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Library Professional Development-: Community Building Resources and Ideas

Building Community Application Ideas

Twenty Ways to Begin Class Before It “Officially” Begins (See details here):

1. Have a favorite song or music video playing! Allow students to make requests or be the “Before Class DJ!” 11. This or That?: Ask students their preferences (hot dog or hamburger, Coke or Pepsi, winter or summer, etc.)
2. Showcase a favorite quote! Give students the opportunity to respond to the quote in the chat. 12. Google Quick Draw Challenge: Encourage students to complete the daily drawing challenge.
3. Vibe Check: Ask the students to identify where they fall on the mood meter and get an energy level of your students. To learn more, visit here. 13. Family (Class) Feud: Get your students to guess the top answer! (ex. The most often eaten pie…) Get some ideas here.
4. Caption That: The New Yorker: Show a cartoon and have students caption it. 14. History Mystery: Use History Channel’s “This Day in History” to welcome students to class.
5. MadLib this Tweet or #hasthag the Tweet. Find a Tweet, remove some words, and have students fill it in for fun. 15. Fact or Fiction: Challenge conventional wisdom! Get inspired with Discovery’s Mythbusters.
6. Favorite Things: Take an inventory of students’ interests and likes. 16. 30-second Mystery: See some sample mysteries to solve here.
7. National Geographic: Weird, but True! 17. In the Pictures: Spot It
8. 20 Questions: Guess Who/What? 18. Name That Tune
9. Would You Rather? 19. Thumbs Up If…
10. Rebus Puzzle Challenge: Create your own puzzle or select one from this list. 20. Where in the World is the Morton Mustang? (ex. Morty’s been busy travelling around the world, so he decided to stay in the United States this weekend.
However, he still needed a little getaway. He ended up going to the five smallest states in total land area. What five states did Morty visit?)

Tools to Support Building Classroom Community:

Interactive polls, surveys, and presentations create student engagement and gameify the process of getting to know students.

Tools to Support Building Classroom Community:

Interactive polls, surveys, and presentations create student engagement and gameify the process of getting to know students.

Mentimeter is an interactive presentation tool that lets you create slides, quizzes, and interactive questions with  real-time feedback and can be used for:

Vision Board

Setting Goals: Create a Vision Board to Inspire Student Growth

Whether we are all together in a classroom setting or getting to know one another via remote learning, giving students a forum to tell their stories is a powerful way to encourage discourse, empower students, and set goals for the future. A vision board allows students to tell their teachers and classmates the stories of their lives and aspirations. A vision board is a valuable tools for holding oneself accountable, tracking progress of one's goals, organizing one's ideas, or simply putting one's dreams into concrete form. Teachers can use vision boards as a way to connect to students, get to know the students in their classroom, inspire, and motivate students to reach their goals. Vision boards have strong social emotional learning benefits and serve as cathartic and inspiring tools to help students set goals and identify obstacles. 

Ideas for Application:

  • Create a slogan or inspirational quote.
  • Create a visual "Who Am I" poem.
  • Map out goals for the future that can be referred back to throughout the year.
  • Design a poster for a song or movie that inspires you.
  • Create a brain dump vision board that represents obstacles you hope to overcome in your life.
  • Design a promotional poster for an event that you would like to host or attend.
  • Respond visually to a teacher prompt, such as "What are the things that motivate you to work hard?" 

Click Here for a Sample Vision Board Project 

Community Member Profile

Building Community: Designing a Community Member Profile

Whether instruction takes place in-person or via remote learning, students and teachers need to forge positive relationships that encourage students to take risks with their learning and welcome academic rigor and feedback. This activity offers students and teachers an opportunity to share their personalities, interests, and likes with their classroom community. Teachers could use this information to connect with students, develop conversation, group students, personalize curriculum, and begin cultivating a classroom community.

Ideas for assignment:

  • Have students share/present learning in small groups
  • Organize and share a list of  common interests
  • Curate a class collection of learning profiles using Padlet, LibGuide, or LiveBinder that could be shared with the entire class
  • Use the community profiles as a student portfolios that are developed and added to over the course of the school year 

Click here to see a sample Community Member Profile. 

Use Make Beliefs Comix to Build a Community Member Profile.

Prompts to Inspire Creative Sharing

From the Library of Congress website:

The Write. Right. Rite. series is meant to be an entertaining and inventive way to engage with the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, Jason Reynolds.

According to Reynolds, the “Write. Right. Rite.” is all about learning the ritual of “authentic”—not to be confused with “correct” or “exact”—expression. Throughout the series, he will share his passion for storytelling while discussing topics like creativity, connection, and imagination. At the end of each video, Reynolds will share a prompt that encourages young people to work toward a specific idea. The activities are fun-filled and some are more challenging than others, but Reynolds always makes sure to include brainstorming “get-you-going” questions.

Jason Reynold's Write. Right. Rite. YouTube PLAYLIST 
from the Library of Congress

Create an Award for Yourself 
Create a Fictional Tattoo  Your Hero Writes You a Response Letter 
Imagine Your Loved One is 15 Years Old  Respond to Piece of Art 
Write the First Line of a Story 
Tell the Story of Jason's Tiny Neighborhood 
Write About a New Invention Create a Book Cover
Create a Special Recipe Frame a Special Item Write a Shower Song
Imagine a Remote Controls the World Explain Love to a Magical Pet  Create a Video Game 
Invent Synonyms 
Imagine Yourself as a Plant Create Your Own Rollercoaster
Take an Imaginary Road Trip Create a New Ice Cream Treat Find Treasure at the Pool
Customize a Face Mask Pitch a "Write. Right. Rite." Prompt to Jason Devise a Good Luck Charm
Create a TikTok Dance Create a Refrigerator Magnet Imagine Yourself as a Book Casing

Additional resources: JSM Libraries LibGuides for Jason Reynolds' books: