and the other student’s enough to share their vulnerable stories. Needless to say, there was so much learning happening every day because all my students knew how much we all loved and respected each other, and how much I challenged them to be better than they even knew possible! I miss them all so much and many of my students still stay in touch with me and tell me how much I meant to their lives and for identifying themselves as life-long learners.
I almost didn’t want to give the 30 minutes a day commitment this program required, but now I can see, scientifically, why my students performed so well academically. Please share what you’re already doing well and if you can think of one more, small way to help students feel like they belong and are esteemed in your class?
For more information about building a classroom community, book talks, and helping schools find creative ways to use the wonderful resource, Life in the Everglades: A Young Naturalist’s Manual and Field Guide, please contact me at www.lifeintheeverglades.com.
