Fostering a culture of communication: I agree, I disagree language (1 of 4)
My biggest strength as an educator is being a community builder. My classes like each other and we talk to each other. I like collaborating with other teachers as well- I like to have that comfort in my job and in my classroom to have the confidence to be able to discuss all things. This is why I practice and advocate for a good month to month and a half of community building at the beginning of the year. Yes, other concepts are being introduced but all the time I spend on creating a classroom culture pays off huge dividends in the long run. In my early years’ classes, upper elementary, and next year Middle School, I (will) use the beginning of the year for us to know each other and to start building a culture of communicators. This will be a multi- post-dive into classroom culture as I prefer to share small pieces of information at a time to allow for reflection after new pieces of information. I am going to start with the language of agreeing and disagreeing that fosters discussions all year long as we move forward.
When we first are in the classroom and starting to share about ourselves I will introduce to the “I agee” sign or as a way to show “Oh me too” with the sign below:
This right off the bat lets us show when we also like what someone has said and we feel the same and can help cut out the repetitive nature of students all saying the same thing. Of course in early years, this takes a bit longer to learn and a good - “Oh so you agree (add hand gesture) to what so and so just said about…..”
The other thing I like about starting out with the “agree” sign is it immediately allows the possibility to disagree with something and therefore opens the doors to possible discussion. Not all students will immediately be ready to disagree but it does allow for the question- “Hmmm, does anyone disagree?”
I’d like to also emphasize that we want to help the students show they are disagreeing with the idea and not the person. If I say “I disagree with Ms. Rachel”, and that’s the end of my sentence- then it leaves the person possibly feeling attacked, and it’s not the person we are disagreeing with, it’s the thought at that moment. Make sure to make that a part of the teaching of the dialogue as well and explain why. None of this should be a hidden mystery as to how and why we are learning to speak this way. When we have the language to disagree with the thought we leave room for the discussion. So rather, “I disagree with what Ms. Rachel said about Spring being the best month because I get bad allergies then and that makes it my worst month.”
These communicators spent some time learning how to best speak with each other the first month and a month later were able to create their own experiments without guidance and could trouble shoot their issues with minimal support.
While this seems like such a small thing the I agree or I disagree becomes an invaluable use of language as we move on to new concepts. It is a foundation for students to start speaking about why they think one way or another and lays the groundwork for building analysis. It can be used in science, social studies, and for those interested in getting into more social justice or mediation in the classroom as it starts building the language for those discussions as well. Two of our goals as teachers are to foster our students’ abilities to think about what is being said and to become effective communicators. The different strategies I will lay out in the Fostering a culture of communication series will give you some ideas to start out your first month in class focusing on building a strong class culture and hopefully motivate you to use that first month building your team rather than diving straight into standards. I promise the time spent upfront building your classroom family pays off in the long run.
