Classroom Layout
Our classroom is full of opportunities for learning and integration! Lined by windows on two sides, our classroom has been designed to foster motivation for learning and promote student responsibility. The goal is to create a shared space where all students feel supported and included in
the learning process. Student work samples are displayed throughout the room, and student-created resources are placed at each centre
to promote the gradual release of responsibility. Come on in!
the learning process. Student work samples are displayed throughout the room, and student-created resources are placed at each centre
to promote the gradual release of responsibility. Come on in!
Our Shared Space
This classroom is a safe shared space, and the physical setup aims to communicate this value. Instead of personal desks, students move fluidly between tables when completing activities, and shared writing utensils are located on each table. Students keep their items in their personal learning boxes at each center or in their cubby, located just inside the door. Even the teacher’s area, found beside the Math Centre, includes a group table, where students are encouraged to sit during conferencing sessions or when they feel they would like some additional support. Students are encouraged to work with different classmates; different areas facilitate group activities, as well as allowing space for independent work. During whole group lessons, the class meets on the Community Carpet, complete with a comfy Author’s Chair, Smartboard, and Whiteboards. Here, students will find the Daily Schedule and the Executive Functions Superheros, both of which serve to promote student responsibility through self-regulation. By creating this open-concept set-up, the goal is for students to understand that each member of this collaborative classroom community has a responsibility in maintaining and participating in this shared space.
This classroom is a safe shared space, and the physical setup aims to communicate this value. Instead of personal desks, students move fluidly between tables when completing activities, and shared writing utensils are located on each table. Students keep their items in their personal learning boxes at each center or in their cubby, located just inside the door. Even the teacher’s area, found beside the Math Centre, includes a group table, where students are encouraged to sit during conferencing sessions or when they feel they would like some additional support. Students are encouraged to work with different classmates; different areas facilitate group activities, as well as allowing space for independent work. During whole group lessons, the class meets on the Community Carpet, complete with a comfy Author’s Chair, Smartboard, and Whiteboards. Here, students will find the Daily Schedule and the Executive Functions Superheros, both of which serve to promote student responsibility through self-regulation. By creating this open-concept set-up, the goal is for students to understand that each member of this collaborative classroom community has a responsibility in maintaining and participating in this shared space.
The Reading Nook
Flush with windows along both sides, the Reading Nook is a comfortable and relaxing space where the students are invited to talk, read, or work on assignments. Creating a comfortable space in the classroom where students can meet provides them with social opportunities to build community and respect for peers. The Gathering Space also provides students with an area in the classroom that motivates them to read to self or read to a partner, a part of our Daily 5 program.
There are two libraries within the Reading Nook. The first is a shared themed library; these books are changed throughout the year to match the conceptual theme students are exploring in other areas of the curriculum. Students can look at books from this library to build their knowledge of a unit of study from a range of fiction and non-fiction texts. For a sample of this week’s selection, check out “What’s on our Shelf this Week”. In addition to this themed selection, our classroom also has a Levelled Library. We have created a colour-leveled system based on the levels described in the PM Benchmarks texts. Students are individually assessed throughout the year to determine their ability and interests, and assigned a range of levels from which they should select books for independent reading. Basing decisions on student interest helps to engage learners, which makes them more motivated to practice reading. Research shows that students need to be engaged in reading for at least twenty minutes each day; repeated exposure and practice is important to the development of fluency and reading comprehension. Each student has a Personal Book Bin where they keep the books they are currently reading, along with a reading log to track the books they have already read. The teacher conferences with students each week to ensure that they are finding books that are appropriate, challenging, and interesting.
Flush with windows along both sides, the Reading Nook is a comfortable and relaxing space where the students are invited to talk, read, or work on assignments. Creating a comfortable space in the classroom where students can meet provides them with social opportunities to build community and respect for peers. The Gathering Space also provides students with an area in the classroom that motivates them to read to self or read to a partner, a part of our Daily 5 program.
There are two libraries within the Reading Nook. The first is a shared themed library; these books are changed throughout the year to match the conceptual theme students are exploring in other areas of the curriculum. Students can look at books from this library to build their knowledge of a unit of study from a range of fiction and non-fiction texts. For a sample of this week’s selection, check out “What’s on our Shelf this Week”. In addition to this themed selection, our classroom also has a Levelled Library. We have created a colour-leveled system based on the levels described in the PM Benchmarks texts. Students are individually assessed throughout the year to determine their ability and interests, and assigned a range of levels from which they should select books for independent reading. Basing decisions on student interest helps to engage learners, which makes them more motivated to practice reading. Research shows that students need to be engaged in reading for at least twenty minutes each day; repeated exposure and practice is important to the development of fluency and reading comprehension. Each student has a Personal Book Bin where they keep the books they are currently reading, along with a reading log to track the books they have already read. The teacher conferences with students each week to ensure that they are finding books that are appropriate, challenging, and interesting.
The Writing Centre
Adjacent to the Reading Nook is the Writing Centre. This area is supplied with writing utensils and useful resources to support students to become motivated and creative writers. Students are provided multiple opportunites throughout the day to practice writing across a range of contexts and subjects. For example, students express creative writing upon entering each morning as they write or draw responses to the daily sign-in question in their journals. The goal of our classroom is to encourage students to become independent and motivated writers who recognize that writing is a meaningful form of communication for life.
Each student has a Personal Writing Box, where they keep their personal supplies for writing. This box is home to a range of supplies, including a Personal Editing Checklist, students’ daily journals and a writing folder, where students store their completed and ‘in-progress’ writing pieces. Attached to each box are “Personal Dictionaries”; vocabulary rings where students can attach new words they have discovered during their reading or writing adventures. Some of the other resources included at the Writing Centre include a Laptop trolley, where students can access technological writing or research tools; graphic organizers that students know to help structure writing or increase reading comprehension; and a host of published resources, including dictionaries and picture books to inspire creative writing.
It’s important that students and teachers co-construct writing resources so that these are accessible, understandable, and meaningful to the students who use them. This contributes to the gradual release of responsibility, where students learn to take ownership over their own learning. Some of the resources currently displayed in the Writing Centre include:
The Word Wall: This is a list of high frequency words that the students in this class are using in reading and writing. New words are added to this list each week, and it’s important that students learn to recognize these words so that they become fluent readers. students need to learn to “decode” text automatically so that their attention may be freed up for reading comprehension. Creating an interactive Word Wall where students participate in the process of adding words is one way to foster this vocabulary development.
Anchor Charts: The use of anchor charts is a great way to guide students in building knowledge and setting goals for their learning. Student-created anchor charts put student ideas at the centre of the learning process, and promote student learning through collaboration and shared goal setting. One of the resources currently on display is the “What do Good Writers do?” anchor chart. Created during Writers Workshop, this chart highlights that good writers think first, talk second, draw third and write fourth. Writer’s Workshop motivates children to write and builds on their understanding of writing processes and strategies. The goal is for students to see these strategies as useful and refer to them on the chart while they pursue various writing endeavors.
Authors' Wall: It is important to celebrate and make visible student progress, which helps to increase. The Author’s Wall displays samples of student writing from through the year, displayed in the form of a Visual Portfolio. A component of Writer’s Workshop, students select certain pieces to be added. This allows students to monitor their own progress, which increases ownership of learning and motivation for literacy (Turner & Paris, 1995). This is also a great resource for students to share with family and friends during our weekly Friday afternoon Book Chats.
Adjacent to the Reading Nook is the Writing Centre. This area is supplied with writing utensils and useful resources to support students to become motivated and creative writers. Students are provided multiple opportunites throughout the day to practice writing across a range of contexts and subjects. For example, students express creative writing upon entering each morning as they write or draw responses to the daily sign-in question in their journals. The goal of our classroom is to encourage students to become independent and motivated writers who recognize that writing is a meaningful form of communication for life.
Each student has a Personal Writing Box, where they keep their personal supplies for writing. This box is home to a range of supplies, including a Personal Editing Checklist, students’ daily journals and a writing folder, where students store their completed and ‘in-progress’ writing pieces. Attached to each box are “Personal Dictionaries”; vocabulary rings where students can attach new words they have discovered during their reading or writing adventures. Some of the other resources included at the Writing Centre include a Laptop trolley, where students can access technological writing or research tools; graphic organizers that students know to help structure writing or increase reading comprehension; and a host of published resources, including dictionaries and picture books to inspire creative writing.
It’s important that students and teachers co-construct writing resources so that these are accessible, understandable, and meaningful to the students who use them. This contributes to the gradual release of responsibility, where students learn to take ownership over their own learning. Some of the resources currently displayed in the Writing Centre include:
The Word Wall: This is a list of high frequency words that the students in this class are using in reading and writing. New words are added to this list each week, and it’s important that students learn to recognize these words so that they become fluent readers. students need to learn to “decode” text automatically so that their attention may be freed up for reading comprehension. Creating an interactive Word Wall where students participate in the process of adding words is one way to foster this vocabulary development.
Anchor Charts: The use of anchor charts is a great way to guide students in building knowledge and setting goals for their learning. Student-created anchor charts put student ideas at the centre of the learning process, and promote student learning through collaboration and shared goal setting. One of the resources currently on display is the “What do Good Writers do?” anchor chart. Created during Writers Workshop, this chart highlights that good writers think first, talk second, draw third and write fourth. Writer’s Workshop motivates children to write and builds on their understanding of writing processes and strategies. The goal is for students to see these strategies as useful and refer to them on the chart while they pursue various writing endeavors.
Authors' Wall: It is important to celebrate and make visible student progress, which helps to increase. The Author’s Wall displays samples of student writing from through the year, displayed in the form of a Visual Portfolio. A component of Writer’s Workshop, students select certain pieces to be added. This allows students to monitor their own progress, which increases ownership of learning and motivation for literacy (Turner & Paris, 1995). This is also a great resource for students to share with family and friends during our weekly Friday afternoon Book Chats.
Centres for Integrated Learning
This classroom aims to create integrated leaning spaces where students move fluidly between learning across a range of subjects. Subject integration makes learning more meaningful, and serves to motivate students as they build connections between curriculum areas. “Literacy instruction must be embedded across the curriculum. All teachers of all subjects...
are teachers of literacy” (MOE, 2009). In this way, the goal is for students to develop “transferable skills” where knowledge is useful in multiple facets of daily life (Guthrie, 1996). For this reason, many of the centers in our classroom are closely related.
Located beside the Writing Centre, the Creative Corner seeks to integrate Visual Art with literacy by encouraging children to communicate their ideas both through writing and creatively. Samples currently displayed above the Creative Corner show students’ Artwork Writing. This creates an opportunity for students to practice descriptive writing, and provides the teacher with an understanding of students’ interests and knowledge of writing processes, spelling and vocabulary. Learning through The Arts has been found to benefit students in other academic areas, including vocabulary, and helps students to develop valuable life skills, including self-esteem, cooperation, and creativity (Cornet & Smithrim, 2000)
Next to the Creative Corner is the Science and Cooking Centre. It’s important that the Science Centre be located near the Writing Centre and Reading Nook so that students can easily access technological or print resources when researching during adventures in science. The Cooking Centre creates opportunities for authentic integration; students learn about the science of food, and participate in preparing recipes as a group. Integrated with literacy, students create recipes as a way to practice procedural writing, and connect learning to their daily lives.
The Math Centre is found opposite the Reading Nook, where students have space to use manipulatives to enhance their understanding. The supplies in the Math Centre change as students explore new concepts. Since students are currently studying features of time, this centre includes examples of schedules, a range of analog and digital clocks or timers, and examples of non-standard measurements of time. Students have also displayed their personal daily schedule on the Adventures in Math Board, which they created as part of a series of integrated math activities this week.
This classroom aims to create integrated leaning spaces where students move fluidly between learning across a range of subjects. Subject integration makes learning more meaningful, and serves to motivate students as they build connections between curriculum areas. “Literacy instruction must be embedded across the curriculum. All teachers of all subjects...
are teachers of literacy” (MOE, 2009). In this way, the goal is for students to develop “transferable skills” where knowledge is useful in multiple facets of daily life (Guthrie, 1996). For this reason, many of the centers in our classroom are closely related.
Located beside the Writing Centre, the Creative Corner seeks to integrate Visual Art with literacy by encouraging children to communicate their ideas both through writing and creatively. Samples currently displayed above the Creative Corner show students’ Artwork Writing. This creates an opportunity for students to practice descriptive writing, and provides the teacher with an understanding of students’ interests and knowledge of writing processes, spelling and vocabulary. Learning through The Arts has been found to benefit students in other academic areas, including vocabulary, and helps students to develop valuable life skills, including self-esteem, cooperation, and creativity (Cornet & Smithrim, 2000)
Next to the Creative Corner is the Science and Cooking Centre. It’s important that the Science Centre be located near the Writing Centre and Reading Nook so that students can easily access technological or print resources when researching during adventures in science. The Cooking Centre creates opportunities for authentic integration; students learn about the science of food, and participate in preparing recipes as a group. Integrated with literacy, students create recipes as a way to practice procedural writing, and connect learning to their daily lives.
The Math Centre is found opposite the Reading Nook, where students have space to use manipulatives to enhance their understanding. The supplies in the Math Centre change as students explore new concepts. Since students are currently studying features of time, this centre includes examples of schedules, a range of analog and digital clocks or timers, and examples of non-standard measurements of time. Students have also displayed their personal daily schedule on the Adventures in Math Board, which they created as part of a series of integrated math activities this week.