Classroom Community Builders: An Author Review by Walton Burns

Walton Burns, USA

The senior editor at Alphabet Publishing, Walton Burns began teaching English in Vanuatu in the South Pacific in 2001. Since then, he has taught a diverse range of students including Russian oil executives, Chinese video game champions, and Afghan high school students, and Kazakhstan school teachers. Walton Burns is also an award-winning materials writer and editor who has written for Oxford University Press, Macmillan, Pearson, and Compass Publishing. His latest book, Classroom Community Builders, is the subject of this review. It is available on Amazon or wherever you buy books or ebooks. E-mail: wlburns@gmail.com.

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Why I wrote the book
About the book
A sample activity: Different Thoughts
What others have said about the book
What do you think?

Why I wrote the book

I have to confess that I wasn't always very interested in classroom community. I was one of those teachers who felt that the content was the most important part of class. Soft skills such as communication and teambuilding were mostly distractions. However, I had a change of heart after a particularly inspiring first day of class. I was doing my usual icebreaker, which was to put some interview questions on the board, have students interview each other in pairs, and then introduce their partner to the class. On this particular day, my class was last period, so I added the question, “Which teacher do you think will be the best this year?”

Suddenly, students were talking quite animatedly, defending their new favorite teachers and sometimes debating their partners’ choices. I quickly divided the class into groups by their chosen teacher and we had a short debate. It was astounding how fast the students started working together as a team to discuss this topic. And how much language they were producing spontaneously and independently.

I also noticed that for the first month or so, those groups preferred to work together in class and also socialized outside of class. Having something in common working together on a meaningful task really brought them together. And that small community building led to productive work right from day one. I remember thinking that this is what we really want from an icebreaker: not just a bit of small talk, but real community that leads to learning. Since that day, I’ve been slowly collecting, adapting, and developing activities that I feel lead to similar productive communication and work.

About the book

Classroom Community Builders: Activities for the First Day & Beyond
ISBN: 978-0-9977628-7-7
Published by Alphabet Publishing
Available in paperback or ebook
Price: $15.00

Students thrive in classrooms where they feel safe, welcome, and supported. Building a sense of community and teamwork is an effective means of facilitating student success. This book blends community-building activities with real classroom content, providing students with opportunities to practice language skills while acclimatizing to the classroom. While intended primarily for language arts and TESOL classrooms, the activities readily adapt to a range of disciplines and age groups. Supported by information on material requirements, time limits, and resources, Classroom Community Builders provides handouts and worksheets, available both within the book and online, offering new ideas to experienced and novice instructors alike.

The book contains an introduction and four units.

1. Set Your Expectations–activities designed to establish the rules of the classroom and your expectations, including respect for each other, and studiousness.
2. Working Together–group work exercises that build teamwork while also staying focused on lesson content.
3. Getting to Know You Activities–Community starts with getting to know each other. Activities in this section run from name games to more in-depth introductions.
4. Get to Know Your Teacher–A handful of activities that let your students learn more about you.

In addition, there are two appendices: Tips for Building Community and Considerations for Grouping Students.

A sample activity: Different Thoughts

This activity helps students understand that there are multiple ways to approach a problem and that different members of their team bring different perspectives to a task.

Time: 10-15 minute
Materials: A chair
Language: Commands, basic body parts

Procedure

1. Introduce the activity by putting a word that has multiple meanings and connotations on the board such as “rice” (which can be eaten in a lot of different kinds of meals), or “home” (which means different things to different people), or “true” (which means everything from honest to faithful to correct).
2. Ask students to say the first thing that comes to mind when they hear the word on the board. After getting a variety of diverse answers, emphasize that all the answers are correct and represent different ways of looking at the same thing.
3. Now put a chair in the front of the room. Put the students into groups. Tell them that they must come up with a unique way to sit on the chair. As they think of a new way, they can send someone up to demonstrate
4. Keep track of the number of new, unique ways students think of to sit in the chair.
5. As the activity goes on, the question of what “sitting” means will inevitably come up. Groups may accuse each other of not doing it right. Be sure to encourage this line of thinking. What exactly does it mean to sit? Is kneeling a kind of sitting? Do you have to face the front? The idea here is to help students realize that there are different ways to think about things.
6. When students wind down, remind them that there are multiple ways to approach a task, meaning that there are multiple ways to solve tasks.

Variations

• You can set specific rules such as, “Feet must be off of the floor” or “Your bottom must be on the bottom of the chair”
• Have students come up with ways to fit their whole group on the chair, instead of just one person. You might need a spotter to make sure no one tips over and gets hurt.
• Ask students to think of different ways to use a chair (or another common object). For example, you can stand on a chair to reach something high. You can turn it over and hang things to dry on the legs. You can turn it on its side and make a hiding place or a shelter. Encourage creativity!

What others have said about the book

I’m grateful to Hania Kryszewska, the Editor of HLT Magazine, for the chance to write this author review of my own book. The wonderful thing about an author review is that I get to say only good things about my own book. Obviously, I think it’s pretty good or I wouldn’t have written it. However, you don’t have to take my word for it. Other teachers have seemed to find the book useful and helpful.

Scott Thornbury was kind enough to write an early blurb. In part he said, “Walton Burns’ new book takes as axiomatic the idea that a (language) classroom is a small community, and that communities are made, not born. The many and varied activities in this book are all designed to facilitate this ‘community-building’ process, whether cementing ties between the learners themselves, or between the learners and their teacher. And not only do the activities support and strengthen the classroom dynamic – they do this through the medium of the target language, hence they provide authentic opportunities for language practice. “

Martin Sketchley did a lovely review on his blog, ELT Experiences: “My favourite activity in this chapter is Good Teacher / Good Student, where the teacher elicits possible good qualities of a good teacher and then of those of a good student. It is a lovely activity which develops self-reflection, observations and creating good study skills…. The publication offers readers some great ideas which could be incorporated in class quickly with minimal preparation. Within the book itself, there are some photocopiable resources which could then be used in class.” – Martin is the Young Learner Co-ordinator at LTC Eastbourne.

Janet McClellan wrote in the MIDTESOL blog, “One of my favorite aspects of this book is that Burns is building a virtual classroom of aides through the use of social media and his website, where teachers can collaborate and discuss building a community classroom. Teachers are also able to print and download resources straight from the publisher’s website that related to the activities in the book.” Jan is an ELL Specialist at Carver Middle School in Springfield, Missouri.

Michael Griffin kindly reviewed the book on his site, ELT Rants, Reviews, and Reflections and said, “I especially liked the Book Scan, Syllabus Scavenger Hunt, Classroom Rules Negotiation activities because these activities tend to “kill two birds with one stone” by addressing typical first day of class information while keeping the focus on building a community.” Michael is a teacher, teacher educator, and the editor of the New School TESOL blog.

What do you think?

I would be very grateful if you would let me know what you think of the book. I’d particularly love to hear how you used the activities in your classroom, and how it went.

You can learn more about Classroom Community Builders at the publisher’s page.

Please check the Teaching English through NLP and Coaching course at Pilgrims website.
Please check the English Language course at Pilgrims website.