Entry 6 ~ Classroom Arrangement

I have really learned so much through this practicum this semester. One thing that I know now is absolutely necessary in the classroom from the beginning of the year is a word wall. It was only a few weeks ago when I walked into the classroom to find that a word wall had been started. The school I am at is in the Union District and the administration has created the testing program where the students read lists of sight words, read stories for comprehension, and are tested on phonics as well. In three times this semester when I visited the classroom, I tested the students individually on their sight words. The first two times I tested the students, the majority of them were below-level. This was before Mrs. Grigg had put up the word wall in her classroom. The students were semi-familiar with the sight words because they had done activities with them, yet they were still scoring low on the tests. The third time I tested the students, most of them mastered (95/100 right) the sight words. This time the word wall had been up. Now, I understand that the reason why the students did well the third time was not solely because of the word wall being put up, because they had been learning more etc., but I believe that it did make a big difference. The interesting thing is, though, that the teacher chose to place the word wall in the back corner of the room.

The desks have changed formation two times while I have visited the classroom. When I got to the classroom, the desks were all separated into singles. Mrs. Grigg said that she had started the school year with the desks in groups of 4-5 but the students were too "chatty" and so she separated them. After a few weeks, the desks were put into 5 rows. And the last two times I came, the desks were put into a U shape, with the opening at the front of the classroom. I don't know why they were changed the past couple of times. My thinking on this is that the students will still be chatty even though their desks are not in clusters. I would build a community with the students and I would tell them that when one person of the community is speaking, the rest of us are listening, and you cannot speak and listen at the same time. If they do become more talkative and do not listen, I would take away a privilege that can be earned back if they listen. I don't want them to stop talking overall, because speaking helps their thinking. But it is important to put the responsibility on them to listen.

Each student has a folder for their library books and other books on the back of their chairs. There is a cover that goes over the front and back of the chair to give it more leverage, and then the folder is attached to the back. This gives the students more room to put books and papers other than their desks. A lot of times, the students have to grapple with them though, because they are pretty flimsy. I know that this is probably a makeshift idea, but I would rather get wood with the money spent on these and have someone build me a cubby area I can put on the ground by their backpack hooks to use for that.

The classroom is not very literate-rich. Of the little posters Mrs. Grigg has in the classroom, the majority of them aare published. She has a few posters up by the front of the room. She also has a math poster that has some of the math concepts they are learning on it. She does not do any shared readings or interactive writings This is also probably another reason why the students are below-level in reading and spelling.

There is a group time area on the floor by the calendar area, where Mrs. Grigg has a cart with small dry erase board that she uses. This area is well used for the amount of room in the classroom. I have noticed that the calendar area is almost never used, and Mrs. Grigg does not even change the days everyday (Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow). I understand the time crunch, but the students need to learn how to use a calendar. But other than that, this is where they have read-alouds, and the white board is well-used for minilessons during the read-aloud.

Mrs. Grigg's room is not very conducive for the language arts program. Though there is a word wall and there is ample room for group time, the classroom is not literate rich.