Steele’s six functions Sandra Lee

Security and Shelter During a fire drill, students exit through the back exit located in the far right corner of the classroom. Located on and beside the door are papers and posters with instructions in case there is a fire drill or distress code.

Security and Shelter If there is a distress code, the door is closed and locked with the students heading into the one and only bathroom in the class. The bathroom is not too small so everyone fits, but it is a snug fit.

Social Contact Every morning when the principal reminds the teaches to stand outside their door and greet their students. Mrs. Nguyen greets all the children and makes sure everyone puts their things away.

Social Contact In the middle back of the class, there is a blue kidney table that Mrs. Nguyen sits at during writers workshop to work with a small group of kids. Here they are allowed to ask questions about the new sight word or letter they learned earlier.

Symbolic Identification All around the classroom are posters of colors, shapes, numbers, the alphabet, names, shapes, and much more. In this particular picture is a poster with colors and pictures, a numbers poster, and half a poster with Spanish colors. There are a few students in the class that seem to predominantly speak Spanish and are learning English as a second language.

Symbolic Identification Another poster that is fun to have, is a sign language chart of the alphabet. Mrs. Nguyen has integrated a lot of sign language into her morning routine and the students have caught on wonderfully.

Task Instrumentality Instead of giving each child a set job for the day, Mrs. Nguyen has eight students with a job. One of the jobs is to help with calendar time in the morning. But the student does not answer 19 questions by him/herself, he/she picks popsicle sticks from the tin can on the left, and those students get to help answer questions about the month/week/day.

Pleasure This is one of the stations students can work at during the language arts period. During this time they can sit relax and read a book or take out the puppets in the bin and create their own stories.

Pleasure Another station that is set up, is letter match up on the carpet. Mrs. Nguyen will often have a puzzle or game that she lets the students work with for better letter recognition.

Growth This is the word wall on the very farthest wall from the door. On the ribbons are names of students and sight words that are gradually added. Not only do the number of words actually grow on the ribbons, but students are able to look over at any time to remember sight words.