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Running head: CLASSROOM ENVIRONMENT PLAN

Classroom environment Plan

Your Name

Institution Name
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CLASSROOM ENVIRONMENT
PLAN

A classroom environment plays an inevitable role in enhancing the learning abilities of students

and converting these learners into leaders and thinkers. The classroom is something beyond a

physical area filled with desks, chairs, and books rather it is intended for a larger objective of

educating children. Keeping in view this significance, the management of a classroom

environment plays an inevitable role in enhancing student’s outcomes. It is imperative to state

here that the significance is enhanced by many folds especially in the case of Birth Pre-K and

K-3 class as these students are about to initiate their learning process. This paper would focus

on discussing a classroom environment plan for Pre-K and K-3 classes. The environment

within the class would be divided into two parts including the physical and learning

environment.

Physical environment:

Management policy:

Previously, the classroom environment was not a supportive and quite a competitive one.

Therefore, firstly I intend to form a classroom that would be dominated by an interactive style

environment. The rationale behind using this approach is that the collaborative environment

would encourage sharing, thinking, and life-long learning. During class discussions, activities,

and assessments I would try to promote a collaborative and supportive learning style as it would

help the students to understand the meaning of group work and its importance in the learning

process. This interactive and collaborative management policy would also help students to

learn about different cultures and languages as mostly students within the class belong from

diverse cultural backgrounds. Thus, my aim while managing the class would be to promote

such a friendly environment that would enable these young learners to fall in love with the

learning process through making relationships with both teachers and students.
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Reinforcement and consequences for behaviour:

The behaviours of students play an important role in either encouraging or disrupting learning.

Therefore, it is very important to manage behaviours of students effectively. To improve

behavioural issues within class, I would use different types of positive and negative reinforcers.

These reinforcers would help to regulate and shape behaviours of children according to the

educational setting. The positive reinforcers include natural (presence of food, water or any

other eatable, activity (doing an activity after accomplishing a task), social (smiles, acceptance,

praise, and attention from other people), and tangible reinforcers (stickers, toffees, and

balloons) (Martine L. Broekhuizen, 2017). In extreme cases, I would also use negative

reinforcers for avoiding negative behaviours. For instance scolding in case of using mobile

phones in class or seating the student separately in case of diverting the attention of other

students.

Considering differences in ability, language, and culture:

It is noteworthy that all students vary in different characteristics like gender, learning

abilities, perceptions, intelligence, and learning styles. It is important that teachers must be

aware of these needs of students. For addressing the varying needs of students appropriately, it

is important to critically analyse the class discussion, homework, and assessments for obtaining

the relevant information about the characteristics mentioned above (Kubat, 2018). Once

obtaining the relevant information, these needs would be fulfilled by designing innovative class

activities, organizing field trips, and arranging different experiments. The rationale behind

adopting these activities is to enable students of different calibre to learn all concepts

effectively according to their needs and learning styles. Thus, satisfying the varying needs of

students would help to develop a friendly, cooperative, and learning suitable environment

within the class.

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Family support:

The family or parent’s participation also plays an essential part in the entire process.

Therefore, I would be arranging either parent’s meeting or activity mandating parent presence

once in a week. This would not only strengthen the parent-student-teacher triangle but it would

also enable the parent to improve behavioural and learning shortcomings within their children.

And it would also encourage students to perform miraculously in both academic and

extracurricular activities..

Schedules:

The acquaintance with regular class routines and schedules plays an important in

determining the student’s achievement. The daily and weekly schedules would be displayed on

the board that is visible to all students. The purpose of these schedules is to simplify the

teaching methodology and keep both teachers and students on the similar page. These

schedules would be dominated by visual symbols and graphics as it would help these initial

learners to memorize it more easily. Moreover, I would also help students to learn reading these

schedules. These schedules would be organized keeping in view the cultural, linguistic, and

learning needs and abilities of students. I would be focusing on one subject in one day like

English poems on Monday, English words and vocabulary on Tuesday, Maths on Wednesday,

science experiment on Thursday, and activity day on Friday. This would help children to focus

on one subject thoroughly and also memorize the routine more easily.

Physical space:

The physical environment is organized keeping in view the Universal Design for

Learning(UDL) to maximize the learning process. The UDL focuses on the easy accessibility
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of books, materials, and tools for developing motor skills among children. The furniture and

other materials are arranged in a way that encourages interaction among students and visible

to the teacher(See fig 1)). The classroom would be designed to have print- rich environment to

attract young children and these printed materials would also help in the social, emotional and

cognitive development of children. There is a block, library, and writing centre within the class

for developing motor skills.

Fig 1: class environment map for Birth-PK

In the case of K-3, the furniture and other material are arranged in a way that promotes an

initial level of independence. The items for regular use are well placed within separate sections.

The walls of the classroom are decorated with charts and printed material created by students

themselves which would encourage them to work even harder(See the map). There is a separate

activity area within the class and there is no writing, and library centres within a class as these

children are groomed enough to visit the library and enhance their writing, reading and

comprehension skills (Arthur J. Reynolds, 2016).

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Fig 2: class environment map for K-3 class

Learning environment:

Diversity of students:

In addition to the physical environment, the learning environment is also a very important

constituent of the class. Diversity is one of the essential elements within the class and would

be kept in mind for ensuring an effective learning environment. The vital aspect that would be

considered for ensuring a comprehensive learning environment includes understanding

student’s needs and learning styles as every student has its peculiar needs. And taking interest

in these learning needs would enable to strengthen the student-teacher relationship and make

the teaching process easy for instructors.

The selection of appropriate teaching styles and learning material are a second priority for

providing a positive learning environment. The variety of teaching styles would help teachers
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to fulfill the varying needs of students like some students learn more easily through visual

images while others learn after writing. Therefore, the teaching styles in the case of pre-K

would constitute memorizing words through looking at visual images, writing words, reading

loudly, storytelling, rhymes singing, and drawing. Whereas in the case of K-3 the teaching

styles would revolve around peer-mediated approaches, story mapping, story grammar,

vocabulary instructions through reading and writing, words making through reading, writing,

and innovative activities. Similarly, the cultural differences among students would also be

taken into account while delivering lectures like the teacher would not use any gender or race-

sensitive word or gesture to hurt someone’s feelings and emotions. Likely, the element of

diversity would also be prevalent among learning materials. The teacher would try to include

different types of learning material to enhance the level of understanding of students from

different angles. For instance, in case of pre-K and K-3 the learning materials would range

from activity books focusing on social, emotional, and cognitive development, pictorial stories,

visual images of different letters, words, textbooks, exercise books with activities, notebooks,

oral rhymes, maps, storybooks, and other exercise books with innovative learning activities

(Hatfield, 2013).

Student’s interest and special needs:

The student’s interest and special needs would be especially kept in mind while organizing the

entire literacy environment within the class. The information about student’s interests would

be obtained through critically observing all students. Therefore, the learning environment

would include stories from all genre including horror, fantasy, and thrill so that all students can

enjoy. Similarly, the class activities within regular lectures would also include activities like

writing missing letters to complete words, completing the puzzles, drawing, and colouring.

Moreover, on the activity day, i.e. Friday there would be different activities like music,
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gardening, science experiment, storytelling by students. Furthermore, I would also encourage

ideas from students which would encourage them to think out of the box and apply learning

concepts practically (Magnuson, 2013).

Families as partners:

The parents and family members would be considered as partners while organizing both types

of environments for enhancing student’s learning outcomes. I would be arranging a seminar on

discussing the syllabus of both pre-K and K-3 students and it would mandatory for all parents

and students to attend that seminar. This would help teachers to discuss learning materials with

parents and families. The parents would be equally welcomed for making suggestions or

clearing their ambiguities about learning material. This kind of seminars are arranged to

strengthen the relationship with the student’s parent. Since it would not only help to understand

students more effectively but also enhance student’s outcomes.

Conclusion:

To conclude, provision of safe, receptive, and encouraging environment play a pivotal role in

enhancing learning outcome of students. Therefore, both physical and learning environment

should be managed appropriately.

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References
Arthur J. Reynolds, K. A.-R. (2016). Preschool-to-Third Grade Programs and Practices: A
Review of Research. Child Youth Serv Rev.
Hatfield, B. E.-D. (2013). Classroom Emotional Support predicts differences in preschool
children's cortisol and alpha-amylase levels. Early Childhood Research Quarterly.
Kubat, U. (2018). Identifying the Individual Differences among Students during Learning and
Teaching Process by Science Teachers. International Journal of Research in Education
and Science, 30-38.
Magnuson, G. J. (2013). Investing in preschool programs. Journal of Economic Perspectives.
Martine L. Broekhuizen, I. L.-P. (2017). Classroom Quality at Pre-kindergarten and
Kindergarten and Children’s Social Skills and Behavior Problems. Early Child Res Q,
212–222.