Desk Arrangement

Playing with the desk set-up in our classroom brings me joy.  It may bring (some of) my students pain--as they frequently walk into the room with a different set-up.  While, no joking here, this can cause some student anxiety, my intent is not just to play.  My goal is to have the most ideal arrangement for the learning goals of the day.  For example, here you can see that I have the desks grouped for my students' current literature circles:


Students are reading three different novels, so the desks are grouped for those reading assignments. 



Below is a frequent arrangement for us:



Students are frequently grouped into learning teams that are selected based on current student need.  Often, students are permitted to select their own tables to sit at; however, I often group them based on need, assignment, task, skill, etc.

Students may be grouped based on:

• a different reading they are working on
• different aspects of writing
• academic support
• academic enrichment 
• and more!

So, while, at the beginning of the year it may be frustrating for students to see the desk arrangement constantly change, they do get used to it--and sometimes even excited about it.  ("Oooh...what are we doing today?")