My+Ideal+Classroom+Environment


 * 1) During this fall semester 2010 in my Practicum for the Instruction and Assessment of Reading course, RED 4942, I spent time observing the classroom learning environment established by my Internship II supervising teacher at Hickory Tree Elementary School in Osceola County. Doing so inspired me to begin thinking about what I want my own classroom to one day look like. In order to properly envision this ideal educational setting, I have taken into account all that I have learned so far in my studies to become an Exceptional Student Education (ESE) teacher. I have also given thought to criteria set forth by the state of Florida’s Reading Endorsement Competencies. To culminate my reflection experience, I took time to create a classroom map which illustrates the layout and design of this perfect learning environment that I hope to provide for my future students.



When considering my ideal classroom, an absolutely essential principle I intend to employ in its layout is something known as Universal Design for Learning or UDL. A term I first discovered in my Introduction to Special Education course (EEX 2010), UDL refers to the belief that all learners must be provided with equal opportunities to be successful in school. My classroom will embrace this principle because every element of its design will be flexible, appealing, and safe for all to use. As a future teacher of students with disabilities, it’s incredibly important to me to create an environment that respects individual differences – a space that can be used easily by all my students in similar or equivalent ways and in different contexts so that they can learn from, communicate with, and develop an acceptance of one another.

To this end, I want to arrange my classroom so that it feels spacious and well-organized, with a variety of areas clearly devoted to the different types of learning that will take place there. As pictured in my classroom map, I would love to have places for both cooperative group learning and more individualized, self-paced learning, thereby allowing for flexible grouping strategies. Borrowing from best practices I observed while working on this assignment, I will also have centers like the computer and listening station, creative arts area, writing workshop, and a very comfortable and inviting reading and drama corner. Particularly in the special needs program, centers like these are a terrific asset to learning because they help to differentiate instruction based on students’ varied learning styles, abilities, and cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Furthermore, each of these areas will not only be prime for allowing me to scaffold instruction to support all five major components of reading, but they would also allow me to cleverly interweave science and social studies activities throughout our learning environment, too (REC 5.3). In this way, I can be sure my future students receive the most balanced, cross-curricular educational experiences possible.

As previously mentioned, in anticipation of the different teaching techniques I will use, I have planned for there to be a self-paced learning area within my classroom. Here, there will be separate desks available for each child which may even be outfitted with special study carrels to promote quiet thought and individual focus on differentiated lessons (REC 6.10). Placed in a cozy corner, this area would be as distraction-free as possible while still being connected to the larger learning environment.

Occupying a much more centralized location in the classroom, one would find the bright and inviting space devoted to cooperative small, or sometimes even whole group learning pursuits. As a huge supporter of the constructivist approach, I think it’s essential that students have an area where they can group together to share ideas and learn from one another. With this thought in mind, I hope to use this same area to carry out peer-mediated instructional activities like “learning buddies.” During these lessons, students might pair together with a shoulder neighbor to discuss each other’s thoughts on a video clip about the water cycle, for example, in order to recognize and develop their capacities to be metacognitively aware – to think about their own abilities to reason and think critically (REC 6.7). For another similar activity, students might work together in a larger group of four or five, stretching their comprehension and critical thinking skills during a book circle meeting where they try to decide what chapter they’ve enjoyed most from a fiction, nonfiction, or even content-area text (REC 6.6, 6.8).

The best part of using such a wide variety of grouping strategies is that they accommodate for all stages of language and literacy development, helping English Language Learners (ELLs) and students with disabilities alike, plus providing everyone in our class with the skills they need to initiate and maintain positive social and academic relationships (REC 6.1, 6.11).

As to the learning centers I hope to incorporate into my future classroom, the first of these would be the computer and listening station. Located in a well-lit area of the room, this is where students could come to find a wide array of multimedia games and audio recordings of children’s literature and music, as well as our class textbooks on CD. This would also be a place where students could come to access the internet, too. At this center, they would have the opportunity to write notes to e-pen pals using word wall vocabulary words, conduct individualized research assignments on a famous scientist, or build important reading skills like fluency and automaticity by reading along as their favorite author performs a read-aloud online (REC 6.4, 6.5).

Another center that I look forward to having within my classroom is the creative arts area. Ideally, this would be a kidney-shaped or round table where students could gather in groups of three to five to imagine and express themselves artistically. Since research has shown that many students with disabilities struggle to develop adequate fine motor coordination, I believe this center would be a valuable asset to my classroom learning environment (Taylor, 484). Besides this, the friendly and supportive atmosphere created by allowing students to take part in noncompetitive, enjoyable learning tasks like rolling letters or numbers out of play dough or pasting magazine pictures together to make “beginning sound” collages would not only stretch their phonemic awareness skills in a fun way, but it would also provide reluctant ELL students with authentic opportunities to develop oral and literary proficiency (REC 6.2, 6.11).

A third center that will definitely be a part of my future classroom is the writing workshop. IN a multipurpose effort to save space, contain necessary supplies, and act as a partition between areas to better facilitate learning and keep everyone on task, I plan on using a large bookcase as this center’s “home base.” Strategically placed near the reading and drama center, this is where students could come to find all manner of writing tools (pencils, paper, erasers, etc), their personal journals, and writer’s resources like dictionaries or thesauruses. On the shelves of this center, I want to keep lots of examples of both student writing and my own literary endeavors in a mix of genres from which the children can gather inspiration and explore at leisure. Aside from these items, something else you’d be sure to find here would be each child’s writing portfolio. Special folders containing writing pieces in various stages of completion, individualized checklists, rubrics, and notes jotted during writing conferences with peers or the teacher, these purposeful documents would represent just one of the many forms of valid and reliable assessment used to inform instruction within our classroom (REC 5.12).

Without a doubt, the element of my classroom design which I am most excited to implement is the reading and drama corner. I cannot wait to decorate this center with comfortable chairs, a colorful carpet, motivational posters featuring popular figures promoting reading, and – of course – the miniature stage with which I plan to crown my future classroom. The way I envision it, this will be the place kids from other classes will want to come read at because my students won’t stop bragging about it on the playground! There will be tons of the best books, the coolest magazines and newspaper articles meant to support every stage of language and literacy development from precommunication to proficient. And, it’ll be the perfect spot for performing reader’s theatre in school (REC 6.1)! With each visit to this center, students will have exciting chances to learn and practice important reading skills like going on a scavenger hunt to look for their latest sight vocabulary words hidden inside a selection of story books – a task that supports phonics and word recognition (REC 6.3). Or, they might use their center time to pair up with a friend to echo read a favorite book, practicing fluency and automaticity (REC 6.4). As a dynamic part of our language- and print-rich learning environment, the reading and drama corner will also be home to our classroom word wall (REC 6.12). Displaying content area and general vocabulary alike, the word wall will provide a great resource for students seeking to expand their linguistic abilities. In addition, when viewed alongside student work samples and other fun bulletin board and classroom décor, the effect will be a fabulous expression of the value of reading and writing skills as the foundations of all other content area learning!

The last major element of classroom design about which I made some interesting discoveries during my observations was classroom management. Just as my supervising teacher has done, I hope to go above and beyond the traditional practice of simply posting the class rules and daily schedule on a bulletin board. Following her lead, I am very excited to involve my students in the development of our classroom “habits of goodness.” These will then be reinforced daily through circle time songs taught in English and American Sign Language. In addition, my students and I will engage in extensive modeling and practice of our habits to ensure that everyone is clear on the expectations for desired behavior across all school settings and all year long (REC 6.10).

With such a carefully planned classroom layout incorporating all the valuable principles I’ve learned while studying to become an ESE teacher, I intend to challenge my future students by maintaining high expectations for their achievement according to personalized curricular goals. This way, I can be sure that the learning that takes place in our unique classroom will always be meaningful, appropriate, interdisciplinary, and culturally responsive for everyone!

Sources Cited: Taylor, Ronald L., Lydia R. Smiley, and Stephen B. Richards. __Exceptional Students: Preparing Teachers for the 21st Century__. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2009.