The Belonging Library
Downloadable Tools to Help Every Learner Feel Seen, Valued, and Connected
Your Go-To Resource for Building Belonging — Now Free to Download
Welcome to our new Downloadable Tools page. At Roots ConnectED, we believe every educator and leader should have access to the tools that make belonging and community-building come alive. That’s why we’ve opened up our library of templates, guides, and ready-to-use resources — the very ones we use in our coaching practice — now available to you, free of charge.
Whether you’re looking for a quick reflection prompt, a planning guide, or a visual reminder to keep your practice rooted in inclusion, you’ll find it here.
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A Planning Guide for Community Building
This resource lays out the Roots ConnectED approach to community building, and offers a sample plan and planning template for more authentic spaces of community with students, staff, or families.
Writing Barrier-Free Goals
This tool is designed to help you write clear, accessible, and inclusive learning goals based on your state standards, in line with a UDL approach. You’ll identify what students should learn and remove barriers that may prevent access to that learning, ultimately promoting inclusion and belonging.
Anti-Bias Culture Practices: Assessment and Reflection
This tool is meant to be used as a way to take inventory of where you may be in your thinking and practice around these culture indicators connected to Community Building and Identity of the Anti-Bias Education goals. Use it to assess where you are and reflect on that assessment to create shifts in practice.
4 Ways to Increase Choice and Independence: Classroom Planning Tool
This planning tool, structured as a framework, is one that teachers can use to integrate and plan for increased choice and independence for the students in their classrooms.
UDL Lesson Planning Guide
This accessible, flexible checklist enables educators to create lesson plans that promote inclusivity for all learners. The Implementation of UDL principles builds learning spaces that support student success.
This tool invites you to explore how the words we choose can shape a sense of belonging. You’ll find examples of everyday classroom language—with suggestions for more inclusive alternatives—alongside space to reflect on your own habits, intentions, and the shifts you want to make.
Beyond the Poster: Living Our Norms
Whether you call them norms, guiding principles, or agreements, this tool allows you to assess how often you center, lift up, and practice norms. Use it to support making norms relevant in daily practice.
Planning For Inclusion: Words Matter
Planning with INTENT: Family Engagement Framework and Planning Template
The INTENT Framework was developed in order to help families to come together, share perspectives and engage in community building activities. It is a new way to think about engaging families. This planning template highlights the framework as a holistic way to plan for family engagement.
Questions That Increase Belonging
This tool helps you turn big ideas into practical changes. It offers examples of inclusive question design, suggestions for refining your own questions for students or staff, and guided areas to map out how you’ll apply these shifts in your daily practice.
Planning for the Moment: Supporting Students Through Current Events
This tool is designed to support you in preparing for, facilitating, and reflecting on current event discussions in ways that foster belonging, critical thinking, and care. This tool is to be used once you know the current event you wish to discuss.
Why This Matters
Research shows that belonging isn’t a “nice-to-have” — it’s foundational to learning and thriving. When students feel seen, valued, and confident they belong, they engage more deeply, show fewer behavior challenges, persevere through difficulty, and achieve at higher levels (Mindset Scholars Network, Carissa Romero).
The same is true for educators and staff: a strong sense of belonging fuels connection, purpose, and resilience, leading to greater performance, innovation, and persistence through challenges (Mindset Scholars Network; Beloved Community Research; Deloitte.) Each tool in The Belonging Library is designed to help create these conditions — practical, ready-to-use resources that strengthen engagement and grow the sense of belonging at the heart of every classroom and school community.