Dr. Pamela Cantor: Sense of belonging is one of the most important activators of a child’s engagement in learning.

Dr. Linda Darling-Hammond: As human beings, one of the most essential needs we have is the need to belong. When that sense of belonging is there, children throw themselves into the learning environment and when that sense of belonging is not there, children will alienate, they will marginalize, they will step back.

Dr. Pamela Cantor: Norms are a way that we know whether we belong or not.

Bobby Shaddox: What does social studies today look like, feel like, and sound like when we’re supporting the norms?

Bobby Shaddox: To begin nearly every class, I start with the norms. We developed this list of about ten adjectives.

Abdurrahmani: Our norms are communicative, collaborative, zealous, and the most important ones: focused and serene.

Dr. Pamela Cantor: This teacher engaged the class in establishing a set of norms. So, by having children themselves create the norms you are creating a pathway toward belonging for every single child in that class and they have a role in this learning community that they had a share in building.

Bobby Shaddox: Come up with a statement. What does social studies look like? What does it feel like and what does it sound like? And use those adjectives that we brainstormed together for our norms.

Student: Social studies is collaborative. Everybody’s kind of working together.

Ali: We get to choose norms we think will help us with our work and get it done.

Dr. Pamela Cantor: This teacher created a common language with which to talk about our learning community.

Bobby Shaddox: Let’s start at this table right here.

Abdurrahmani: It looks and should feel focused.

Abdurrahmani: If we weren’t focused we wouldn’t get any work done. If we weren’t communicative, you might, like, have someone struggling in the group.

Abdurrahmani: We can suggest to the group we should be able to stay at a controlled tone.

Bobby Shaddox: Great, thank you guys for reflecting on those norms and we’re going to think about those as we continue our work today.

Bobby Shaddox: The classes that go really well are the classes when I start off reflecting on the norms and using those norms to articulate how our class will run well.

Abdurrahmani: But sometimes it’s good to take some of the norms outside.

Bobby Shaddox: All right, we want to do just a quick circle, set the norms for the game today, for Capture the Flag.

Bobby Shaddox: One of our norms is to be serene. But there might be a class where there’s an activity that requires a lot of walking around, movement, even noise, and, you know, on those days we recognize that today that’s not going to be our norm.

Abdurrahmani: You have to be inclusive. You have to include everyone. So, like, it could make the game better, more fun, and you could have a better chance of winning.

Bobby Shaddox: Sweet, inclusive.

Bobby Shaddox: It helps us own the behavior in the classroom. Instead of a top-down list of rules that a teacher gives a class, these are words that we generated together. These are words that we believe in.

Bobby Shaddox: Inclusive, focused, considerate.

Abdurrahmani: Zealous.

Bobby Shaddox: Being zealous. Great.

King Middle School