I am changing the seating layout of my classroom because of a number of problems. My Year 4 class is nice but some of the children are extremely chatty and it affects their whole group. One girl in particular is a problem wherever she sits, influencing others to be silly, writing inappropriate notes to boys and talking constantly. I have five chatterboxes like this. I wanted to sit them in rows (this worked last year) but I can’t any more as my classroom is tiny. I am thinking of putting them in a horseshoe shape. Does anyone have any suggestions for effective seating plans or strategies for limiting chat and silliness from certain pupils?
What you said
Scienceteacher555
You say you have five chatterboxes but one girl in particular is a problem wherever she sits. Sit her on her own whenever she causes problems with another group of children. Explain why you have done this and what she can do to demonstrate to you that she is ready to work with the rest of the class. You could also, perhaps, contact the parents and invite them in. The horseshoe shape works well in secondary. For chatting and silliness, lay out your expectations and the consequences for breaking them. Then follow through every time.
Dozymare1957
Beware the horseshoe with chatty children. I taught some talkative Italian kids using this seating plan and the ones sitting opposite each other had a whale of a time abusing each other and cracking jokes across the classroom. On Day Two I put them into groups and used a primary idea of giving points to each table with a small prize on offer at the end of each day. The quieter children shut the noisy ones up so they could get the prize. It might be worth a try.
The expert view
Are rows and columns really not possible? Avoid a horseshoe if at all possible - it is an invitation to distract. Perhaps you need to turn up the volume on the sanctions. If they misbehave then they need to be kept in to do something decidedly unfun, such as copying, sitting in silence or tidying. Remove the chatterboxes from their peers if they persist. Have a zone ready to remove them to whenever they disturb the class. Children hate being isolated from their peers so if you are consistent they should get the message. Could you have partial rows with a curve at the end? At least then you could have areas that were mono-directional.
Tom Bennett is author of The Behaviour Guru and Not Quite a Teacher. Read more from Tom on his TES blog, or follow him on Twitter at @tesBehaviour. His latest book, Teacher, is out now, published by Continuum
Post your questions at www.tes.co.ukbehaviour.
