In the first several weeks of school, building a positive space for learning and creating a place that welcomes students are primary considerations over and above curriculum. Try these strategies for establishing a classroom that invites and nurtures students physically, emotionally, and academically.
Setting the Scene
The first thing someone notices when entering a room is the physical environment, or what the space looks like, so it makes sense to start here. In my classroom, I create a visual metaphor for our classroom community, arrange desks in collaborative clusters, display information to help students stay organized, and create positive reinforcement for challenging work. This past year I posted a picture of a tree outside my door stating "Learning Grows Here" with students' names on the leaves. The students enjoyed finding their names. In other years, I have students choose decorative clip-art picture frames to color and write their name on. I place these in a larger frame labeled "grade 5." Both options create a visual metaphor of how students are members of a community.
To help students navigate the school day with more independence, I post a schedule with subjects and times for the day. Students will also notice that the room has extra desks and tables, as well as some exercise balls instead of chairs for those who want them. Simply arranging desks in groups sends the message that I expect students to collaborate.
We cultivate a growth mindset by creating and posting a growth-oriented anchor chart. I kick off this activity by reading aloud The Most Magnificent Thing, by Ashley Spires (2014). The book celebrates the rewards of perseverance and creativity. In discussing the story, we brainstorm messages of perseverance, or "what I can say to myself when things get tough," and record them on a chart to help students build a repertoire of positive self-talk when faced with challenges and frustrations. Students easily come up with messages like "keep on trying" and "never give up," and I add some additional phrases (such as, "Plan A didn't work; good thing the alphabet has 25 more letters") gleaned from growth mindset boards on Pinterest. Once we have a class list of messages, I ask students to choose a message and create a piece of art work displaying it. Their work becomes part of our growth mindset bulletin board that we can refer to all year.
The Fourth R
Relationships are the fourth R in school. According to the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), "the best learning emerges in the context of supportive relationships that make learning challenging, engaging and meaningful." As you shape the emotional environment of your classroom, be mindful of four types of relationships and their specific needs.
Student-and-Teacher Relationships
One first-day activity I use is the "name game." Students toss a stuffy of some sort (mine is a large pom-pom ball) and say the name of the person they want to toss it to. They must make eye contact before throwing it. Once a student has thrown it, their hands go behind their back while others waiting to play have their hands in front. The last player throws the ball back to me, as I started the game. This game has multiple variations, but all keep students engaged while building community with a fun yet purposeful activity.
Listening builds relational trust and lets speakers know that they are valued. Words and tone matter when relating to students. Saying "tell me more" or "I am curious about … " and providing options in any school situation let students know that they have voices that matter. When disciplining students, use a neutral tone and "I" statements, as opposed to sharp tones and "you" statements.
Student-and-Student Relationships
Teachers can help students learn how to listen and converse with each other by using the "grand conversations" strategy (Ontario Ministry of Education, 2011). While we sit in a circle, I explain that we are going to discuss a topic and not raise our hands. Students will need to listen to and watch others to see when they can talk. We talk about words students might use in a discussion, such as "I agree with," "I disagree with," "I'll add on to that," or "What do you think?" Because this activity supplements community building, you should ensure that you've established a sense of classroom community before trying.it.
When student-to-student conflicts occur, students need to trust that their teacher will support them. I tell my students that I will listen to all issues they bring forward and help them come to a resolution. Many times, this work involves role-playing a conflict using proper resolution strategies; at other times, it requires leading students through reconciliation as they realize misunderstandings. If several conflicts are similar in nature, I work through a variety of scenarios with the entire class.
Parent-and-Student Relationships
Students need to know their teacher will support them in all of their relationships. If I notice a student comes to school stressed, taking the time to talk to the student about his or her home life builds a deeper and more trusting relationship. Parent and student relationships can be difficult for teachers to navigate as an outsider, but simply letting students know you care and will advocate for them makes a big difference.
Parent-and-Teacher Relationships
In September, I routinely send all parents a survey asking them to tell me about their child. I ask things like, "What makes your child happy?" and "A good teacher for my child is someone who …." This questionnaire provides valuable information about parents' perceptions and needs. I also ask for parents' e-mail addresses so that I can send them a weekly newsletter with updates on our lessons, including big ideas for literacy and math topics, along with website suggestions for extra practice with concepts. The newsletter has been very well received by parents. For those without Internet service, I print the newsletter for mailing to their homes.
Academic Environment
While building relationships and creating a comfortable physical space support the learning environment, I employ other strategies and routines specifically for sustaining productive learning.
Undesirable behaviors that interrupt students' learning need to be managed. The rapport I have built with students helps them to realize that I am focusing on the choices and actions of the student, not the person. Remember that students need to receive twice as much valid praise as discipline—something that teachers might find difficult to do for a student who constantly makes poor choices. Other classroom management strategies include signals, hand gestures, and direct eye contact. These strategies are most successful if teachers have addressed students' emotional learning needs first.
Using the book Tribes (Gibbs, 2001) as a basis, I have introduced agreements for how our learning environment will run. On separate sheets, I list an agreed-on practice (for example, attentive listening, mutual respect, right to pass or participate, and appreciations not put-downs), and then draw a Y chart with the following sections: looks like, feels like, sounds like. This strategy creates a set of guidelines for our learning environment and clarifies what these agreements look like (actions), feel like (emotions) and sound like (words used and heard in room).
In another strategy, students in groups can use sticky notes to write one rule for the classroom. As students share their ideas for rules, teachers create categories for similar ideas. When the groups finish presenting, the whole class decides which categories are good rules to live by and what behaviors those rules specifically involve. To keep the process simple, I recommend no more than five rules. In this way, the class has cocreated their learning agreement. Inevitably, students will fall off course for these agreements. Teachers should model appropriate behaviors and give students opportunities to reset or even redo lackluster performances.
Knowing that I must develop and maintain three environments in my room and four different types of relationships helps me set up a positive learning space where students cooperate with routines and rules are consistent, reliable, and cocreated with their success, safety, and comfort in mind.