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Assigned seats in a grid pattern aren’t your only option for an engaging classroom setup anymore! There are endless possibilities for seating layouts in your classroom, and each has its own benefits. Explore different classroom setup ideas to see which might work best for your classroom size and layout, your current students, and your different lessons. And then have fun changing up your layout anytime you need to!
1. Conference Seating: Best for whole-class discussions
Similar to group pods, this type of classroom seating arrangement involves having all of the desks connected to feel more like a large conference room table. Large conference seating is when the desks are placed in one large square, leaving a big empty space in the middle. Small conference seating involves placing all the desks so they’re touching and facing each other in two rows.
Pros: This setup feels more like a business practice, which can help older students feel like they’re being treated as more maturely. It encourages whole-group communication, which promotes the idea that every voice matters.
Cons: Conference seating takes up a lot of real estate in your classroom, leaving empty space in nontraditional places. With large conference seating, teachers may find it hard to be locked in the middle of the square.
2. Original Shapes and Designs: Best for a fun, celebratory switch-up
Imagine your desks or other seating options are like the blocks or tiles you ask your students to configure into different shapes. Now, build the setup of your dreams! These seating arrangements are all about changing things up and having fun.
Pros: These non-traditional desk arrangements encourage students to be more creative, think analytically, and have more fun at school. And they build classroom community and inclusiveness, too.
Cons: You’ll have to put in a lot of sweat equity to make these seating arrangements happen, which can take more time and energy than you have.
💡 Pro Tip: When it comes to classroom setups, variety is the name of the game for Caroline Koehler. She works with students with autism and students with specific learning and cognitive needs and loves organizing desks into smiley faces, basic shapes, and even letters for creative classroom seating arrangements. “For Valentine’s Day, the desks can be arranged in the shape of a heart,” she explains. “This establishes a creative community who are able to see a larger picture and process that each individual is important to the final product.”
Get creative and draw your own classroom seating arrangements
To help sell your desk setup ideas to students, colleagues, and administrators, having drawings can be really impactful. Use seating chart resources to help you brainstorm and then design your ideas.
Editable Classroom Seating Chart Template for Classroom Management
by Teachers Resource Force
Grades: PreK-12th
Design your classroom like a pro with this editable seating chart template. This drag-and-drop classroom setup tool lets you arrange desks, chairs, and more using interactive, bird’s-eye view clipart, all editable in PowerPoint™ or easily converted to Google Slides™.
FREE Seating Charts and Desk Arrangement
by Carefully Crafted
Grades: 2nd-8th
Use these arrangements for 26 desks or fewer in your own rectangular-shaped space or classroom. All 15 arrangements were created with student engagement in mind. Print off the desk arrangements and add student names to create seating charts.
3. Flexible Seating: Best for adapting to students’ individual needs
With flexible seating, traditional seating charts are replaced with seating arrangements that allow the students to sit where they choose. Sometimes, if the classroom space or budget allows, there are a variety of seating options such as couches, bean bag chairs, carpets, and pods. And sometimes, “seating” isn’t even the best option for a student. Flexible seating acknowledges that different learners may need something different sometimes, like standing at a table or sitting in a bean bag chair on one side of the room.
Pros: These seating arrangements really account for individuality and differentiation. They can be easily moved to meet student, teacher, and class needs at a moment’s notice without a lot of energy spent.
Cons: Acquiring lots of different seating options can get expensive, and most districts don’t offer these as the standard. Some students may find it hard to focus in these seating arrangements, and some may squabble over wanting the same spot as each other.
💡 Pro Tip: “Every year, we have students in our class who find a great deal of comfort in knowing they have a desk with their name on it: a place where they can sit consistently day-to-day,” says Core Inspiration by Laura Santos. Laura recommends providing a “home base” for each student and offering flexible seating options around the room that students can use at any time they’d like. She believes this approach can increase student focus, comfort, collaboration, and excitement for learning.
Show students how flexible seating works
If your students aren’t familiar with all the flexible seating arrangements in your classroom, diagrams and posters can help ensure they use them properly.
Flexible Seating Choice Charts – Editable
by Shannon Maree Teaching
Grades: 2nd-5th
Have your students use these easy clip choice charts for smart decisions without the arguing. All 24 charts are editable, so you can use your wording, favorite fonts, and classroom colors.
Smart Spots Flexible Seating Book with Rules, Posters, Contract & Parent Letter
by Polka Dots Please
Grades: PreK-2nd
Get everything you need to introduce Smart Spots, flexible seating expectations that actually work all year without any chaos! With books, rules posters, cards, activities, a contract, and an editable parent letter, you can feel confident with your seating options.
4. Horseshoe: Best for class discussions and inclusivity
In a horseshoe formation, the desks are set up in a semicircle so that all of the students face each other, and the teacher can also easily move throughout the room. You can also modify this shape as needed. For example, Hannah of The Classroom Key says she likes to have a few separate desks at the front, turned to face forward. “Having a few desks pulled forward away from the group helps minimize distractions for students who need it.”
Pros: The idea with this type of classroom setup is to encourage discussion between students and the teacher. It can also be particularly effective when the teacher displays content on a SmartBoard or projector in the front of the room.
Cons: Not every student’s desk will be facing the front of the classroom, which can make it difficult for them to engage with lessons presented entirely on the board.
💡 Pro Tip: Kris of Pathway 2 Success tends to arrange desks in a horseshoe, too — especially when holding group conversations. “It gives the entire group a sense of community, allows every voice to be heard, and even encourages learners to step outside their comfort zones,” she says. “My goal in seating students in a semicircle has always been to strengthen relationships, facilitate meaningful conversations, and remind learners that every voice matters. The idea is that once learners feel more comfortable and connected with those around them, they will be more confident to share their ideas, too.”
5. Paired Pods in Rows: Best for space-saving collaboration
Many teachers use the traditional row setup because it’s the best way for all of the desks to fit in the classroom space. But there’s one simple change you can make for more collaborative learning opportunities: Put two or three desks together side-by-side, facing the front of the classroom.
Pros: With this arrangement, you can save space in your classroom, and your students can easily turn to their rowmates for small group learning moments. Since the desks still face forward, everyone still has a good view of the board.
Cons: Anytime you group students together, you can expect them to talk to each other more. This could be more distracting for individual students and the entire class.
6. Group Pods: Best for small group collaboration
This type of desk arrangement involves putting three to five student desks together in groups or pods that don’t all face the front of the classroom. Instead, the students face each other. When considering a pod setup, smaller groupings will allow you to walk more easily about the room. If you have a larger class size of 30 or more, however, bigger pods are likely a better option for you.
Pros: This encourages small group collaboration and community building, which can increase engagement. It also promotes more student-led learning than traditional teacher-led learning.
Cons: This can promote side talking, so be sure to establish ground rules at the outset. It can also make it difficult for you to have one-on-one conversations with students due to their close proximity to classmates.
💡 Pro Tip: Chrissy Beltran Buzzing With Miss B is a big advocate of this setup for group work, saying, “I know it can stress some teachers out, but there is so much value in having kids sit with a group. When students are in groups, it’s easy to tell them to ‘turn and talk,’ ‘think-pair-share,’ or ‘turn-and-teach,’” she explains. “The level of engagement bumps WAY up when we give kids time to talk and process with members of a group.”
7. Mini U’s: Best for students who need more personal space
Similar to group pods, the mini U’s seating arrangement puts small groups of desks together in U shapes around the classroom. You can have all the U’s open in the same direction or in different directions, as needed.
Pros: This desk arrangement has the benefits of encouraging class discussions and group collaboration, while giving students a bit more personal space. For teachers who use this layout, it makes it easy to circulate the room and access each student for personalized attention. If needed, teachers can also position themselves in the middle of the ‘U’ shapes to have discussions with each group.
Cons: These larger groupings take up more space, so they can make small classrooms feel cramped.
8. Traditional Grid: Best for easy classroom management
Most of the time, when you see pictures of a classroom, you’ll see individual desks arranged separately in neat little rows facing the front of the classroom. The traditional grid is a classic favorite for larger class sizes of 24-40 students. A modern twist on this desk setup is to slightly angle the desks toward a central point for stadium-like seating.
Pros: This classroom desk configuration is great for lecture-based teaching or if you do a lot of board work because it ensures that all students can easily see the teacher and the board at the front of the classroom. Students are also less likely to be distracted by their peers, making it an easy classroom management strategy.
Cons: It’s harder for students to interact with each other and work in pairs or groups with this setup.
Why Classroom Seating Arrangements Are Important
As part of establishing a positive class culture and creating an environment where students are poised to learn, teachers are faced with the question of how to arrange their students’ desks. This decision is a big one, as classroom desk arrangements largely determine:
- The way students interact with each other throughout the day
- Who most often interacts with each other
- How easily you can circulate among the students
- The quantity and quality of work students can complete
As with any classroom organization task, you might have some goals in mind when deciding how to set up the desks in your classroom. And those goals likely center on ensuring each student has their individual needs met and the resources available to make them the most successful. For example, research indicates that girls and boys may need different types of seating arrangements to support their mental health and well-being in class.
Reimagine classroom seating arrangements with TPT
Ultimately, the power is in your hands to set up your classroom based on what works for you and your students. And you should feel empowered to switch things up as often as you need to. Teacher-created classroom setup resources can give you new ideas that have already been tested out by other educators.