|
Good Signs |
Possible Reasons to Worry |
| Furniture |
- Chairs around tables to facilitate interaction
- Comfortable areas for learning, including multiple “activity
centers”
- Open space for gathering
|
- Chairs all facing forward or (even worse) desks in rows
|
|
|
|
| On The Walls |
- Covered with students' projects
- Evidence of student collaboration
- Signs, exhibits, or lists obviously created by students
rather than by the teacher
- Information about, and personal momentos of, the people
who spend time together in the classroom
|
- Nothing
- Commercial posters
- Students’ assignments displayed, but they are (a)
suspiciously flawless, (b) only from “the best”
students, or (c) virtually all alike
- List of rules created by an adult and/or list of punitive
consequences for misbehavior
- Sticker (or star) chart—or other evidence that students
are being rewarded or ranked
|
|
|
|
| Faces |
|
|
|
|
|
| Sounds |
- Frequent hum of activity and ideas being exchanged
|
- The teacher’s voice is the loudest or most often
heard
- Frequent periods of silence
|
|
|
|
Location
of Teacher |
- Typically working with students so it takes a few seconds
to find her
|
- Typically front and center
|
|
|
|
Teacher’s
Voice |
- Respectful, genuine, warm
|
- Controlling and imperious
- Condescending and saccharine-sweet
|
|
|
|
Students’
Reaction
to Visitor |
- Welcoming; eager to explain or demonstrate what they're
doing or to use visitor as a resource
|
- Either unresponsive or hoping to be distracted from what
they’re doing
|
|
|
|
Class
Discussion
|
- Students often address one another directly
- Emphasis on throughtful exploration of complicated issues
- Students ask questions at least as often as the teacher
does
|
- All exchanges involve (or directed by) the teacher; students
wait to be called on
- Emphasis on facts and right answers
- Students race to be first to answer teacher’s “Who
can tell me. . .?” queries
|
|
|
|
Stuff
|
- Room overflowing with good books, art supplies, animals
and plants, science apparatus; “sense of purposeful
clutter”
|
- Textbooks, worksheets, and other packaged instructional
materials predominate; sense of enforced orderliness
|
|
|
|
| Tasks |
- Different actvities often take place simultaneously
- Activities frequently completed by pairs or groups of
students
|
- All students usually doing the same thing
- When students aren’t listening to the teacher, they’re
working alone
|
Around
the School |
- Appealing atmosphere; a place where people would want
to spend time
- Students’ projects fill the hallways
- Library well stocked and comfortable
- Bathrooms in good condition
- Faculty lounge warm and inviting
- Office staff welcoming toward visitors and students
- Students helping in lunchroom, library, and with other
school functions
|
- Stark, institutional feel
- Awards, trophies, and prizes displayed, suggesting an
emphasis on triumph rather than community
|
