Building Community
This page offers resources for ways to build community within our college classrooms.
Safe to Brave Spaces by Brian Arao and Kristi Clemens
This 2013 publication by Brian Arao and Kristi Clemens discusses how the term brave space may more aptly describe the practice of safely fostering challenging dialogue within our classroom environments.
This paper provides a background on the history of safe spaces and brave spaces within the contexts of movement building, academic theory, student support services, and the classroom.
Creating Classrooms for Social Justice
Written by Tabitha Dell’Angelo, this site helps to create classrooms for social justice, offering ideas such as connecting with students’ personal experiences, discussing real-world problems, providing multiple perspectives, creating classroom community, and including authentic assessments.
Community Building in the Community College Classroom
This article by Sean Gerrity in Inside Higher Ed offers ideas for building community in college classrooms.
A Checklist for Building Community in the College Classroom
Dr. Julie Sochacki provides faculty with a checklist of items to consider when considering how to build community in college classrooms.
Seven Practices for Building Community and Student Belonging Virtually
Beauchamp et al offer practices for building community in virtual spaces.
Dr. Linda Bloomberg offers strategies for building inclusive classrooms in higher education classrooms.
Building a Higher Education Flipgrid Community
This resources offers suggestions for how to use Flipgrid to build community in our higher education classrooms.
Ice Breakers Ideas
These sites offers multiple ideas for ice breakers in our classrooms.
This sample activity has students talking to each other so as to learn more about their interests and engagement with our content.
7 Activities to Build Community and Positive Classroom Culture During Online Learning
The Learning Network provides activities to build meaningful relationships in the virtual classroom.
Bettez offers an overview of the strategy of creating community commitments with students within higher education settings.
Community agreements are a set of guidelines that are used by a group when asked to share a space or learning experience. The goal of these agreements are to create an open and inclusive environment so that every individual has the ability to thrive and be brave with their contributions, interactions, and learning.
Each summer, President Obama tweets his and Michelle’s summer playlist. Consider asking your students to make a list of their top 5 summer songs. Next to each song, have them explain why it made their list or what they liked about it. Then use this playlist in your classroom while students are writing and/or engaging in small group or paired conversations.
Harvard offers a series of videos to help faculty build classroom community.
Building Community in the Classroom Whatever Your Teaching Modality
NYU professor Nancy Gleason offers strategies for building community from structuring student interactions to being present throughout your course.
Safe to Brave Spaces by Brian Arao and Kristi Clemens
This 2013 publication by Brian Arao and Kristi Clemens discusses how the term brave space may more aptly describe the practice of safely fostering challenging dialogue within our classroom environments.
This paper provides a background on the history of safe spaces and brave spaces within the contexts of movement building, academic theory, student support services, and the classroom.
Creating Classrooms for Social Justice
Written by Tabitha Dell’Angelo, this site helps to create classrooms for social justice, offering ideas such as connecting with students’ personal experiences, discussing real-world problems, providing multiple perspectives, creating classroom community, and including authentic assessments.
Community Building in the Community College Classroom
This article by Sean Gerrity in Inside Higher Ed offers ideas for building community in college classrooms.
A Checklist for Building Community in the College Classroom
Dr. Julie Sochacki provides faculty with a checklist of items to consider when considering how to build community in college classrooms.
Seven Practices for Building Community and Student Belonging Virtually
Beauchamp et al offer practices for building community in virtual spaces.
Dr. Linda Bloomberg offers strategies for building inclusive classrooms in higher education classrooms.
Building a Higher Education Flipgrid Community
This resources offers suggestions for how to use Flipgrid to build community in our higher education classrooms.
Ice Breaker Ideas
These sites offers multiple ideas for ice breakers in our classrooms.
This sample activity has students talking to each other so as to learn more about their interests and engagement with our content.
7 Activities to Build Community and Positive Classroom Culture During Online Learning
The Learning Network provides activities to build meaningful relationships in the virtual classroom.
Bettez offers an overview of the strategy of creating community commitments with students within higher education settings.
Community agreements are a set of guidelines that are used by a group when asked to share a space or learning experience. The goal of these agreements are to create an open and inclusive environment so that every individual has the ability to thrive and be brave with their contributions, interactions, and learning.
Each summer, President Obama tweets his and Michelle’s summer playlist. Consider asking your students to make a list of their top 5 summer songs. Next to each song, have them explain why it made their list or what they liked about it. Then use this playlist in your classroom while students are writing and/or engaging in small group or paired conversations.
Harvard offers a series of videos to help faculty build classroom community.
Building Community in the Classroom Whatever Your Teaching Modality
NYU professor Nancy Gleason offers strategies for building community from structuring student interactions to being present throughout your course.
