Background & Purpose | Benchmarks | Examples of Excellence and Innovation | Campus Examples & Resources

Background & Purpose

Benchmarks:

• Build the outline of the Class/Small Group Meetings over a semester or year. Consider how the topics flow together and build on one another, as well as how they coincide with students’ service and experience. Then, fill in the details (the plans for the meeting), drawing on the recommendations below. If you are short on staff time, consider involving students, faculty, and other campus staff in doing some of the work.
• You may want to look at your Roadmap (or other document containing your version of the developmental model) and connect the Class Meetings to the knowledge and skills that your program has selected for each given year.
• It helps to have a planned activity or agenda, even if the items on that agenda include time reserved for simply checking in with students and prompting discussion about how things are going with their service, coursework, and college in general. Weave in a combination of training and/or instruction, guided reflection, discussion, and opportunities for coaching and/or advising. For example:
• During one meeting, you can have a blend of these various activities, perhaps using an interactive workshop that offers training in a particular skill, reflection using a quote, and the opportunity for group discussion and feedback.
• Over time, weave in these various types of content. For example, one meeting may be particularly focused on providing relevant training in a particular skill or knowledge area, such as how to do a community asset map. In the next meeting, after students have begun doing their own asset map, focus the time on sharing, reflection and providing coaching on students’ progress. A third meeting could feature a dynamic community speaker and the opportunity for discussion, drawing on the students’ developing knowledge of the community.
• Check out the outlines and curriculum from schools that have developed structured Class Meetings for ideas. For example, Mars Hill implements weekly Class Meetings, called the Lifeworks Leadership Academy, for students during all four years. A planned curriculum is oriented around particular areas of knowledge, skills, and values for each level. The curriculum features lots of interactive team-building activities, hands-on projects, and reflection using quotes and film clips. Take a look at the examples from campuses that have created structured plans for Class Meetings including:
• Davidson College First-Year Curriculum 

• Build a culture of fun and appeal around Class Meetings. Having food or snacks may be a critical part of this.
• It is helpful to have a purpose or direction for each meeting. This doesn’t mean that you need an hour of planned activities, but having at least a standing agenda may help. For instance, the agenda could include 15 minutes for checking in and discussion, a 20-30 minute skill-oriented activity, and 10-15 minutes for a reflection activity. If you don’t yet have content for the training or reflection, consider borrowing from other schools, the COOL Curriculum, books, or other sources. Even a simple structure, like the “Why?” book or a quote book can form the basis for a reflective practice over several weeks as you work on developing other pieces. In addition, the structure can allow the group to help generate pieces of it, through using post-its, index cards, or facilitation tactics.
• Spend some time reviewing your meeting plan. It tends to take more time to design activities if your program is beginning the Class Meeting structure (e.g., finding a training piece, quote or film clip; modifying it; preparing handouts; etc.); over time, preparation time decreases. Nevertheless, it is still helpful to review your plan and modify it according to what is happening in the program (with service, on campus, etc.) at the time.
• While many of these meetings tend to be staff-led, you can also involve students (from the class or other classes) in planning and/or leading activities. Even if they are staff-led, meeting that tend to engage students directly in talking or doing are often the most effective. Try to think of ways to present information in a way that asks for student decision-making and responses.
• Many schools use Class Meetings as a time for project planning and discussion. For example, through Class Meetings at Mars Hill, freshmen engage in planning for their First Year Trip; sophomores plan their own Recommitment Event; juniors work on a project of their own design that involves recruiting volunteers and garnering resources through specific techniques; and seniors work on their Senior Presentations of Learning. The skill training provided around these projects support them.

• Class/Small Group Meetings are roughly an hour in length (45-75 minutes; the length is tied to the frequency; e.g., weekly meetings could be 45 minutes or so, while once per semester meetings may need to be longer than an hour).
• For Freshmen, the Bonner Foundation is recommending class/small group meetings at least once every two weeks (every other week), though many schools hold them weekly.
• For Sophomores, the Bonner Foundation is recommending class/small group meetings at least once every two weeks (every other week).
• For Juniors, the Bonner Foundation is recommending class/small group meetings at least once per month.
• For Seniors, the Bonner Foundation is recommending class/small group meetings at least once per semester.

Examples of Excellence and Innovation:

• After building a rough outline of the topics to be covered, gather resources from various Bonner sources. A major source is the COOL Civic Engagement Curriculum, which contains planned modules on more than 40 topics.
• Other sources include the Corporation for National Service EPICENTER website, Pew Leadership Plenty Training Program, and other manuals. See the Resource Section for more info. Or find resources from on-campus programs, like Upward Bound, Support Services, the Career Center or other departments.

• One of the challenges with Class Meetings (and small group meetings) is the amount of time they take from a staff member’s schedule, in particular, for planning, coordinating, and running them. This is even more true if the staff wants meetings to contain more than a standard agenda covering business and wants to include thought-provoking content to deepen students’ skills and knowledge base. One solution is to delegate the Class Meetings among a group of student leaders, which may include the Senior Intern. By working together on crafting the overall themes and mapping the intentional skill development opportunities, but leaving it up to many people to plan and run these meetings, fitting these in can be easier.

• Several campuses have developed interesting curricular content for class meetings that utilizes resources from public radio, popular culture, local and national newspaper stories, case studies, periodicals, etc. For example, contact Mars Hill for their Lifeworks Leadership Academy curriculum or Emory & Henry for their Reflection Session curriculum. Often, these kinds of sources can relate to the issues that students are confronting through their service and community involvement while also introducing students to new paradigms, key insights or conflicts, different approaches, and so on. See the Campus Examples Section below for contact information.

• While not a requirement within Bonner, several campuses are using weekly Class Meetings. Staff at these campuses anecdotally report that they see the benefits of doing so in their student retention and reports of satisfaction with the program. The meetings can become a treasured part of the weekly routine of students, especially when they are also fun.

Campus Examples and Resources:

• For help in constructing a semester- and year-long plan for class meetings, consider several campus examples: Davidson, Emory & Henry, Mars Hill, Union, and Wofford are contained in the Supporting Resources Section.
• Davidson attempts to reinforce content of class meetings with formal one-to-one meetings, held at least once per semester. Use a class meeting to introduce a framework, like goal-setting or thinking about vocation, that can be followed up appropriately through advising during a one-to-one meeting.
• Emory & Henry has developed a class meeting structure based on intensive reflection, connected to meaty readings using articles from NPR, newspapers, and other sources. Some training makes references to the show The Simpsons, drawing on popular culture interest, but helping students explore their own values and actions. Contact the Director and Coordinator for examples.
• As described earlier, Mars Hill has developed a planned curriculum used in weekly Class Meetings called Lifeworks Leadership Academy. A full-color glossy book contains quotes, makes reference to film clips (like Apollo 13 or Ferris Bueller), and integrates hands-on activities to spur learning and reflection. Contact Lifeworks/Bonner staff for examples.
• Some schools have made good use of resources like the COOL Curriculum while also modifying it and supplementing it with their own (or other) modules. Union and Wofford College staff are good resources to talk to for information about this approach.