Choice Lit Topic: Classroom Design
There’s been a remarkable amount of brain research demonstrating how crucial environments are for learning. Cozy, well-lit and well-organized spaces are essential for literacy learners of any age. The constraints teachers face in designing and organizing their classrooms are enormous — from irritated fire marshals to fear of lice infestations, with limited budgets always at the forefront. You’ll be inspired by these beautiful classrooms, created by teachers who manage to design spaces any reader or writer would love.
Results
Reader Response Anchor Charts
“There’s a bunch of kids stuck there together.” October 9 This sentence, followed by a date, was a typical entry recorded by my students in their reader response journals. This...
Middle School Design: Cozy Reading Spaces
I love to ooh and ahh over the beautiful things that teachers do with their classrooms. I have always been jealous of the cozy reading nooks and class meeting areas...
Smarter Charts (PODCAST)
In this podcast, Franki Sibberson chats with Kristi Mraz and Marjorie Martinelli (the authors of Smarter Charts K-2: Optimizing an Instructional Staple to Create Independent Readers and Writers) about ways...
Rethinking Nonfiction Topic-Based Text Sets
When I think about text sets, I consider the ways we collect books as teachers to help build background knowledge and understanding around a topic. With text complexity being highlighted...
Middle School Design: Reading Gutters
Elementary school classrooms are so different from middle school classrooms -- especially the libraries. Elementary teachers have baskets of books with a variety of labels or categories. The covers face...
Rethinking Nonfiction Series Books
Series books have always been an anchor for my readers in grades 3-6. When it comes to fiction, once my students are hooked on a series, they are often set...
Rethinking Nonfiction Author Baskets
Last year, my class put together a Symbaloo page highlighting all of our favorite authors. It was a fun project as we reflected on authors we loved. We wanted to...
Curating a Nonfiction Classroom Library
We should be curators of our libraries, not just collectors. Offering students an engaging, diverse classroom library requires more than buying books and putting them on bookshelves . . ....
Books and Organization of the Classroom Library (Classroom Design Series Part 4)
The collection of books you see here was started in July of 1994, the month I began setting up my very first classroom. It’s been over 20 years since I...
Values and Design (Classroom Design Series Part 2)
Second only to the quality of the teacher, classroom environment is the most influential factor to student success. Eric Jensen, Environments for Learning This is a photograph taken this year...
Starting with Why (Classroom Design Series Part 1)
Several years ago, I came upon Simon Sinek’s book, Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action. I bought it immediately, and not because it was the...
Getting Rid of My Teacher’s Desk
Several years ago I read an article where a teacher mentioned giving up her desk in the classroom. The rationale had been that she didn’t use it if the kids...
Curating the Classroom and School Library
The problem with teaching reading is you need books -– a lot of books. You need those books to be easily accessible and appealing to students. This is easier said...
Classroom Jobs Build Community
As I began this year in my kindergarten class one of the classroom processes that I chose to focus on was our classroom jobs. In the past, as a part...
What Anchor Charts Are Essential?
I can recall a time in my teaching that I didn’t use anchor charts. I didn’t see the value of them. How times have changed. Glancing around my room at...
Appealing Book Displays for Boys
As I write this, it’s about three weeks before school starts. I walk into my freshly painted room. The smell is a little overwhelming and the walls look bright. My...
What’s Up with Those Word Walls?
It is the third day of school. Yet many of the classrooms that I’ve visited have word walls with up to 100 words already posted on them. How can that...
Walls, Displays, and Invitations Early in the School Year
The first few weeks of school are my very favorite time of the school year. A new community is forming, and we are all getting to know each other. For...
Rethinking My Nonfiction Library in Response to the Common Core
The focus on nonfiction reading in the Common Core has us all thinking of ways to move our students forward as nonfiction readers. The new focus on nonfiction has provided...
Making the Switch from Desks to Tables
My principal stopped by the other day with a family that was touring the building. They paused at the door to my room while she said, "And this is Mrs....
Grades 3&4 Room Tour
In this video tour, Franki Sibberson narrates a description of the grades 3&4 multiage classroom she shares with a colleague. The space is small, so Franki explains how storage areas...
