A conscious seating arrangement is an important part of creating peace of mind and a good climate in the classroom. It has been more than once that I have struggled with how to furnish and place the students, you may recognize this yourself? I have put those who talk a lot next to someone who also talks a lot to try to reduce the risk of them shouting at each other across the classroom. It has worked sometimes, but usually not. Here are some tips on things have worked well for me when I have furnished the classroom and made the seating arrangement.
Are there some classroom seating plan ideas?
Yes, there is! An important starting point that is constantly recurring is that students should be given a place in the classroom that suits their needs. The student himself should also be allowed to participate in the placement planning and thus have an influence. You should take into account the wishes of all students, but it is also you as a teacher who has the last word on where the students should sit. It is no one other than you who has the overall picture and can ensure that the learning situation for all students is the best under the conditions that exist.
The classroom should offer the possibility that you should be able to sit with a student without being disturbed, or at least that the student can experience a moment with you without disturbance. The room is a central part and students must be able to get started with their work while you as a teacher teach another student/group of students. That’s why it’s so important to consider the room when planning an education.
How do I organize my classroom seating?
Many students have needed the security of having a permanent place. The room should aim to put the curriculum into practice, that it should be a social and cultural meeting place where students should have the opportunity to acquire new knowledge. Teaching must also be conducted on the basis of democratic working methods, and then it is important that also a seating arrangement supports such a requirement.
The most traditional classroom layout may look like this, with the benches placed two and two in a row facing the teacher and the board.
There is a clear focus on the teacher and all students sit in the same direction in the classroom.
The advantage of such a layout is that it focuses on the front of the room and directs students’ attention to you as a teacher. There is also good space to go between the rows and columns and you can reach all students without any problems. A disadvantage may be that the students sit at a certain distance and thus find it more difficult to work in groups.
However, it may be worth rethinking and perhaps instead of creating two groups of benches along the sides. Then you get a completely different dynamic in the classroom and you as a teacher can, for example, teach one half of the class at the same time as the other half works independently or in groups. These are two small examples of a seating plan. You will find several plans further down in this article.
The first thing you as a teacher should do when you enter a new classroom is to ask yourself: Can I teach here and above all in how many ways can I teach? Can I teach a group of students? Can I teach the whole class? The second question you should ask yourself is: If I were a student, would I thrive in this environment?
It is extremely doubtful whether it is possible to find an optimal strategy when it comes to furnishing benches or tables in a classroom. The vast majority agree that furniture should be based on the lesson content in order to increase the students’ task focus, but practical problems make it often difficult to fully implement this.
External factors influence teachers’ choices because the classes today are large so you can set benches or tables in the only possible way that works. In many countries, teachers share classrooms with each other and the lessons are so close that you do not have time to refurnish each lesson.
How does seating affect learning?
But, should the student be allowed to participate in classroom placement?
I consider both yes and no.
If students are allowed to choose how and where they want to sit in the classroom, problems can arise in the form of someone feeling left out, or that the chosen constellation and location do not fit all. It is next to impossible to make all students 100% happy.
If possible, perhaps the student influence should instead take the form of choosing a constellation of furniture, but not when choosing a classmate.
Where do I best put the rowdy students?
There are, to say the least, a lot of different opinions about where to place more messy students in the classroom.
Many believe that the whiteboard should not be so central without the teacher instead of constantly moving in the classroom. Therefore, there is no reason to place messy students at the front of the classroom.
Then others think the opposite and see the importance of messy students needing a closeness to the teacher and thus it is easiest to place these far ahead in the room. Many teachers think that the students who want to get away a little normally want to sit far behind.
Students who can be experienced who are rowdy and who have difficulty concentrating may also find it easier to concentrate further back in the classroom because they want an overview of what their peers are doing. If they are far ahead, they turn around all the time to keep an eye on everyone
others, which disturbs the student’s concentration possibilities and it can also be a distraction
moments for the rest of the class.
If you have two really noisy students, many teachers think that the worst thing to do is to sit them together. But I’m not totally sure about that. My experience is that If you sit them together, not necessarily next to each other, but near each other, you can have a focus on one single difficult area in the classroom. You can go there, try to get them focused and motivated and back on track.
If you placed them on the opposite side of the classroom, the temptation is they can talk across the classroom and continue to disturb other students.
How do I plan for the seating?
An important question is who should sit next to each other.
The first thing you should think about is; how much information do I have about the students? Ask previous teachers if you don’t already have a lot of information. You can get a lot of good tips ex. “these two students work so well together” or “that person and that person do not get along so well”. Then you definitely will separate them in the classroom. So always start with as much information as possible.
But, what happens if you don’t know anything about your new students? Then you have to make the classroom seating completely random or maybe in alphabetic order. One advantage of doing it randomly is also that the placement will be unique to the class.
What are the different types of seating arrangements?
Let us delve a little into the different types of classroom seating models. There are a lot of different arrangements and I will try to describe the pros and cons of the different types.
Pairs
This pair seating model is popular particularly if you have a lot of partner work in the classroom. It also can be easily modified to triples if you want to make the groups larger. I’m pretty sure you’ve ever been in a classroom with this traditional layout. Because all of your students facing you, they are easily able to see the whiteboard. This layout also encourages less talking during your lesson.
This classroom layout is very effective if you are using the whiteboard och showing slides. The layout is suitable for teacher-centered classes and it encourages focus on the educator and content. It is easy to implement with large classes. There are many who believe that students in the front rows have the highest degree of engagement while the back rows tend to be less engaged. Research from Schwebel and Cherlin (1972) shows that the students in the classroom who sat far ahead engaged in their school work more often than those who sat in other rows.
Because you as a teacher have the opportunity to choose who will sit next to each other, you can purposefully put the students who work well together in a pair.
Pairs are fantastic for activities that still need to be quiet but allow students to work together. It’s easy to keep students from getting rowdy, but it allows for quiet collaboration. Pairs often allow teachers to still teach from the front of the room if necessary. Likewise, they can allow students to collaborate in pairs or with another pair to create a slightly larger group. It keeps even numbers of groups that get more challenging with numbers not easily divided by four, five, or six. It can also be combined with horseshoe or square seating. Pairs can be staggered or distanced slightly from the next pair. With social distancing, pairs can be separated by plexiglass, but only one piece would be needed. This would cut down on students looking through barriers to the teacher.
Stadium
The stadium layout turns all student benches so that they face directly towards the whiteboard in the front of the center of the room. Because the desks are facing the center of the classroom, all students get a good view of the teacher.
In this plan, teachers often use three to four students lined up and angled toward a central point. Think of the rows in a stadium. Students are in small groups, but they are oriented toward the front. This style is beneficial for small spaces where both small and whole group lessons are prevalent. It can be difficult with large numbers of students if there is a lack of space.
U shaped classroom arrangement
U-shape or horseshoe. This type of layout supports both student-to-student interaction and teacher-to-student interaction. The class works together in a large group, but you as a teacher have plenty of opportunities to work with students on a one-on-one basis.
In this location, it is easy for the educator to keep in touch with all students and at the same time give the students who need extra attention this need is met.
Placing students in horseshoe shape is appropriate for whole-class discussions, at accounting occasions, and at role-playing activities. But if you are going to work in pairs, this U-shape is not suitable, because the students feel uncertain about who they would work with.
The students never have their backs to each other and they also do not have a student between themselves and the whiteboard.
An environment like this can be experienced by the students as a bit “powerful” and scary. It will be a fairly clear arena in the middle area. This means that the more shy and withdrawn students may feel uncomfortable. An advantage is that the students sit facing the front, an disadvantage may be that it is difficult to reach the students at the back of the classroom.
The horseshoe shape in a classroom can be done using whole, half, or fewer students. The traditional horseshoe requires the entire class to be placed around the room in a u-shape. Students can all see the front of the room, but they are not all facing forward. In some cases, you may be able to set them in a horseshoe while all are facing the board, but this is likely only possible when the classroom is large or when the class size is small. Another option is the double horseshoe. In this case, there is a smaller horseshoe inside the larger one. This one is more practical for larger groups of students or smaller spaces.
This plan can also be executed with fewer desks in small horseshoes—three across the back and two on each side. Five students are placed in a group with a space in the center. This can be useful in smaller classrooms where small and large group activities are common. Each horseshoe allows for extra space for the teacher to sit in the center if they need to work with the smaller group.
Double U shaped design
The double horseshoe layout means that you place another horseshoe inside the outer horseshoe. It’s perfect if you have a large classroom and many benches or for that matter a smaller classroom but many benches. This format offers a bit more restrictions for conversation.
Many teachers believe the double U-shaped classroom design is good because they can place the students who usually interact with each other (and thus disturb the others), far apart. Another advantage is that it is possible to set those students who need extra support closer to the front, near the teacher.
Traditional Rows
The row layout encourages the individual work because there is a space between all the benches. The disadvantage can be when you want to carry out group work. The row layout somehow counteracts interaction between the students. It is also somehow difficult for those who sit in the back of the class to be engaged in class discussions. Traditional rows are the classroom arrangement of nearly every television classroom and elementary classroom in our memories. Students are seated in rows facing the front of the room or other central location. Students are encouraged to keep their desks facing forward and not to talk to other students. The benefit to this style is that students’ attention is focused on the lecture area of the room. This is best for whole group instruction. Disadvantages include challenges with pairs or group work, and it is more difficult to change quickly. Student distractions are often minimized since they aren’t focused on each other, but there are limited “front row seats” in the classroom.
Single Square
If you want students focused on each other with little focus in the front of the room for whole group activity, this is a fantastic plan. The desks are arranged in a complete square with the students facing the center. You can leave a small entrance on one side so that you can present from the center of the square if you choose. However, this plan can be complicated for students at the top of the square to see the board without bending or turning in awkward positions.
Circles
Circles are another versatile seating arrangement that can be easily adapted to break groups down. Like the square, students might have difficulty seeing the board from certain parts of the circle. However, small circles can allow each student to see one another, but they are not necessarily focused on them. You might choose to seat students in pairs that can be easily configured as circles as well.
Parallel Lines
If you want some pairs, quads, and large groups, it may be advisable to set the students up in two sets of parallel lines. In this configuration, students are placed facing each other. The rows are 6 or 8 students long. Think of pairs facing one another seated directly next to another pair. This continues for up to eight pairs. Then, there is another group behind them doing the same thing.
Combinations
You may also choose to use combinations of these. One group may be a horseshoe, while another is more of a rectangle. This is not advisable if the class space is limited and the arrangements are large. On the other hand, if you need your groups to be in several sizes, this could be the answer.
How Do You Begin the Year?
If you are a new teacher, it can be challenging to know how to start. The best advice we can give is to think about your plans for your classroom. What do you plan to do the most? This plan can and likely will change depending on the needs of your students. Do not be afraid to change after one week. You might find a style that works, but that you need to switch students around because the talkers wound up together. New teachers, whether new to teaching or new to a school, do not always know who should and shouldn’t be placed near one another. As you note conflicts, change the seating or order.
Final Thoughts
Seating arrangements can be challenging. Each arrangement has benefits and disadvantages depending on your situation. Keep trying new things until you find what works for you. Do you use a different shape in your class? If you use a different shape, what do you use? We’d love to hear from you.