Environment

What is the G&G Classroom Environment?

The G&G Classroom uses the physical environment (aka- walls, furniture, objects, and areas) for learning. The following components make up the G&G Classroom Environment: labels, word walls, student generated alphabets, student work, content boards, and bilingual pair charts. If you are considering whether or not these pieces are elementary, check out the page Is It Elementary?

Classroom Labels

While this is not a requirement of secondary, it does follow the best practices of bathing students in language. Encourage students to find words they would be less familiar with (ie. threshold, charging station) and label them bilingually.

15-20 labels can be added at a time, and 30-40 should be added throughout the year. There should be a Spanish label for every English label showing equal representation of both languages.

Word Walls

Secondary teachers should only have word walls in the language of instruction for their classroom. Math teachers will have an English word wall, Science and Social Studies teachers will have a Spanish word wall. Elective teachers will have word walls in whatever language they teach. Language Arts teachers may have both.

Students will use these and review added words often. This can be a bellwork activity. Students will also reference them in journal writing.

What kinds of words should I add?

Word walls are for non-academic words that come up during the class period. If a student is completing journal writing and they ask how to spell a word, it should be added to the word wall. If students hear a word and it needs further explanation, add it to the word wall. Words that are on the content board do NOT transfer to the word wall. These words should grow in complexity with the grade level of students.

How many words should I be adding?

Teachers should add 5 words per day to their word walls. There should be 60-90 words posted on the wall at any given time. Each letter should have a MAXIMUM of 6-8 words. If there are more than 6-8 words, create a banking system (envelope, folder, binder rings) where you can bank words that students are most familiar with.

What if I have no traditional wall space in my classroom?

Get creative with your space. Try window markers, command hooks, string, hang words on blinds, etc.

Student Work

Student work should be displayed on the content wall. Student work MUST show evidence of parallel effort and bilingual partner work. Parallel effort means each student used a different color while completing work and there is an equal amount of work completed by each student.

Bilingual Pairs Chart

Bilingual partners are chosen by the teacher and switched every 4-6 weeks. The pairs should be displayed in the classroom visibly.

Instructional Boards (Content Walls)

The instructional board must be displayed in the language of instruction following the color schemes below:

Math = Blue
Science = Green
Social Studies = Orange
English Language Arts = Yellow with Blue Text/Border
Spanish Language Arts = Yellow with Red Text/Border

Instructional boards must also contain the daily objective (See Building Objectives), 6-8 key vocabulary words, and recent student work. The recent student work is as described to the right. It does not have to relate directly to the current lesson or unit, but must be from the most recent week.

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