Community+in+the+Classroom


 * Seating Arrangements**

One really important aspect of Community in the classroom is seating arrangements. Seating arrangements will vary depending on the attitude of the class. Each arrangement can completely change the way the students react throughout a lesson and will effect the way each class is run. The seating arrangement in a classroom will vary "depending on the nature of the particular group of kids, the number of students in my classroom, and my current goals for the class." (The New Teacher Book, pg. 27)




 * Organization and Communication**

"Keep in mind how you organize your classroom is a reflection on what you think about your students and how you view teaching." (The New Teacher Book, pg. 24) This has to do with the fact that if teachers keep their classroom neat and organized the students will stay more organized which will result in them doing well in that class. Organization in the classroom will also give your students a sense of how you feel about your job and your students.

"Clear communication with students and parents is an essential part of classroom organization." (The New Teacher Book, pg. 29) It refers to the fact that being organized in the classroom is important and having good communication with your students and their parents is very important. Positive behavior should also be recognized rather then negative. Many parents and students will feel more connected to their teacher if the communication is there and not only negative.


 * Connections Between the Outside World and the Classroom**

“Only when [teachers] know both domains well can they make connections between the two.” (Best Practices of Adolescent Literacy Instruction, pg.128) This is referring to the teacher being able to incorporate information and culture from out side of class. This makes the information relevant to the students as well as interesting and therefore students are more often engaged and willing to participate. It opens up communication between the teacher and his/her students and information is conveyed more effectively. The environment becomes something familiar and is not an alien place completely different from that of what the students know from out side of school.

The movie Freedom Writers relates in a way to this quote because the teacher tries to get her students to write about their home life and personal situations that they have been through. This starts to close the divide between her students. This also motivates her students to do their work and want to write. They are writing about something important to them and becoming better writers with each entry. This makes the students feel more at home and they will feel more comfortable around their peers when they realize that they have more in common than they thought. We have a couple clips from the movie Freedom Writers which we would like to address:

[|http://www.moviefone.com/movie/freedom-writers/25652/video/freedom-writers-clip-no-1/1803205]
 * 20 to :29 This clip shows the separation between the students in the classroom. They do not get along and do not even want to sit in the same vicinity as certain students in the class. The teacher tries to handle this situation by trying to get all of the students to move their seats so they are sitting next to someone new.

[|http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4H7QMy54Keg] beg-1:20 This clip shows the divide between the students starting to break. The teacher lays a line down in the middle and separates the class into their usual divide. She then asks them a series of questions and they have to step onto the line if it applies to them. This shows the students that they have a lot in common even though they don't come from the same background. This starts to change the community in the classroom.

[|http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0vh2x_JAiQ] This clip shows one of the students reading an entry from his journal about a hard time he has gone through. By the end of his reading many students in the class are crying and coming up to hug him. The divide in the classroom has almost been completely broken and the classroom environment is not so hostile.