1. Sense of Belonging: Creating Safe Learning Environments
LEARNING MINDSETS SESSION 3
Sense of Belonging: Creating Safe Learning Environments

2. “You have to make the choice to get out of bed in the morning, go to school, do the best you can. My truth is that I cannot do it alone. I’m just a small part of this world. We belong to each other so therefore we must take care of each other.”
LESTER MAYERS GRADUATE, E.A.R. WEST SIDE HIGH SCHOOL
NYC Transfer School Conference (2018)

3. Objectives:
Understand how a sense of belonging affects student engagement.
Explore strategies to promote a sense of belonging in school.

4. Listen to Student Perspectives:
As you listen to these students tell their stories, circle moments when you hear something that contributed to their sense of belonging.
Photo: Lester Mayers, 1

5. Share Insights:
Where did these students discuss, either explicitly or implicitly, a sense of belonging at school?
What role do you think their schools and teachers played in that? 2

6. Explore Research on Belonging:
As you read What We Know About Belonging from Scientific Research, use the graphic organizer on the Note Catcher to jot down ideas that resonate with you and questions you’d like to discuss. 3

7. Discuss: Which ideas rang true for you?
In what ways have you or others in your school helped students to develop a sense of belonging within the school community?
What questions surfaced for you? 4

8. Activities for Building Belonging:
Explain Why
Belonging through Listening
You Can Make It
Voice & Choice
When giving verbal or written feedback, explicitly note that you are doing this because you see the student has potential. When giving a test or quiz, explicitly note that you are using this to figure out which areas students need help in. 5

9. Activities for Building Belonging:
Find a time when you can honestly set aside five minutes and find a student who you think feels belonging uncertainty. Ask the student to tell you how their last class was, and follow up by asking: “Why?” “How?” “Tell me more about that.” Do not respond. Do not try to solve a problem. Only listen and stay at it for five minutes. End by saying, “Thanks for telling me that.”
Explain Why
Belonging through Listening
You Can Make It
Voice & Choice 5

10. Activities for Building Belonging:
Ask an upper-classman to share their story of feeling initially that they did not belong and then overcoming this and succeeding in high school.
Explain Why
Belonging through Listening
You Can Make It
Voice & Choice 5

11. Activities for Building Belonging:
Allow students to have a say in one aspect of how things are done in class or with an assignment. For instance, after presenting the learning objectives, provide a choice about how students would go about realizing that learning objective by offering two similar homework assignments.
Explain Why
Belonging through Listening
You Can Make It
Voice & Choice 5

12. Review Activities:
Consider a student who would benefit from improvement in belonging mindset (and will likely be in class next week).
Pick one approach that you are already doing in your classroom and note how and whether your use of it has affected that student.
Pick one that you can try next week and note how you predict it will affect that student.
Explain Why
Belonging through Listening
You Can Make It
Voice & Choice 5

13. Share Plans: What is one thing that you will try in the next week?
What do you predict will happen? 5

14. Learning Wrap-Up Reflect on what you learned today.
How do your takeaways compare to the session’s Learning Objectives? How were these objectives addressed today?
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
Understand how a sense of belonging affects student engagement.
Explore strategies to promote a sense of belonging in school. 7

15. What’s next?
Learn more about the importance of a sense of belonging in engaging students
Explore research behind the impact of sense of belonging on student engagement
Understand the impact of mindsets on students’ experiences in school
Identify strategies that promote learning mindsets
Explore strategies to promote value for learning in the classroom
Develop a plan for supporting student development of learning mindsets
Explore additional activities for cultivating a sense of belonging for students 8