Jenna Krystyniak Final Paper CEP 817

This semester we have all focused on how we use design in the education portion of our lives every day. I am a fifth grade ELA and Social Studies teacher with National Heritage Academies in downtown Detroit. I understand that this makes my situation somewhat different than that on many of peers. Due to these circumstances, I greatly consider design in my classroom from the physical layout to our schedule to the way I plan my lessons and my expectations of the students. The background of my students is often not nice. Out of my sixty two students only two or three come from homes with married parents. They are often whooped for misbehavior and sometimes even hit in the face. They are not treated with respect, therefore they do not know how to show respect to their peers or authority figures. They take care of their siblings and live in homes filled with drugs and visit their parents in prison. I was heartbroken the day that a girl recounted the last memory of her mother before going to prison was banging on the bathroom door and finding her with a needle, spoon, and lighter sitting on the floor. This girls brother is in my class and I wonder what sort of life they will have. I feel as if they deserve better. After considering all of this information, I feel as if the design of my classroom is that much more crucial than other teachers because quite often I am the only chance that these children have. I am the only opportunity for something normal and meaningful, thus I design my classroom in such a way that will support them both emotionally and academically. When looking at the physical design of any classroom it appears simple, students in groups or rows, posters on the walls, and technology tools. Designing my classroom is a little more difficult. Working in my neighborhood means that many of the students do not

Jenna Krystyniak Final Paper CEP 817

understand normal social expectations. This means that I have to be very strategic in the design of my seating chart. It is an ever balancing game of who can sit by whom and where they are located at in the classroom. This requires me to forever be redesigning the physical landscape of my classroom. This idea relates to the concept of functionality versus aesthetically pleasing. Groups are by far the most aesthetically please seating chart in my classroom. They are conducive to group work and allow students to be near several peers in case they have a question during independent work. Although, seating my students in groups is not the most functional design choice. This forces some students to not be facing directly forward, putting forth a basis of not paying attention. It also creates a problem of finding five or six students who are able to sit together. Therefore, I resort to rows for functionality. Every student is facing forward at all times and they are only close to one or two people at a time to have conversations with. I weigh the advantages and costs, we work in groups less often therefore, moving for this is a small cost to pay for being able to have every student facing forward beginning off each day. My physical classroom also involves the use of my wall space. I display academic vocabulary, various anchor charts, motivational posters, and student data. I attempt to find a balance between all of this information. The key to my design here is to make it useful. I do not want to overload the walls with information to the point that students are unable to refer to it when needed. But, at the same time, I want them to have quick access to information. In order to achieve this balance in design and usefulness, I introduce new anchor charts as needed and make sure to refer to them regularly in order to model how to use these tools effectively. I

Jenna Krystyniak Final Paper CEP 817

believe that this design plan eases students into using the tool and also shows them how they are designed to be used. The next element of my classroom that requires careful design is our schedule. Due to the fact that my students are at least one grade level behind academically the way in which we design our schedules and spend our time is very critical. Therefore, students with the lowest test scores (reading at least two grade levels behind) are taught in a two teacher classroom in a small group setting. This program was designed to give extra support in order to bring these students back up to grade level. The students who are one grade level behind are taught ELA in the morning when they are most awake and alert in order for them to absorb the most information. Every element of our schedules are designed around affording our students the best education that we can provide to them. Unfortunately, our high focus on designing around educational needs often leads us to be lacking in other places. Our students in third through fifth grade do not receive any recess or time spent outside. This is due to our need to always create a high rigor classroom, but it also has its downfalls and could be considered a poor design choice. Our students spend eight hours a day in the same classroom with the same students. They even each lunch together in our classroom. This often leads to more behavior problems as these growing children are never given the opportunity to be loud or to burn off some of their energy. I believe that if we designed our schedule to have some sort of recess or outdoor break time, we would see a decrease in behavior issues.

Jenna Krystyniak Final Paper CEP 817

Another design element that we have at our school is readiness based classrooms. Students are given a standardized test three times a year which gives them an approximate grade level. Students are then grouped into either the novice, basic, or proficient classroom based on these test scores. Each classroom then is designed to meet the needs of those students. Novice classrooms have students that are at least two grade levels behind are taught in a two teacher classroom only using small group instruction. These classrooms also have the smallest number of students in them in order to ensure that these students are getting quality instruction to bring them back up to grade level. They are taught using a lower grade level curriculum by one teacher, while the other teacher teaches gaps that the students have. The basic classrooms are students who are at or just below grade level. They are taught using the grade level curriculum by one teacher. Finally, we have our proficient classrooms. These students are performing above grade level. They are taught using the textbook from the grade above them and are pushed with a much faster paced curriculum. They are expected to be more self paced and have less behavior problems. Due to these expectations there is the highest number of students in each of our proficient classrooms. The classrooms are also fluid with teachers and administrators moving students as needs are shown. This is an abnormal design for a school, but due to high gaps in our students abilities it seems necessary. There are both good and bad design elements to this way of teaching. Some of the good things, are the students are able to reached accurately on their level and that gaps are closed for students who are not achieving. It also gives students something to strive for when they are working hard knowing that they are rewarded by being placed into a more advanced classroom. People unfamiliar with our system see it as harsh and degrading to those students who are labeled as

Jenna Krystyniak Final Paper CEP 817

being novice. As an educator in this system, I see both sides of the argument. The idea of designing with functionality and necessity unfortunately trumps the niceness. We also hold our students accountable to their test scores and ensure that they know their scores and goals. Unfortunately, I believe that we have designed a world where many of our children do not receive appropriate feedback, which makes life harder for them later on. Teaching in inner city Detroit requires a skill that many people do not have and a lot of that is being tough, designing an environment where they are able to succeed and understand the costs. The design of our school leads in to the design of the teaching in my classroom. I teach within the balance of routine and excitement. Students need routines, but at the same time, we do not want students to get bored with their learning. This goes hand in hand with designing for functionality or appearance. Lessons that are dynamic and eye catching are often lacking functionality. Therefore finding the balance with these all of these components is often tricky. How much routine and functionality? How much excitement and flashy appearance? All designers come across this dilemma. We want our customers to want our product and we want it to work. In my case, my customers just so happen to be students and my product is their education. Within the confines of my classroom, I tend to lean more towards the routine and functionality side. I am restricted in being required to use the curriculum Imagine It. This provides everything from the stories, workbook pages, and script for me. This leaves little to no room for me to exercise my creative side. Therefore, I am forced to be even more creative in my planning in order to engage and make the reading relevant to my students.

Jenna Krystyniak Final Paper CEP 817

We also discussed the benefits of having a highly structured and designed classroom with a heave reliance on scripted curriculum when we read Creative teaching: Collaborative Discussion as Disciplined Improvisations, by Keith Sawyer. In my classroom, I was initially instructed to rely on my curriculum being a first year teacher, but since then I have been allowed to go off script as I have earned the trust of my administrators throughout the year. I believe that designing expectations in this way is a reliable and effective way to teach. It gave me a sense of security and allowed me to become comfortable with myself as an educator. Now that I have become more comfortable I am able to expand from the script and put more of creativity into my lesson planning. When I plan my lessons I look to design them in a way that the students will be readily engaged and learning. When designing my lessons, I look at the strengths and needs of my students. For example, my students are very talkative. Therefore, I design my lessons with opportunities for them to talk. This means asking questions and giving them the opportunity to turn and talk to a neighbor. I also look for lessons that give my students the ability to have class discussions. Designing lessons around group discussions plays on my students strengths and interests, talking to their peers. Looking at another element of designing my lesson plans is modeling. I make intentional choices when I am teaching to think aloud and model how good readers read for my students. My scripted lessons were designed to teach me how to properly model using the strategies that we as adult readers do naturally. These strategies include adjusting reading speed, summarizing, and visualizing, naming a few. I believe that designing lessons around modeling

Jenna Krystyniak Final Paper CEP 817

allows students to see the best ways to improve their overall reading comprehension, as well as how to use the tools that are provided to them including anchor charts. Another interesting design piece within each classroom is the element of reteaching. Teachers often have to ask themselves many questions about this matter when designing their lesson plans. When do I reteach? Do I reteach to small group or to the whole class? How do I define mastery? At what point do I move on and come back to a subject at a later time? This swarm of questions is something that does not have a correct answer. Teachers simply have to use their judgment in order to make the best decision possible. When I make these decisions I look at the overall grade on the assessment. At this point I then count up the number of students who have an 80% or above, this is where I draw the line of mastery in my classroom. If the number is less than ten, then I plan to teach a small group with this subject and clear up any common misconceptions. I then reassess the students and change their grade. If there are more than ten students who did not master the objective then I take time for a mini lesson and reteach the objective to the whole group. At this time, I then give a second assessment and use this grade in my grade book. If I still have a large percentage of students who have not mastered the objective I then take a break from teaching it and move on to the next objective. I believe that this design feature allows my students to be most successful. I also always look for common misconceptions in all of my students work. This is something that I attempt to clarify with my whole group because I know that many of them often have the same thought processes and may make that mistake later on.

Jenna Krystyniak Final Paper CEP 817

When looking at reteaching I also look at the kind of objective it is. If it is a language objective it is something concrete and something that students should be able to master. When looking at reading objectives, it is unfortunately much more difficult to access. When deciding if a student is able to find the theme, they may be able to do so in one text, but not in another. This makes it difficult to define a level of mastery under this subject area. Therefore I have to design my teaching in such a way that I ask the same objective questions across several different texts. I also have to design my text selection in a way that I chose ones that my students will understand and also ones that will challenge them. Living in an impoverished area of Detroit they often lack necessary vocabulary and context to comprehend a lot of grade level texts. Balancing all of these design elements can be very tricky in my classroom, but it is possible. In order for my students to be successful in the classroom, we have designed a behavior system known as CHAMPS. CHAMPS is an acronym for Conversation, Help, Activity, Movement, Participation, and Success. This is something that has been designed in order to ensure that students know what is expected of them at any time during the day. This list is verbally given as well as written on the board. I believe that designing our classroom expectations around this tool is very helpful because I can always refer to the board and ask students, what is the voice level? Are you meeting expectations? Having this concrete tool in every classroom is another aspect of National Heritage Academies design that I believe in. In module six, we were introduced to the idea of defining quality when we read several chapters out of Zen and Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig. We discussed the

Jenna Krystyniak Final Paper CEP 817

place of grades in the classroom. This is an interesting concept when it comes to my classroom. For us, grades do not decide promotion on to the next grade. We use our NWEA testing in order to decide if a student will be promoted onto the next grade level. The way that I have designed my classroom is so that grades are only used to reflect a students quality of work. With my grading methods, students who put forth an effort will be successful. My students who have failing grades are most likely not completing class work or studying. This greatly reflects upon a students work ethic. Students are also not penalized for late work. If they decide at a later time that they are willing to put forth the effort, they still have the opportunity. This is also true for students who want to complete a better quality of work for an assignment that they were not successful on. They always have the opportunity to redo an assignment for a better grade. I think that designing my classroom in this way teaches my students several things. It teaches them that if they try and work hard they will be rewarded. I also believe that it shows them that there are consequences for not following through and meeting their responsibilities. Other teachers do not have as high expectations for their students and I believe that designing it in this way is only detrimental to the students. After taking this class, I am much more aware of the elements of design and how they affect me as an educator. Every decision that I make pertains to design and unfortunately some are bad. I have designed things that do not work and are examples of bad design within the constraints of my teaching. One example of this is when I grouped my students in homogeneous groups. While at this age it appears to be a good idea, since boys and girls are often too giggly to work together well. Unfortunately, the boys in my classroom are unable to complete work together due to lack of restraint and ability to work together harmoniously. This

Jenna Krystyniak Final Paper CEP 817

was a time that I had to change my design and separate these groups of boys among the girls in order for them to work together successfully. This last concept plays into the ideas that we discussed after reading Saul Carliners A Three-Part Framework for Information Design, which broke down the essential elements of information design into three categories: physical, cognitive and affective. At this time we discussed how functionality for the user is more important than the visual design elements. This goes back to the idea of students learning versus them being impressed by the complexity of the lesson. Quite often students learn a concept through a simple clear cut process, rather than a flashy technique. This goes back to our original discussions of design and finding a peaceful balance between impressing our students and helping them to achieve. The last concept of design that is forever present in my classroom is the problem of being the designer and yet pleasing the user. I am the designers and as hard as I try to predict the needs of my students, or users, I am often wrong, as many designers are. An example of this is when I choose a text to read. It is a text that I love and one that I believe my students will relate to as I have. Although, once I get into my classroom and begin reading my students appear bored and uninterested. They are not making the connections that I believed them to be capable of making. It is at this time that I go back to the metaphorical drawing board and rework the reading, looking at the common errors of my students and once again plan a lesson. This is where the classroom is similar to the lab. Just as users test the newest iPhones, my students test my lessons. I believe that this shows one of the more difficult aspects of design,

Jenna Krystyniak Final Paper CEP 817

accepting feedback. As a designer accepting feedback is not often easy, but being in the classroom it is something that is necessary in order to develop my students. Throughout this course, we have looked at many different elements of design. We have observed them in our daily lives and applied them to our classrooms. I have learned that through trial and error I can design the best classroom possible. I have also learned that design is sometimes not seen, but it is always present.