How to Organize Your Classroom

As English becomes more and more widespread as an international language it’s increasingly included in curricula starting from primary school. Therefore, the task of creating a comfortable and productive atmosphere is becoming more vital for every teacher, as atmosphere in the classroom affects learning crucially. One of the aims of this article is to provide information about how to organize the English classroom, how to create a climate where using English is normal and natural, not special or frightening. I hope that there will be at least something for every teacher in this text and it will provide some ideas that they can use when designing their own classes.

Language teaching happens in a wide variety of locations and context. Your most important job is perhaps to “create the conditions in which learning can take place”. If you are a college professor you might not have your “own classroom” because other people will be using it. But if you are an elementary school teacher, middle school teacher or a high school teacher you are going to have that room as your room and you are going to be able to organize it as you like.

1. First of all make sure that you take your desk and you put it in a place that you want it to be. If you want it to be in the center of the room, go for that, but I would advise to take the desk and put it off to the side so you can have your own little space. You can actually leave the board space open and the desk won’t be the focal point of the room. Make sure that you have all necessary supplies and a calendar.

2. Have a place where children can keep their English books and notebooks.

3. Make sure that there is enough light and heating/ventilation.

4. One resource that almost every teacher has is a board whether it is a small board on an easel, a wide chalk board, a pen board or even an interactive computer board. You can draw some dividing lines on the board (2 columns and 3 large working areas):

– a vocabulary column for new words, with a second column for example sentences and notes;

– a substitution table for new grammar items;

– a space to stick up sketch pictures to help when telling a story;

– questions for students to think about when listening to a recording.

5. Different activities require different grouping. However your classroom is laid out and whatever kind of fixed or moveable seating you have, it is worth taking time to consider the best ways to make use of it. Make sure that chairs and tables are appropriately placed. Ask yourself some questions: What different seating positions are possible without moving anything? Are any of rearrangements possible? Which areas of the room are suitable for learners to stand and interact in? Important consideration is: can learners comfortably work in pairs or small groups with a range of different partners?

Seating possibilities in a standard classroom

6. Display the students’ works, quizzes and relevant English-language posters on the wall and keep the displays up to date (“It’s interesting..”, “I wonder…”, Great Britain, the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Famous people, British royal family, alphabet, tourist places, classroom rules and etc).

7. One way of encouraging the use of English in the classroom is to write commonly used phrases in speech bubbles and to stick them where students can see them clearly.

8. If it is possible create an “English corner” to keep English books and worksheets for early finishers. You can make a library. Make some boxes with labels: action/adventure, mystery, science fiction, non-fiction, love stories, comedies etc.

9. Make sure that you have enough files for different materials (placement tests, games, quizzes, flashcards, picture stories, materials for “English weeks”, Olympiads) and enough space for dictionaries, textbooks, workbooks, video and listening materials, electronic materials in Power Point, MimioStudio, SmartBoard.

10. And nowadays every classroom should be supplied with a computer, a whiteboard, a CD and DVD recorder, a TV set, a projector, a printer/Xerox and a document camera.

So those are just some tips on how to organize your classroom.

Literature:

1. Jim Scrivener. Learning teaching. – Macmillan Publishers Limited, 2005.

2. Sarah Phillips. Young learners. – Oxford University press, 1992.

Illustrations submitted by the author