How to Cope With Cliques in the Classroom
Friendships among students in your classroom are useful for group activities and fostering a community environment, but cliques that actively exclude other classmates create a hostile learning environment that interrupts learning and fosters bullying. Dealing with cliques in your classroom is part of effective classroom management, and a combination of both explicit and integrated strategies allows you to incorporate clique management into your daily lessons. Whether you are teaching first grade students or 12th graders, equipping students with the skills necessary to manage cliques is a lesson that extends beyond your classroom walls.
Instructions
-
-
1
Dedicate several days at the beginning of the school year to playing getting-to-know-you games. Ice breaker activities create a classroom atmosphere that is open and welcoming for all students. Include activities that challenge students to learn about classmates they wouldn't otherwise interact with; classroom mixer activities or classmate interviews are useful activities for students at all grade levels.
-
2
Employ assigned seating. Seating assignments are useful for learning names and maintaining classroom control, but grouping students in assigned seating is also a way to encourage interaction between students who wouldn't otherwise talk during class.
-
-
3
Invite students to participate in the creation of a Safe Space action plan. A designated safe space prevents students from making others feel excluded. Ask students to provide examples of words or behaviors that undermine safe spaces and promote feelings of exclusion. Write the ideas on a poster board and write, "Not Permitted in Our Safe Space" across the top. Post the board in the classroom and refer to it as needed.
-
4
Assign group work and group activities frequently. Choose groups that include students from several cliques, and encourage groups to work both in and out of class. As the year progresses, allow students to choose their own groups so that they can use their own discretion in choosing the best group regardless of their group of friends.
-
5
Engage students in a challenge day that explicitly addresses the problems associated with cliques and bullying. During a challenge day, students engage in a variety of intensive activities designed to break down emotional barriers and make connections with other students. A combination of team work challenges like rope courses as well as small group discussions based around prompts like, "If you really knew me" are effective for all learners. Challenge days are best suited for high school and college students.
-
6
Build student self-esteem through in-classroom activities. Students who are confident are more likely to break out of their cliques and make decisions based on their own initiative. One self-esteem activity that combines giving and receiving compliments is the anonymous appreciation game. Have students assist each other in taping a plain piece of paper to each student's back. For several minutes, students circulate the room in silence and leave an anonymous compliment on each classmate's paper. Provide example compliments like, "Super fast reader" or "Great artist" so that students understand what is appropriate and what isn't. At the end of the activity, encourage students to discuss in small groups which compliments surprised them, and how it felt to give compliments to their peers.
-
7
Collaborate with the administration and guidance department to develop intensive lesson plans and strategies for managing cliques that are interfering with regular learning activities in your classroom.
-
1
Tips & Warnings
Adjust activities to suit the level of your students. For example, a first grade classroom may respond positively to a group reading of a picture book while high school students may prefer more in-depth discussions about cliques and bullying.
References
- Oprah: How to Cope with Cliques
- Guidance Channel: Cliques and Put-Downs in Elementary Schools
- "Social Forces"; Classroom Characteristics and Student Friendship Cliques; Maureen Hallinan and Stevens Smith; 1989
- "Classroom Management: Models, Applications, and Cases"; Lee Manning and Katherine T. Bucher; 2006
- Photo Credit students image by Ivanna Buldakova from Fotolia.com
