Classroom learning communities

Seating plans that enhance learning and shift the agency of being a responsible learner onto the students.

 I have always had a seating plan and in the past I have controlled the seating within my classroom.  Sometimes creatively, sometimes out of frustration, most of the time to minimise behaviour issues.  I have setup cooperative, ability, random and friendly seating plans.  I have set them up on a weekly, five week and term basis.   I have changed them when I felt that students were disengaged with learning.  I have preached to other teachers who experience behaviour issues to set up seating plans.  It will solve all of their problems!

Two weeks ago after reading New Learning – chapter five – learning personalities – create space for learner agency – page 135 – I decided to create a new style of organising seating plans and I have called it ‘creating learning communities’.  I set up four posters around the classroom, each with a marker and each with the desk configuration in the current classroom, (groups of four).  We discussed the seating plans that I have setup in the past and I shared my reasoning behind each of the plans.  I then introduced our new ’classroom learning communities’. 

Today you are going to have an opportunity to create your own learning communities.  Communities that may change on a daily basis depending of the activity we will be participating in.  You will need to cut out four small pieces of paper, each with your name on it and each with piece of blu tac on the back.  After we have discussed each of the four learning communities you will have some flexibility as to where you sit within those communities.

I held up each poster and discussed the following points with the class. 

No Friends Learning Community – This learning community is self explanatory, when you place your name on this poster you need to ensure that you have no friends sitting at the table with you.  I understand that you may consider every student to be your friend, so let’s define a friend in this instance to be someone who you do not hang out with on the playground or outside of school.  Someone you may not sit with unless the teacher asks you to.  The only other thing you need to consider is that each table must have a gender balance.  So two girls and two boys.  The only time this will not be the case is if the class has an uneven gender balance.

The second learning community is the ‘cooperative learning community’ – when you are choosing your seat in this learning community you need to choose a friend in the classroom and then join with another pair who are opposite gender.  This will be a flexible learning community.  There will be opportunities for these table groups to be swapped through gender pairs, face partners or diagonal partners.

The third learning community will be - ’Friendly Learning Community’ – this learning community has no gender or partner.  Create a table of four people who you enjoy working with.  People you relate to because you have something in common with them.

The fourth learning community will be – ‘Learners Learning Community’ – who remembers their reading or spelling groups in primary school?  What do you understand about that style of grouping? It is important that students have a discussion about the reading groups they were in and think about how the readers were leveled.  This will be an interesting group to create because it needs to be with students, who you believe, think and learn the same way you do.  They may be a friend, they may not, they may be the same gender, they may not.  The most important thing is that they think at the same level as you.  You have listened to each other during many lessons over the past and I am sure you can set up this learning community successfully.

The other important things you need to consider whilst participating in this activity are:

1. You are the only person who can place your name card on the posters.
2. You are the only person who can move your name card on the posters.
3. If another student is in a place you feel is more suited to you, a negotiation conference will need to take place.  You will need to find the other student and discuss your proposal outlining your reasoning.  If you cannot agree, you need to remove both of your names from the plan and place them at the bottom of the poster.  When we come together in a learning circle at the end of the activity we will discuss the issue as a class.  If you would like assistance you may ask me.  The whole class will need to discuss any issues at the end of the activity.
4. If you do not know where to put your name on any or one of the plans  place your name at the bottom and we will discuss it during our learning circle at the end of the activity.

After the students had finished we collected the posters and placed them in the middle of our learning circle.  We reflected on the process, describing different situations that arose. 

I was pleasantly surprised at the mature approach the class took to this activity.  They moved around the room having discussions about the best possible solution to setting up the learning communities.  We did have one student who was ostracized and his name was moved off the plan, in one case it was scrunched up.  When the student spoke to me during the activity I asked him if he minded if we addressed it during the learning circle.  He put on a brave face, knew that he was supported by me and obliged.  The outcome was positive and he solved the problem with the students involved later during the lesson.

When the class walk in they ask which seating plan and happily move into their learning communities.  I usually have the poster sitting on a desk, (cannot put it on the wall because this classroom is used by other classes and I can imagine how creative other students may be with a collection of blu tac names). 

Over the past two weeks I have changed plans mid lesson and this transition has been effortless and effective.  For example: during an introduction to developing an understanding of the formula for surface area I decided to use the ‘No Friends Learning Community’ for the introduction, then moved them into ‘Cooperative Learning Community’ for concept development.

 This grouping strategy was ’new learning’ for myself and my class.  Reflection from the students has been positive the learning communities are currently working productively. 

Creating space for learner agency. 

Posted in: Knowledge, Learning & Pedagogy