What Is Belonging? | Introductory Lesson

How can the borders we experience in our lives shape our sense of who we are and where we belong?

• Why do we need to belong?
• What is the difference between belonging and fitting in?

This lesson is designed to fit into one 50-min class period and includes the following student materials:

• Handout: What Is Belonging? Anticipation Guide 
• Handout: Perspectives on Belonging 

We have designed these introductory lessons (this lesson and How Do Borders Shape Belonging?) to prepare students to engage with the resources and activities in Facing History’s Borders and Belonging collection. The purpose of these lessons is to develop students’ conceptual understanding of the ways in which the tangible and intangible borders we encounter in our lives can shape our sense of belonging in the world. We encourage you to teach both introductory lessons before engaging students with other resources in the collection. 

The resources and activities in this lesson are adaptable for students in grades 6-12, and we encourage you to modify them for your context. Please note that you may need to adjust the second activity, “Perspectives on Belonging,” to reduce the text complexity and/or the length of the activity. For example, you could reduce the number of passages students engage with from three to one. The first passage and its questions are most easily accessible to a wide range of students, but students may find the third passage (about belonging versus fitting in) most relevant for their experiences at school. Alternatively, you could assign a different passage to each group, or you might read all three out loud and allow groups to choose the ones that most interest them.

Before class, familiarize yourself with the Four Corners teaching strategy, which you will use in the first activity. Make four signs—Strongly Agree, Agree, Disagree, and Strongly Disagree—and hang them in the corners of the classroom.

• Let students know that they will spend the next two lessons considering what it means to belong, why belonging matters, and the barriers that can get in the way of belonging. 
• Pass out the What Is Belonging? Anticipation Guide handout and have students complete Steps 1 and 2. Then debrief using the Four Corners teaching strategy. To provide opportunities for everyone to voice their opinions, have students share ideas with others in their corners before you facilitate the class discussion. Then have students complete Steps 3 and 4 on the handout. Move students into triads and invite them to share their definitions, adding any new ideas that resonate with them to their own handouts.

• With students still in groups of three, pass out the Perspectives on Belonging handout, which includes three perspectives on the concept of belonging, as well as discussion questions for each perspective. Read the instructions together, and then circulate to hear how groups are engaging with the perspectives. 
• Debrief the activity by asking for volunteers to share highlights and questions from their discussions.

• Have students revisit their anticipation guide handout from the first activity to see if their perspectives have changed over the course of the lesson. Have them use a different color pen or pencil to indicate any shifts in Section 1 of the handout. 
• Then share the following questions and have students respond on an exit ticket that they submit at the end of class or complete for homework. 
  • What new, different, or deeper understandings do you have about belonging? 
  • What questions about belonging did this lesson raise for you?