OPTIMAL

CLASSROOM

ENVIRONMENT

Lori BarkerEXC 658 June 2011

What is an optimal classroom environment?

Four Key Areas

Effectiveness is

measured by:

Tasks Movement in the room Organization of the room &

related materials

Student behavior Student engagement Performance

Mather & Goldstein p.50

•Students are actively engaged in meaningful assignments.

•Students are following the basic classroom rules and procedures.

•Communicating effectively with each other, teachers, and parents.

An effective & optimal classroom environment exhibits:

Mather & Goldstein p.50

• A teacher’s effectiveness in managing behavior and choosing instructional strategies needs to match the learning capacities of students.

Mather & Goldstein p. 52

Tasks

• Productive classroom time is a function not only of students’ abilities but also of the teacher’s personality, teaching style, and management of the environment.

Mather & Goldstein p. 52

• Effective environments are created when teachers are interactive, fast-paced, engaging, and directive in their teaching styles.

Mather & Goldstein p. 53

A Structure for Instruction

TEACHER RESPONSIBILITY

STUDENT RESPONSIBILITY

Focus Lesson

Guided Instruction

Collaborative WorkProductive Group Work

Independent Work

“I do it”

“We do it”

“You do it together”

“You do it alone”

Teachers establish the lesson’s purpose and model their own thinking to illustrate for students how to approach the new learning.

Teachers strategically use questions and Assessment informed prompts, cues, direct explanations, and modeling to guide students to increasingly complex thinking and facilitate students’ increased responsibility for task completion.

Teachers design and supervise tasks that enable students to consolidate their thinking and understanding – and that require student to generate individual products that can provide formative assessment information.

Teachers design and supervise tasks that require students to apply information they have been taught to create new and authentic products.

Sources: From Better Learning Through Structured Teaching (p.4), by D. Fisher and N. Frey, 2008, Alexandria, VA: ASCD.From Guided Instruction: How to Develop Confident and Successful Learners (p. ix & x), by D. Fisher and N. Frey, 2010, Alexandria,

VA: ASCD

Movements in the Room: Classroom Setup

Rows – less behavior disruptions, ideal for direct instruction & testing.

Cluster – higher noise level, ideal for productive group work, small group instruction, & teamwork.

Arrangement of the classroom exerts a powerful influences on teachers’ abilities to praise, monitor students, and supervise effectively.

Mather & Goldstein p.51

I like to change the room

around every 3-6 weeks!

Movement in the Room: Procedures & Routines

Teach the procedures and make sure the routines

are consistent.

Procedures and

Routines should be practiced daily and reviewed

after breaks.

Lining up Walking in a line Entering the classroom Leaving the classroom Small group rotations Turning in work & homework Restroom Student Planners Classroom jobs

Organization of the Room & Related Materials

Classroom

Rules

&

Expectations

1. Respect yourself, others and property.2. Take responsibility for your choices and

actions.3. Follow directions for the first time.4. Always use good manners and language.5. Stay on Task!

(Stay focused and complete assignments.)6. Do NOT disrupt the classroom learning.

Organization of the Room & Related Materials

Each student has a clip and starts their day at Super. Depending on their behavior, the clip moves down, but cannot move back up until the next day.

Depending on where the student’s clip, a behavior slip will go home to be signed by the parent and returned the next day.

• Warning

• Loss of recess

• Contact parent

• Time out

• Loss of recess • Behavior Slip

• Referral

Organization of the Room & Related Materials

A cushion added to a

chair.

Makes a hard

plastic chair

comfy.

Communication

Students

Parents

Positive communication with students and parents.

Talk to them, don’t yell!

Establish a good rapport with the parents. Make 2 positive phone calls home every day. Make the call to parents, when the student is

misbehaving. Don’t take away your authority.