Blog #4: Arranging a Classroom

The way a classroom is set up has an effect on many other aspects of the classroom like movement and behavior. The above picture is my “dream” classroom arrangement for a primary grade classroom. I would want the desks to be arranged in a U-shape because it allows for students to work independently or with partners or groups, depending on the assignment. It would also allow me, as the teacher, to stand at the front and be able to see all the students at once, to make sure that they’re working. The U-shape also means that no student is facing backwards, away from the board; some of the students are sitting sideways to the board but they would still easily be able to see without twisting their bodies or necks in an extreme fashion. Clayton and Forton (2001) discuss in Classroom Spaces That Work how children of the primary grade age typically tend to prefer to work alone or with partners. They also discuss how students of this age like to have their own personal desks instead of tables.

I also wanted my room to include other areas where both independent learning and collaboration can take place. This is why I included a reading area with carpets and bean bag chairs and two u-shaped work tables in the back of the room. These tables, in the classroom in which I’m currently working, are used for small group work like guided reading or math help. I would plan on using the tables for those same purposes in my own classroom. One of my course textbooks, Managing Diverse Classrooms, is about how to make classrooms work for a diverse population of students, meaning students from many different cultures. It talks a lot about how children from a collectivistic background have a hard time dealing with the very individualistic American school system (Rothstein-Fisch & Trumball, 2008). This is why I want to provide areas for my students where they can work together, if that’s what they want to do. In fact, doing activities like reading aloud together can often help ELL (English Language Learner) students become more confident and fluent (Boushey and Moser, 2014). I want a specific reading area for my students because I’ve seen how restless my students get when they have to sit at their desks and read for an extended period of time; they always seem to do better when my CT allows them to read around the room. I also want this reading area to be in direct view of my Word Wall so my students can reference it while they’re reading.

In my room I’ve also included bulletins boards for different subjects like reading, writing, math, and science. This is where I would display anchor charts or other posters for the key concepts about which we were currently learning. For the reading and writing wall specifically I would continue to add anchor charts without removing any previous ones since they will probably reference skills that students will continue to need to use and build upon. For example, in my internship classroom our reading and writing wall has grown extensively since the beginning of the year. It used to have just a few posters about capitalization and writing a summary but now it also includes posters about fiction, nonfiction, character traits, mood, etc. which are all skills we’ve learned throughout the year so far. It’s really helpful for the students to be able to reference an anchor chart while working on an assignment, especially since it keeps me from having to repeat myself twenty times!

I would also use the bulletin boards to display the work of my students. I would hang up things like reading activities that we’ve done, math sheets that we’ve completed, and drawings from science. Both Clayton and Forton (2001) and Rothstein-Fisch and Trumball (2008) discuss how important it is to display students’ work in the room. It gives them a sense of belonging to the classroom community and being able to see their growth.

A final aspect of my dream classroom that I want to discuss is the computers. I wish we were able to use the computer more in the classroom. It seems to me that the only time the kids get to spend time on the computer is for iReady, a reading and math program. iReady does seem to help their reading skills, specifically those that are phonics related but I dislike that we rarely allow them to use the computer for anything else. I wish there was more time in the day to allow them to do computer activities like research. I’ve been teaching the social studies lessons for the last few weeks and the kids are so interested whenever I mention one of the former presidents. I would love for them to be able to do little projects about a president, using information they find on websites for kids like MyOn, which has thousands of digital books for kids to read; but there truly isn’t time because of the strict schedule we have to follow. I hope in the future, in my own classroom, I will be able to implement more computer and more meaningful computer use.

Addresses FEAPS 2 A and H

References

1. Boushey, G., & Moser, J. (2014). The Daily 5: Fostering Literacy Independence in the Elementary Grades (2nd ed.). Portland, Maine: Stenhouse.

2. Clayton, M., & Forton, M. (2001). Classroom Spaces That Work. Turner Falls, Massachusetts: Northeast Foundation for Children.

3. Rothstein-Fisch C. & Trumball E. (2009). Managing diverse classrooms: How to build on students cultural strengths. Virginia: ASCD.

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