April 21, 2017

Classroom Eye Candy: A Flexible-Seating Paradise

​Look at this high school Language Arts classroom! We’ve talked a lot about our classroom environments during our past professional development meetings. Here is an example of a classroom that allows flexibility to meet the needs to all students. If you want to find out more about how this environment works for the teacher, Rebecca Malmquist, and her students, read the blog post. I found it to be inspiring! https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/flexible-classroom/ 

Affirmation Station
 
Rebecca Malmquist also has an affirmation station in the back of her classroom. She uses this station to allow her students to send affirmations to each other. Watch this video to see how her students feel about themselves after being in her classroom: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAblJkJsW8I&app=desktop. You can see how this would increase empathy and leadership in our students.
 
If you want to find out how to logistically make this happen in your classroom, read her explanation here: https://sites.google.com/site/mrsmalmquist/classrooms/affirmation-station
 
 
How To Ensure Students Are Actively Engaged and Not Just Compliant
 
Listed below are 8 different qualities that indicate student involvement:
 

1. Does the activity, strategy, task, or idea allow for the student to personalize his or her response? Can they bring their life experiences into the activity and make it their own?
2. Are there clear and modeled expectations?
3. Is there a sense of audience above and beyond the teacher and the test? Does the activity have value to someone else?
4. Is there social interaction? Do students have an opportunity to talk about the learning and interact?
5. Is there a culture of emotional safety? Are mistakes valued because they are an opportunity to learn?
6. Do students have opportunities to choose within the activity?
7. Is it an authentic activity? This doesn’t mean it always must connect directly to the student’s world, but it should connect to reality.
8. Is the task new and novel? If kids are bored, it’s hard to see engagement

 
Research shows in classrooms where there was at least three of these characteristics in each assignment, students demonstrated sustained cognitive engagement between 84 and 86 percent of the time. When only two characteristics were present students were only cognitively engaged about 16 percent of the time. At this time of the year when I am trying to fit all the content in that I still have to teach this list will help to narrow down the best activities and assignments that will impact my students’ learning.
 
https://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2016/12/09/how-to-ensure-students-are-actively-engaged-and-not-just-compliant/
 
 
Please let me know how I can continue to assist you in making your classrooms a place for deep thinking and learning!