Shelly, The best suggestion I can give is to tell you to visit as many classrooms as you can and ask a lot of questions about room setup (why things are as they are; do things change through the school year; has the teacher changed the way she sets things up since she started teaching, and if so, then why? Etc) The more visuals you have and the more "experts" you ask, the better informed you will be about how you want it.
For myself, so many factors have played into room arrangement from things as basic as the number of students to things as complex as the type of group and the group dynamics. The thing I keep in mind is setting up quiet areas away from sharing or talking areas; making sure there are places for kids who need to be away from others to get things done; easy access to necessary materials (and eye-catching arrangement of the materials to make them appetizing); making sure there are spaces for different sized groups to work. I don't have a teacher desk anymore nor a kidney shaped reading table...they both take up too much valuable space. Best, Maureen _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
