Classroom Cohesion (Community)

BENEFITS

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• Earn higher grades and report greater satisfaction with the class.

 

• They participate more, engage more deeply with tasks, and are more likely to persevere.

 

• More prosocial behavior, greater generalized trust, and reduced antisocial behavior.

 

• Students feeling safe, respected, and valued.

 

• Boosts motivation and willingness to put in effort.

 

• When teacher and students are “pulling in the same direction,” there is less time spent on discipline and more time available for instruction.

 

• Supports clearer norms, smoother collaboration, and more efficient group work.  link

 

 

 

HOW TO

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• Ask “What do we need from one another to learn?” and turning student ideas into a living document.

 

• Explicitly teach, model, and revisit these norms.

 

• Routines such as morning meetings, weekly class meetings, mood check-ins, or “roses and thorns” to let students share feelings and experiences.

 

• Use students’ names, identities, and interests.

 

• Quick structures like turn-and-talk so every student regularly speaks and is heard.

 

• Group students to promote interaction across the social network, periodically changing partners/groups.

 

• Structured cooperative learning (e.g., think-pair-share, jigsaw-style expert groups, small-group problem solving) with clear roles and shared goals.

 

• Transparent consequences so students experience the class as fair, predictable, and emotionally safe.

 

• Regular formative feedback, celebrate effort and prosocial behavior.

 

• Simple feedback channels (problem/solution box, anonymous comment cards).

 

• Teach and rehearse a shared conflict-resolution.

 

• Coach students to repair harm and restore relationships, not just “solve” problems.​

 

• Monitor who is isolated or marginalized and deliberately connect them through buddy systems, mentorships, purposeful partnerships. link

 

 

 

TEACHING ACTIVITIES

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• Icebreakers

 

• Get to know you surveys

 

• Friendly fridays

 

• Gratitude walls

 

• Identity portraits

 

• Greeting at door

 

• Appreciation / Apology / Aha

 

• Show & tell

 

• 2 minute talks

 

• Dialogue journals

 

• Shout out boxes

 

• Daily dedication

 

• Gab & go

 

• 2 truths and a lie

 

• 4 square.  link

 

 

 

 

CHALLENGES

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• Heavy testing, paperwork, and policy requirements can push climate and community work to the margins.

 

• Teachers are often expected to build trust quickly while simultaneously starting rigorous academic work, creating tension between “covering content” and investing in relationships.

 

• Students bring varied cognitive, emotional, social, language, and cultural profiles.

 

• Language differences, trauma histories, mental health needs.

 

• Underdeveloped social skills.

 

• Some students arrive with negative experiences of school or teachers.

 

• Existing conflicts, cliques, bullying, or strong disagreements about social issues.

 

• Students lack practice with listening, perspective-taking, and conflict resolution.

 

• Sustaining routines like circles, morning meetings, or team challenges over time is hard. link

 

 

WHAT NOT TO DO

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• Avoid contrived, overly “touchy‑feely” activities that students experience as artificial (e.g., mandatory sharing circles with no trust).

 

• Inconsistent enforcement of rules.

 

• Different consequences for similar behaviors.

 

• Public shaming strategies (e.g., humiliation, punitive time-out corners used to ostracize).

 

• Relying on control (threats, power struggles, “because I said so”) rather than co-constructed norms.

 

• Expecting perfect behavior without emotional work—listening, empathy, repair.

 

• Neglecting to learn students’ names, backgrounds, or interests.

 

• Sending students into groups with no taught norms, roles, or structures often results in one student doing all the work.

 

• Ignoring bullying, name-calling, or subtle exclusion.

 

• Leaving conflicts unresolved.   link