Rachel Melton’s Management Plan 

7th Grade 
 
Physical Space 
 
I want the physical space of my classroom to feel like a calm, safe environment where 
everyone feels welcome, and where learning can happen smoothly. The ways I will do that 
will be through the type of lighting in the room; I believe that warm, low light and natural 
lighting are more conducive to learning than harsh bright light. However, I recognize that 
could produce a difficultly for some students to remain awake, so I will have areas of the 
classroom that have brighter light if a student needs or prefers that. I want the tables and 
chairs to be easily movable to allow students to interact with one another in multiple 
configurations. I will also have alternative sitting spaces, such as the floor, cushioned 
chairs, exercise ball, and fidget chair. These options will allow for each student to cultivate 
a space that is comfortable and beneficial for their ability to learn. I will keep my record 
player and record collection in the classroom that students can choose a record to listen to 
during designated work time if they so desire. I would also have a large bookshelf with a 
variety of genres, subjects, authors, experiences, etc. represented. These books would be 
open to students to borrow for their free reading so that every one has access to a book 
that interests them. Overall, I want the space to be co-constructed, so although I have 
general ideas about what I want the classroom to be like and feel like, but I want to take 
into consideration how that looks for each new group of students that enters my class. I 
want to make sure that I provide avenues to allow them to bring themselves fully into the 
space. I want their faces and stories visible in the decorations so that they are reminded 
every day of their importance.   
 
Non-Instructional Routines 
 
I will do everything in my power to cultivate a community built on respect and empathy. 
These are the practices that based off my education and experience I think would best to 
bring that community to life, but just like with the physical space, it would be a 
conversation with each group of students to establish what they want from a community, 
and how we could bring those wants into reality.  
 
I will start class with alternating activities based off the needs and preferences of my 
students. The first is a called ‘Tell Me Something Good’, where students share something 
good that happened to them, is happening to them, or is about to happen to them. This 
practice encourages a positive mindset, while also giving opportunities for students to 
bring the things they care about into the classroom and connect with one another and 
myself through them. Depending on the class and the day, this could be done verbally with 
the whole class, or as a journaling prompt that is then shared in small groups. The next is 
dedicated time for reading of choice books. I want to create a culture of readers and part of 
that is giving them time to read things that they enjoy and wasn’t necessarily assigned to 
them. The final is a breathing exercise that I will implement on every Monday, or first day 
back from the weekend, to bring us back into the classroom space from wherever we were 
prior. This is a meditative practice that is focused more on growing the whole human in an 
environment where they are typically only seen as a student.  
 
Other ways to encourage the human-ness of our classroom will be through the ‘people bag’ 
activity that every student will complete within the first month of school. It is important for 
students to know each other, and the best way for them to do that is by telling each other 
who they are. This assignment asks for every student to bring in a few (3-5) items or 
pictures that mean a lot to them and they feel represent them as a human, and share them 
with the class. They can chose how vulnerable and open they want to be with this activity, 
but just the act of inviting each other into the lives they all live outside the classroom will 
make the ones they share within the classroom so much richer. Another way they will 
develop this knowing and caring for one another will be through the intentional sharing of 
books that they love. Inspired by Penny Kittle’s ​Book Love,​ I will start the year with weekly 
‘book love book talks’, where I share a book I have read recently and loved. I will give a brief 
summary of the book and why I loved it and why I would recommend it to them. After 
seeing my modeling and having a few weeks to read a book that they love, they will begin 
signing up to present their own ‘book love book talks’. This sharing of book love will help 
foster a community of readers. Finally, there will be a box in the classroom for “Record 
Master” nominations, where students nominate a fellow classmate for doing something 
they felt was an exceptional display of the qualities we value in our classroom. The Record 
Master is a student that is chosen from the box that gets to chose what record we as a class 
listen to during work time. Students who would prefer silence during work time have the 
option to wear noise cancelling headphones, or sit in the hallway work space. If the class 
overwhelmingly prefers silence during work time, then we as a class can decide when is a 
good time for us to play the Record Master’s choice. I also will make Record Master 
nominations to ensure that every student gets recognized and picked at least once.  
 
Some routines I will have in place to have class run as smoothly as possible and save time 
are: number count off, bathroom whiteboard, desk plays, call and response, turn-in baskets 
and clock partners. Number count off will be the method I use to take attendance. On the 
first day of school every student will be assigned a number from one to however many 
students are in the class. At the beginning of class, they will be asked to count off their 
numbers, and by hearing which numbers don’t respond, we will be able to to determine 
who is absent that day. I will ask student to memorize the two students with the numbers 
one higher and one lower than them to help streamline the process even more. The 
bathroom whiteboard is a whiteboard that is posted next to the door. When someone has 
to go to the bathroom, they write their name on the whiteboard before leaving, and then 
erase it when they come back. Only two students will be allowed to be gone at a time. 
Respect is present here too: respect for me and my time by being timely so they don’t miss 
too much of the lesson, and respect for their classmates both by being in class to 
participate with them, and allowing others that need to use the restroom to be able to do 
so without having to wait unreasonably long. Desk plays will be a series of formations that I 
will ask students to move into throughout the year. I will show them the formations and 
their coordinating numbers, and have them practice moving into those formations as 
quickly as possible. Then, for the remainder of the year when they hear the number “two”, 
they will know how I want their desks, and I will know how fast they can get them there. 
This practice will save time in the long run, and can be a fun exercise for some students. 
Call and response will be my way to bring students back into a listening state after being in 
conversation or work time with one another. The call and response will be determined by 
each individual class at the beginning of every year, and will be a word or phrase that I say 
and everyone in the class either responds with a corresponding word or completes the 
phrase, depending on what is chosen. Turn-in baskets will be clearly labeled for each class 
and will be set as the expected destination for all work that is to be checked or graded. I 
will make it clear at the end of each assignment students are asked to complete whether or 
not I need it turned into the basket. Having a single, central location for all work will help 
with the organization of papers I receive from students, and helps limit the possibility of 
misplacing or losing assignments. Finally, we will do clock partners, which is a partnering 
technique that is designed to save time, mix students up, and remove some anxiety from 
having to chose a partner to work with. At the beginning of the school year, I will give 
students a circle divided into 12 sections, and within each section would be a question. 
Students will be asked to answer the questions, and then go around to their classmates and 
find someone who has the same or similar (to the best of their ability) answer as they do; 
that person will be their partner for that number. For the remainder of the year, their 
partners will predominantly be chosen by who they wrote down in the 12 sections of their 
clocks. It is also a good way to get students talking to and getting to know one another.  
 
Instructional Routines  
 
These instructional routines will be supported by the non-instructional routines, and the 
community that is cultivated through them. They will function primarily to encourage and 
facilitate learning in the most effective ways possible, as well as to continue building a 
strong community of learners. I will be as transparent as possible with my students so that 
they are aware and prepared for everything we have ahead of us. The first way I will do that 
is by providing them the rubrics for every graded assignment I give them before they even 
start it, to ensure that they know exactly what is expected of them. They will frequently be 
asked to grade themselves based off of these rubrics so that they can be reflective in their 
learning, and identify for themselves where they could use improvement. A method I would 
like to use in my classroom to allow for clear understanding of what we are doing or have 
done or will be doing on any given day is the Daily Log. It will be a Google document that is 
shared with the entire class and is updated daily. This will hold the schedule for the day, 
what is expected of students before they return to class next time, as well as any revisions 
that ended up being made to the schedule during class. This will allow students to recall 
what they did, have their homework listed for them, and assist absent students on knowing 
exactly what they missed. If absent students still have questions on what they missed, we 
will operate by the “three then me” rule, where they will be expected to ask at least three 
classmates their question, and if it still hasn’t be answered to their satisfaction they can 
come and ask me. This helps limit the amount of times I need to repeat information, but 
also teaches students to rely on one another as resources for their learning. On the days 
that we have independent choice reading as our beginning activity, we will use reading logs 
to transition our thinking into an academic zone. I will ask them to answer prompts that 
connect concepts they have been reading in their books to ones we have been discussing in 
class, such as dialogue, tone, characterization, etc. This will train students brains to take 
what they are learning inside the classroom and extend to their lives outside of it. Other 
consistent writing practices that I will ask students to engage in are quick writes. They will 
be given a prompt to write to, particularly as we are genre exploration, they will be asked 
to mimic genres based off of the genre we are exploring. They will use these quick writes 
more deeply by tracking reoccuring themes in their quick writes to help them decide on 
topics or beginnings of larger pieces of writing that they will be asked to do. These quick 
writes fit into the learning laps that students will be taking that cycle through information 
and give students multiple opportunities to practice skills at different stages of their 
writing. Another part of these learning laps is the writing workshops, where they meet with 
their peers and practice how to give meaningful and effective feedback. They will have 
rubrics and class chosen expectations for how this looks, so that they can use each other as 
resources of knowledge to bounce ideas and frustrations off of and grow each other as 
writers. In addition to this conference time with one another, they will have weekly 
conferences with me where I will check in and see if there is anything they think I could be 
doing better on, or that they need more support in. These conferences could be more 
frequent if I or they deem necessary. The main goal of these conferences is to ensure no 
one is getting left behind, and that they feel that their voice has power in the class and my 
instruction.  
 
Negative / Positive Behavior Techniques 
 
I am a strong believer in the effectiveness of positive reinforcement, so I will be very 
intentional in recognizing and rewarding behavior that aligns with our classroom 
expectations. Part of encouraging meeting these expectations is having them be 
co-constructed, as well as the consequences. I feel like if students have a say in how they 
want to be treated and what treatment of others they should be held to, they will be more 
likely to uphold those standards. On the same vein, I think having agency over the 
consequences, when appropriate, will make those consequences more beneficial. When 
students choose to deviate from those classroom standards, there will be a process that 
they will go through. The first two times their behavior isn’t in line with the expectations, 
the student will be asked to assess themselves against our class code and recognize where 
they are falling short. If in the same class period a third incident occurs, they will have an 
individual conversation with myself where we discuss how I can support them in adjusting 
their behavior, and set goals for themselves for growing into the person we ask each other 
to be while in this classroom space. If another incident occurs after this, or multiple 
conversations have been had over a short period of time, then they will be asked to visit 
with the counselor, or I will call home, or both, depending on the situation. I will give 
students as much agency over the disciplining process as possible, depending on the 
severity of the situation.  
 
One way I will have my class practice honoring one another’s positive behavior is through 
‘snaps’. At the end of every week I will ask students to give one another ‘snaps’ for 
challenging themselves, being kind to someone, or another show of goodness in either an 
academic or human setting. This practice will help reinforce those good behaviors, and 
develop community on another level. They will also have the expectation of “three nice 
things”, a response to negative comments that I will admire my students into challenging 
themselves and others to do. If they or someone around them says something negative 
about themselves or someone else, we as a class will ask them to now say three nice things, 
or positive ways of looking at a situation to counteract the negativity.  
 
Resources 
 
In my ideal classroom, I will have every class text available for every student, as well as an 
extensive class library for them to borrow for their independent reading. We will have a 
check out system in order to keep track of who has what book at any given time. If they fall 
in love with a book and desperately want to keep it, then they can trade me a new book to 
take its place. The district I am in would supply laptops for every student to make class 
materials and documents such as the daily log easily accessible for everyone. The paper we 
do use would be recycled and compostable. The “three then me” system would also apply 
to resources they may need to borrow for the day, such as a pencil or paper. Students will 
be expected to ask three of their classmates if they have the item they are in need of before 
coming to ask me. If I am their only option, then they will have to trade me something of 
value to hold onto until they return the borrowed item to me at the end of the class.