Learning with the walls

One thing that I have learned the most in teaching for the 2nd year, is how effective it is to use the classroom walls to "anchor" the students learning. How I wish I used more of this concept last year! I guess that it is both a blessing and a curse to continue learning - you get to grow in knowledge, but then you regret not knowing it earlier. Reading one of my favorite websites, http://www.jmeacham.com/, I grew inspired to begin my year with empty walls. While this is usually a foreign concept for most teachers, it allows for the students to build the walls with their own learning! I sincerely feel that each of my students could walk around and describe the purpose and use for most of the material on the walls. They almost feel like they put it up there, as if they are personally close and connected to the text. What a neat perspective to see from a teacher's point of view!

Getting the room ready before the first day of school. If you remember from last year, I was blessed to move to a bigger room :).

This wall has grown so much since the beginning of the year! If you notice with the tree as the landmark in the other picture, the walls were empty before. The rack has our hanging poems and shared readings that we have created together. The roads and houses that you see is our "Word family neighborhood". Every week we learn a few word families (-ake, -at) and will create the house together. When we put it in the neighborhood, we all chant together "We are family!" The tree is our "Poe-tree" with tongue twisters that we created the first couple weeks of school. Near the ceiling are the phonograms that we learn each week. We use the phonics dance to help us get movin' as we learn how to read! The students LOVE to watch this wall grow.

My new C.A.F.E. wall this year. Each column stands for categories to focus on to create a more balanced reading program (C - comprehension, A - accuracy, F - fluency, and E - expanded vocabulary). I use this during my reading workshop to introduce new strategies to use independently.

A more close up picture of some of the posted strategies. I am so taken back at how much my students actually understand this chart and the strategies.

One of our Math word walls that will get changed out with new vocabulary. Using a laser pointer, we frequently reference it during Math lessons. Especially for all of those English language learners, having the vocabulary posted has been so helpful!

Our "Interesting Word Wall" where we put all of the big vocabulary that we find in our Read-Alouds. I try to introduce big words like "strategy, stamina, and even schema" into my lessons. After we talk about it, one student will illustrate the word and then we put it on the word wall! Since we reference it enough, the students actually use these words in their own speech! So cute!

Some examples:

1. "Mrs. Evans, I think I am building stamina for school. The day is going by much faster!"
2. "Schema's what you know! What you see, what you hear, what you smell, what you taste, and what you feel!"
3. "I can use my schema as a strategy to help me read the words. I just have to remember the words that are already stored in my head."
   

(I am not even stretching or polishing these quotes from my students....they are the raw material straight from their adorable mouths)

When we were making predictions before and after our reading, I copied a few books that I had not read to the class yet. As they walked around taking note of the book's clues (title and front cover picture), they wrote down there predictions. Now they have so much fun looking for those books in our library to see if they are actually true!

When I was teaching them how to choose a "Just-right" book, I taught it to them with the demonstration of a biker riding either up or down a hill. I took this idea out from a book, but the illustrations are perfect to get the point across for a book that is "too hard", "too easy", and then "just-right". They still reference it now...even weeks after it has been taught!

As you can see, I was actually able to upload pictures this time! The trick you might wonder? Two things: Coffee shop's internet + compressed pictures. A few extra steps, but I can finally connect with the real world again!