My CI Classroom- what it looks like

I have started several posts about the amazing #CIIA16 conference and haven’t been able to do it justice. So here is my start.

I was listening to, and had, several conversations about what various CI classrooms looked like; the physical space. Some teachers travel, many had their own rooms, most “have to” contend with rooms filled with desks and seem disappointed. Here I am going to address what I have been through and what I am doing now (with pictures!).

Big Classes

When I taught in several large districts, large classes were the norm (I once had 32 students enrolled in one class and 28 desks, turns out to be less of a problem considering the truancy rate). In these classes I always started and ended class with desks in a line (typically a grid) just to keep the peace. My behaviorally challenging classes that needed separated from each other  never knew their seating was different from the other classes (I originally had a hard time believing high schoolers needed to be separated, turns out it was true).

Once a report was established I changed my lines to face each other and that was successful (desks stacked 3 deep on each side, in lines that ran perpendicular to the board). I moved desks almost every class period to accommodate my plans and the class’s needs. Still, every student has his/her own desk. This provided them with a defined space to call their own and offered me a sense of organization in small rooms with no windows and wall to wall desks.  

Trick: I had students transition desk arrangements when they started to get restless, changed activities, or they were getting sleepy. This let them think we were “wasting” class time by moving desks and it give me the ability to regain focus of a large class while getting their blood moving.

In these classes my CI strategies were often “turn to a partner”, in “barrios” or teams, acting in their seats, and lots of drawing/story boards. The activities that worked best with large classes were ladder stories, blind draw, madlibs, and stations. Sometimes I would do actual story telling, reading a children's book that was big and well-illustrated. It amazes me to this day how mesmerized they are by this, even if they don't understand the story very well. They look like giant kindergartners sitting in a semi-circle, half on the floor and half in desks (also keep in mind that several of your students may have never had this experience growing up, offer it now).

Required 1:1 Desks

I have worked for administrators that make me keep all the desks in my room regardless of class size.  While this may seem to clutter the room, take up valuable acting space, and be monotonous for students, you still have options.

I have stacked desks against a wall to open up floor space, formed collaborative tables (with desks of the same height, somethings I can’t handle), brought in my screwdrivers to lower desk legs to create floor tables and raised them to make standing desks. Trick: Get your students into a routine of “putting the room in order” before they leave and do what you need with the furniture during each class.

Before You Make Drastic Changes

Remember that desks serve a great purpose; testing. This can apply to any paper tests you give but also state and district required tests. You need to keep enough desks to accommodate whatever your school’s testing looks like.

Ask your students. I did. Out of 162 students, 15 said they like having the desks and chairs. I also had a varied response of students who would prefer to stand, sit on floor pillows, and have room to sprawl and take notes. (I asked: When you study and are productive, what are you doing, where are you sitting, and how are you learning? PS- being comfy and falling asleep is NOT learning.)

Introverted, shy/new, and students with sensory processing disorders or behavior plans may need a desk and chair to succeed in your class. By offering a few to all your classes, you won’t isolate students or single them out.

My Classroom Flex Seating

This is new this year. I was given an opportunity to make changes while our building is transitioning leadership. This sounds sneaky but is not intended to be; I am really just comfortable about knowing myself and the needs of my students and am ready to change the classroom environment. 

If I can give advice to brand new teachers: keep desks your first year. This will help you with classroom management and establishing relationships and expectations with your new crop of students. I have worked in a variety of schools and none of them have the desks and chairs have been bolted to the floor. Move the furniture and make room as needed for reenactments, reading-time spaces, and project work.

This year I intended to open my classroom up for more creative spaces and things that are easy to move to accommodate games, acting space, projects, conversations, etc.

 

You can see (the mess my own children make during the summer AND) my super cool Spanish doormat from Target that fits perfectly under my door (because they have everything). This is my physical representation of the transition to “Spanish World”. 

Out of habit I have my desk in direct line of view from my classroom door; I can see the door and be the super protector... or something. If I had my way, I would shrink my desk by half and have a traveling mini desk on wheels… added to: future projects. 

My “almost SmartBoard”, as I call it, is hung on the wall to the right. It pretty much serves as a projection screen. This wall is also all a “cork” wall where I can pin things: meet the Word Wall for when school is in session. (When in school I write the Spanish first and then English, verbs are in red, nouns in blue, and adj/adv in green). 

I have a collaborative table of desks and chairs behind a pair of single desk/chair combos. I think 5 is the max number of high schoolers that can sit together and be productive. The single desks/chairs are closer to the board so I can also use them as behavior monitoring seats. The set of desk/chair combos behind my desk are in process of a makeover; they will soon have testing huts to help make-up quizzers/testers or students that just need to focus and block others out.

 

In the middle of my room is a triangle of chairs (five in total; two in front and three behind) without desks. I will have clipboards for them. Behind the desk-less chairs are another set of 3 individual desk/chair combos that can easily slide together to form a group of 3. Behind these three is a large open space. There will soon be a standing whiteboard table 5’x6’ (I am building it currently and hope to have it done in the next week). 

 

I have my corner of classroom computers (that I can see the screens while out-and-about in the room) and storage for class sets of headphones, blankets, floor pillows, etc. Next to my triangle of chairs are a set of desks that I modified. I used my handy tool kit and lowered the legs as short as they go. They are now perfect floor-height tables for sitting on a floor pillow and still using the space to write or collaborate. Behind this, along the wall, will be my “Oprah” space with two semi-comfy chairs and end tables. Tip: Avoid fluffy seating and rugs. These harbor germs, crumbs, bugs (bed bugs), and are difficult to clean. I try to always have hard-surface seating or wipe-able options (pleather). 

All of my seating options face forward to see the open front space and large whiteboard (which houses yesterday, today, and tomorrow’s dates and weather; I also have all my question words above the board, mini whiteboards with important dates for each level, and my real-life Pinterest board). Keeping desks oriented in one direction seems to appease administrators and gives your room a “center” to help find itself after those story asking days that get a little more out of hand than you planned… because that’s never happened (or every time). 

I also have a set of school shelving in the front where I keep dollar store baskets of supplies labeled in Spanish (glue, scissors, fat markers, thin markers, colored pencils…). I tried to do the shower caddies for each group last year and it (I?) failed miserably. Students just know the routine to get supplies quickly and not drive me nuts.

CI/TPRS in My Classroom

The spaces I provided this year offer students and myself options. They can take notes as wanted, work on storyboards, quick quizzes, and rearrange the room as necessary. This also provides me with distinct spaces to create more CI by LABELING EVERYTHING: explicit vocabulary with a visual reference. This also leaves me with wall space to make it student-centered and helpful with reminders and key phrases.

Also, the different spaces can also tell me more about my students: do they typically sit alone and are now with a group? Does that student normally stand and is now barely awake at his seat? If I think about these questions and recognize patterns it can help my identify students at risk (is he now working the night-shift to pay bills and is tired? Is she now dating a boy in-class and need to be aware of proximity?). This will also help me engage my students into roles in the classroom they are ready for. (I know if I’m super tired, you better not call on me to act or take notes during the story telling.)

Summary

I feel that these spaces are welcoming and appealing to students (time will tell). Given the number of physical seats, I have 22 available in my room with 14 student desks. Having students sit on the floor and standing there are a possible 30 student spaces to physically write. Luckily, I seldom have over 23 kids (this will change this year since this is my 3^rd year at this school and my retention went way up). I also have a stack of chairs in my teacher closet; I do have a total of 27 chairs if needed. 

Once I have the thumbs-up I will hang things back up and re-post pictures.