How do students manipulate and leave a mark on the learning environment?
W2-Q4: How do students manipulate and leave a mark on the learning environment?
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W2-Q4: How do students manipulate and leave a mark on the learning environment?
Lots of photos of them and process work is posted. The walls are theirs.
I like putting their book commercials up on the walls. Others will read them for suggestions.
I always let students move the desks to work more comfortably and read where they wanted. (High school desks arent comfy). Plus everything on the walls were co created and I had a student motivation part of the board where students could write to their classmates like a graffiti wall!
Based on reading some of the posts over the last week, I think I’m going to let them have more of a say in how our room is set up—at least try it out at first and see how it goes. I’m always going to have those students that want/need to be near the front , but I’ll need to be very aware of those that want to be in the background. Sometimes that’s more telling of how they manipulate their own learning.
In our school library, we use the tops of our tall shelves to display student work. (Shelves are too tall for book displays) Our art teachers and also tech ed. Will display projects. I also love that things get changed out often, so it keeps things fresh!
Last year I had my student library helpers generate ideas for book displays. They seemed to like that they got to decide titles to showcase.
I hope to add a book suggestion area and students’ favorite quotes.
Love the quote idea !
Me too!!
One of my bulletin boards is a “Wild Reader Graffiti Wall” the students add hashtags, book quotes, recommendations, etc!
I like this idea….I may have to try this in my classroom this year. Someone else mentioned highlighting favorite quotes and I think that is a great idea!
I hang notes and artwork. Additionally, we share on Seesaw daily for students to show their activities and learning to me, their peers and their parents.
This is something I want to get better at! I just found a cool old display shelf that I’m painting and using for student book recommendations in my room.
I make an effort to post work they create (poems, projects, pictures, etc.) outside the classroom door. Inside our room my customers have “jobs” to help the day move smoothly along: get wipe-off boards, pass out materials, a greeter for visitors, “keeper” of the lights- if necessary. They maintain comments on a wipe-off board outside the room; the board contains book suggestions. Across the hallway from my room is a large bulletin board. This year the heading is going to say “Dog-Gone Good Books & Purr-fect Reading.” Students will write short summaries of favorite books, along with a picture of them & a pet. No pet, no problem. I have saved a ton of calendar pics of pets. #ShouldBeFun
Lots of student work displayed, but I need to allow more input for seating and arrangement…
My 1st graders enjoy flexible seating. It takes a lot of prep work and instruction on how it should look, but overall most students do well with it. Students love that they are able to sit wherever, as long as they are making a WISE choice.
I allow for students to figure out what works best for them in terms of seating. What I haven’t figured out is how to display student book reviews/suggestions in a shared classroom. We’re a hybrid school so we share with other grade levels and subjects. I’m open to ideas!
The environment is theirs. I only set up my table, which they also use. They set up the space and change it whenever they feel the need.
Seating choice- and lots of posted makerspace art projects. I staple up everything they make for me…
Student recommendation board! Handprints on the wall!
I have 6 different classes and two different grades so giving kids ownership as far as posting things becomes difficult. I consult students about most every decision. My students put notes on our whiteboards about books and reading. They help decide what to do with our bulletin boards… Often something all classes can contribute to… Like a bulletin board with themes of our favorite books. I do not do a lot of decoration and books and students take center stage.
My students also move the furniture around to suit the learning tasks. We are big bulky tables, not ideal, but we make it work.
I forgot to add that in my answer that 2 years ago our library updated with moveable furniture for students to use as needed.
Students help make decisions about everything in our classroom. All voices are heard including the teachers’. They are free to hang things on the walls, move furniture and create their own displays.
I have art work up on the wall, but after reading the book I realize this is an area I need to improve on.
Seating, I don’t feel I can offer them much at one piece at a time, from my own money- but I am working on it slowly. Tables, I tend to move them around every week in search of what works best for me. I realize it needs to be what works best for them. I want to be able to see and interact with all students when we are working through our learning.
Lots of flexible seating and student-driven displays. Nothing created for the sole purpose of displaying—everything created with student input and value. Still a work in progress, but it’s getting there.
I have a wall of awesomeness where if they feel their work is awesome or I do, they can post it. We also have begun a school press where students who display promise with writing are sent a Hogwarts Style letter in the morning attendance roll and it invites them to submit a manuscript to the editor Madam Penny Quill for publishing. They bring an extra notebook to class and then when they finish work early or at times decided by the teacher they have time to. Work on their story. They consult with their teacher and when it is done, the Head. Of English (me) does a final edit with them. They then meet with the school graphic designer who helps them design a front cover. It is then printed out and bound and placed in the student author section of the library and school reception area.
My students don’t really make a mark on the learning environment. Because it is a small space, there isn’t room for them to move things around. Having said that, I have never asked them how they would arrange the room if given the choice. I post their work, but again, I choose the pieces that are posted in the classroom. I need to reassess the amount of control I exhibit in the classroom.
Students may move some of the seating around somewhat…I have large round tables that make them hard to move. They may choose how/where in the room they want to read during independent reading. During group work they my choose how they group up and where they work. I’ve added more flexible seating this year. I use anchor charts and plan to have them make them this year.
They design it and they are in charge of it. It’s their room, so each and every student makes their mark!
I love the idea of students taking ownership in the space – but am unsure how to do this when I have 3 separate classes with their own ideas about how it should be. In a 4 minute passing period and 50 minutes for class, I just can’t give time for them to move things around each time. For those of you that do – are you mostly elementary teachers with one class? How do other middle/ high school teachers do this?
I’ve struggled with that as well. Basically now, with my flexible seating, I tell kids that unless it’s a group project & they ask permission, furniture needs to stay put. (Actually had a kid go to return a book, trip & Break his arm this year!). However, I don’t have a seating chart. Students choose a seat where they can do their (1) best, (2) undistracted work or (3) I choose for them. They take ownership & make the safe theirs that way & it works!
We always have student work on the walls. Much of it is under construction. They do a lot of work on big stickies. We also have 11th-graders making masks of their faces with plaster strips that are then in the process of being painted. (Our theme for that grade level is “the masks we wear,” and we explore the faces we present to the world vs. our real face through works like Lord of the Flies and Hamlet.) We also have white boards that student can draw/write on.
I think student work for sure. I want to find ways to do this more regularly and not just at the beginning of the year or after a project. I like the idea of making their reading identities more visible.