The Walls of an Exemplary Second Grade Classroom

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The walls of a Kristen Hyde’s exemplary second grade classroom reflect a learning classroom environment.

Kristen’s lessons are collaboration and instruction. She writes their thinking on a large sheet of chart paper. When they’ve finished the lesson, that paper goes up on the wall for reference, continued learning and reflection.

I randomly stopped by – nothing pre-planned – and took pictures of her walls. You’ll see evidence of higher level thinking, group collaboration, strategy instruction, and more. Here’s what I saw.

Remember, much of the time the language is exactly what a student said. Kristen writes it down. When a student said “not loud”, Kristen wrote that down and added “quiet”.

Also, I cropped the photos to keep them a consistent size. Some of the charts got cut off.

Look at all this on the wall. Can you tell what Kristen is teaching? Can you tell what the students know? Can you tell what the class is learning?

Amazing stuff, isn’t it?

KEEP READING:

2nd Grade Book Series

Is My Child’s Teacher a Good Teacher?

Constructivist Learning

Metacognition

Convergent vs. Divergent Thinking (What is the Difference?)

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8 Comments

  1. Hello, I wanted to know where did you get the sight word pencil letters from in the 6th picture you posted on your website? I love this setup and I love the fact that the pencil accents have both upper and lowercase letters!

  2. Looks like my old classroom used to look like – I bought chart paper in bulk!

    It’s nice when the students get older to get them to contribute some of the charts too