Professional Reading Reflection #2

Inside Out:  Chapter 3 “The Classroom Environment”


I.  Make the Room Look Good

    1.  Do something to the room to make it a warmer, less sterile place.
    2.  Display student products through a Poet’s Corner, a graffiti board, pictures accompanied by creative responses, a works in progress area, a quotable quotes area, pictures of students writing, and the teacher’s pieces of writing.
    3.  Do what you can to arrange your classroom space into a comfortable place.
    4.  Use music in the writing process

II. Make the Room Feel Good

    1.  Convince students they are safe

    2.  Offer support, encouragement, and personal anecdotes to inspire students and let them know you care

    3.  Post a “No Hunting” sign to signify no cheap shots in the classroom.  

III.  How to start the writing class (Activities)

1. 10 min Freewrite about students’ feelings about and experiences with writing. -Display with pictures on parent night
2. Play the name game.
3. Writer’s Questionnaire/ Sentence Completion
4. Lie game, Secret-telling, Interview Role, and Interview Poem.
5. Coat of Arms, Secret Box, Life Maps, and Masks
6. Impressions Word Game, Pipe Cleaner symbolic representation

IV. Leaving the classroom can produce dramatic and positive effects on writing

1. Walking Composition field trip
2. Carefully plan writing time

Having never taught a class that consisted of writing ONLY, I found these strategies helpful and promising.  I’m considering using some of them with my students this year--especially the freewrite about writing experiences.  I’ve done other activities besides these which accomplish the same objective.  In the past, I’ve had my students create a two-voice poem as an introductory activity, and it has always been successful.  I will consider throwing in the lie game, secret-telling game, word impressions game and pipe cleaner representation if I have a few minutes available in the first weeks of class.  

Honestly, I don’t believe that leaving the classroom will be possible or effective with our students.  They tend to make bad choices when given too much freedom, and would probably ditch or else come back having accomplished nothing.  Assigning the walking composition as homework would also be a mistake since so few of our students are accustomed to regularly doing homework.  Probably the best application of this activity would be to take the entire class to a location and ask them to be sensory sponges.  I have done this with my classes before while on field trips and have found the students to be receptive.