A Typical CFL Classroom

A Typical CFL Classroom

A visitor to a well-run elementary Community for Learning classroom will witness a beehive of activity. Teachers and students are all busy, with many different activities occurring simultaneously. A teacher is conducting a reading lesson with a group of six students at a large, round table. Seven other students are working on reading or mathematics assignments, and the materials in front of each child are of different types and from different levels of the curricula.

While two students are engaged in an experiment about light and optics at a science center, another is putting together a puzzle map of North America at a social studies center. Another student is at a desk tape recording a poem she has written, and yet another is curled up in the library corner reading a book. In a distant part of the room, four students are rehearsing a play, which they will present the next day.

A classroom assistant is circulating about the room. In a five-minute span, she checks one student's completed assignment, assists another who signaled for help, and interacts briefly with three others as she passes their way. Teachers continuously move about in all areas of the classroom, either responding to student requests or giving on-the-spot instruction, changing a prescription, or offering feedback and reinforcement to students. Each contact with a student is brief; when extended assistance is required, sessions are scheduled for a later time. Teachers scan the room to see where they are needed next. Each student has a work folder, containing completed work and an individualized prescription sheet to guide his or her activities.

It might seem like chaos, but it's not. Regular classroom teachers, special education and Title I teachers, paraprofessionals, and volunteer assistants work together in the same room toward a common goal-helping students learn. The rules and procedures are clear from the outset, so the room is active but rarely confused. A special education teacher can enter the room and meet with a student in one corner without interrupting the flow of activity or attracting any particular attention. Students and teachers all talk in low voices, creating a pervasive hum, but no one raises his or her voice. Although students occasionally walk from one place to another as they change tasks or get or return materials, the movement is purposeful, not distracting or disruptive.

An Hour in a Typical CFL Classroom:

9:45 a.m.

Student enters room, picks up her work folder and consults her prescription sheet. She sees that she is to work on math, and she moves to join a group of four students gathered at a small cluster of desks on the perimeter of the room. The teacher presents a new math lesson to these students and guides each one through a workbook practice exercise. She checks each student's work and gives them individual feedback. She marks the completed task on each prescription sheet, altering some to recommend work on areas of difficulty.

10:15 a.m.

One student needs additional instruction. She moves to a smaller group on the opposite side of the room to receive tutoring. Another pupil moves on to the next activity- independent work in the workbook listed on his prescription sheet. He struggles with some vocabulary words, so he flips over his "teacher call" - the purple side of a two-toned wood block - to signal he needs help. While he is waiting for assistance, he opens his wait-time folder and completes a worksheet using
words that also appear in the story he is working on. The teacher arrives, helps him with his vocabulary, and makes sure he is ready to proceed on his own. If he needs more help, she might ask another student to offer peer tutoring, assign remedial activities such as additional worksheets, or schedule small-group or individual tutoring for a later time. Another student moves from this group to an individual meeting with a special education teacher who has just entered the room.

10:45 a.m.

A student who needs no additional help moves to the reading exploratory learning center for enrichment activities that reinforce what she has just learned. She can choose from activities listed on her prescription sheet, or the teacher will assign her a task, such as making a crossword puzzle with the vocabulary words from the last reading story or working on the computer identifying the main ideas in a story. The student might also be asked to be a peer tutor for another student.

Parts taken from Adaptive Education Strategies: Building on Diversity by Margaret C. Wang. Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co., Baltimore, 1992.