Community Building through Classroom Routine: A Language Arts Class Opener

New Jersey English Journal New Jersey English Journal

Volume 11

What's Working? What's Not?

Article 7

2022

Community Building through Classroom Routine: A Language Arts Community Building through Classroom Routine: A Language Arts

Class Opener Class Opener

Deborah Overstreet

University of Maine at Farmington

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New Jersey English Journal

: Vol. 11, Article 7.

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Community Building Through Classroom Routine:

A Language Arts Class Opener

DEBORAH OVERSTREET

University of Maine at Farmington

In this time of pandemic teaching, we’ve

all had to examine our classes and our

practices to keep only what works. Our time

and efforts are a finite resource; there isn’t

room for anything but the most effective

choices. I teach a 6-credit reading, language

arts, writing and literature methods class in

my small regional public university’s

Elementary Education program. Building

classroom community is both an early and

ongoing goal in my class—and something I

want my students to know how to do

themselves since they’re all likely to be

teachers in their own classrooms within the

year. As a professor who teaches students

who are going to be teachers, not only do I

teach content in my classes, but I also try to

model pedagogy and classroom practices

that my students can use with their own

students. One example of this modeling is

opening my three-hour class with the same

routine regardless of that day’s content or

activities. I use this class routine to settle

students, and I use the activities within the

routine to build class both knowledge and

community.

Community Through Routine

Even though Scully and Howell weren’t

writing about post-pandemic higher

education, they were absolutely correct in

saying that “in our era of rapid change and

persistent uncertainty, traditions can provide

stability and a sense of togetherness” (2008).

Our routine, our class traditions help to

create this. After the normal beginning of

class (e.g., chatting with students, taking

roll), we always begin with these three

activities: the Word of the Day, the Joke of

the Day, and the Poem of the Day.

All three are assigned on the first day of

class, and students sign up for their multiple

due dates (different dates for each of the

three assignments). I not only participate; I

go first—both to model and to be brave. At

the beginning of our second class meeting, I

tell my joke, teach my word, and recite my

poem. I’ll be honest and say that it’s a little

nerve-racking. Even though I’m very

comfortable speaking in front of a class, at

this point in the semester, I barely know the

students and telling a joke and reciting a

poem make me feel strangely vulnerable—

in a way that lecturing or leading a

discussion never would. However, that’s a

good deal of the point.

Word of the Day

Many of my students are voracious

readers with significantly large vocabularies;

others are not. Since “knowing more words

usually leads to better success in school”

(Overturf, 2015), I want all students to have

large vocabularies and to help their own

students have the same. The Word of the

Day presentation requires students to share a

word with the class that they find interesting

and useful. The “presentation” involves

coming to the front of the classroom, writing

or projecting the word on the whiteboard,

demonstrating the pronunciation, explaining

a definition, using the word in a sentence,

and making a suggestion about how the

class might remember the definition—all

pretty standard. Class members keep track

of these words.

Research tells us that a single exposure

to a new word is unlikely to have much

impact on learners, so to both model a

practice that my students might use and to

increase the likelihood that they might

internalize the Words of the Day, there are

two semester-long follow-ups. First, for

each class meeting, students write a

response to a reading (generally a book

chapter or scholarly article). They are

required to include a Word of the Day in

each response. Using these words in their

own writing helps to cement the words as

part of their vocabulary. Since students may

choose whichever word is most useful, they

won’t likely get to each of the words on our

class list. However, every few weeks, I

create a Kahoot

“quiz” using our words.

Kahoots can be played by individuals or

teams. We generally play in teams of two or

three. Each Kahoot contains all of the Words

of the Day from the beginning of the

semester. It’s quite stunning to see how

using the Kahoot format turns a vocabulary

quiz into a cutthroat yet good-natured

competition for bragging rights.

Students frequently mention seeing our

words out in the world, which I love. Even

though students have only been exposed to

26 words through this activity, I hope to

encourage their general interest in new and

fascinating words and vocabulary study. I

am convinced that being intrigued by words

will have a very positive impact on their

vocabulary and will also have a positive

impact on their future teaching.

Joke of the Day

There’s a surprising amount of research

on the use of humor in the classroom, much

of which addresses whether students enjoy it

(they mostly do) and whether it affects

learning (the jury’s still out). My activity

falls somewhere in between. Students are

assigned to tell a joke. It can be something

that would appeal to a younger or adult

www.kahoot.com is a free website that allows

anyone to make a quiz—really a game—that’s played

audience (although it cannot be R rated or

based on any kind of racist, sexist,

homophobic, etc. material).

The students are directed to find or

compose a joke. My directions include

practicing the joke with other audiences, for

two main reasons: first, so that students

become more comfortable and fluent in their

performance, and second, to ensure that the

joke is actually funny. On the day of their

joke, students come to the front of the class

and perform without notes. The audience is

always generous. If the performer is nervous

or flubs their joke, everyone is gracious,

understanding, and encouraging. Students

often volunteer to tell extra jokes! They

receive special accolades if their joke is

grammar, writing, language, or literature

related.

Some jokes are genuinely hilarious;

others require more performance from the

audience than the presenter. A pervasive

feeling of “we’re all in this together” is

clear. Not only is my purpose to build

relationships and classroom community, but

also to help my students shed their

inhibitions since teaching is, at least in part,

performance.

Poem of the Day

Fully cementing my quasi-dinosaur

status, I require students to memorize a short

poem (or an excerpt of a poem) of their

choice and recite it for the class. Generally,

my students are too polite for open revolt,

but they’re clearly comfortable with a bit of

grumbling about this assignment. Even

though “much is written in educational

literature pertaining to memorization...being

outdated and basically evil” (Ediger, 1997),

we talk briefly about the tradition of poetry

memorization in school (for example, when

I was in kindergarten, I had to memorize

Clement Clarke Moore’s “A Visit From St.

as a group online.

Nicholas,” and in 7th grade I had to

memorize the Preamble to the Constitution,

the Gettysburg Address, and others). The

assignment specifies that students should

choose a poem or excerpt in the

neighborhood of 50–75 words, although

they always have the option to choose

something larger. One semester, a

particularly ambitious student enthralled the

group by reciting the not-particularly-short

Alfred Noyes’ poem, “The Highwayman.”

Each summer, I choose a poem to

memorize to recite (I’m currently tackling

Tennyson’s “Ulysses”). My students will be

teachers of young, or youngish, children, but

I don’t allow them to choose children’s

poetry for this assignment. I want them to

explore poetry and find something

personally meaningful because hopefully the

poem will be with them indefinitely. When

we learn something “by heart” (an intriguing

and charming phrase far better than “by

rote”), it becomes our own. My students are

often quite nervous about this assignment—

most have never had to recite anything.

They often work together to choose poems

and practice memorizing. During the

recitation, if a student freezes or stumbles,

they’re supported and encouraged by the rest

of the class. After each daily performance,

there’s a sincere round of applause. Despite

this being a fairly minor assignment,

students seem to view it as something of a

rite of passage that bonds the group.

I regularly invite other faculty members

and administrators to recite poetry or tell

jokes as part of our class routine. Students

are always fascinated that people already

have poems memorized, since I never ask

my colleagues to learn a poem to recite.

Ours is a small university, so most of my

students either have had or will have classes

with these professors. This serves to expand

Poetry by Heart

(https://www.poetrybyheart.org.uk/) is a delightful

British website that not only suggests poems for

memorization, but also runs a poetry recitation

our relationships outside of our class

community.

Benefits

Each of these three brief assignments

carries its own intrinsic benefits. Teaching a

word helps expand everyone’s vocabulary.

The subsequent use of the words in both

written responses and in team-based games

deepens the learning. Telling a joke helps

students become comfortable with the

performative aspect of teaching. Reciting a

poem puts students in touch with poetry in a

way that most have not yet experienced.

Students have significant ownership of the

content of their performance in that, even

though I assign a word, a joke, and a poem,

they choose everything else. This allows a

more personal connection to their material.

These semester-long assignments keep new

words, jokes, and poetry in the forefront of

students’ minds. I would argue, though, that

the main benefit is cumulative. Each of these

assignments get students to the front of the

classroom, teaching and performing for their

peers, and help them to form strong bonds

and friendly relationships. When students

are comfortable in class, they’re more likely

to “engage productively” (Boyd, et al.,

2018).

As students participate as part of the

audience (especially for the joke and the

poem), they encourage each other and build

community. Since “established social rituals

make explicit core social values” (Boyd, et

al., 2018) students can begin to see the

group as a community. These practices and

ideas are hardly groundbreaking. However,

they serve to significantly develop

relationships and community. Additionally,

each day, we start class on a positive,

interactive, and entertaining note that

affirms our group. I wholeheartedly advise

competition for children and teens. Many videos of

students of all ages performing memorized poetry are

available on the site.

everyone to create your own rituals and

traditions based on your students, your class,

and your discipline. They work.

Works Cited

Boyd, Maureen, Jarmark, Christopher, and

Edmiston, Brian. “Building Bridges:

Coauthoring a Class Handshake,

Building a Classroom Community.”

Pedagogies: An International Journal,

vol. 13, no. 4, 2018, pp. 3310–352.

Ediger, Marlow. “Memorization of Poetry:

Good or Bad?” Journal of Instructional

Psychology, vol. 24, no. 4, 1997, pp.

273–277.

Overturf, Brenda. Vocabularians: Integrated

Word Study in the Middle Grades.

Stenhouse, 2015.

Scully, Patricia and Jacqueline Howell.

“Using Rituals and Traditions to Create

Classroom Community for Children,

Teachers, and Parents.” Early Childhood

Education, vol. 36, 2008, pp. 260–66.