Strategies for Promoting Students’ Sense of Belonging That Fit in a Busy Schedule

The first few months of the school year are spent practicing routines and explaining (once, twice, three times) classroom expectations. By the second month or so, students are settling into routines and have an understanding of what is expected of them in their new environment. The next step? Building community and a sense of belonging for every student in your classroom—in which every student feels safe, heard, and respected.

The best management system, one that runs like a well-oiled machine, does not always equal a connected classroom. The challenge is creating connections while also teaching curriculum. So how do we naturally build a sense of community in a classroom that already has a jammed schedule?

Here are the strategies I’ve found to be effective.

Promoting expression and sharing

Use arrival time as a chance to get to know students on a deeper level. For elementary classes, this could consist of having students share during morning meetings. Giving every student a chance to speak, and be heard, builds a sense of belonging. It also provides opportunities to teach students how to actively listen, appropriately respond to others, and ask follow-up questions.

In my years of teaching elementary, on Thursdays I would always give students a chance to share something they were happy about that week as well as something that didn’t go so well that week. This was often my students’ favorite day because it gave them a chance to share their experiences and feelings and even have their peers brainstorm ways to make their not-so-good things better.

For older students, this same outcome can be created through a mailbox system for students to share things with you through writing. This gives them an outlet to safely express their feelings or even things going on in their personal lives. Using journals as a bell ringer is another one of my favorites. These prompts can be something as simple as “What can I help you with this week?” Sometimes, students share more when they can express their feelings in writing rather than having to verbalize what they need.

Creating opportunities for communication

Community doesn’t stop at student-teacher relationships. Students should feel safe and respected around their peers as well. It doesn’t always happen naturally, though. As students get settled into the new year, friend groups start to settle, too. If we aren’t intentional about how we organize partners and group work, those friend groups are going to pick each other to work with every single time.

One strategy to move beyond cliques is to be intentional with how class time is spent. We should create opportunities for students to get to know all of their classmates. One of my favorite ways to do this as an elementary teacher was randomizing groups for a Fun Friday activity. STEM challenges provide great opportunities for students to collaborate and build problem-solving skills. This can also happen when we use peer reviews for writing prompts. Pairing students with new partners each time they edit and revise their work not only allows them to build relationships, but also gives them new perspectives on their writing.

One of the best things I started doing as a teacher was bringing a chair up to a group of students as they worked on a project or practice assignment, and simply asking how their day was going. This naturally leads to their peers asking questions and chiming in with their own stories. Through this strategy, I found that it’s not that students don’t want to learn about their peers, it’s that they simply don’t know how to start a conversation—or which questions to ask. A quick conversation that lasts a minute or two lets students know that you, and their peers, care about them as a person, and that makes all the difference in earning their trust.

Incentivizing connection

I’ve always encouraged my students to think of our class as a team. We are better when we listen to each other, respect each other, and work well together. Class challenges have been fun ways to build community within the four walls of my classroom. In the early months of school, I incentivize students to push through their comfort zone through the use of bingo boards.

Some of the squares include “Sit with someone new at lunch,” “Play a new game at recess,” “Learn something new about a classmate,” etc. When a student completes the challenge, I celebrate by having them share about who they got to know a little better, and I also give them a small prize. When one or two students complete the challenge, it’s like a domino effect, and many more follow.

Consistent routines and high classroom expectations are important to a successful school year. However, if one thing has stayed consistent in my years in the classroom, it’s that the true magic happens when we take the time to build a strong community. Students want, and need, to feel safe, respected, and heard by their peers and teachers. Building a sense of belonging doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a pattern of putting one building block on top of another, on top of another, on top of another.

If you are wondering which activities to try or where to even start, the answer is in your students. Take inventory of the things they believe your class does well, the things they think it could improve on, and the times when they are most comfortable in class. Then use that feedback to improve the community in your room.