Your Classroom Environment

 If you didn't think that your classroom environment effects having a differentiated classroom then you'd be wrong. There are many different factors that you can do to make sure you have a

differentiated classroom and one of the easier ones in the setup of your classroom. The grouping you have with the students' desks, space around the room, and even as simple as what you hang on the wall can have an effect on your students with differentiation. Your routines, procedures, word walls, materials etc all effect how you interact and prepare to differentiate for your students. Also as I've stated before letting your students take part in running the classroom so that it's our class and not just their teacher's class is also really helpful in getting students to help each other become stronger together. When students band together to help celebrate their fellow classmates successes the class can really grow together. So below I've listed points from Tomlinson's fourth chapter that can help us take into part outside tools we can use to help us become a differentiated teacher.

Building a Positive Classroom Environment:

“You are a product of your environment. So choose the environment that will best develop you toward our objective. Analyze your life in terms of its environment. Are the things around you helping ou towards success- or are they holding you back?”  W. Clement Stone

-Study Student’s Culture

-Convey Status

-Commend Creativity

-Make Room for All Kinds of Learners

-Help Students Know About One Another

-Celebrate Success

Take into account your student's background and culture especially when it comes to students who have moved into the area that aren't as familiar with the culture. These could be your ESL students or students from different areas in the state. Be genuine when complementing your students and commend their creativity for all of your students for thinking out of the box. Along with that get your students to celebrate in the success of their fellow classmates and you'll have such a powerful community that will build a positive environment. 

Communication in the Classroom:

“As a leader, these attributes- confidence, perseverance, work ethic and good sense-are all things I look for in people. I also try to lead by example and create an environment where good questions and good ideas can come from anyone.” Heather Bresch

-Build a Group Identity

-Hold Goal Setting Conferences

-Use Dialogue Journals

-Incorporate Teacher Talk Groups in Lesson Plans

Help your students come together to build an identify in such a way that your students know how much it means to your whole classroom and that they are proud to be a part of the whole classroom. By meeting with your students and holding goal conferences in order to find out what it is important to them and it what areas they want to improve in. Sometimes our students know where they'd like to go and are more likely to work harder knowing that they had a choice in their educational goals. This is part of differentiating for them by getting them involved in their learning. Also let your students become the experts and teach others in the group and plan for moments like that on purpose in your lessons. Building trust between your students starts with communication. 

Classroom Operation:

“The only way forward, if we are going to improve the quality of the environment, is to get everybody involved.” Richard Rogers

-We will work hard to ensure our own growth and to assist the growth of others

-Time is Valuable

-Fair is Ensuring All Learner Get What They Need to Succeed

-Teach Up, Work Up

The operation of the classroom is own that also links to helping your students learn and grow together. Once students become experts have them help others and show them different strategies that they used to find solutions. Remember though that time is a valuable thing because there will be many things you need to do in your classroom battling with the things you want to do in your classroom. You can find a way to do both and make them both meaningful by differentiating for your students. This leads to helping all students understand when you help their classmates it won't be in the same way they receive help because everyone has different needs and students need to know that it's okay because we want everyone to succeed.  

Classroom Routines:

-Use Visual Cues

-Pre-establish Groups

-Use Goal Cards Regularly

-Teach for Smooth Transitions

Routines are part of our classroom that helps it run smoothly. When your classroom runs smoothly you can better prepare to help all your students in the ways they need. However continually repeating yourself gets old so having visual cue cards around the room or even non-verbal signs to use for students to remember can help as well. The more we prepare and practice these routines the better transitions will go when it comes to moving from one place to another. There will be many ways to group your students and please find different groups for all your students. Students always tend to know when they are in the lowest group, but you can group by interests, levels, eye color etc and allow multiple entry points to solidify the routines you set up in class. 

Support Systems:

-Vary Materials

-Use Graphic Organizers to Help Structure and Extend Thinking

-Provide Survival Packets

-Use Participation Prompts

-Build Language Bridges

 We all need support, but this kind of support is more about the materials you give to your students who are in your classroom. Allow for your students to take home different homework sheets that fit to their level and readiness and don't focus on always having one set paper for everyone. 

Shared Classroom Responsibility

“Concern yourself more with accepting responsibility than with assigning blame. Let the possibilities inspire you more than the obstacles discourage you.” Ralph Marston

-Use Evaluation Checklists

-Involve students in scheduling decisions

-Engage students in assessing their own progress

-Help students to learn to set their own academic goals

Turning more responsibility over to your students helps them to become more independent learners. It's also a great way to help move students towards assessing their own progress and judging what kind of help they still need or want. Based off this information students are able then to prepare their own academic goals that are important to them. 

Your classroom environment is so much more than just the physical environment. As we saw above there are many ways you can affect a child’s environment. It’s what you do however that will really build your students to becoming life-long learners and wanting to know things for themselves. If you will do these things mentioned above you will discover that your students will be better members of not only your classroom but of society because you taught them how to work together and gave them choices to benefit their education. When we differentiate we take into account not only who we are teaching but where we teach and in what kind of environment we teach. Look over this list and see if there are things you could fix to become a better teacher and differentiate more in your classroom. I know this chapter in Tomlinson’s book gave me a lot of food for thought for my own future classroom. 


Here are some websites that can help you with your classroom environment: 
Creating a Classroom with a Positive Environment
Tips for your Classroom Environment
Key Factors