Setting up Your Elementary School Classroom: Seating Arrangements

How to Teach Elementary School Chapter 1: The Classroom has everything you need to know to set up and organize your classroom for student (and teacher) success.

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Seating Arrangements from How to Teach Elementary School

For details on the 6 essential classroom zones and how to properly arrange the furniture in your classroom, purchase Chapter 1 of How to Teach Elementary School!

The way you set up and decorate your classroom has an impact on student achievement. There is a lot to consider when creating your classroom environment. Take the advice of the pros: your classroom does NOT need to be 100% done on Day 1. One of the most important things to accomplish before the first day of school is:

•Arrange student desks/tables to give each student a personal learning space.

How does your seating arrangement affect student engagement?

The seating arrangement you use has an impact on student learning. Studies have shown that students who are in the front rows are typically more attentive than those in the back. They are more likely to ask questions and actively participate. The seating arrangement has also been shown to impact how you communicate with your class and how they communicate with each other. This makes it critical that we create seating arrangements that align with our instructional goals and activities so we can maximize student learning.

Deciding on the best seating arrangement for your classroom will likely be determined by the furniture you have (desks vs tables), the shape of your furniture (trapezoids vs clovers), and the size and shape of your classroom. While it seems simple, there are so many different classroom seating arrangements to choose from and each has its own pros and cons. So how do you decide the best seating arrangement for your classroom?

Pro Tip:

I always begin the school year with desks in rows facing forward. I NEVER group my students together the first two weeks of school. Find out why.

The Pros & Cons of Common Classroom Layouts

Whether your students are in rows, pairs, groups, a U shape or L formation, the arrangement you choose will affect your classroom dynamic. As you begin to consider your seating chart for the year, think about the pros and cons of several popular classroom seating arrangements. Hopefully, this will help you decide what is right for you, your students, and your classroom.

ROWS

Traditional rows have been the seating arrangement of choice for centuries. Students sit facing the instructor with their backs to one another.

Setting up Your Elementary School Classroom: Seating in Rows

Rows work well if you have lots of space and you want to be able to see all students' faces as you teach. Traditional rows encourage less talking during instruction. With all students facing you, they are easily able to see the board. All of this can help with behavior management if you have challenging students. If you want students to have discussions, they can turn to the student next to them or engage with the person behind or in front of them.

If you choose to pair up or “tri up” desks in rows, you still have students facing forward but it allows for controlled conversations and partner work. Since you’ve most likely selected the pairs, you can purposefully partner students who may work well together. Pairing desks in rows is less distraction than desks in clustered groups. You may lose some of your ability to move around the classroom, but when the need for small groups of four to six students arises, students can quickly turn to another pair of desks and form a group. This arrangement typically uses slightly less floor space than traditional rows, and ultimately creates an environment where partnership and cooperative learning is expected.

ON THE OTHER HAND…

Most classrooms are not spacious and if rows are your arrangement of choice, you’ll most likely need to do a modified version of this (like stadium seating) or choose a different seating arrangement. Rows of individual desks are not conducive to cooperative learning or group work, and they can be challenging when it comes to behavior management unless you have a small class. Once you have three or more rows, it can be challenging to see and keep all students on task.

ROWS ARE BEST

• At the start of the school year

• When you have challenging behaviors

• During state testing

U-SHAPE, HORSESHOE, SEMICIRCLE, DOUBLE E’S

The traditional round-table arrangement conducive to collaborative discussions is often used in colleges and board rooms. It is uncommon in elementary classrooms due to the number of students and space needed. To accommodate for this type of seating arrangement, use the semi-circle or u-shape arrangement (also called the Horseshoe). Students face each other, but the teacher has space to move around the room. When using this arrangement I sometimes placed my teaching zone in the middle, putting me in the center of the action!

Setting up Your Elementary School Classroom: Seating in U-Shape, Horseshoe, Double E

This layout is great for classrooms that want to encourage discussion between the students and teacher. Students can still see what is projected onto the board, which makes it great for classroom conversations. The double horseshoe layout, which has the inner and outer semi-circles, offers a slightly more restricted format for conversation. This can be a good alternative if you need some additional control of student interaction or in cases where you have a large number of desks in a small space.

ON THE FLIP SIDE…

The U-shape format requires lots of room, therefore you may need to use a double horseshoe or place some pair and tri rows in the middle. One negative of the double horseshoe is that students will turn around and talk to peers behind them. Using the double horseshoe can also make it challenging to walk around and help students or monitor behaviors. It can be a tight squeeze!  A great option is the Double E. By leaving an opening at the front and back with an aisle down the middle, you still get the benefit of group discussions and teacher movement.

U-SHAPE IS BEST

• For whole group discussions

• You need to manage behaviors but are looking to break away from front facing rows

• You want to be in the middle of the learning with your students for maximum student engagement.

GROUPS

In today’s classrooms, table groups are the most common arrangement. Working with a new generation of students, collaborative conversations is an essential engagement strategy and table groups are the best seating arrangement to foster these discussions. Depending on how many students you have and whether you use desks or have tables in your room, you should be able to create groups of 4-6 students.

Setting up Your Elementary School Classroom: Seating in Groups

Using groups as your seating arrangement is optimal for group work and cooperative learning. Bonus: It’s a space saver! Another benefit is that by purposefully planning your groups, you can build upon student strengths and use the format as a part of your behavior management plan. When my students are placed in groups, each group becomes a team working together to complete tasks, hold each other accountable, and earn team points. This is a great way to build accountability and competition and encourage on-task behavior. 

THE DOWNSIDE

I hear from many teachers who are required to have their desks in groups OR they have the style of desks that ONLY work in groups. This is unfortunate. If we know ANYTHING about teaching it’s that ONE SIZE DOES NOT FIT ALL. This is not to say that a teacher should place their desks in rows of individual desks the entire year.  

Having your students seated in groups typically creates more talking and more behavior management issues. Teachers often say they begin the year with their desks in groups to allow students to get to know each other and build class camaraderie. There are LOTS of ways to build camaraderie and it doesn’t need to be done at table groups. For teachers that struggle managing behaviors, ditch the table groups.

GROUPS ARE BEST

• Once students understand the expectations for collaborative conversations and group work.

• For facilitating academic discourse and student engagement.

• For team building which can encourage peer accountability and healthy competition.

MY BEST ADVICE

As I stated above, I NEVER begin my school year with desks in groups. Students need to LEARN how to work in groups. Even 5th graders. I have very high expectations for student behavior and I need my students to fully understand those expectations before I allow them to work in table groups. 

It is more important to me that my new students can show they understand (and have mastered) the routines and procedures of our classroom. I spend the first couple of weeks getting to know each student, their strengths, weaknesses, academic level, and who they talk to the most :) 

ROWS THEN U-SHAPE THEN GROUPS THEN FREE CHOICE

As I stated, I begin every school year with some type of row arrangement. Desks can be paired or in sets of three or more. But most importantly, all students are facing forward. After the first two weeks of school, when we begin academic work, I rearrange desks into a U-Shape or Double E’s. This allows for students to practice whole group discussions and partner work. After the first trimester of school (around November) I move desks into groups and we begin our monthly team point competitions. We don’t wait until November to have group discussions or complete group activities, we just do that in other parts of the room (on the floor) or outdoors. 

At the end of the school year (after state testing for upper graders) I allow students to sit wherever they want :) So FUN!

Learn MORE about setting up your classroom to optimize student achievement by visiting the How to Teach Elementary School website and reading Chapter 1: The Classroom

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