Page 85: Should be classroom look the same all year? The use of working walls
It is the summer holidays, you have spent a good few evenings yourself (and encouraging family) to cut chop and laminate ready for your new displays. You spend a few days in school, radio on, dancing around carefully moving the tables within inches of difference, stood on your tippy toes stapling up new backing paper and borders and finally it is complete! But is it?
Like all research, research in regard to classroom environment and the use of effective displays have evolved over time. When I cast my mind back to being in primary school, I remember bright coloured displays and bits and bobs hanging from ceilings. Wall displays show casing an art skills or grammar definition. When I step into my classroom (and others), expectations have evolved. We see and read that less is more, research about cognitive overload is a buzz, do our displays overwhelmed and overstimulate our learners brains? From my research, and experience as a classroom teacher with my classroom changing, today I am going to reflect and share my thoughts on classroom environment.
In order to set up any success in learning, it is vital to create a culture in your classroom that sets expectation, fosters a love of learning, and inspires every child to engage giving their full potential. Through creating an effective classroom paired with the use of effective behaviour management strategies within your classroom, a calm and purposeful learning environment can be established. When this is established, you are then able to consider the importance of pupils engagement resulting from your classroom. The expectation that learning and lesson activities are developed to invert the learning taking place, ensuring key tasks are modelled, lessons are innovate and creative, enables thinking to be deeper and knowledge to be retained. It is clear there are numerous factors to establish a good classroom environment and learning so all of these steps can be put in place. The use of effective displays and a useful wall space most definitely enhances these opportunties.
Following on from my introduction into the classroom environment, when specifically looking at displays working walls can be fantastic. From EYFS right up to KS4, working walls are an additional tool in the children's learning an independence. The are carefully planned and purposeful, to enhance and further develop children motivation and independence in learning tasks. Below I am going to share some of the benefits of using working walls in the primary classroom:
1. Increase independence and resilience during an activity.
2. Sets work expectation and requirements.
3. A tool to remind of useful key vocabulary and knowledge to access the learning in hand.
4. Boosts motivation.
5. Can provide further scaffold for pupils who require specific extra support.
To put it simply, the answer to my initial question is no. As your learning evolves throughout the year, your knowledge on your children and their needs to succeed, your classroom should grow and flourish alongside your learning. Your walls should be purposeful and be a learning tool for your pupils. When I come to setting up my next classroom or a change of display, I will most definitely come back to this post and take it back to basics, ask myself the question: does this enhance the learning in the classroom?
- Miss Yeoman.
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