Getting Your Classroom’s “Vibe” Right – Part 1 of 3

You know that feeling you get when you walk into a new place and within a few seconds you already know what kind of experience you’re going to have? You felt the room’s “vibe”, as some might say. Well it turns out that within an educational setting, “vibe” is a critical, deeply studied, aspect of student learning. Since the late 1990’s educators and researchers in the field have been studying the importance of the classroom environment and debating its key components.

Based on research, and tested with hundreds of teachers across multiple districts and schools, CLI has put together our own best practices for literacy environments. It comes down to four key areas:

1. Books: Are the books in your classroom accessible to students?
2. Print: Are you using wall space effectively by incorporating authentic print and tools to support learning?
3. Space: Is your room arranged in a way that allows for multiple types of learning to occur?
4. Time: Are you using the time you have with students in a purposeful way?

CLI supports teachers in these areas through trainings and in-classroom coaching, and what we do works. In June, the American Institutes for Research (AIR) released interim results from a three year study on the impact of CLI’s i3 program. It showed that CLI has a significant impact on the quality of teacher’s literacy environments and instruction as measured by the English Language and Literacy Classroom Observation (ELLCO) tool. CLI teachers scored significantly higher on both subscales of the ELLCO: Classroom Environment (p = 0.003) and Language and Literacy (p < 0.001). The strong p values indicate there is very little likelihood that the difference observed between CLI trained teachers and teachers who had not received CLI training was due to chance.

In June, the American Institutes for Research (AIR) released interim results from a three year study on the impact of CLI’s i3 program proving CLI has a significant impact on the quality of teacher’s literacy environments and instruction as measured by the English Language and Literacy Classroom Observation (ELLCO) tool.

So what are some things you can do now as you’re setting up your classroom that we know are effective? Here are some best practices we recommend around Space, Print and Books – things you can start working on before your students arrive. (You can also check out our Facebook Albums for demonstrations of Effective Literacy Environments!)

Books:

• Staff Picks! Take an inventory of the books you have in your classroom library. Just as many bookstores do, pick a few of your favorites and place them in a prominent place so you’ll be ready to talk with enthusiasm about them with children.

  

• Spread them out: Decide which books you’ll feature in your library and in other spaces throughout the room to give the message to children that you love reading and that reading is valued in your classroom. A Conflict Resolution Center might feature books about making friends or settling an argument. A book of poems could provide inspiration to a writer who is “stuck” when placed in your writing center.

  

• “Fragile Favorites”: Find those well-loved and worn out books and, if they are high quality books, retire them to a special “Fragile Favorites” bin. Children will know that these books have been read and loved by many children before them, but their shabby appearance won’t detract from your beautiful library display.

Click here for the second installment (Print) of Getting Your Classroom’s “Vibe” Right.

Click herefor the third and final installment (Space) of Getting Your Classroom’s “Vibe” Right.