I accumulated several classroom designs from undergraduate students who want to become elementary school teachers. These artifacts represent design for both classroom libraries and for classroom space. Each of the designs was a collaborative design and was informed by some brief classroom design theory we read about in class and other learning theories. I'm particularly interested in understanding pre-service teacher conception of design (via the Roman, 2009) and the interplay between their previous conceptions of elementary school learning spaces from their past and their space experience at Penn State.
This was the classroom design task:
Design a classroom task
Task Time: 30 - 40 minutes
Using electronic resources [a googledoc, a collaborative prezi] or the butcher-block paper, markers, construction paper, and any other resource you find, design a visual representation of an elementary school classroom that facilitates the conditions for learning to occur. You might want to refer back to the Cambourne article to look at these conditions--immersion, demonstration, expectation, responsibility, employment, approximation, response, and engagement. Consider the information provided for you by S & S and our discussions from this morning.
Consider (although no means required): Collaborative learning spaces, independent learning spaces, whole-group spaces, spaces for literacy, science, math, social studies, and the arts, bulletin boards, spaces for student work, spaces for technology.
Don't think too much about practical limits. Furniture can be found and usually moved. Technology is available, even in lower-income districts. Think of a design for a classroom of roughly 20 - 25 students and imagine you have that number of individual student desks. All other furniture/technological resources are within your imagination [of course, try not to go too overboard].
After you develop your artifact, post it to yammer via a picture or an electronic link.
Give a description of your artifact and a few sentences of your thought process in its development. You should refer to classroom discussion, the animation, or the readings to inform your sentences.
The following were a few products:
Really interesting prospective from students. I LOVE CARPET SQUARES!!! They should be utilized more at the undergraduate level. Senior year in high school my English teacher brought in carpet squares, goldfish, and juice, and read to us. Miss those days...