I read a blog posted on Facebook by our new Union President (and former Kindergarten teacher at my school) about "Visualizing 21st Century Classroom Design". This posting was impactful to me because it gave me ideas for small,concrete steps to change the physical arrangement of the classroom to foster the 4 C's. As teachers, we know that seating students in "cemetary rows" prohibits students from being able to easily communicate with each other. The physical layout of this classroom looks very much like a Read 180 design (small group, kidney table, tech station, whole group) which made me feel like I am headed in the right direction!
I absolutely love the idea of lowering the bulletin boards so that kids can own that space. I am curious about the lack of "extrinsic motivators" because I believe it is important for students to see their reading goals and progress clearly posted. This visual seems like a great first step for teachers to begin thinking about how they can foster the 4 C's in their own classrooms because the physical space allows for so much flexibility.
3 Comments
Hi Dana,
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Kristin
6/28/2016 09:02:25 am
Love the visual! If only I had the space to do all of it! I have always set my desks up in groups, primary and upper grades, but I wish I still had room for a 'carpet' area for whole class meeting space. Thank you for finding this!
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Tory Gaba
6/28/2016 02:56:28 pm
I really like your pictorial view of the 21st century learning. And I too like the idea of making bulletin boards etc accessible to the children. That is very Montessori. The children should feel like the classroom is theirs. They will be more invested in the learning that goes on there. In the Montessori model, learning takes place within an organizational triangle where Environment is part of that triangle , with the teacher and and the child being the other two components. Nicely done!
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Dana HandI teach Read 180 at Northwood Elementary School and I am passionate about reading (obviously!) In my "free time" I love hanging out with my 2 teenagers and taking our two dogs for long walks. Archives
March 2017
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