Community Circle
Description
Every week our class meets for Community Circle Friday After lunch. Our goal in Community Circle is to build and maintain a strong classroom community. This is also an important time for building Oral Language skills for our ELL students who need structure opportunities to practice oral communication. Although teacher-directed in the beginning, our goal in fostering independence is to hand this activity off to students to lead and facilitate, with a different leader each week. It is a time for the class to:
Components of Community Circle
PROCESS NOTE:
Even though it might seem like 45 minutes is a long time to spend "just chatting", this time zips by if used well. As our class is very big it is important to give structure and direction in the beginning. These are some ideas to keep the time productive and appropriate:
Every week our class meets for Community Circle Friday After lunch. Our goal in Community Circle is to build and maintain a strong classroom community. This is also an important time for building Oral Language skills for our ELL students who need structure opportunities to practice oral communication. Although teacher-directed in the beginning, our goal in fostering independence is to hand this activity off to students to lead and facilitate, with a different leader each week. It is a time for the class to:
- Praise each other for working hard in class and helping out friends
- Talk about and work out any social issues that might be happening at school
- Reflect on learning in the past week
- Tell jokes and stories
Components of Community Circle
- Fuzzies - Students can nominate classmates to receive a "fuzzy" (a furry little pompom with glasses) if they helped a classmate, were especially nice or worked hard for a personal accomplishment. Fuzzies are a small acknowledgement that somebody else saw you contribute to our classroom.
- News - This is a time when students can share personal news with the class. Maybe they have a new little brother or sister! Maybe they have to move to a new apartment.
- Jokes - Students are encouraged to tell school-appropriate jokes because it is always good to take a break to laugh!
- Business - One of the best parts of Community Circle is to get students to reflect on things that are going on at school. This includes:
> How certain lessons during the week went
> How projects are progressing
> Playground/social politics
PROCESS NOTE:
Even though it might seem like 45 minutes is a long time to spend "just chatting", this time zips by if used well. As our class is very big it is important to give structure and direction in the beginning. These are some ideas to keep the time productive and appropriate:
- Keep a Fuzzy Box to collect fuzzy nominations through the week. Pick a few ahead of time to share with the class. Make sure to hand out the rest personally.
- Discuss time limits (maybe 1-2 minutes) for telling stories, jokes and sharing news. Use a timer to help students to use their sharing time well.
- Keep a Business Box to collect topic suggestions for discussion. Read these ahead of time as some issues might be sensitive and best dealt with one-on-one while others will be good to bring up with the whole class. You can use these suggestions to create a discussion agenda. ** Check-in with students regarding progress on a project or their understanding of a topic taught during the week to inform lesson planning for the next week. **
- In the 4-6 weeks Community Circle will be mostly teacher-directed, prepare students to facilitate Community Circle by describing the responsibilities make a public schedule that tracks who facilitates when.
Ontario Curriculum Connections
Balanced Literacy Food Groups: Oral Language & ELL, Knowledge Building
Language Arts: Oral Language
Balanced Literacy Food Groups: Oral Language & ELL, Knowledge Building
Language Arts: Oral Language
Interactive Strategies
2.2 demonstrate an increasingly sophisticated understanding of appropriate speaking behaviour in a variety of situations, including paired sharing, dialogue, and small- and large-group discussions |
Clarity and Coherence
2.3 communicate orally in a clear, coherent manner, using appropriate organizing strategies and formats to link and sequence ideas and information |
Appropriate Language
2.4 use appropriate words and phrases from the full range of their vocabulary including inclusive and non-discriminatory language, and stylistic devices appropriate to the purpose and context, to communicate their meaning accurately and engage the interest of their intended audience |
Metacognition
3.1 identify, in conversation with the teacher and peers, what strategies they found most helpful before, during, and after listening and speaking and what steps they can take to improve their oral communication skills |
Interconnected Skills
3.2 identify, in conversation with the teacher and peers, how their skills as viewers, representers, readers, and writers help them improve their oral communication skills |