Classroom Arrangements

Because we are a small school with only 20 classrooms and between 450 and 500 students, most of our classes are quite large depending upon the grade level and content area. Because of this, the arrangements seen most are clusters, pairs, and tables. Fortunately, there were not many classrooms except a couple that were in the standard formation. Both of those classrooms were not intended to be classrooms, but due to insufficient space, they have been converted for this school year. One of the classrooms with the standard formation is the hospital suite. The teacher has not been able to create clusters due to the desk type in the room. The desks are the tabletop with the chair attached, which makes it difficult to put them in clusters. However, the teacher does have three round tables that are used for group work when needed. Because the room was meant to be an exclusively hands-on area, the hospital beds are located along the perimeter of the room and there is a nurse’s station bolted to the middle of the room, which also limits how the room can be arranged. The other classroom, which was never meant to be a classroom, is the observation room for the hospital suite. It is a third of the size of a normal classroom and is very cramped for space on all sides. However, the teacher is able to teach in the hospital suite to do hands-on activities or labs when needed. With both of these classrooms, there is essentially little walking room for the teachers and most of the instruction is done in the front of the classroom. 

There are three science labs with round lab tables, which lend itself to cooperative groups. For this year, two of the regular classrooms used for science courses received rectangular lab tables to allow for cooperative groups and for more experiments to be performed. One other room used for science is also a very small room but is able to accommodate clusters of 4 desks. For these classrooms, they allow the teacher to walk around and in between tables/clusters.  The art classroom also has tables and provides enough room for the teacher to circulate.  The gym also has tables (when health as opposed to physical education is being taught), but they are arranged in a U shaped. This allows the teacher to reach all students but uses more time to get around the classroom because of the lack of direct paths. The couple of classrooms with pairs allow the teachers to be able to reach very student, but if there are triplets in rows, it makes it difficult for the teacher to be able to reach the students who are sitting in the middle seat.

All of the standard classrooms have a mounted LCD projector in the front of the room so direct instruction usually occurs in the front of the classroom. They also have projection screens that are hung from the chalkboard and mobile SMARTBoards. Due to The hospital suite, observation room, science labs, and gym have mobile SMARTBoards with a LCD projector attached. In the hospital suite, there is a lack of electrical outlets, so the board can only be placed in select parts of the room in which all students would have direct visibility. In the observation room, the ceiling is so low that the board cannot be moved due to its height. Even in the science labs, due to the location of the lab tables, the board can only be moved to the front and the back of the rooms. There are no desktops located in the any of the classrooms because every two or three classrooms share a mobile lab. There is a computer lab with 28 desktops for use that is arranged with clusters of four, pairs, and one row of eight desktops along one side of the room. The arrangement is not only due to the location of the Ethernet drops but also so that a teacher can see every screen as he or she walks around.  

In most of the classrooms, accommodations can be and has been made with students with Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) or 504 plans. Those who may benefit from being partnered or in a group with other students that may be performing on a higher skill level would work better in classrooms with pairs, clusters, or tables. Also, students who have vision issues are usually sitting close to where the projection screen or SMARTBoard is located.

Even though some rooms lends itself to movement throughout the classroom, I feel that most of the teachers are more comfortable teaching in the front of the room and only circulating if a student has a specific question during independent practice or group work. Most confrontations and disciplinary issues occur in the classrooms as opposed to common areas at the school and could be due to ineffective circulating by the teacher around the room. Less off-task activities occur in classrooms where the teachers are able to reach students quicker and are able to continue teaching while keeping close proximity to students who are not engaged. Due to the large classroom rosters, it poses barriers for teachers to be able to walk around and increase the likelihood for students to be off-task.

I think that possible classroom arrangement is a valid point to bring up while supervising teachers, especially for those who have classroom management issues. Teachers have to realize that classroom arrangement allows students to be in a certain mindset for what is going on in the classroom. When they see in individual seats in rows, it can remind students of testing and of classrooms where all talking is mostly done by the teacher. However, when students see tables and clusters, they should expect that at some point they will have to work in groups and have academic discussions. I think some of our teachers get nervous about changing their classroom arrangement because our student population is very resistant to change.  As far as professional development is concerned, teachers can definitely benefit from receiving information regarding possible arrangements. Usually the teachers’ main concern is finding a way to fit all of their students in the room as opposed to arranging the room based on the type of activities that will be done. Teachers also need to know that it is ok to pull out the measuring tape to measure the room and the furniture and equipment so that they have a more realistic view of how the room will be able to accommodate different arrangements.