To support learners, teachers must create environments that allow all learners to excel. Classrooms need to be safe spaces open to the free exchange of ideas that motivate and challenge all learners.
Welcoming and challenging classroom environments integrate individual and collaborative work with accountability for effort and ownership of the learning process. Collaborative learning is incredibly powerful when all students contribute, but students need to be taught to work effectively in a collaborative environment. Here is a link to the Collaborative Learning Roles and Rules document that I used in my English 10 class this Spring:
Perhaps most important in creating supportive learning environments, though, is a culture of respect, where the teacher extends respect to the students and expects that they respect the teacher, the work they are assigned, and one another. Teachers must press this rule relentlessly to support all learners in the classroom. Here is a link to the classroom rules that I use. Management Plan
Students need to know that the classroom is a safe space for risk taking. As a teacher, I recognize that speaking in class and contributing requires courage, so I support those risks to build a climate of mutual respect and support students as they build important public speaking skills. Students must be free to make mistakes, to take risks, and to share their knowledge. To that end, I emphasize a culture of respect and risk taking in my classroom.
Another disciplinary way that I strive to create a supportive and positive classroom environment is through the validation of individual experiences through writing. A powerful lesson that I have used with several classes to get students to open up to me and to one another is a “real world” writing lesson based on memoirs. Students build skills in expressing themselves and reflecting, share their experiences, and build skills in writing for a purpose. The lesson, “Expression and Reflection,” is linked here: Express and Reflect Lesson.