You may know classroom environments are a complex interaction of physical elements, including sensory components, design and organization, aesthetics, nurturing attributes, and pedagogical resources. Did you know these elements are proven to work together to improve early learning, self-efficacy and higher-order thinking skills, and ultimately to achieve better child outcomes? Room to Learn presents the Assessing the Pillars of the Physical Environment for Academic Learning (APPEAL) environmental rating scale, a valid and reliable tool developed by Pamela Evanshen, EdD and Janet Faulk, EdD, to show you how to get the most out of your classroom environment. Room to Learn offers primary grades teachers a way to bridge between active learning and proactive environments that enliven learning experiences. There are many practical applications woven into each chapter, including a rating scale to help teachers see into their own learning design patterns. I particularly found the final chapters intriguing, as they provide a guide for school leadership and offer a collaborative approach to rating and improving classroom and school environments. --Dr. Will Parnell, Portland State University Department Chair and Professor, Curriculum and Instruction The book Room to Learn: Elementary Classrooms Designed for Interactive Explorations provides an incredibly useful framework for creating classroom environments to support development and purposeful learning by emphasizing safety, social learning, and active engagement. By providing user-friendly pictures and tips for application, the authors seamlessly blend elements of theory related to child development with practical recommendations for physical room arrangement. Dr. Angela Hilton-Prillhart, Ph.D., NCSP, Licensed Psychologist In this beautifully illustrated and highly practical volume, Evanshen & Faulk provide teachers and administrators with a cutting-edge new tool to evaluate and greatly enhance the quality of elementary school classroom environments. This very useful book demonstrates how key elements of the classroom environment can be improved to support children s interaction, exploration, and active engagement. Classroom environments that score high on APPEAL promote meaningful, purposeful, social, responsible, continuous, and in-depth learning. Advocates for Developmentally Appropriate Practices in elementary schools will find this book an invaluable resource and instrument for change. --Dr. Sue Bredekamp Room to Learn is truly a practitioner s guide on creating and evaluating effective classroom environments. As a former elementary teacher and principal, I recognize the need to view the environment as a teaching tool. In my current role as an elementary supervisor, I see the usefulness of Room to Learn in guiding others to understand the importance of environmental factors in learning. The text, graphics, photos, and rating scales are extremely beneficial and informative. --Dwain Arnold, EdD, Chief Academic Officer: Elementary Environments are a complex interaction of physical elements, including sensory components, design and organization, aesthetics, nurturing attributes, and pedagogical resources. Research shows these elements can work together to improve early learning, self-efficacy and higher-order thinking skills. Pamela Evanshen, EdD and Janet Faulk, EdD, have developed an environmental rating scale--Assessing the Pillars of the Physical Environment for Academic Learning (APPEAL)--to help educational professionals evaluate and improve the design and use of elementary learning environments. Transform learning spaces from teacher-centered classrooms where creativity and collaboration are stifled to student-centered, developmentally appropriate learning communities where children thrive. The APPEAL rating scale is a valid and reliable assessment that quantifies six environmental domains: Meaningful Learning: occurs in a healthy, welcoming, and inviting classroom - Social Learning: encourages positive learning interactions through room arrangement and seating choices - Purposeful Learning: facilitates discover and active engagement through learning centers and stations, personal spaces for children, and teacher space - Responsible Learning: encourages children to take ownership of their learning, be accountable for their effort, and work together to accomplish learning goals - Continuous Learning: showcases children's understandings of core content knowledge - Inquiry-Based Learning: project-based learning and collaborative problem solving supported by rich resources Room to Learn: Elementary Classrooms Designed for Interactive Explorations will help elementary educators completely reinvent their spaces to achieve the best child outcomes. Environments are a complex interaction of physical elements, including sensory components, design and organization, aesthetics, nurturing attributes, and pedagogical resources. Research