Assigned Seats in Class

Lately, I've been taking a deeper dive into mindfulness in an effort to wake up to any habits that aren't serving me or my students well. Habits are funny: we don't notice them until we notice them, and when we really look at them we often find that we've been engaging in them—whether thoughts or behaviors—without regard for whether or not they serve the intentions we have for our work and life.

One of the things I do as a teacher that has become a habit that does serve my intentions as an educator is changing student seats in my classroom.

Flexible seating isn't just about the kind of furniture we have in our rooms, it's also about who is sitting where on any given day or at any given time.

When I do not assign seats (which is the majority of the time) I am mindful of where the students choose to sit, and I watch for patterns: who is sitting next to whom? did they sit next to each other yesterday? are they at a different table today or the same as yesterday? for how many days and weeks have they gravitated to the same spot and company? how are these seat choices serving or detracting from attention, focus, and productivity? how are these seat choices serving the bigger goal of community-building and collaboration?

When I do assign seats, the assignments serve academic and social purposes that stretch the students beyond their current state of comfort, skill, sense of "normal", or perspective, and serve to nudge the students toward growth.

This isn't something I keep to myself; my students and I have open discussions about this topic and I ask them to be mindful, too, about where they sit, why they sit there, and whether their seat choices are serving them and their peers well. In this way, they are stretching their mindfulness muscle, as well, and learning to make deliberate choices.

I find it interesting to talk with other educators and students who are not in my classes about this, too.

In many classrooms, I've learned, students are assigned seats by their teachers before the school year has even begun (so, most often, before the teacher knows anything about the students—their character, their preferences, their needs, etc.) and they are expected to remain with that same seat assignment until the last day in June. I cannot help but wonder what purpose this serves. More importantly, I wonder, how does the singular seat assignment serve (or affect) the student?

So far in my conversations, when I have pushed into that second or third "why?" the response I've gotten from educators who make this choice amounts to something like: I don't know, I guess I just never really thought about it that deeply. It just works. That sounds to me like a habit: something we do without really thinking about it.

But seat assignments are worth thinking about. In fact, they deserve our full attention and thoughtful consideration.

Recently, I had the honor of speaking to a room full of educators about this topic and they gave me the good grace of their attention as I explained my point of view. I asked my colleagues to consider what small group discussions or pair-shares might be like if the partners never changed from August through June.

I posed the question: In what ways are we limiting our students' opportunities for growth if, because they are always sitting next to and around the same peers, they always hear the same perspectives, speaking styles, vocabulary, and terminology? Also, how are we limiting their opportunity to learn how to work with a variety of people with different personalities, skills, interests, talents, and so forth?

Most of the educators in the room nodded or tilted their head in consideration; eyebrows knitted together seeming to express that, with all we have to consider in the classroom, seat assignments aren't something we spend much time on.

Here's something I believe is worthy of our thought: the student experience is exponentially expanded and enriched by the simple act of occupying space in a different part of the room, surrounded by different faces and voices. It opens them up to new ideas, perspectives, and possibilities.

By increasing familiarity with the physical space and all the people in it, seat changes increase the sense of safety in the class, which in turn gives students a chance to get to know peers better, to dig deeper into relationships, to take more risks in the academic and collaborative challenges of the class, and to learn what it's like to have a variety of work partners.

They also learn a great deal about themselves and how capable they are of finding their way with different people.

I encourage all teachers to try changing up the seating chart. Experiment with different arrangements and purposes. Try giving the students choice every now and then and see what happens. Treat it like a study in classroom culture. You'll learn so much more about your students and surely have fun in the process!