For our first literacy in-situ classroom, I was placed in the ⭐ grade 6 classroom. This classroom had the advantage of being directly across the hall from the school library and the students were even taking lessons in the library, taught by the librarian. But that’s for another post.
Class Library
The classroom itself didn’t really have much of a library. There were small bins with books organized by genre, but the students were much more engaged with the school library across the hall.
Alphabet Wall
The classroom did not have an alphabet wall, but there was a Ktunaxa alphabet wall in the school library.
Instructional Posters
I LOVED these particular literacy posters. The paragraph graphic organizer broken down like a burger is an awesome thought, and it definitely helped many of the students as they were working on a lesson where they had to create a compelling sales pitch for a product that they invented.
Word Wall
This classroom didn’t have just any “word wall”. This was a “triple scoop wall”! What makes this wall interesting is the stress it places on using more “flavourful” words. The teacher made made this an interactive word wall for the students, starting with a “cone word” like “good”, and adding scoops of flavourful ice cream to it. For example, students contributed to the “good cone” by adding scoops with “amazing”, “spectacular”, “brilliant”, and “fantastic”. This is a really great idea to get students to consider more creative and flavourful words when writing. Often, I could hear the teacher giving feedback to a student’s writing by asking “can you think of a triple scoop word that might add flavour to this sentence?” The students always knew exactly how to address the feedback.
Classroom Literacy Features
For the purpose of the literacy lessons that we observed, the teacher engaged with the class to prepare extensions to the flavourful word choices and reinforce the structure of a persuasive paragraph. Students were engaged while coming up with the negative and positive descriptors especially. This whiteboard remained thusly populated for the duration of the project, helping to further guide students in their writing.
My Future Classroom
If I were to teach this age range, I would essentially copy the triple scoop word wall directly. What a great idea! The literacy posters were somewhat small, however, and I would want some that were larger and more compelling. Preferably large enough to refer to simply by glancing at them from anywhere in the classroom. Most of all, my dream classroom would be neighbouring the school library with a librarian at least half as great as Gordon Terrace. What an advantage!