A Virtual Tour of My Classroom

1. Welcome! Come take a tour of my classroom. These are photos from a couple of years ago, but the elements are the same in my classroom today.

2. The school-wide theme for this particular year was On the Road to Success, so the classroom door invited students to come in and join the writing journey.

3. I’ve found this semi-circle of desks an effective room arrangement. Students can still be seated in cooper- ative learning groups of two, three, or four. Focus is clearly directed to the front of the room, but students can also easily see one another.

4. Every writing classroom needs a word wall—a wall of frequently misspelled words that students need to master once and for all.

5. Picture and word clues help students easily distinguish between similar words and make sure they are choosing the correct one.

6. My teaching friend, Sharon Waite, gave me this idea years ago and I continue to use it. This little rubbish bin holds words that we, as a class, have retired from our writing. The words we “throw away” are ones we overuse or that don’t serve our writing purposes any longer. For instance: then, once upon a time, the end.

7. I keep a bulletin board with posters reminding students of the writing crafts we have learned and practiced and that they should use in their writing every day. Students also keep a list of these crafts in their writing portfolios.

8. Each day I list our learning outcome or writing focus on the board. (Yes, some schools do still have chalkboards!) The learning outcome is not a secret. If students know what the goal is, they share the responsibility for reaching it.

9. I love to use idioms in my writing and teaching. Idioms can give voice to my characters and help solidify a setting, time period, and so on.

10. My students gathered idioms they heard and read and recorded them in a class Idiom Notebook. This is one of my favorites that Ryan’s father uses with his twin sons: Silence is golden, but duct tape is silver.

11. Writers are always looking for vivid verbs, words that can put pictures in their readers’ minds. This is our classroom list which grew throughout the year.

12. When students discovered a new vivid verb, they listed it on a sticky note and stuck it to the poster.

13. Publishing completes the writing process. A publishing center with computer, printer, paper, staplers, hole punch, art supplies, and other resources puts it at the fingertips of students.

14. These zippered pencil holders are Revision Tool Kits. Each tool kit contains scissors, tape, highlighters, and sticky notes. We use this for a cut-and-tape revision process we learn early in the school year.

15. The Author’s Chair is where students sit when they read/share their writing with the class. Everyone shares at sometime, but everyone can’t share every day.

16. Lunch Bunch (and Breakfast Club) are times when I bring groups of students with similar writing needs together for additional instruction, support, and encouragement.