How can you build community among your writing students?

As a Assistant Professor, When I used to teach 3rd and 4th year metallurgical engineering students in O.P.Jindal Institute, I always used to set the tone: ●by ensuring every student feels heard & included, ●by fostering open communication, encourage mutual respect, empathy, and active participation to strengthen the sense of community among all the students. As I had industry experience, so I used to initiate ice-breaker activities related to the subject; which helped students to start expressing in the class, especially introvert students used to feel comfortable. I regularly call students up on the stage and motivate them to share thier original thoughts on random topics. All these things helps to build student community.

One big difference I have observed between my own college experience and my students' is that they don't spend nearly as much time in the few minutes before class interacting with each other. These were critical community building moments for me and my peers, but smartphones and laptops have largely replaced these interactions. So something simple I've been doing is carving out 10-15 minutes per week where students are asked to chat in small groups about what they've been up to on campus and around the city. This has led to students learning about new clubs, events, and cultural opportunities. But more importantly, it's sparked some friendships among people who otherwise might not have thought to engage each other.

A narrative essay or personal statement essay about oneself is a good starter. I began 24 years out of high school, so mine was a military wife life that I described to my teacher and classmates. I was one of those "adult" students coming to college. My background of going to school under "different conditions"--being "not prepared" was a relief to my students who are all insecure of the process but in different ways. I told them of my naturalization when I was 11 years old. I told them that 17 days later, I lost my father to VietNam. I told them of my brother's Polio and his and my sister's dyslexia. I made my students see that I was their instructor only because I had already finished the process they had begun. We were all capable.

If we define community as a relatively stable group of people who are engaged in supporting each other for a collective effort (as opposed to people who are just co-existing), then building community is not about a single technique or trick. It is about engaging that group of people in a collective effort where they get to know their own and each other's strengths and weaknesses and learn how to combine their talents to support each other in a collective endeavor. That, of course, is swimming upstream against the neoliberal higher education culture of fictitious individual achievement.

A constru??o de um planejamento que tenha objetivos de aprendizagem claros e as respectivas evidências a serem analisadas apoia o engajamento acadêmico e socioemocional dos estudantes.

I’ve been teaching college students to harness creativity via writing for over a decade at the University of North Carolina. My top piece of advice would be to start every class with a mindful-meditation exercise. It is not only relaxing and effective for harnessing g creativity from within, but it’s also a way to build community and equalize them within the classroom. My students love it and 70+% of them end up continuing it on their own!

I’m a fan of cultivating laughter to build trust. A group task where they have time to write a humorous caption for an image (individually) and then compete as groups is a great way to incorporate both introverts and extroverts into the experience- and then connect the room as a whole over shared laughs :) It works because research shows that laughter increases creativity immediately- and by actively seeking it, we release all the feel good chemicals that build authentic connections.

In my decade long teaching career, I've observed that students want to be heard and hence providing them with opportunities to express, debate, disagree and discuss. Students want to contribute their thoughts and ideas to create a classroom environment of collaboration and engagement alongwith the teaching faculty. It's all about co-creation and co-delivery.

Building connections in classrooms is crucial for student well-being and academic achievement. This includes creating a sense of belonging and inviting students to be co-designers of their learning experiences. Icebreakers and introductions can be effective tools for building these connections. In the general music classroom, building human connections is seen as central to the curriculum, and it involves connecting with oneself, peers, teachers, and the community. Similarly, in undergraduate engineering education, classroom activities can be designed to build students' abilities in creativity, metacognition, and self-confidence.

One of my first classes was about mythological narratives. Since my students come from different countries and have different cultural backgrounds, I ask them to prepare and tell myths from their own cultures. This allows to avoid an Eurocentric apprach to mythology, even though I use Greek mythology as a base.

First, I have never graded on a curve. It was always possible for every student in my class to get an A. Grading on a curve is inherently flawed and forces students to see peers as competitors. Second, each student had to provide an original draft of an original paper for others to comment on for improvement. Constructive comments were graded. Students learned to provide useful feedback and also see examples of other student work to figure out various ways to improve their own work. Third, each student had to revise their work as they pleased for the final grade. They all realized that they were better off feeding off of each other instead of competing against each other. In real life, teamwork is very important in any organization.

In my experience, making students feel at ease and incorporating tasks where they can collaborate with their peers enables them to gain confidence with their skills.

Rubricas para revis?o por pares e feedback sobre a tarefa e sobre as a??es de constru??o colaborativas podem apoiar esse processo, uma vez que estabelecem expectativas detalhadas a partir dos objetivos de aprendizagem.

A sense of community helps when the students see themselves as peers growing and mutually experience the learning. I would ensure that the student/s who perform better are given a chance to share their ideas/writings with the whole class and interact. Collaborative tasks is another way to build the same.

Publicize what you are doing and keep your colleagues and friends aware about it. You could become an inspiration to engage them in writing new article. @LinkedIn provides an excellent platform to facilitate new collaborations with new connections from various disciplines.

Algo que acho útil apresentar s?o os encontros síncronos, por meio do Office 365, na plataforma Teams em que toda semana nos encontramos, eu e meus alunos EAD. Nas quartas-feiras, de 18 às 20 horas, nos encontramos para falar de assuntos vários, principalmente sobre temas em que os estudantes perceberam dificuldades. Estas discuss?es em grupo, de forma síncrona, auxiliam muito os estudantes, principalmente, porque precisam redigir sobre os assuntos discutidos, nos circuitos de aprendizagem. Fóruns n?o tem a for?a de uma atividade síncrona, por meio de um bom recurso tecnológico síncrono, como o Teams, o Google Meet, o Zoom, o WhatsApp, o Telegram, entre outros.

By creating an inline brainmap or spider web where info is omitted and each student has to log in and complete one component in order to gain neccesary credits.

“A fourth way to build community among your writing students is to facilitate online discussions and forums.” I’d add to the conversation by reiterating and highlighting the idea that “to facilitate” is a critical competency that calls on educators to continue to develop expertise as skilled facilitators. When we develop our facilitation skills and abilities, we can enhance digital interactions by not only providing “prompts, questions, resources, and feedback”, but as facilitators we can also create an environment that fosters meaningful interactions between students.

Today there are so many possibilities to nurture communities among writing students. And I feel that there any many of bright students who wait for us teachers to facilitate a opportunity and a forum. WhatsApp groups dedicated to themes, and introducing new themes once in a week, and inviting all to contribute to the questions raised every week, will be a booster for the enthusiasm for both the teachers and the students!

Pienso que los profesores deben proponer tópicos que genuinamente interesen a sus estudiantes para que las discusiones en línea cumplan realmente una función de intercambio de ideas y de enriquecimiento entre los miembros de una comunidad de aprendizaje en torno a la escritura.

Try this teaching technique: ___ Every Monday, my teacher displayed the best student writing on a projector. We read it as a class and then discussed why it was good and where it could be improved. This was effective for at least three reasons: ___ (1) Objectivity: Students often feel grading writing is arbitrary. But when you read and talk through a piece of writing the teacher selected as the best, you're often humbled: "Wow. That response was better than mine." ___ (2) Affirmation: When your writing gets picked, you feel great and work harder. ___ (3) Motivation: This creates a healthy competitive atmosphere. Now, students want to work hard to get their writing selected for study on Monday.

Every year I approach industry to have their collaboration and the best student of my optative endocrinology course receives a physical book and a rewarding process for his/her achievement. That’s a great motivation task for them :)

In education, it’s crucial to acknowledge and value every step of someone’s learning journey. The practice of educating, being an example for someone, means understanding the significance of each achievement. A great example can be observed early on when young children receive a sticker for good work or a nice stamp they’re proud not to wash off their hands. In adolescence, it could be an essay recognized as exemplary in front of the class, congratulating you on your dedication. Regarding incentive practices and celebrating achievements, it depends on the environment you’re in. The educator must effectively assess their working environment to propose and implement practices that genuinely benefit their students.

Na minha experiência, quando um estudante produz um texto excelente, é preciso demonstrar ao grupo, a raz?o do sucesso. Sempre é preciso mostrar que o êxito de um texto produzido por um estudante do grupo, traz reconhecimento para todos. Um grupo deve ser uma equipe que trabalha para o sucesso de todos. Quando um supera as expectativas, certamente traz contribui??es a todos os participantes. Cabe ao professor demonstrar a importancia da coletividade no trabalho de produ??o redacional.

Célébrer les réalisations et les succès des étudiants en écriture renforce le sentiment de communauté, encourage la reconnaissance mutuelle et stimule la motivation. Utiliser des méthodes variées, comme des portfolios ou des témoignages, contribue à créer un environnement positif d'apprentissage collaboratif.

As we establish a writing teacher identity, we can share with students our thoughts and the process through which we write, strengths and challenges included. That makes writing relatable as both learners and teachers discuss the process, and students can learn from teachers’ experiences and not only theoretical lessons.

Wichtig dabei ist, weniger oder gar nicht zu bewerten, damit die Kreativit?t nicht im Keim erstickt wird. Mein Ansatz beruht auf Inspiration. Das Ergebnis (die Texte) k?nnen von den anderen Teilnehmenden anonym und kollektiv beurteilt werden. So erh?lt der/die Verfasserin (oder Gruppe) wichtige Hinweise, wie interessant die Geschichte war.

Your voice, and a clear identity as a writer, are closely connected and intertwined. We all wish to have a distinct voice, and this begins with understanding and stepping into your identity as a writer. Claiming it, embracing it, and when we do, we are well placed to help our students to understand and explore their own. Testing these out, experimenting, and finding what fits and inspires!

En el tiempo he aprendido a abrir espacios en que cada estudiante pueda escribir y dejar su impronta. Sin imponer nuestro estilo sino dejar que el estudiante genere, hago sugerencias mas abiertas y dejo que ellos vuelvan a construir.

I taught writing to students with learning disabilities, and writing was possibly the last thing they were interested in (with the possible exception of grammar, which they hated even more). Nurturing a writing teacher identity was essential to getting them interested in writing : whenever they were writing an essay, I would write my own at the same time. Then we would share our work by reading it to the group, and get their reactions. This reading became essential to them, as it should be : we write for an audience, writing is a means of communication. And a way of communicating who we are. With that, I nurtured my "writing teacher identity", and likewise, they developed their own writing identity.

Es muy importante que se pueda generar la confianza para que cada integrante pueda ir aclarando su relación con la palabra..Su necesidad y su interés especial en hacer de la palabra el vehículo para abrir mundos internos, para darles a esos mundos una forma comunicable, y de modo tal que esa forma no sea puramente autobiográfica,sino que pueda resonar humanamente.. Y que esa confianza permita la experimentación, pero con el sentido de lograr algo de verdadero valor.

Like any other skill, writing is a muscle that gets stronger with practice. Just as a few runs does not get us ready for a marathon, a string of writing assignments does not a writer make. In my interactions with students in writing workshops, I tend to show them examples of how I write many times in a week as personal notes on ideas that I don't necessarily form into larger, formal writing pieces. Elucidation and succinctly summarising thoughts is a skill that they thus witness. Does writing become a skill in organising thoughts into causal relationships and flowcharting the mind? Yes! In addition, it is invaluable to help students see examples of how editing can cement and strengthen the impact of several drafts of writing.

I would like to mention that, as teachers, we should put empasis on the fact that each student has his own personality and his own psychology. We should organize classes of emotional education lessons in order to help them feel the way that other students feel, increasing empathy, socializing and frienship, preventing bullying and marginalization. Furthermore we should change the "face" of traditional educstion by supporting alternative teaching. So we can teach literature, physics, history and maths by using games, theater, music snd art! We should bring our students in nature and help them to learn the life by themselves. But also we can teach them other science subjects, as astronomy, chess, robotics, ciema etc by using STEAM education.

Make them feel safe in the classroom. If they feel safe, they will start to open up to new ideas. Give them agency in their writing, allow creativity. When students feel safe, comfortable and valued, that is when you know you have community.

One of the lessons that I learned from @OpenSourceResearch is to allocate good time in the beginning in order to build the foundations of the research project. It is a human nature to conceal the weakness so many of the participants may not give a false impression that they can do the task while in the reality they cannot. Having supportive approach in the beginning, will help to mitigate this problem. Frequent follow up meetings in the beginning, will ensure that the project is moving in the right direction. It is always easier to correct deviations in the beginning.