Architecture/Design and Teaching

The discussion question this week pertaining to office cubicles or open space work areas got me thinking about the design of the Read 180 English class that I teach in. The class is set up like a traditional classroom in the middle with two person desks in rows across the classroom, however, students are only in those seats for the first 5 minutes of the class period. The classroom is divided into stations and students rotate from station to station every 18 minutes; students are in groups of 10. The rotations are small group, silent reading, and topic software (on the computer). Students who are in small group sit together at the desks in the front of the room and work collaboratively with the teacher. The students that are in silent reading can choose to sit on the couch or in the desks/chairs/beanbags in the silent reading area. Students in the topic software area have their own workspace at a single computer. The division of the class into these work areas and into rotations is very beneficial. This is the first class that I have been in that operates in this way. I believe that this set up is very conducive to learning as it is very rare that students get off task with this dynamic. The classroom is set up in a way that students have designated area within the classroom that are for individual concentration and for collaboration; it's like a combination of the two concepts.