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The meeting area/library is the hub of our classroom. Our centers chart (with differentiated grouping) shows us where we go to learn during ELA, and each day the objectives chart is full of our "I can..." statements. We review the days of the week and months of the year daily during "calendar time" and all of the asipring meteorologists love to add to the weather graph. Our library is organized by genre and by Fountas and Pinnell levels to ensure all children are able to locate books at their own independent reading level. The stereo (in the corner near the lamp) plays classical music in the background as students work independently throughout the day. The "road map" (above the whiteboard) shows our journey through the Envision math program.

—Lila Kawas, 1st-grade teacher, PS/MS 498 Van Nest Academy for Environmental Health Sciences and Technology, Bronx