Portrait of a Fourth Grade Classroom - Coursework Example

room Management Plan Review Rules and Procedure Organization Physical Arrangement Instructional Approaches Respect for all Enough display of learning charts around the classroom Horse shoe setting arrangement of students Activity based teaching Quietness Classroom charts legible and easily accessible Enough spaces in between desks Group discussion Tidiness Group work and group responsibility/leadership encouraged Teacher’s sitting position behind the students Experimentation Effective use of rewards and punishment Students paired up in mixed ability, mixed-gender order Enough space for ventilation and lighting Discovery method The core theme surrounding rules and procedure category is respect for diversity of student background.

The classroom is mock community where children come from different socio-cultural and economic background. For this reason, it is important to put in place rules that ensure that no student sees him or herself as superior to others by virtue of his or her background and thus showing gross insubordination towards the others. Gullon (2005) observes that “your classroom has to serve a variety of purposes for a variety of people and as such will need routines and rules.” There is also the need to ensure that there is maximum quietness at all times to facilitate individual learning and attentiveness during lesson delivery.

Again, tidiness ensures safety and makes the class conducive for learning. Finally, in other to ensure that obedient students are encouraged to put up good behavior and disobedient ones are deterred from their bad behavior, it is important to constitute a reward and punishment mechanism. Establishing an effective learning environment where all students achieve learning outcomes relies on the implementation of a broad range of classroom organisation and management strategies (McBain, 2004, p.1).

This tells of how important classroom organization is in the everyday upkeep the classroom environment. The central theme for this category of classroom management is self development. As said already, the classroom is a community with students with variety of learning abilities. For this reason, it is important to put in classroom organizational structure that will ensure that students depend on each other in a manner of brotherliness and support for each other. This is done through allowing sitting arrangement to be done by pairing students in a mixed-ability and mixed-gender manner.

It is also done by making students work in groups on a regular basis so that they can be learning from each other. Through this group work, responsibilities are assigned each student to make learning a balanced activity but not a passive one. Finally, it is possible that students learn from classroom resources such as charts and other learning materials. For this reason, the charts must be legible, clear, easy to understand and accessible. On the physical arrangement of the classroom, Gullon (2005) asks, “Do the pupils line up in an orderly fashion?

Where do they go on entering their classroom? Are you present and monitoring or just expecting it to happen?” the physical arrangement of the classroom must simply fulfill the theme of mobility and accessibility. Desks, cupboards, whiteboard and other furniture and equipment must be arranged in such a way that there become no obstacles for free movement. As much as the teacher should be able to move about freely while teaching, students must also be able to do same. Again, it is particular important that the teacher arranges desks in a horse shoe formation so that all students can see from the whiteboard and that no student’s view is blocked.

Again, it is extremely important for teachers to sit behind pupils when teaching is not in section. This ensures that the teacher keeps an eye on each student at a time. Again, students will not be sure whether or not the teacher is observing them from behind and so they will be forced to discipline themselves. Finally, a teacher’s instructional approach is an important aspect of classroom management. The theme for this category is enforce the active approach to teaching. This is a student-centered approach to teaching that ensures maximum interaction between students and learning materials, between students and the teacher, as well as between students and learning concepts.

According to Bacal (2010), “Interaction is also an active approach which tends to encourage learners to think.” Activity based teaching , Group discussion, Experimentation, Discovery method are all teaching approaches that ensure this active interactive type of teaching. With these approaches, maximum classroom management can be assured on a regular basis this is because “classroom management is how you run your classroom on a day to day basis. It must be an easy routine to start, follow, and maintain” (Teachers Index, 2010).

REFERENCE LIST Teachers Index, (2010). Teacher Tips for Classroom Management. Retrieved March 6 2011 from http://teachersindex.com/classroommanagement.html Gullon, M. (2005). Classroom Organization. Teacher Coach. Pupil Support Service. Darlington Borough Council. Available online http://www.behaviour4learning.ac.uk/viewArticle.aspx?contentId=10551 McBain, M. (2004). Classroom Management. Retrieved March 6 2011 from http://edserver1.uow.edu.au/DiveInEduc/contents/resources/designformats/examplereport.

pdf Bacal, B. (2010). What should be considered when choosing instructional methods and strategies (Part III)? Retrieved March 6 2011 from http://www.thetrainingworld.com/faq/methodsdetermine3.htm