Setting up a Classroom with Structured Literacy in Mind

It’s the end of the school year and the perfect time to reflect on what went well this year and what I would like to change. In the past, I would get very distracted by all of the posts I saw on Instagram..you know the ones with the cute, young teachers dressed in a darling outfit holding a coffee in their perfectly-matched classrooms?! I would also catch myself setting up things in a way that I used to back when I was teaching in a balanced literacy classroom. As I think about setting up my room for the new year, I want to keep instruction and structured literacy top priorities.

Do I still want to have a cute classroom? Sure! Is that the main focus? No, but sometimes I have to bring myself back down to earth and remind myself of that before purchasing that $350 cute carpet. The struggle is real! Here are some shifts that I’ve made and have been making in my classroom setup since transitioning from a balanced literacy to a structured literacy classroom.

1. Making Space for and Using a Sound Wall

I understand the research is still coming in regarding the use of sound walls in the classroom. I’m going off what I’ve seen with my students, many who have been English Language Learners, students with IEPs, and students receiving speech services. Using a sound wall, (now the key is using!) has really helped move the needle as far as reading and spelling for those students. And the speech teachers I’ve worked with absolutely love that I use a sound wall and can support students with their IEP goals in an inclusive way.

In my previous classroom, my sound wall was right next to the interactive whiteboard in the heart of my main teaching area.

This past year I moved classrooms. My new room has 4 doors! Wall space is not as abundant and is pretty scarce next to my interactive whiteboard where my sound wall was located in my previous classroom. I ended up moving it above my classroom library.

This last school year my sound wall was above my library, which was not next to my main teaching area.

Sure, most students can still see the sound wall when working at their desks, but as far as it being convenient during my teaching time-not so much. In the beginning of the school year, I was pretty good about moving all of the students over to the library and teaching them about the sound wall and practicing, but as the year went on I found myself forgetting to take our little field trip. Unintentionally, the sound wall became more like wall paper or decor versus the teaching tool that I intended it to be. As I get my classroom ready for the new school year, I’m going to make sure that either my sound wall moves (which will be tricky based on wall space) or my teaching area moves!

2. Classroom Library

Even though a year and a half ago I started making the shift from balanced to structured literacy, my classroom library did not reflect that. My book bins were sorted by colored dots based on reading workshop training from the past. I knew I needed to make a shift, but I was just procrastinating. I felt so comfortable telling readers to go shop in the “red dot” or “blue dot” baskets.

Last summer I took on the task of reorganizing my classroom library. I will say that it still is a work in progress, however, there are no longer book bins organized by color dots or even Accelerated Reader numbers. Instead, I have different character and themed baskets. For example, I have a Pete the Cat bin, a Biscuit bin, and a non-fiction animals bin. At first I was worried that my library would turn into chaos without colored dots. Labeling each book in its separate bin was something I just didn’t have time for. To my surprise, students were able to put books back into the correct bins without individual book labels.

3. Small-Group Teaching area with materials organized by skills

I have always loved my small group teaching area. Up until a year and a half ago, I used to have things organized by guided reading level. As I started making the shift to structured literacy and collecting decodable texts I realized I needed to rethink my small group organization. I either had to prep way ahead of time, or spend precious teaching time hunting things down. At first, I started small by making a bin for decodable texts. But my bin started getting too full and disorganized.

I got really inspired last summer after seeing Jake Daggett's materials organized by skill. He used magazine bins for each skill: short a has its own bin. I also loved that he doesn’t have every bin in matching colors with perfectly typed out labels. He wrote the skills on post-its and taped them to the bins! I loved that because sometimes some of us (especially myself) can get stuck starting something because we’re trying to make it perfect. I’m constantly reminding myself to be less perfect/cute and more functional. Although it’s still a work in progress, I now have bins for most skills. I feel so much more organized and can easily pull skill groups on the fly.

4. Desk Formations/Teaching Area

Okay, this is one I’m still figuring out! One of the teachers I am absolutely obsessed with is Lindsay Kemeny. She is a treasure trove of knowledge for teachers. Her book, 7 Mighty Moves, was a game-changer for me and one I recommend to teachers all the time. In that book, she discusses her classroom set-up. She shows how she arranges desks in groups of 2 and students are up close to the board. I have been wanting to try that for awhile, but I always get stuck. For my entire 20 plus teaching career, I have always done table groups. For the past few years, I have done bigger table groups, which have given my classroom a more spacious feel and a bigger carpet teaching area.

I’ve always done table groups-and more recently, bigger table groups.

I do love teaching from the carpet and I’m having a really hard time giving that up. I also love team building, table points, and sharing materials-especially at the beginning of the year. However, I think of those students who needed to be right up close to me during dictation time, or math time, that I moved to the carpet. They would have really benefited from a desk, versus writing on a clipboard. So I have been playing around with different desk formations.

I’m still in the process of figuring out what I’m going to do. I’m leaning toward starting out the year in table groups of 4 close to the interactive whiteboard, and then transitioning into the groups of 2. I’m also trying to figure out how I can have two teaching areas-a carpet teaching area and a desk teaching area. More on that to come!

As I wind down and start thinking about the new year, I want to keep instruction and structured literacy at the top of my mind. I also want to feel good about where I teach. Not everything has to be perfect and trendy, but it is nice to feel like the classroom has reflections of myself-and for me that’s some soft colors and sports. I’ll keep you posted on my classroom set up as we get closer to the school year!