Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics, Grades K-12: 14 Teaching Practices for Enhancing Learning (Corwin Mathematics Series)

by Peter Liljedahl

A willing class of students can rearrange the desks in a room in less than a minute. Have your students defront the room as soon as they come in. Just prior to turning the classroom over to the other teacher, have your class refront the room. Some teachers place two small maps of the room on the corner of each desk. The first map shows what the desk arrangement is in a fronted classroom, and the second map shows the arrangement in a defronted class. On each map, one desk in the arrangement is shaded in, telling the student who occupies that desk where it belongs in either configuration. Students come into class, grab a desk, and move it to its correct position.

Choose the seating structure based on the learning target. Include a verb(s) next to each of four structures— Explore (structured) Analyze (semi structured) Memorize (lose structured) Socratic (fish bowl) Interviews (fish bowl) Small groups (vertical learning)