Creating Welcoming Spaces

Ideas

Idea #10: Teaching the Whole Student

"Students are not blank slates. They bring to the classroom their identities and lived experiences, which shape how comfortable they are and ultimately how they learn… Whole student approaches address the emotional and social needs of students and subsequently augment the educational experience and classroom environment…" —Tracie M. Addy, et al.

Learning Intentions

In addition to focusing on students' thinking and reasoning, we serve our students well to consider how their affective, physical, and social wellbeing interacts with the complexities of their learning and our course content. Being intentional about these aspects can increase their sense of belonging and motivation to learn.

Motivational

  • Connect with students as people by learning names and interacting with individuals or small groups.
  • Share your own experiences of failures and strategies to overcome them as well as successes and how you got there.
  • Communicate why assignments are important for their learning progression and for application in the discipline and what students will gain from it.
  • Bring joy and celebration of learning into the classroom, especially as a way to synthesize learning at the end of the term.

Emotional

  • Advance organizers:
    • Agendas can provide a predictable classroom structure.
    • Content warnings: Certain situations can trigger a student with PTSD to relive their trauma; providing these warnings can help them ahead of time to interact with the course safely. Welcome feedback on their needs.
  • Acknowledge hard things, like the political climate, big events in the news or on campus, or midterms; offer time to do free-writes or debrief.
  • Do Check-ins: Offer "conversation hours" or test prep sessions; with group projects, meet with each group; in smaller classes, have students turn in work in person with a mini interview, allowing an opportunity to connect them with resources. If you're concerned about a student, say what you see, listen to what they say, show you care, and connect them to help. Consult WWU's Red Folder Project.
  • Let it out: Have students do a quick write about their stresses and concerns with optional submission.
  • Take it down a notch: Incorporate frequent, lower stakes assessments rather than a few large exams.
  • Take breaks: Offer mental health breaks, show a funny, motivational, or peaceful slide, or ask for the pulse of the class for how they are feeling with ABCD cards.
  • Resources: Connect students to campus and online resources. Offer to take them if they do not want to go alone.

Physical

  • Promote self-care and sleep by offering early due date times.
  • Build in breaks for bathroom, water, stretching, breathing, and moving.
  • Create movement-oriented learning activities such as concept mapping on the board, Post-it note brainstorming, or "four corners" to move to the location they identify with.
  • Ensure Basic Needs resources are available to anyone who needs it.

Resources