I often joke with fellow educators that our years spent teaching middle school should be counted like dog years, because there is simply so much going on for students at these ages! When we consider the immense physical, cognitive, social-emotional milestones during these years, it’s no wonder that it feels frenzied and chaotic. Luckily, we can leverage these milestones to build class community, create positive relationships in our Latin classrooms, and help middle schoolers gain important life skills. Here are five approaches to building community in a Middle School Latin classroom.
1. Explain the “Why” and Invite Input
Students at this age are starting to understand concepts like power and influence and to develop their own worldviews and values. They want to question the status quo, be independent, and contribute. These milestones can make it difficult to manage a classroom effectively, but explaining the “why” behind our policies and procedures can help. I begin the year by explaining to students how I need the classroom to flow so that we can achieve our goal: learning more Latin while also having fun. I tell students what I plan on doing to maintain that flow, and I ask them what else they may need from me. Opening the dialogue allows students to exert some influence, express any concerns they have about fairness, and participate in the creation of expectations. Similarly, I tell students what I need from them in order for class to flow well, and then they have the opportunity to brainstorm any factors that may prevent them from meeting those expectations. By asking students to probe what factors may impact their ability to succeed, we are ensuring that they feel valued and heard while helping them learn how to surface barriers and how to advocate for themselves, both great skills that can help prevent us from running into problems later.
2. Help Students Connect Cause and Effect
At this age, students tend to start thinking about cause and effect, and they can use flexible thinking to assess multiple courses of action. Yet another feature of this age is being highly concerned with the opinion of your friend group, often having the feeling that everyone is watching you. It may not seem like these are related, but I have found students receptive to the message that the better they treat each other in class — the more they support each other and help each other — the more fun we’ll have. I often tell them, “The only one who can control whether Latin is a class you get excited about, is you.” If they collectively decide to bring judgment and snark and unpleasantness into the classroom, then no one will have a good time. But if they bring kindness and a willingness to try, Latin can be a class that we all look forward to every day. Students can begin to understand that being supportive of others, regardless of their friend groups or interests, will help the class be fun.
3. Emphasize Fairness with Breaks for Disruptive Behavior
Middle schoolers are very concerned with fairness, and they have a highly developed sense of justice. They pay incredibly close attention to how teachers handle discipline and are quick to point out any inconsistencies or discrepancies. We can leverage middle schoolers’ sense of justice through our response to disruptive behavior. I am a big fan of asking a student to leave the room, get a drink of water, take some breaths, and come back to class when they are in the right headspace to be a community member. Even in the middle of class, asking students (encouragingly) to pause, take a breath, and think through the consequences of their choices can help them make better decisions.
Treating bad choices as learning opportunities, rather than opportunities to pass value judgements, can help us address behavior without sacrificing a relationship with a student. I find that giving students this opportunity to “press pause” on class and get themselves in a headspace conducive to learning accomplishes several things: first, it is public in the sense that the whole class sees me addressing the situation. There can be no doubt that a disruptive set of behaviors was addressed. Students will notice if a classmate accumulates these “breaks,” and it will be understandable to them if I need to issue a different consequence. Second, it is not punitive in that there’s no detention, no trip to the principal or demerit, etc. It’s simply offering the student a few minutes to recalibrate. Young people are still learning to self-regulate their emotions, and given the emotional turbulence of middle school, it is understandable that a student may need some time. Third, it allows the student to re-enter the classroom on their terms when they are ready. It shows trust in students to give them some time on their own.
Depending on your school’s break policies, you may need to give them a hall pass or other type of documentation. I have students fill out a short form explaining what led to them being asked to take a break. They then reflect on what they need to do differently in class to help maintain a positive learning environment for everyone, and they also have the opportunity to tell me what I can do differently to help them. Having the chance to give me feedback on how I run the classroom can help build back any trust lost, and shows that I am interested in hearing “their side” and being fair.
4. Team Up with Low-Stakes Games and Partner Activities
I am a big fan of using games in class to build community, whether it’s the whole class against the teacher, one half of the class against the other, or pairs or small groups against each other. The games are always “low stakes” in that there’s nothing big to win. I don’t give prizes or bonus points because I find that if I do, students feel angry or upset when teamed up with a weaker student. That is the exact opposite of what I want to inspire in class, so we play games for fun only. I use games to check translations or reading comprehension questions, to conjugate verbs, or to answer grammar questions about a passage. For more game ideas, Keith Toda’s blog, Todally Comprehensible Latin, has several ideas for re-reading games and activities.
I am also a fan of a system called clock partners or buddies. The idea is that students agree to be each other’s work buddies in a number of specific pairings. While clock partners uses the visual of a clock face to create a system of twelve work-buddy pairings, I call them emperor partners and have students choose their Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero partner. This way students don’t always pair up with the exact same friend each time. I can let students work with their Augustus partner on tasks where I don’t mind them being with a good friend, but I can have them pair up with their Nero partner, for example, when I want to switch it up and make sure students are working with other classmates.
5. Give Choice
This is pretty self-explanatory, but given all the cognitive milestones of this age group, offering choices to our students builds trust, since they see us acknowledging them as individuals and respecting their agency. Some examples are: We may give them two options for how to complete an assignment, like writing a translation or drawing what happens; we may let them choose whether to work on their own or with a partner; we may have them look at their planners and help us decide when to schedule a quiz. These are all ways to bring student voice into our classrooms. I have found that when students believe we see them as people with their own ideas and opinions, they are more motivated and invested in the class.
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