Building Community Among Tweens

Maureen O'Leary Wanket

There was a time when the students in my 7th-grade English class could be called "the terrible tweens." They fought in the playground. They stole the Spanish teacher's language tapes. They didn't do their science homework. They talked back to everyone.

Faced with students who showed disrespect to themselves and their teachers, I decided to incorporate community-building into my lesson plans. In the course of our year together, the students had to think and act beyond their own selfish concerns. The results were remarkable. Through hard work and creative problem-solving, this group of 7th graders grew as students and as human beings in ways that astonished and delighted their teachers and themselves.

Despite the challenges of working with students who are coping with the physical and psychological discomfort of early adolescence, teaching tweens can be a uniquely enjoyable experience. The key is to turn the classroom into a place where everyone feels safe and connected.

When teachers use community-building methods designed to boost morale and create rapport, students have opportunities to see themselves as being responsible for the whole group. It's possible to make the school day meaningful and successful for students entrenched in the often discomfiting years between 9 and 13. The following community-building activities can be integrated into any subject, grade level, or curriculum type.

Make Them Laugh

Never overlook the importance of laughter in the classroom. Without time for laughter, it's virtually impossible to develop connections with young people. Most children are emotional learners. Without a connection to their teachers and peers, tween students often don't retain information well. True laughter is healthy and generates feelings of well-being and belonging. A teacher who is funny or who allows for tasteful, kindhearted humor in the classroom is an effective teacher.

How can you make your students laugh? Tell jokes. Tell stories from when you were a child. Students love hearing stories about when adults were kids. If you are "humor impaired," then read funny books aloud from authors such as Louis Sachar, Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, and Roald Dahl. You could also learn a few simple magic tricks to break up the day's lessons.

Children remember moments of merriment in their lives. Consider my friend Bob, who teaches high-level math. Every year around fundraising time, Bob dresses up as a superhero to reward students for making schoolwide fundraising goals. He puts on a cape and bathing cap, gets on the roof, and throws water balloons at the students, staff, and administrators below. While his students benefit from the fact that he is an excellent math teacher, they never forget "Mathman" and his rooftop antics.

Put on a Show

Nothing binds a group of people together as a cohesive team like putting on a live production. If you are teaching Shakespeare, stage a scene with as many players as possible or create a short play from the students' reading assignments. Assign parts to students and ask everyone to be on stage and play a part. Assign students in background roles to be in charge of costumes, scenery, music, and props.

Plan a performance with an audience of parents or other students. Ask students to memorize their lines, and set aside class time every day to rehearse. Funny things can happen when rehearsing—naturally hilarious moments that couldn't be planned if you tried. The nervousness and subsequent adrenaline rush of performance excite students and leave them with an impression of themselves and their classmates that will stay with them forever.

Get Their Hands Dirty

Organize hands-on activities that give students unique experiences in small cooperative groups. Offer activities that engage all of their senses, such as testing for acids and bases in purple cabbage juice; learning different cultural dancing from a guest teacher; experimenting with soap bubbles or oobleck (a green, oozy substance); or planting seeds in dirt. At least a few times a week, strive to engage students' whole selves and give lessons that would be impossible to daydream through.

Play Sports

Form a kickball, soccer, or other sports team with your class. Take time to practice and ask the more adept children to help the less proficient students improve their skills. Challenge other classes to games. Encourage the students to be scorekeepers, referees, and skill coaches. Discuss good sportsmanship and fair play. For the child who loves physical education and has a hard time being still in class, having a team activity to look forward to every day can be a key to feeling good about school.

You can incorporate sports themes into the curriculum as well. In language arts, for example, students could write an ongoing sports page highlighting the accomplishments of individuals and the group.

Help Others

Through acts of selflessness, students are able to feel good about themselves individually and as a group. Are there any local charity organizations that could use the help of your class? Are there any less advantaged schools in your diocese or district that would benefit from your students' donated books? Get creative with your ideas. The volunteer work you do as a group should involve every student, regardless of his or her ability to donate cash.

My 7th graders, working with a local charity, adopted a large, very poor family for the December holidays. The students provided the family with clothes, blankets, nonperishable food items, and small toys. They organized the items, wrapped and labeled them, and loaded them into the back of a truck. After spending so much time addressing someone else's real problems, the students' petty grievances began to seem less significant even to themselves. It was tons of work, but they loved helping others and entered their winter break with a new vision of themselves as kind and helpful.

Enter a Contest Together

Look to your district or diocese for academic contests. Is there a science fair that allows a group entry from an entire class? If so, then put together an experiment that requires full-class participation. Is there a young writers' fair that allows whole classes to enter anthologies? Writers' fairs are an excellent way to incorporate a team effort into any subject.

My 7th grade class created a poetry anthology with every student contributing drawings and their best creative writing. During the process of coming up with a concept for our entry, putting it together, and waiting for the results, the class felt like a team. Despite stiff competition, we won third place in our category. Although getting the award was nice, we'd already won in the most important sense because we'd done it together.

Stand on Ceremony

After winning a third place award in the writers fair, my 7th graders made a ceremony out of presenting the book they had made to our school library. We had a reception and invited the librarian and administration for cookies and juice. At the reception, one student gave a short speech and then formally handed our book over to the librarian as a gift from the whole class to the school.

Look for chances to make special occasions for the class. Groups are defined by ritual and ceremony. With a little creativity, you can create special events out of units and activities across the curriculum. Not every school day calls for a special occasion, but a few carefully planned events interspersed throughout a term can go a long way toward fostering community and feelings of belonging among middle graders.

Not Terrible, Just Tweens

After participating in cooperative efforts such as organizing acts of charity, staging a theatrical production, and putting together an anthology, my 7th graders experienced a shift in their self-perception. They saw themselves as a part of a whole, with responsibility to the group. They began to understand themselves as people of generosity and integrity. The idea of purposely annoying their teachers lost its appeal because that action did not jibe with their new idea of themselves as Shakespearean actors, philanthropists, and award-winning authors.

As educators, we must help our tween students become successful in their studies and in their relationships—with themselves and each other. With imagination, empathy, and determination, creating a classroom community is possible and can be a most satisfying aspect of teaching middle grade students.

Maureen O'Leary Wanket teaches English at Loretto High School in Sacramento, Calif.