Blog #9 Creating a Supportive and Respectful Classroom 

Throughout my graduate courses, I always thought creating a supportive and respectful classroom is very essential while becoming an elementary school teacher. My role as an educator will be to teach all students to the best of my ability as well as encourage high expectations of learning, to help shape both academic and social aspects within a classroom. Moreover, teachers should display the rules and procedures on the classroom walls to notify students what the expectations are during reading and writing instruction. My job will be to help all students become proficient writers and make the classroom an enjoyable and safe environment.

As a future teacher, I would keep post-student work on the walls in my classroom to demonstrate what my students have achieved during writing workshop. In the classroom, I would display posters that support my students reading and writing. In addition, I would provide my students writing around the classroom, therefore all children would certainly experience a higher level of comfort. It is important that students dominate the walls as well as having student ownership in the classroom. Furthermore, I would inform my students that we all need to support and respect each other while establishing a culture of learning. I will explain to the students that making negatively judgements or comments towards another peer's work is unacceptable and will make them feel uncomfortable. Therefore, all students will embrace their students cultural backgrounds. As a teacher, I will grow by accepting my student's cultures and languages that could affect their reading or writing. Moreover, when I provide writing and reading strategies around the classroom, it allows students to express their own thoughts and ideas, build relationships between students and teachers, as well as to practice interaction with their peers. Tompkins explains, "when students collaborate, they provide scaffolding for classmates, increase their motivation, and accelerate their achievement" (Tompkins, p. 35). I thought this quote is essential to reading and writing because it assists students to grow and maintain a feeling of emotional safety in the classroom. 

Tompkins (2019) speaks about how differentiation is based on a students readiness, interest, and learning profile. Therefore, for differentiation, I would create different activities that would meet all my students needs. For instance, if I was to teach third grade and try to support all learners, for visual learners I would provide them a graphic organizer or a type of web that my students can use to pre-write before they begin to draft their writing piece. For auditory learners, I would have another classmate that is reliable explain to other classmates the directions and expectations of the writing assignment they have to complete. Also, I would have them listen to a podcast or a video relating to what they are learning to help them achieve success. Lastly, for kinestetic learners, I would have the students create a higher-leveled activity or assignment that could benefit other students in the classroom. For example, I might ask them to create a poster that supports students reading or writing. During this activity, I would allow the group of students to engage with their peers and encourage them to be creative.


Tompkins speaks about the importance of giving students the opportunity a chance of what they want to write about. (Tompkins 35). I believe that giving students a choice of what they want to write about allows them to think about their own interests and passions. Also, I believe that students should have the opportunity to work in partners or small groups during projects. Sometimes, it is more effective when they work with others, than working independently on a piece because they can receive feedback and gain insight from their classmates to allow their writing to become stronger. When students receive feedback from their classmates, they have the chance to look at which parts worked well and also which parts still need to be developed. Tompkins states, "students assume leadership roles, and students and the teacher share learning and teaching responsibilities"(Tompkins, p. 35). Lastly, I believe this quote is significant because all students should attempt at least once to take over the teacher role (giving feedback to their peers), instead of having the student role every time.

Tompkins, G. E.  (2019).  Teaching writing:  Balancing process and product (7^th ed.).  Upper Saddle River, NJ:  Merrill.