Keep in Mind:

• High-traffic areas should be free of congestion.
• Students should always be visible to the teacher.
• Storage space and necessary materials should always be readily accessible.
• Students should easily see instructional displays and presentations.

Avoid unnecessary congestion in and around:

• Group work areas, centers, and stations
• Pencil sharpener and trash can
• Sink area
• Bookshelves and storage areas
• Students’ desks
• Teacher’s desk
• Computer desk

Tips for Arranging Furniture:

Make sure all students can easily see:

• You when you are presenting information
• Dry erase boards
• Overhead projector screen
• Instructional displays
• Keep in mind potential distractions such as windows and doors, computers, or other interesting displays, small group work areas.
• Leave plenty of room around student desks/tables so that you can get to each student when monitoring.
• Locate your desk, work areas, and instructional areas where you can see all of the students all of the time.
• Avoid placing centers and work areas in “blind corners” where you will not be able to monitor adequately.
• Plan to seat students who need extra help or attention close to where you will be most of the time.
• If you have “tote trays” or boxes for student belongings and materials, these should be easy for students to get to, but out of the way.
• Even if other arrangements are to be used later in the year, consider planning student desks in rows facing the major instructional areas at the beginning of the year. This minimizes distractions for the students and allows the teacher to monitor behavior more readily and to become familiar with individual students’ work habits.

Other Things to Consider

• Plan a particular location, easily seen by all students, where you will post assignments for the day (or week, if possible). This can be done on the chalkboard, a bulletin board, poster on a wall, large tablet or individual assignment sheets.
• Check all electrical equipment (e.g., computers, projector, document camera, speakers,overhead projector, tape/CD player, VCR/DVD player) to be sure it is working and that you know how to use it before using it in class. Be sure an electrical outlet is within easy reach or have a sturdy extension cord available. It is good to have a space to post instruction for the use of complicated equipment.
• Wall space and bulletin boards provide extra areas to display rules, procedures, assigned duties, calendar,schedule, student work, and extra-credit activities.
• Think about where you will be meeting with your small groups. Will you use a kidney table, rectangular, a spot on the floor, etc...
• Will you have an area on the floor for the entire class to sit for presentations, read-a-louds, etc...? Where will this area be in your room?
• Will you use a document camera, lite-pro/projector? Check to make sure the cart or table the equipment is sitting on does not obstruct student's view.

Circle or Half-Circle

Desks or tables in a circle or half-circle promote community and encourage all students to participate. Everyone sits in the front row! The role of the teacher in this setting is also a coordinator and collaborator.

Traditional Rows

With a small number of rows, this arrangement can be very effective for teachers who frequently use boards or overhead projectors. This arrangement is also best used when conducting tests, but this setting should not have to be the default room arrangement. This is a very “teacher-centered” classroom setting.

The U-Shape or Horseshoe

This arrangement works well for class discussions and students are able to see each other from wherever they are seating. The role of the teacher seems to be coordinator and collaborator in these classrooms.

You may also choose to combine 4+ desks together to make it easy for Kagan Strategies.

Instructional Materials Storage

Make instructional materials and equipment such as computers, laptops, etc... accessible. Determine which materials and equipment you will use most often. Place these in the most accessible storage areas. Check to see that accessing the items will be easy when the class is full of students and several students will be going to the storage areas at the same time. In other words, make sure students will be able to flow into and out of the storage area. Set up procedures for accessing equipment.

Teaching Materials Storage

Determine a simple system for storing your teaching materials. One easy system for storing teaching materials is sequentially. In other words, set up your cabinets by month so that the special materials that you use during a certain period of the year will be easily accessible within the same box or shelf in the cabinet. You could have a shelf marked for each month of the school year. The materials that you use throughout the year should placed in a separate highly accessible storage area. Those that you use less often would be stored in the sequentially organized cabinets.

Check To See How It Works

Sit in every student seat to determine if the plan is working. Make sure nothing in the room obstructs your view of the board and projection screen in front of the room. Imagine the seats filled with students to see if any student’s view might be blocked by another student. Also check the spacing between the chairs when they are pulled out far enough to allow someone to sit in them. Will you be able to walk between the chairs when the class is full? Where will students put their backpacks? Will there be room for people to walk around?

Seating Charts

Make a seating chart based on the classroom set-up that you create. If you set up your class like any of the maps in the reproducibles presented here, you can use the map itself as a seating chart. Simply photocopy it and write the students’ names on the desks or tables where they sit. You can use the seating charts to take roll.