Blog #3 - Strategies for Building Community

        In our textbook, Subject Matter, we were presented with several different strategies for building community in our classroom. Of these strategies, the top six that stand out I would defiantly ask any and every teacher who is currently teaching English in the high-school arena. The six questions that were created from the strategies are as follows.

1. Do you provide class time for book clubs? Are these book clubs geared more towards the works studied in class or the novels in you classroom library?
2. Do you have classroom responsibilities? If so, what are they and who do you usually gear them towards? If not, why do you chose not to have classroom responsibilities and what do you do instead?
3. Do you hold in-class conferences? If you do, how do you conduct each conference? If not, why do you chose not to and what do you do instead?
4. What and how do you use on the first day of class? How do you incorporate finding out the students interests and past experiences into each of your classes?
5. Do you have your students do any kind of project/presentation in your classes? Do you split up different topics and make each presenter a "master" of that topic for the year?
6. How do you share your passion of English in you classroom? Do you model how to critically read a text or how to make notes when doing research for a paper?

        I think the most important ways to build classroom community would involve every person who is in the classroom to learn about the others in the room; both students AND the teacher would work together to learn about everyone in the room. This would contribute to creating a community of learners. By learning about others, everyone learns how to gather the necessary information for a specific purpose. Having a firm foundation of where the students are coming into the class sets the tone for the whole year. To achieve this level of community, I as a teacher will have to model the expectations I have for the class. One way I will model learning about each of my students, I will fill out a facebook profile handout about myself. After, I show the students how to use the paper version of a facebook profile, I will have them partner up and fill out a profile of the other person. I will then have the students fill out one for themselves as a homework assignment.