I absolutely love setting up classrooms and get excited every summer when I get the chance to change parts, rearrange, add, and/or delete. I want to create a classroom environment that supports a sense of community, independence, and engagement. It’s also important for the students to feel and know that it is “our” classroom.
As I reflect and prepare to set up our classroom environment for the fall, I think about the layout of the classroom and
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create a meeting area large enough to fit all students comfortably that has a chart or Smartboard to record thinking and to use during minilessons for visuals;
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have tables, rather than desks, that promote student collaboration and sharing community supplies by having “table baskets” full of supplies, and
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place baskets/bins in a common area in the room where the class keeps their reader’s and writer’s notebooks. This makes it easier for me to read their work and also increases a sense of pride in their notebooks by displaying them in baskets neatly.
Here are some other considerations when thinking through ways to design your classroom to promote independence and a thriving literacy community.
Classroom Libraries
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Think about how books are displayed in your favorite local bookstores and what attracts you to them. Now think about how you can re-create something similar in your own classroom that will be attractive to your students.
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Use labeled baskets to organize books neatly by genre, series, and authors.
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Display books in an inviting way—a basket of new books, books recommended by classmates, award winners, class favorites.
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Place bookcases around the meeting area so students are surrounded by books in an inviting way when gathered on the rug for minilessons, read aloud, shares, etc.
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Train students to be the librarians of the classroom. As students complete books, they place them in the labeled “returned” basket, and the designated librarians return them to their correct baskets and bookcases at the end of the day.
Bulletin Boards
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Have designated bulletin board space for various subject areas. When visitors walk in, it should be clear which unit of study you are currently teaching by looking at the labeled bulletin boards and student work.
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Class and hallway bulletin boards should be clearly labeled and should revolve around student work and skills/strategies being taught in units. Students should be involved in creating and maintaining the bulletin boards. This builds a sense of ownership and pride in students, which causes them to refer to the charts and internalize the skills/strategies taught.
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Students’ notebook entries and responses can be posted to show the strategies they are using in their notebooks. Students can write their name next to their work and name the strategy they used on a colored piece of paper or index card. This is a great way for students not only to take pride in their hard work, but also to learn strategies from one another.
Writing/Reading Center
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Give students access to the supplies they need for writing/reading workshop. This means making a commitment to teaching them how to replenish the writing center often. Teaching them how to care for the supplies they will use during the year is important since we want students to use supplies purposefully and care for the items (for example, Sharpies need their tips snapped tightly shut so they don’t dry out).
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Have a variety of paper, tape, staplers, paper clips, markers/pens, scissors, index cards, pushpins, spell-checkers, highlighters, sticky notes, bookmarks, and so on in the writing center for students to use as they need them.
Charts
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Have anchor charts, that are added to and referred to throughout the course of units, displayed in the classroom for students to use and for you to refer to during lessons.
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Model ways to write about reading during read aloud by modeling how to create charts and jot down thinking in an organized and meaningful way. Students are able to transfer these writing-about-reading strategies into their own reader’s notebooks.
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Take down charts that are no longer being referred to by either you or your students and store them in case you need to refer to them in a future unit.
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Create charts together with the students to show thinking, strategies, and ideas. If a student shares an idea that you are writing on the chart, write the student’s name next to his or her idea. Students love getting credit and being recognized for their contribution!
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Charts make abstract ideas visible and are effective ways to leave tracks of instruction throughout the classroom. They also provide students with a constant reminder of their work as readers and writers.
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Create mini-charts (typed versions of class charts) for students to paste or tape into their notebooks to refer to. Mini-charts make the teaching accessible outside of the classroom and when charts are taken down. Creating miniature versions of classroom charts also reduces the time spent copying information from a chart to the student’s notebook.
Is there anything better than the quiet summer days of creating a learning space you and your students will thrive in and love?
