4.1 Community-building Circles

Community-building circles give students the opportunity to get to know each other and establish positive connections, including agreements about how they should treat each other. Thus, community-building circles help build familiarity and trust, and strengthen connections between students.

Types of community-building circles can include:

  • Check-In (opening) & Out
  • Classroom Norms
  • Classroom Content
  • Academic Goals

Check-In & Check-Out – At the beginning or end of the class, have students respond to a question or statement. This can also be used as a form of an Exit Ticket. Closure questions invite reflection on what has happened in the circle.

  • How are you feeling today?
  • What did you do this weekend?
  • What is one thing you learned today?

Classroom Norms – Classroom norms deal with expectations and procedures for a particular class. Engaging students in a discussion about how students should act and how they can all work to enforce those expectations changes the nature of classroom management.

  • Assume positive intentions
  • Track the speaker
  • Listen while the speaker has the “talking stick”
  • Monitor air time
  • Active engagement

Classroom Content – Strategically integrated in circles, this lets students know that their ideas and feelings do matter and have an effect on the class and academics in general.

  • What did you learn from doing your homework on Ecosystems?
  • Share an example of when you would use equations in the real world?

Academic Goals – Circles can be used as a great tool for setting academic goals. Students can use circles to establish plans for the next class period, the coming week or the upcoming unit of study. Teachers facilitate students thinking process, and help them come up with solutions.

  • What do you need to do to improve your math grade?
  • What steps do you need to take to finish your science project by the deadline?
  • What do you need to do in order to improve your writing skills?

Staff Meeting Circles – Can be conducted in any type of meeting (staff, department, PD, etc.).

  • When teachers are sitting in a circle during a staff meeting, there are opportunities throughout the meeting for staff to respond to information that is presented
  • Asking for feedback may be the norm, but when it is done in a circle – more voices will be heard

staff meeting circle

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