Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Is Assigned Seating Necessary?

I believe it is important in a classroom. I use assigned seating the first day of class because I think this sends a message to the students that I am the person in charge. Have you ever gone to a gathering that is chaotic and you didn’t know if anyone is in charge? I believe students feel that way in many classrooms. It also opens the door when I need to move students around because of personality conflicts or too much socialization going on during my lessons. I sometimes assign seats according to ability levels (the higher ones can help the lower ones if I am busy with someone else). Now this might cause you some concern but it is real life. If I’m having a problem on the job, I sometimes might go to a colleague for help rather than the boss so why not start this in the classroom. Sometimes their peers are able to explain things better to them than I can. I also learn a lot by listening to those conversations so I can tweak the lesson for a future class. As I’ve said before, I believe the students need to know what their limits are and will respect you for doing this. I feel it also sets the tone of the classroom and students feel safer if they know someone is in charge. Have you ever gone to a gathering that is chaotic and you didn’t know if anyone is in charge? I believe students feel that way in many classrooms.

2 comments:

heather said...

I agree that assigned seating works really well for behaviour (did you mean in separated desks or groups?) and I often used this system with my Year 4 and upwards music classes. Now I am doing classroom teaching in the P-3 area, there is kind of an unspoken rule that we place children in groups, which is nice for their socialisation skills, but it can be harder to separate the talkers.

loonyhiker said...

I have used assigned seats for individual seats AND for groups. Sometimes I want the group to have students with different abilities. Sometimes I don't want certain students to sit together, as you mentioned because of the talking. Sometimes I know that certain students don't get along and I don't want this lesson to be about that. Sometimes I might put them together because that is the real world and we sometimes have to work with people we don't care for. Thanks for your comments!