Inclusivity in a first grade virtual classroom

By Dominique Kucharczuk
First Grade Teacher

Saint Madeleine Sophie said it best: “Let us respect childhood; let us honor the soul of that small creature of God who can already make choices of the best if we take the time to awaken her reason and make her use her judgment.” This philosophy serves as the anchor for our first grade classroom; students live each day centered on our goals and criteria. The girls explore their faith traditions through leading prayer services for their peers, are constantly “studying and learning” through play and academic experiences, and commit themselves to service through self-selected classroom jobs that take care of our community. First graders are deeply invested in our Sacred Heart community and serve as Historians of the Heart by learning about our Sacred Heart roots, schools, and history. In the first grade year, the girls develop their risk taking and decision making skills through independent experiences that are scaffolded for each student. 

An evolving component of our first grade environment is the addition of a virtual classroom. Primarily designed as a hub for remote learning, our virtual classroom has morphed from a “one room schoolhouse” to a sprawling campus that the girls can navigate with ease. Our homeroom hub, the landing page, allows the girls to explore and make choices in a safe environment. As our Goal 5 criteria notes: “students model, practice, and teach safe, ethical and responsible use of technology.” The girls can navigate independently to our lunch menu, check the weather from the Stuart weather station, read the latest issue of the 2nd grade newspaper, and engage in safe digital play. Each subject area has a classroom which the girls navigate to for curricular support and enrichment. In the math classroom, the girls have access to digital manipulatives they can use to enhance their math understanding. There are also math games to help practice fluency. In the classroom library, the girls can find rotating nonfiction, fiction, biography, and author study read alouds. There is a poetry room where the girls can record poetry and listen to others. In our SEL room, the girls post friendship activities they think others might enjoy and can access their play partners, jobs, and other service activities. The girls are able to visit the classroom during free time and it is also used to support academic learning, as a center in our core subjects. 

Some of the most thrilling components of our virtual classroom are our monthly rooms that open up on the first of each month. The girls count down each month until the new rooms are made available! The new rooms are designed to enhance our diversity, equity, and inclusion instruction in first grade through the lens of celebrations, holidays, and the arts. There are two rooms that open: one that features music, short videos, articles, and activities related to DEI themes and the other room is a rotating library. As Saint Madeleine Sophie guides us, in order to “awaken her soul,” each girl must see herself represented in our community. The curated collection of activities are designed to ensure that each child not only learns about other faith traditions and cultures, but sees characters, people, and celebrations that she identifies with. Guiding benchmarks for the monthly classrooms are derived from the Learning for Equity program (formerly Teaching Tolerance), which include: “Students will develop positive social identities based on their membership in multiple groups in society,” “Students will express pride, confidence and healthy self-esteem without denying the value and dignity of other people,” and “Students will respond to diversity by building empathy, respect, understanding and connection.” Below are a few examples of our monthly classrooms that the students have accessed this semester. We have used the classrooms to enhance the projects the girls have completed in literacy and social studies, as well as during independent choice time.  

February Monthly Classroom

March Monthly Classroom

April Monthly Classroom

The other classroom is our rotating library, which changes monthly to reflect curriculum, DEI themes, and classroom projects. The library “shelves” feature a collection of nonfiction books, fiction books, an author study, and a shelf which switches between biographies and poetry, based on our units of study. For the last month, with our focus on Women's History and the culminating project for Women We Admire Day, our library was centered on female authors. Our featured author was Grace Lin, and favorite books from the biography collection include: She Persisted, She Persisted Around the World, and the Little Leaders series. The girls enjoyed reading biographies of athlete Wilma Rudolph, education activist Malala Yousafzai, civil rights activist Rosa Parks, and architect Zaha Hadid. Our fiction section included motivational books that center on female empowerment. A Girl Like You by Frank Murphy, Speak Up, Molly Lou Melon by Patty Lovell, and Dear Girl: A Celebration of Wonderful, Smart, Beautiful You! by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Paris Rosenthal reinforced positive messaging that is essential for young girls to hear.  

March Listening Library

The virtual classroom is coupled with conversation, activities, and engagement that is developmentally appropriate for young learners, and respects the work of childhood, which is play. It enhances the DEI programming that is mirrored in our classroom curriculum, SEL framework, and community experiences. It is another touchpoint for students to see themselves in our community and learn more about other cultures and people in a fun and digital environment. The experiences are carefully structured to be navigated independently, so students can explore and form their own understanding, as well as teacher-guided and group facilitated, to foster conversation and meaningful community engagement. The virtual classroom is designed to “honor her soul,” through relatable content and encourage her to “awaken her reasoning” through studying and learning about our global community.