Teachers need to make the classroom a community, a place where students feelsafe to take the risks involved in learning, where they see it connected with their lives,and where they help and learn from one another instead of working only as isolatedindividuals. And we do this not just to make students feel good, but to give reading inour subjects the full meaning it deserves.   Teachers have many ways to build community, but we know that students respondstrongly when they sense that the teacher knows something about them as individuals.Humor helps break a lot of the ice. Surveys of students show that giving them choices,even in small things, helps students feel respected and viewed as people who arematuring and worthy of trust. While some might think this means a loose ordisorganized classroom, it’s really quite the opposite. A class where students work welltogether and respect one another needs to be an orderly group. And the results are notjust a better climate, but greater learning. Students who know each other well and havebeen taught to listen to one another are more likely to take risks and stretch beyondtheir comfort level as they learn.    It may seem like the simplest truism to say that all learning takes place in acontext that colors everything taking place. However, it’s a major issue that must befactored in every teaching activity we plan; whatever strategies we try to teach, theywon’t work if kids are turned off to school, or are just passively waiting for theteacher to give them the answers. Schools need to be a place where students feel someownership and control, where they have the confidence to recognize and work on theirconfusions, where they take responsibility and learn how to help one another and why it is important to do so, and where they inquire into the big questions that matter forthem. Otherwise, even when we teach strategies to help students deepen theirunderstanding, they will only learn them mechanically, not recognizing when or whysuch strategies are needed.
45. What is the main idea of the passage?
(A)It is important for teachers to form their own community and learn from oneanother.
(B) By helping their students build community, teachers can make students betterlearners.
(C)Classrooms are like a community, both for teachers and for students.
(D)All of the above.