CLASSROOM ENVIRONMENT

“A learning space must be hospitable – inviting as well as open, safe, and trustworthy, as well as free.  . . .” Parker Palmer, The Courage to Teach

Welcome to a new school year.  With this ongoing pandemic it will be an unpredictable one, and creating a classroom community will be quite a challenge.  Whether you are teaching online or in person, whatever you can do to develop an environment of trust so that your writers will be willing to share, respond, accept suggestions, and work on revising is extremely important.  As we mentioned in our last post, we want to offer some suggestions for creating a learning community.  We have decided to focus on three overlapping areas: classroom environment, building community, and procedures.

What can you do to show students that you value writing?  Do you have writing quotations and/or student writing posted?  Do you share your own writing?  What books are visible? Mentor books?  Don’t forget to include children’s books as mentor texts, too. Are these books available for students to use? If you are teaching online, perhaps create a bibliography of these books, maybe download some audio/video of these books.  Encourage your students to post quotations, pictures of their writing space and/or of themselves writing.

I like to post a quotation on the board (easily done online) for the students to respond to in their writing notebooks. (More about notebooks in later post!) It sets the tone for the day’s lesson.  Students can then share their written responses to the quotation or comment orally.  

As you begin to establish this learning space, what works for you?  Whether in the classroom or online, what do you do to make your classroom conducive for students to be willing to share, respond, and accept suggestions for revising?  For whole group work I discovered that I prefer to arrange the desks in a semicircle. Then I can move easily around the room and confer individually with students.  For pair-share work students just move their desks together.  For writing groups the desks are in pods, preferably four or five (we’ll share more about writing groups later).  My students become quite efficient at moving desks!  

Also, I often use music in my classroom.  I found that in addition to setting a mood as class begins, it can be a great stimulus for ideas.  Encourage students to share what music works for them and suggest they create a playlist. 

The first days of class are critical for establishing a learning space that is supportive and nurturing for writing.  It is extremely important to take the time necessary to create that writing environment.  Here are some activities that you might try during the first week or so of class:

·     Do a 10-minute free write on a topic such as How do you feel about writing?  

·     Share a time when you felt proud of your writing or a time when your writing was a disaster. 

·     Invite students to share writing or orally tell about their writing experience.

Good luck to you as you begin your new year.  We welcome your ideas (it’s easy to add a comment to our posts).  Don’t forget to check out these resources:  mwp@umn.eduand nwp.org.  I know how frustrating it can be to teach online, especially when your entry disappears – as my first one did today!!