Language Arts - Building Community in the Classroom, Feb 1995

One teacher’s cornerstones for building community in her classroom can be used by many other language arts educators, as well.

Contracting with middle school students can be a way of building community and language arts skill at the same time.

In the context of writing workshop, another kind of community develops, a club in which children write with and for each other.

When a working writer visits a classroom on an ongoing basis to interact with students, the language and activities of the writing community change in interesting and positive ways.

In order to develop a community of readers of literature, teachers must go beyond an approach to literature that merely treats it as an excuse for a comprehension skills lesson or a social studies exercise.

Nonfiction books can make a unique contribution to children’s literacy learning if they are part of the read-aloud program.