Dealing with Classroom/Club/Team Cliques

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Classroom Management Chatboard

Dealing with Classroom/Club/Team Cliques

by Chris C.

Feb 23, 2011

Hello all, I am writing to you in this forum because I am curious about some of your best practices for dealing with social cliques within the classroom and/or athletic teams/school clubs that you’ve taught/coached/supervised. As a teacher and coach myself, I have experienced some difficult scenarios in managing personalities where stark contrasts exist. These behaviors are more evident in middle school than they are in high school generally speaking, but exist in both levels of education at a certain capacity. My question for all of you reading this is what to do in the event that students are grouping up and segregating themselves from each other. This provides a lack of camaraderie between classmates/teammates/club members, and makes for a volatile environment which no teacher should encourage.

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Donna Kosloff In my classroom I change around seating often and learning groups accordingly. I also assign students who don't normally work together to work together on a project for the month. With monthly projects you have an environment from the beginning that invites variety and helps students to learn to appreciate a partner in a different light.

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Feb 23, 2011

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Kim In the classroom: YOU assign the seats to the students, not the other way around. If you use cooperative learning groups, YOU assign the group members, DO NOT let them choose their own groups. Make RESPECT your #1 classroom rule. Model it for them in your interactions with them. Choose appropriate consequences for violating this rule. In clubs/team...See MoreIn the classroom: YOU assign the seats to the students, not the other way around. If you use cooperative learning groups, YOU assign the group members, DO NOT let them choose their own groups. Make RESPECT your #1 classroom rule. Model it for them in your interactions with them. Choose appropriate consequences for violating this rule. In clubs/teams: Again, establishing respect as a condition of being on the team/in the club. I coached a high school dance squad - talk about cliques and drama! I wrote it into the constitution that all the girls and their parents had to sign before they could even try out for the squad. I also reminded them on a regular basis that the squad was there to help them develop many skills, one of those being how to get along and work as a team, even if they didn't particularly like each other. They were not allowed to bring ANY conflicts, either with each other or any one outside the squad, into practices/performances. If that happened, they received a demerit (3 demerits=benching for a game) and they had to come to my classroom after school one day for mediation of the problem. Hope this helps!

On 2/23/11, Chris C. wrote: > Hello all, > I am writing to you in this forum because I am curious > about some of your best practices for dealing with social > cliques within the classroom and/or athletic teams/school > clubs that you’ve taught/coached/supervised. As a teacher > and coach myself, I have experienced some difficult > scenarios in managing personalities where stark contrasts > exist. These behaviors are more evident in middle school > than they are in high school generally speaking, but exist > in both levels of education at a certain capacity. My > question for all of you reading this is what to do in the > event that students are grouping up and segregating > themselves from each other. This provides a lack of > camaraderie between classmates/teammates/club members, and > makes for a volatile environment which no teacher should > encourage.

Feb 23, 2011

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todd Kim, It's great that you made the students and parents sign the contract. Can you share some of the positives and or negatives that came with all this drama? todd

On 2/23/11, Kim wrote: > In the classroom: YOU assign the seats to the students, not > the other way around. If you use cooperative learning > groups, YOU assign the g...See MoreKim, It's great that you made the students and parents sign the contract. Can you share some of the positives and or negatives that came with all this drama? todd

On 2/23/11, Kim wrote: > In the classroom: YOU assign the seats to the students, not > the other way around. If you use cooperative learning > groups, YOU assign the group members, DO NOT let them choose > their own groups. Make RESPECT your #1 classroom rule. > Model it for them in your interactions with them. Choose > appropriate consequences for violating this rule. In > clubs/teams: Again, establishing respect as a condition of > being on the team/in the club. I coached a high school dance > squad - talk about cliques and drama! I wrote it into the > constitution that all the girls and their parents had to sign > before they could even try out for the squad. I also > reminded them on a regular basis that the squad was there to > help them develop many skills, one of those being how to get > along and work as a team, even if they didn't particularly > like each other. They were not allowed to bring ANY > conflicts, either with each other or any one outside the > squad, into practices/performances. If that happened, they > received a demerit (3 demerits=benching for a game) and they > had to come to my classroom after school one day for > mediation of the problem. Hope this helps! > > > On 2/23/11, Chris C. wrote: >> Hello all, >> I am writing to you in this forum because I am curious >> about some of your best practices for dealing with social >> cliques within the classroom and/or athletic teams/school >> clubs that you’ve taught/coached/supervised. As a teacher >> and coach myself, I have experienced some difficult >> scenarios in managing personalities where stark contrasts >> exist. These behaviors are more evident in middle school >> than they are in high school generally speaking, but exist >> in both levels of education at a certain capacity. My >> question for all of you reading this is what to do in the >> event that students are grouping up and segregating >> themselves from each other. This provides a lack of >> camaraderie between classmates/teammates/club members, and >> makes for a volatile environment which no teacher should >> encourage.

Feb 23, 2011

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Tracy A. Hi Chris,

I don't know if this happens as much with boys as it does with girls, but I have had to deal with this on my girls volleyball team and in the classroom with girls. I, being pretty competitive, love being an athlete and part of a team! I tried to tell my players that they don't have to be friends outside of school, but on the cou...See More

Feb 24, 2011

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D. McCarty Chris,

I coach football at the collegiate level and we do a lot of team building activities to get our guys to know each other better which in turn makes them care about each other more. We talk to our team all the time about this importance of building relationships throughout their lifes. I'll share some of the things we do to maybe spa...See MoreChris,

I coach football at the collegiate level and we do a lot of team building activities to get our guys to know each other better which in turn makes them care about each other more. We talk to our team all the time about this importance of building relationships throughout their lifes. I'll share some of the things we do to maybe spark an idea with you.

During our fall camp we have dinner with a teammate. Each night we post a list for who is suppose to eat with who. This way they get to know other teammates and share conversation over dinner. Could you do this at lunch with your team?

We assign each of our incoming freshman a "big brother". It is someone to take them under their wing and show them around campus or answer any questions that they might have.

We take an afternoon off from practice and take the entire team out to a local golf course to play nine holes. We as coaches split up the teams and make them as diverse as possible.

Now we are in our off season and we have created Pride Groups. Each of our 7 coaches has their own pride group. Once again we split up the groups and made them as diverse as possible. What these groups do is up to the individual coach.

My group is going to an elementary school this Friday for an hour and a half to help with a reading program. I'll have them out to my house for dinner. We may challenge another pride group to a baketball game. It really doesn't matter what we are doing. The point is to get our guys to know each other better, and more importantly to respect each other's backgrounds and make up better.

I think if you brainstorm a little you can come up with some great ideas for your students. I hope this was helpful.

On 2/23/11, Chris C. wrote: > Hello all, > I am writing to you in this forum because I am curious > about some of your best practices for dealing with social > cliques within the classroom and/or athletic teams/school > clubs that you’ve taught/coached/supervised. As a teacher > and coach myself, I have experienced some difficult > scenarios in managing personalities where stark contrasts > exist. These behaviors are more evident in middle school > than they are in high school generally speaking, but exist > in both levels of education at a certain capacity. My > question for all of you reading this is what to do in the > event that students are grouping up and segregating > themselves from each other. This provides a lack of > camaraderie between classmates/teammates/club members, and > makes for a volatile environment which no teacher should > encourage.

Feb 24, 2011

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