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Will students be allowed to switch seats during the day?

Will reading stamina be increased with flexible seating?

What will it look like in the beginning of the year?

Will students be able to change a seat once they settle in for independent reading? This may be distracting.

Where will I conduct guided reading? Designated space or unused spot in room?

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It's been my dream to make my 2nd grade classroom look more like a "Starbucks for kids", and less like, well, a classroom.

Think about when you go to Starbucks to complete some work. Why do you choose to work there? Where do you choose to sit? I usually gravitate towards the comfy seating choices like the couches and big chairs, and yet, I see people choose the tables and chairs over and over again. Regardless, when you walk into Starbucks, you have choice. You get to choose where you sit. No one checks you in and directs you to a spot, telling you that you must sit there for the remainder of the day to do your work. If you need to get up, walk around, or choose a different seat, you are free to do so.

As I sat in our local Starbucks this past summer, I looked around and thought-why can't my classroom look like this?

After several weeks of planning and a little bit of faith, what resulted was this:

But how did I get to this point? Let me take you through some common questions I get asked about classroom redesign-so that hopefully, you can do the same.

What did your process look like?

Before I even purchased a single thing, I thought about why I was doing a classroom redesign. If we truly want to prepare our students for the real world, we need to put them in responsive, dynamic environments that reflect life outside of a traditional classroom. And what's that life outside like? Full of choices, where adults are responsible for their own learning. As a college student visiting my classroom once said, "It's like you're treating them like little adults." And as my teaching has changed, my classroom design needed to change right along with it.

After consulting Erin Klein, a classroom design guru who has been "ditching her desks" to avoid "the cemetery effect" for a few years now and sharing her experiments on her blog, I thought about my classroom and the traditional chairs and tables I was given-and I came up with a plan.

Looking around my classroom, I quickly realized that I had far too much furniture, so I got rid of four tables, my huge teacher desk, 20 traditional chairs and a file cabinet. Next, I started looking for resources to redesign and repurpose what I already had. I looked around my house and in my storage closet to pull some pieces that I wasn't using, and scavenged Hobby Lobby for some new purchases.

What came out of that was flexible seating and open floor space: I thought about my students who would prefer to stretch out on the floor, and I purchased yoga mats and bath rugs for them to lay out on and work. Simultaneously, my fellow educators contributed extra clipboards they weren't using so students would be able to write just as easily.

Now, I have a large, open area for whole group instruction and five remaining tables, each designed with a specific purpose:

a small group instruction whiteboard table with stools

a stand-and-work table with no chairs

a crate seats table

a sit-on-the-floor area with core disks or pillows and work table (see to the right)

a stability ball chairs table

Do you have a seating plan or arrangement?

No, I don't have a seating plan for kids. I allow students to responsibly choose where they work every day. When they arrive in the morning, they make a choice for the day but are free to switch places as they see fit throughout the day. I have enough seating options in our classroom that there are never issues about running out of one type of seating.

How do you ensure students are selecting smart choices to work?

At the beginning of the year, students spent an entire day trying out each of the seating choices. After that, I began to let them self-select their seating daily.

I think this is an important step in the process. For example, one student who stands and works originally swore up and down that he would work best on the stability balls-but that changed. It only took him falling off the chair once and almost bouncing out the door for us to both realize that it probably wasn't a smart fit for him.

One big note: Students know I always reserve the right to move them, and they know I always have their best learning in mind.

What about your students with behavior issues?

The behaviors of my students who have exhibited aggressive or distracting behaviors in the past have significantly decreased. There is power for them in the choice to select where they will work. They know the work isn't optional, but choosing where they work is.

Did you do it all at once, or introduce these changes slowly over time?

I had the option of "work rugs" (glorified bath rugs, as shown to the right) for students last year, but only a few students utilized them. So, things have changed over time.

If you want to just try a few things without breaking the bank, I would start with a few work rugs or yoga mats. Or, just take the legs off of a table, lay it on the ground and get some cheap pillows for students to sit on. It's also easy to raise a table for students who prefer to stand and work. Don't feed the fears-just try it and see what works for you.

Where do students keep materials?

We have work bins in the corner of our room where students keep folders, math journals, and other personal items. We use community supplies at each of the five tables, and I have individual baskets of supplies for students that choose to work on yoga mats or work rugs. If you don't have work bins for students, get three drawer stackers and place them throughout the room, or put materials in baskets. You may have to get creative and repurpose something you already have-or something that another teacher has, but isn't using.

What do parents think of all this?

This was an amazing question I saw on my Instagram page, and it pushed me to reach out to a parent for an opinion for this article. Here was her response:

If we take a look at classrooms over the past 70 years, we are seeing the same type of learning environments, year after year. The world is changing, yet our classrooms are remaining much the same. Revitalizing space is a straightforward way to let students exercise choice in the learning environment and find academic success on their own terms.

Now several weeks into our school year, I can't imagine going back to traditional seating. Distracting behaviors have been almost completely eliminated while engagement and student participation are at an all time high. And as I look around our classroom, I feel proud of what we have accomplished-a Starbucks for kids.

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Why the 21st Century Classroom May Remind You of Starbucks - EdSurge News

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It's been my dream to make my 2nd grade classroom look more like a "Starbucks for kids", and less like, well, a classroom. Think about when you go to ...

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by Judith L. Irvin, Julie Meltzer and Melinda S. Dukes

Why is this component important? Becoming skilled readers, writers, speakers, listeners, and thinkers requires ample opportunity for practice, authentic reasons for communicating, and effective instructional support. To achieve competence in literacy, students must be motivated to engage with literacy tasks and to improve their proficiency as readers and writers. Instruction and practice then provide the coaching and feedback necessary to gain competence. Increased competence inspires continued motivation to engage. This cycle supports improved student achievement. The role of school leaders is to ensure that this cycle of engagement and instruction is provided by all teachers to all students.

Literacy is a big part of the everyday world of adolescents. They pass notes, read e-mail, write in journals, share stories, study the driver's manual, decipher train schedules, search the Web, send instant messages to one another, read reviews of video games, discuss movies, post blogs, participate in poetry jams, read magazines and novels, and so much more. Yet many middle and high school teachers and administrators lament that students just do not read and write anymore, often blaming today's TV and video game culture.

We maintain that many, perhaps most, teenagers are actually highly motivated readers and writers-just not in school. For school leaders who want to improve the academic literacy skills of students so that they will be more successful in school, this situation poses a challenge. Addressing this challenge is the key to a literacy improvement initiative. Helpful questions for school leaders to ask include the following:

What evidence do we have of students' out-of-school literacy skills that we can build upon to encourage completion of reading and writing assignments in school?

What motivates and engages students to read and write, and how can we include these types of opportunities throughout the school day and across the content areas?

What kinds of coaching, instruction, and practice develop proficiency in reading and writing, and how can leaders support teachers to provide these?

Many researchers have explored the richness, competence, and depth of adolescents' out-of-school literacies (see for example, Alvermann, 2003, 2004; Lee, 2005; Smith & Wilhelm, 2002). The motivation for students to read and write outside of school seems to be threefold: (1) the topic needs to be something they feel is important to communicate about; (2) the topic needs to be something they feel strongly about or are interested in; or (3) the reading or writing needs to take place when they want to do it, or "just in time." Add to this a feeling of competence with the language, topic, or genre and multiple authentic opportunities for feedback and practice. These conditions produce situations in which adolescents are highly engaged with reading and writing.

Consider, for example, this instant message (IM) conversation between two teens who rarely read or write in school. Note the participants' high level of fluency with a code that many adults do not understand:

JZ: what's the 411 on tonight

LilK: we r abt2 hit the mall

JZ: which 1

LilK: TM

JZ: now?

LilK: yeah-going 2 get som p-za n then p/u a movie. u coming?

JZ: may-b. which movie?

LilK: dky-there r a few dope ones. what do you want 2 c

JZ: idk

LilK: what about wolfcreek

JZ: str8 J y? that what you want

LilK: j/c

JZ: what time? Go alap

LilK: Y

JZ: bcoz got 2 do some family stuff. hit my numbers b4 u go

LilK: a-rite

JZ: g2g

LilK: k

JZ: cul8r

LilK: c ya

If adolescents have reading and writing skills as we claim, why is it so difficult to get many of them to read a chapter in the history text or finish a short story in a literature anthology? Several issues are at play. First, out-of-school literacy skills may not be adequate for, or easily transferable to, academic reading and writing tasks. Second, many teachers do not build upon or bridge from out-of-school literacies to develop academic literacy skills because they may assume that because students will not read and write that they cannot. Third, most academic reading and writing assignments are not particularly motivating or engaging. And fourth, many middle and high school teachers do not have the expertise to provide reading and writing instruction in the content areas.

Many students approach assignments as something to get through without understanding the relevance of those assignments to their lives. Many try to avoid assigned reading because for them reading is an unpleasant, arduous, and unrewarding task; for some middle and high school students, their decoding and basic fluency skills are too limited to read grade-level textbooks. For far more students, the content of the textbook, article, or trade book is too difficult or too irrelevant to their experience, and encountering the information on the page is not sufficient for understanding. These students need to talk, write, and connect the content to what they already know to make sense of the material on the page. Other students do not see the relevance of the assigned reading to their lives and are not interested in putting forth the effort to complete the task. Often, however, many of these same students are able to persevere with difficult reading if they are interested in the subject at hand and if they get appropriate help-that is, if they can be motivated and supported to engage with the task.

Engagement with learning is essential, because it is engagement that leads to sustained interaction and practice. Coaching, instruction, and feedback become critical to ensure that students develop good habits and increase their proficiency. Increased competence typically leads to motivation to engage further, generating a cycle of engagement and developing competence that supports improved student achievement.

In the Leadership Model for Improving Adolescent Literacy, the interconnected elements of Student Motivation, Engagement, and Achievement make up the central goal of a schoolwide literacy improvement effort and are represented as the center circle on the graphic that depicts the model. In this chapter, we describe the well-researched connections between motivation, engagement, and achievement. Then we present strategies for motivating students to engage with literacy tasks, followed by a discussion of how engagement is connected to development of proficiency and what leaders can do to promote student motivation, engagement, and achievement. Two vignettes illustrate aspects of motivation and engagement, first through relationship building, then through instructional context. In both, the classroom itself is used as an intervention to get disengaged students motivated and involved in reading and writing for authentic purposes. We conclude the chapter with key messages.

Why Motivation and Engagement Are Important

Until recently, most middle and high schools in the United States have not included a focus on improving academic literacy skills-reading, writing, speaking, listening, and thinking-as a primary educational role. People have largely assumed that students are supposed to arrive in middle and high schools with adequate reading and writing skills that they can then apply to assignments involving increasingly complex reading and writing tasks. If, by chance, students do not arrive with these skills, educators sometimes prescribe remediation. More often, students are able to get through classes without reading and writing much at all. Well-meaning teachers may focus on alternate methods-showing and telling as opposed to reading and writing-to ensure that students are "fed" the content and not "penalized" for having low literacy skills. The result is that the students with the weakest skills often get the least amount of practice.

Other teachers assign reading and writing tasks and give low or failing marks to students who do not complete the assignments, assuming that motivation, not ability, determines if the work is turned in. The mindset of many teachers and administrators is that if students do not have the requisite reading and writing skills by middle or high school, it is simply too late. A number of educators speculate that some students just do not like to read and write-"that's just the way it is." Additionally, many middle and high school teachers do not know how to provide explicit reading and writing instruction. Specific literacy instruction, as part of content-area learning, tutoring services, learning centers, or study skill classes, has been virtually unknown in many middle and high schools.

For students with poor academic literacy skills, this lack of embedded and explicit literacy support results in a downward spiral that can lead to academic failure. It is especially important to motivate students who arrive in middle and high school classrooms with a history of failure as readers or writers. People are understandably reluctant to persist at behaviors that they do not enjoy or that make them feel incompetent-adolescents even more so. Adolescents with poor literacy skills will sometimes go to great lengths to hide their deficiency; some of them devote considerable energy to "passing" or to distracting attention from their struggles, and the effort required is a major reason why many drop out of school.

Yet discussions with teens who are struggling readers and writers do not suggest convictions such as "we are proud of not being able to read and write well" and "we should be left alone to reap the lifelong consequences of leaving school with inadequate literacy skills to face the workplace and the responsibilities of citizenship." Many of these students understand that poor literacy skills place them at a distinct disadvantage economically, personally, vocationally, and politically. They want to be better readers and writers, but in addition to their weak literacy skills, other serious barriers interfere, such as

minimal and often inappropriate help,

alienation from uncomfortable school environments and curricula that seem irrelevant to their lives, and

unreceptive environments for admitting the level of vulnerability they feel.

Motivation and engagement do not constitute a "warm and fuzzy" extra component of efforts to improve literacy. These interrelated elements are a primary vehicle for improving literacy. Until middle and high school educators work strenuously to address all of the barriers, and thereby motivate students to become engaged with literacy and learning, in the words of one student we interviewed, "I can tell you it just ain't gonna happen, you see what I'm sayin'?"

The Connection Between Motivation, Engagement, and Achievement

By the time students reach middle and high school, many of them have a view of themselves as people who do not read and write, at least in school. It is often difficult for teachers to know if middle school and high school students cannot or will not do the assignments; often all they know is that students do not do them. Herein lies the challenge for teachers and administrators: how to motivate middle and high school students to read and write so that they engage in literacy tasks and are willing to accept instruction and take advantage of opportunities to practice and accept feedback, thereby improving their academic literacy skills that will, in turn, improve their content-area learning and achievement.

This is not an either/or proposition. Instruction without attention to motivation is useless, especially in the case of students who are reluctant to read and write in the first place. As Kamil (2003) points out, "Motivation and engagement are critical for adolescent readers. If students are not motivated to read, research shows that they will simply not benefit from reading instruction" (p. 8). In other words, adolescents will take on the task of learning how to read (or write) better only if they have sufficiently compelling reasons for doing so.

Because motivation leads to engagement, motivation is where teachers need to begin. Reading and writing, just like anything else, require an investment by the learner to improve. As humans, we are motivated to engage when we are interested or have real purpose for doing so. So motivation to engage is the first step on the road to improving literacy habits and skills. Understanding adolescents' needs for choice, autonomy, purpose, voice, competence, encouragement, and acceptance can provide insight into some of the conditions needed to get students involved with academic literacy tasks. Most successful teachers of adolescents understand that meeting these needs is important when developing good working relationships with their students. However, many teachers have not thought of these needs in relation to their potential consequences for literacy development, that is, to what extent they meet these needs in the classroom through the academic literacy tasks they assign and the literacy expectations they have for students.

Motivating students is important-without it, teachers have no point of entry. But it is engagement that is critical, because the level of engagement over time is the vehicle through which classroom instruction influences student outcomes. For example, engagement with reading is directly related to reading achievement (Guthrie, 2001; Guthrie & Wigfield, 2000). Engagement-with sports, hobbies, work, or reading-results in opportunities to practice. Practice provides the opportunity to build skills and gain confidence.

However, practicing without feedback and coaching often leads to poor habits. Coaching-or, in this case, explicit teaching-helps refine practice, generates feedback, creates structured exercises targeted to specific needs, and provides encouragement and direction through a partnership with the learner. Note that more modeling, structure, and encouragement are often needed to engage students who are motivated to begin but who have weaker skills and therefore may not have the ability or stamina to complete tasks on their own.

Sustained engagement, therefore, often depends on good instruction. Good instruction develops and refines important literacy habits and skills such as the abilities to read strategically, to communicate clearly in writing or during a presentation, and to think critically about content. Gaining these improved skills leads to increased confidence and competence. Greater confidence motivates students to engage with and successfully complete increasingly complex content-area reading and writing tasks, and this positive experience leads to improved student learning and achievement.

Thus, teachers have two primary issues to contend with when trying to improve the literacy skills of unmotivated struggling readers and writers: (1) getting them to engage with academic literacy tasks, and (2) teaching them how to complete academic literacy tasks successfully. Proficiency is developed through a cycle of engagement and instruction (Guthrie & Wigfield, 1997; Roe, 2001). Figure 1.1 shows a Literacy Engagement and Instruction Cycle that exemplifies the interrelatedness of teaching and learning within the context of literacy.

Figure 1.1. The Literacy Engagement and Instruction Cycle

Not available for electronic dissemination.

Source: The Literacy Engagement and Instruction Cycle

This cycle represents the learning conditions and support required for literacy learning to take place. Teachers and administrators who understand what this cycle looks like within the content-focused classroom can support the activation and maintenance of the cycle for all students. The vignettes in the next two sections of this chapter illustrate how teachers can make this happen and what types of learning environments are effective for motivating students to engage with academic literacy tasks. For leaders, the challenge is how to support teachers to develop these types of classroom experiences and contexts so that they become typical practice, rather than the exception.

Breaking the Cycle of Failure

Breaking the cycle of failure for struggling readers and writers and engaging all students to participate actively in their own literacy development requires the use of classroom environments themselves as interventions. In some cases, it is the classroom culture that prompts or supports reluctant readers and writers to want to engage with literacy tasks, resulting in their being more open to instruction. Such classroom environments provide motivation to read, multiple opportunities and authentic reasons to engage with text, and safe ways to participate, take risks, and make mistakes. In these classrooms, students feel that the teacher really cares about them and their learning. The following vignette illustrates how this type of classroom context worked to encourage the literacy and learning of one student.
Carly arrived at high school reading at the 5th-grade level. During middle school, she got involved with a rough crowd that did not care much about doing schoolwork, and figured that no one cared much anyway, so why should she try? She used to like books about real people and stories that the teachers in elementary school read aloud. In elementary school, she had been a pretty good student. During the first week of 9th grade, Carly's English teacher told her that she would like Carly to join the mentoring club. Carly told her, "No disrespect, but I don't think so." The teacher, Ms. Warren, persisted. Furthermore, she read all of Carly's papers, checked in with her daily, and had a frank talk with Carly about how she had a lot of potential, was very smart, and needed to get her reading and writing up to speed. The books and short readings that Ms. Warren assigned in English were interesting and relevant to Carly, describing real events and people with dilemmas, but they were hard for her to read. Students in Ms. Warren's class were encouraged to share their opinions and ideas-but they always had to back them up with what they had read in the text. Ms. Warren taught her students multiple strategies for approaching different types of texts and always connected what they were reading to important themes in students' lives-power, cheating, love, violence. Carly tried the strategies and found they helped a lot. Carly began to work hard-but just in that one class. She agreed to join the mentoring club because Ms. Warren just wore her down and kept asking her again and again. To her surprise, Carly found she loved tutoring younger students, and the experience made her work harder on her own reading and writing skills so she could be a good role model for Tyanna, the 4th grader she met with after school. Carly's attendance improved because when she skipped school, both Ms. Warren and Tyanna got on her back about it. She started working harder on her papers because Ms. Warren commented on them and scheduled time to meet with her one-on-one to revise them. She asked Carly questions about her intent as though she were a real author. Later Carly admitted, "At the beginning I didn't think about what I was writing; I just wrote something down to turn in. But then I started thinking more about it." Carly also liked that Ms. Warren always gave students a choice of what to write about.
Midway through the year, Ms. Warren told Carly that she had a lot to say and suggested that she submit one particular essay to the school literary magazine, The Mag. Carly balked, but Ms. Warren submitted it anyway and it was accepted. Kids whom Carly did not even know came up to her and commented on how much they liked it. When she was asked to be on the editing committee for The Mag, she was surprised. She started to think that maybe she wasn't so stupid after all and went to the Learning Center for help with algebra. Her grades started to improve.

The following year, when she was asked what made the difference for her, Carly responded immediately: "It was Ms. Warren, Tyanna, and that darn piece she [Ms. Warren] submitted to The Mag. Kind of a combination. I'm still not so good at math. I have trouble sometimes reading my history book, and I hate biology-it's gross. But now I know that I am smart and that what I do matters and that I am just shooting myself in the foot if I don't try. I never thought about college before, but now I think I want to go."

Middle and high school leaders can reverse the downward spiral of failure many students experience by creating a literacy-rich environment throughout the school (see Chapter 4 for suggestions), establishing classroom environments as described in this vignette as the norm, and expecting all content-area teachers to provide literacy instruction in the content areas. Although Ms. Warren was apparently well versed in strategies for improving reading and writing, most content-area teachers, including many English teachers, are not. School leaders can support teacher learning about content-area literacy instruction through frequent, high-quality, job-embedded professional development and by providing opportunities for strategy sharing, feedback, and coaching. Content-area teachers must accept the challenge of integrating literacy and learning for their students.

Likewise, students cannot be expected to develop skills when the contexts for engagement and support for instruction are not in place. As described in the vignette, Carly was unengaged in school and not willing, at first, to participate in her own literacy development. She needed to see that someone cared, needed to have authentic and motivating reasons to read and write, and needed support to improve her literacy skills. None of this was likely to magically happen just because the educators in the school system announced that they believe in high standards for all students. But Ms. Warren knew how to create a classroom culture that supported literacy development. For Carly, as for many students, motivation and engagement led to increased literacy skills and higher self-esteem as a reader, writer, and learner, which led, in turn, to improved academic achievement.

Conditions for Engagement

The literature is full of examples of how the climate and conditions of the classroom really can make a difference in whether or not adolescents choose to engage in literacy tasks. We know that the learning environment and culture within each classroom play a part in supporting or undermining the chances that middle and high school students will participate in, and therefore benefit from, literacy development through the engagement-instruction cycle. This is the case with students at all literacy levels, including struggling readers and writers, English language learners, reluctant readers and writers, and aliterate students (those students who have adequate reading and writing skills but typically choose not to read or write). This understanding means it is well worth paying attention to the elements of classroom culture and environment to ensure that the conditions for literacy learning are in place. The following vignette describes students' engagement with a variety of literacy tasks when these were assigned within a motivating and supportive learning environment coupled with effective instruction.
The 8th grade students on the Dream Team at Lincoln Middle School were studying the topic of water quality. For this interdisciplinary unit, Kamal, Ayan, Mara, and Erika were put into a group. None of them really understood why watersheds were important when they began the project. The first assignment was to read and discuss a chapter in the science book. The terminology was hard, and they really did not understand what the chapter was about even after previewing it. But the science teacher provided strategies for learning the vocabulary and reading the text, so even though the group members were not inspired, they were able to complete the assignment. Members of Kamal's group became more interested when they saw the results of a local survey of waste disposal habits of businesses and households. The results indicated that "really disgusting stuff" was being dumped near the city's main supply of drinking water. Students listened to a local scientist and a government official talk about watershed and water treatment issues-policies, pollution, protections, and current threats. Students then took a tour of the local water treatment plant. In social studies class they debated the pros and cons of bottled water in terms of environmental and equity issues. Based on additional research and responses to e-mail questions submitted to the speakers, the students created a physical model of the watershed and the water treatment facility and discussed possible areas of concern. Each team of four identified key questions and went into the field to conduct tests of water and soil for the presence of pollutants. Then they learned to read government charts representing safe levels of these substances in the public water supply and technical documents describing the treatment plan for the city. Kamal's team carefully compared its test results with the information on the charts. What they found was disturbing. Levels of certain toxic substances and bacteria were high in the reservoir, but the water treatment facility was not addressing the problem by changing the treatment of the water, suggesting that the city's drinking water may not be safe. The teachers encouraged the students to report their findings using PowerPoint presentations. Students were given a specific format for presenting their questions, data, conclusions, and recommendations. Together with teachers, the students developed a rubric for each component of the presentations. The two presentations with the highest scores based on the rubric would be presented to the city council. The members of Kamal's team worked hard on their presentation-harder than they had ever worked before. Kamal and his fellow group members checked and rechecked facts, read and reread articles, discussed and debated what the recommendations should be, and revised and edited their presentation. To make sure they understood what they were reading, the group took the articles to the Learning Center during lunch, where a teacher showed them some strategies for finding facts and taking notes. They used these strategies to tackle some tough text, including findings from a scientific report. The two students with limited English proficiency in the group, Ayan and Mara, asked the others repeatedly if what they wrote was "OK." Kamal, usually apathetic when it came to school, saw this issue as important-he had four younger brothers and sisters, and his family used tap water for cooking and drinking all the time; he wanted it to be safe. Erika, who was usually shy in class but who really liked music, made up a theme song about water safety to accompany their presentation. When Kamal's team's presentation was chosen as one of the two to be shared at the city council meeting, their classmates were surprised. But Kamal and his teammates were not-this was an important opportunity to be heard. In their minds, this was much more important than the rest of the stuff they usually did at school-and they were willing to put in the time and effort to do it right. When a staff writer from the local newspaper attended the presentation and pressured the city to respond to the students' findings, the students knew their effort had been worthwhile.
In this vignette, several key factors relating to motivation inspired Kamal's team to engage with much more rigorous reading and writing than was typically the case. The students were working together on an issue they thought was important; they had choice and autonomy in the decisions about how to gather and present the information; and the presentation was for an authentic audience beyond the teacher or their peers. In Guthrie and Knowles's 2001 review of the empirical literature and their three-year study of K-12 classroom events that prompted sustained literacy interactions, they outline seven principles for promoting motivation to read:

use of conceptual themes to guide inquiry,

real-world interactions as springboards for further inquiry,

encouragement of self-direction,

the existence of a variety of texts,

support for the use of cognitive strategies,

social collaboration, and

opportunities for self-expression.

Guthrie and Knowles see this network of variables as those "likely to spark and sustain the long-term motivation required for students to become full members in the world of engaged readers" (p. 173). Like many researchers and practitioners, Guthrie and Knowles stress the connections between the affective, social, and cognitive aspects of reading. Although this research was not solely focused on adolescents, all of these factors were in place during the water quality project described in the vignette, and they contributed greatly to the engagement and success of Kamal's group.
Strategies to Engage Students

One extensive review of the literature related to adolescent literacy (Meltzer, 2002; Meltzer & Hamann, 2004) generated three promising practices that teachers can use to motivate students, including English language learners, to read, discuss, and strengthen literacy skills across content areas:

making connections to students' lives, thereby connecting background knowledge and life experiences to the texts to be read and produced;

creating safe and responsive classrooms where students are acknowledged, have voice, and are given choices in learning tasks, reading assignments, and topics of inquiry that then strengthen their literacy skills; and

having students interact with text and with each other about text in ways that stimulate questioning, predicting, visualizing, summarizing, and clarifying, preferably in the process of completing authentic tasks (tasks with a personal purpose or for a larger audience than the teacher).

Adolescent motivation in general is highly variable and is often dependent upon purpose and context, including relationships with peers, parents, teachers, and others. Therefore, a variety of motivational entry points need to be present to spur student engagement with literacy. Content-area classrooms that implement these three practices tend to be well stocked with books, magazines, technology resources, and a variety of other types of texts and materials. The next sections describe what each of these practices looks like in the classroom.

Making Connections to Students' Lives

In classrooms that promote motivation, teachers continually make connections between texts and the life experiences of students, films, other texts, previous school experiences, and the topic at hand. Before assigning a piece of text to read, teachers provide students with a purpose for reading, and they consciously activate students' prior knowledge. Teachers use a variety of approaches-demonstration, film, field trips, picture books, discussion-to build students' background knowledge and regularly ask students to present similarities and contrasts between their own life experiences and what is in the text. For example, students might participate in hands-on activities that they then actively discuss and analyze before completing related reading and writing. Motivation to read and write is enhanced by their new knowledge and experience and by the discussion that precedes the reading and writing. Students feel as though their life experiences are relevant and appreciated and that they are expected to use their own and others' experiences to make sense of text and content. They view the content they are learning as meaningful and connected, not isolated and foreign. Reading, discussing, analyzing, and creating texts become primary formats for learning and expression.

Establishing a purpose for reading is also related to improved comprehension. When students have a purpose for reading, have adequate background knowledge, and make personal connections to what they are reading, they can persevere through challenging text. Helping students to make connections is essential because student engagement is determined by the personal purpose for reading, the particular texts being read, and the links between the texts and students' personal circumstances. Helping students make connections between their own goals and their choices of texts is also important for how students develop the ability to use text to learn.

In the vignette, Kamal and his team were able to make connections between what the speakers said, what the textbook said, what articles and reports revealed, and the field trips they took. They had opportunities to discuss what each meant and allowed the connections being made and the conclusions being drawn to spur further inquiry.

Creating Safe and Responsive Classrooms

In safe and responsive classrooms, teachers respond to adolescents' needs for choice and flexibility and offer clear expectations and support for higher achievement. Teachers are also responsive to differing cultural and socioeconomic perspectives, making their appreciation of these perspectives clear through their facilitation of discussion, choices of literature, structuring of assignments, and assessment strategies. Teachers who successfully build upon the multiple literacies that students bring with them to the classroom learn about these literacies and help students understand how the forms of argumentation, categorization, and rhetoric that they commonly use out of school are similar to and different from those commonly encountered in academic texts.

Most important, teachers must understand that engagement feels like a high risk for many students. For those with low literacy self-esteem, the motivation to read and write depends on their judgments regarding whether teachers will give up on them or believe that they are worth the investment of time and encouragement. Teachers who persist in trying to reach resistant or reluctant learners continue to repeat invitations to join in the discussion, valuing small contributions and allowing students to participate at their own pace. Teachers must make clear to students that they care about their learning and their development of literacy skills, as well as their well-being as individuals. It is okay to make mistakes in these classrooms-the teacher acknowledges explicitly that learning is a continuum and that the role of students in a learning community is to improve their own skills and help others to improve theirs. When possible, teachers incorporate a choice of topic or format and, sometimes, goal setting and self-assessment into reading and writing assignments to accommodate varying student interests and learning styles and to engage students in developing their proficiency as readers and writers.

In the vignette, Kamal's group clearly felt that the classroom was a safe environment in which to learn, question, and present ideas. The team was encouraged to make choices, follow lines of inquiry, and use a variety of sources of information. The teacher validated a personal reason for pursuing the topic and encouraged various means of expression. Resources were provided and support was available to help the students as needed.

Having Students Interact with Text and with Each Other About Text

In classrooms that support motivation, students frequently work in small groups and pairs to analyze texts and to edit one another's writing assignments. Teachers structure learning experiences to help students develop deeper comprehension through discussion, to debate using text-based reasoning, and to understand various points of view. A collaborative learning experience within the context of a classroom environment that welcomes and supports diverse perspectives is the norm across the content areas. The multiple literacies that students bring to the classroom are viewed as a capacity and a resource. Teachers might encourage students to compare and contrast how a scene could be described using first language, home dialects or vernacular English, or IM script. Different ways of approaching and solving problems in math and science and writing are discussed and appreciated. When students share how situations similar to those being studied in social studies or read about in English would play out within their own cultural contexts, teachers value their contributions as additional insight into the topic at hand, not a distraction.

Kamal and his team members were able to discuss their project with one another from its inception through its presentation. They were able to discuss texts and to use their native languages when necessary to understand or explain to one another or to find out how to express something in English. Class activities encouraged discussion and debate and exploration of multiple, often conflicting, texts and points of view.

Focusing on Authentic Literacy Tasks

Authenticity is often the hidden key to motivating reluctant readers and writers to engage in academic literacy tasks. Yet in many middle and high school classrooms, authentic literacy tasks, if they occur at all, tend to be infrequent events. Moreover, many teachers consider simulated performance tasks to be authentic-a perspective students often do not share. Adolescents want their work to matter, and they want to conduct inquiry for reasons other than it being an assignment or an exercise. Authentic literacy tasks play into adolescents' needs to do things that are real and often prompt new effort for rehearsal, comprehension, discussion of content, planning, revision and editing tasks, summarizing, and other literacy skills because these activities are being carried out for purposes other than "just passing it in to the teacher." This phenomenon was evident in the vignette; the fact that water quality was a real issue that mattered to Kamal and his teammates led to much more rigorous effort than standard textbook reading assignments had elicited.

Other authentic literacy tasks include adolescents reading with younger students or creating books on tape or authoring books for them, designing Web sites, writing newspaper articles, and conducting and reporting upon inquiries that reflect real societal concerns (such as neighborhood crime, pollution, teen issues, or school or city policies that affect them or their families). These strategies often motivate and engage students to persist with challenging or extended reading or writing tasks (Alvermann, 2001).

Encouraging Critical Literacy

Helping students to analyze bias, perspective, audience, and the underlying assumptions and purpose of a piece of writing is an authentic approach for studying texts because it empowers students to understand that texts are not infallible. As vehicles for communicating the point of view of the author, texts are infused with subjectivity and based on assumptions. Understanding the larger political, historical, and economic contexts within which texts are produced allows students to comprehend why certain perspectives are valued above others, what assumptions underlie the author's words, whose ideas gain currency, and why this might be the case. Students can apply these understandings to their reading of an article about a scientific discovery, primary sources, history textbooks, novels, newspaper stories, and many other types of text. For many students, this approach to studying text is motivating and meaningful and leads to greater engagement with text. For Kamal and his teammates, understanding the texts so they knew if the water system was at risk was an important reason to persevere through challenging material.

Using Technology

The use of technology is often highly motivating to adolescents in terms of getting them to read and write more carefully and with more effort. The ability to revise on the computer, to add effects (color, graphics, sound) to presentations, and to code or mark text using word processing features such as highlighting motivates many students, especially when this capability is combined with an authentic purpose to read and write. Some students are much more likely to persevere with skill development if it is presented through a computer program or to complete an inquiry assignment if it is structured as a Web quest.

In the vignette, Kamal and his teammates used a PowerPoint presentation to successfully present their case. The technology was a useful and easy-to-use tool that helped communicate their ideas to their audience.

Connecting Engagement to Improved Proficiency

Although it may be easy to see how these learning conditions stimulate motivation and engagement, the connection to how they build literacy skills and improve literacy learning may be less clear. Obviously, willingness alone does not make one competent. As previously shown in the engagement-instruction cycle (Figure 1.1), when coupled with support and instruction, engagement with literacy tasks that one perceives are worth completing allows for guided practice. Because skillful coaching improves performance during practice, practice allows for improvement to take place.

But just as responsive classrooms do not happen by accident, neither does literacy learning for the vast majority of students. Most students need skillful literacy instruction within the context of content-area learning to support their ongoing literacy development, including explicit instruction in reading strategies and skills and how these can be applied to various genres and contexts. In Chapters 2 and 3, we present, in detail, the types of strategies and skills that reading and writing instruction should include as part of both content-area instruction and intensive interventions for struggling readers and writers.

In the following sections we describe three additional types of academic literacy habits and skills that the research stresses as being necessary for all students to develop to become independent learners: metacognitive skills, vocabulary development, and the ability to generate questions. Competence in each of these three skill areas supports students' abilities to learn content. Teachers' conscious development of each of the three, coupled with attention to motivation, will support engagement with academic literacy tasks and improve reading and writing proficiency. Students' academic success is dependent upon developing competence with each of these, whether or not they are used in conjunction with reading or writing.

Developing Metacognitive Skills

Metacognitive skills allow students to monitor their own comprehension effectively. That is, learners realize when they do not understand something or when something does not make sense. Students with good metacognitive skills can use a variety of "fix-up" strategies when reading or listening, like rereading, listing or visualizing, questioning the text, relating the content to personal background, or using text aids to assist with comprehension. Weaker readers can learn the metacognitive strategies that stronger readers use. These strategies help weaker readers improve reading comprehension and, therefore, improve their content area learning. Being able to use metacognitive strategies independently as needed to strengthen and deepen literacy and learning is the de facto definition of an "independent learner." This sense of having more control over one's reading and learning through the development of metacognitive skills typically motivates students to sustain engagement.

Developing Vocabulary

Vocabulary development is intertwined with reading comprehension and content-area learning. Students need a variety of strategies they can use to learn and remember the many technical terms, key concepts, and academic vocabulary that they encounter in the study of various disciplines. There is no evidence that "assign, define, and test," the most prevalent approach used in middle and high school classrooms for learning vocabulary, is effective in helping students to learn words. According to Allen (1999), teachers in each content area should implement purposeful vocabulary instruction to

increase reading comprehension,

develop knowledge of new concepts,

improve range and specificity in writing,

help students communicate more effectively, and

develop deeper understanding of words and concepts with which students are only nominally familiar.

Struggling readers and writers and most ELL students also need purposeful attention to the study of words (root words, affixes) and the development of academic language (non-content-specific words found in printed directions, forms, textbooks, novels, and other publications). Throughout the literature, vocabulary development is stressed as a key component of literacy.
Generating Questions

Finally, students need to learn how to generate good questions. Questioning is effective for improving comprehension because it provides students with a purpose for reading, focuses attention on what must be learned, helps develop active thinking while reading, helps monitor comprehension, helps review content, and relates what is being learned to what is already known (Armbruster, Lehr, & Osborn, 2001). Having students generate their own questions about a text has also been shown to be an effective strategy for improving reading comprehension-questioning becomes a vehicle for connecting the text to their own prior knowledge.

Questioning is a part of several other learning strategies. For example, writing-to-learn strategies, written responses to higher-order-thinking questions, engagement in Socratic discussion, use of analytical graphic organizers, inquiry-based learning, and collaborative routines for text study all involve asking and answering questions, and all have been proven effective in improving literacy habits and skills, including reading comprehension. Developing metacognitive skills requires asking oneself if a particular text is making sense, and if not, why not. Activating prior knowledge, described in the literature as an essential way to connect students with text and improve reading comprehension and the ability to learn from text, requires asking questions. Many stages of the writing process, from choosing a topic to developing an outline, revising, and publishing, also require the ability to ask questions. Completing research is highly dependent on identifying key issues and framing good questions to guide inquiry. Again, the premise that students need to be able to ask effective questions is not one that is found in many middle and high school classrooms, where the focus is typically on answering questions asked by the teacher or the text.

Explicitly teaching students these literacy habits and skills and providing multiple opportunities to practice them across content areas will ensure that students develop competence in these three areas. For example, teachers can focus on vocabulary development with each unit of study, or teach how to complete a research paper and present research findings through a focus on questioning. As the engagement-instruction cycle (Figure 1.1, p. 34) illustrates, this increased competence will further motivate students to engage with reading and writing tasks and will lead to improved student achievement.

Connecting Learning to Adolescents' Needs, Interests, and Dispositions

Adolescents are not passive recipients of information who have few skills. They are, instead, actively curious young people with background knowledge and a wide range of literacy skills that they may or may not be using in school. Improving their skills involves gaining their participation. Sometimes teachers and administrators spend considerable energy fighting with adolescents instead of harnessing their abilities and skills in the service of improving their literacy and learning. To help adolescents improve their academic literacy habits and skills, teachers and administrators can build on needs, interests, and dispositions that adolescents have, such as those presented in Figure 1.2.

Figure 1.2. Linking Instruction with Needs, Interests, and Dispositions

Need for control/autonomy

Provide choices in

Assignment topics

Assessment modes

Books to read

Order of completing work

Interest in technology/media

Use technology to support

Communication

Presentation

Research

Disposition to debate

Plan many opportunities for

Debate

Text-based discussion

Opinion boards

Blogs

Letters to the editor

Student correction of content/format errors

Need to make a difference

Set up opportunities for

Reading to/tutoring others

Research into real issues

Apprenticeships

Creating informational Web sites

Writing articles for publication

Peer editing

Sense of accomplishment

Literacy goal setting

Progress monitoring

Use of rubrics

Collaborative teaming for completion of literacy tasks

What Leaders Can Do

School leaders know that most academic learning in middle and high schools takes place within classrooms. Leaders who are aware of the options teachers have to promote student motivation and engagement with literacy tasks can ensure that these options are in place in every classroom. Principals can work with teachers to identify a vision for what classrooms where students are motivated to engage with literacy development would look like. What would teachers be doing? What would students be doing? What would the classroom environment be like? Then teams of teachers can define what immediate steps they can take to move toward this vision. The vision can be reintroduced during the year to check on progress and remind teachers of this priority. When principals do walk-throughs or visit classrooms, their feedback to teachers might include references to aspects of the learning environment, assigned tasks, or instructional support that appeared motivating to students. Principals should also provide feedback about how many students appeared to be actively engaged in learning so that teachers can monitor their progress in reaching and involving increasing numbers of students. Leaders can provide opportunities for teachers to share strategies for motivating and engaging different types of learners so these strategies are used more widely across classrooms.

School leaders also should think about the school environment in its entirety. How would visitors know that this is a school that values and encourages reading, writing, and thinking? Establishing a literacy-rich schoolwide culture that is focused on student motivation, engagement, and achievement will make it easier for teachers to feel supported to make changes, will reinforce key messages to students and parents about the importance of reading and writing, and will clarify to teachers that school leaders are willing to "walk the talk." (We present more ideas on what a schoolwide culture and environment look like in Chapter 4.)

A primary role of school leaders is to motivate teachers to engage in the professional development necessary for them to learn how to support the literacy development of their students more effectively. As long as teachers see a lack of engagement as "the students' fault," they will not be provoked to change their own classroom practices to focus on motivation and sustained engagement with reading, writing, and thinking. If they do not know strategies that support literacy in the content areas, they cannot be expected to incorporate them into classroom teaching and learning. School leaders need to motivate and engage teachers to make necessary changes in classroom learning environments and instruction through high-quality professional development, establishing an expectation that this will occur and providing support. (We describe strategies for providing the support that teachers need in Chapter 6.)

School leaders may want to survey students about their attitudes toward reading and writing and solicit students' suggestions on what types of classroom environments and support they would find helpful to their learning. Sometimes hearing what students say is motivating to them is helpful to teachers who do not understand the challenges of literacy development from the students' point of view.

Relevance, relationships, and rigor are the rallying cry of middle and high school reform efforts (Daggett, 2005). Through an unwavering focus on literacy improvement, all three can be achieved. School leaders need to understand the goal-student achievement-as well as the primary route to that goal-increased motivation and engagement of students and teachers, leading to improved teaching and learning and higher self-efficacy of teachers and learners. The end result will be greater student success.

Key Messages

This chapter discussed the critical relationship between student motivation, engagement, and achievement and how school leaders can use classroom environments and contexts as intervention tools, interrupting a cycle of failure. Some students arrive at middle or high school with the hard shells of resistant readers or writers, but, underneath, no student wants to fail. Enacting the engagement-instruction cycle is essential to ensuring that all students have a chance for success. Helping students to become active participants in their quests to become competent, confident readers, writers, speakers, and thinkers requires classroom contexts that motivate and engage students, coupled with explicit literacy instruction that supports the improvement of their skills. The following are the key messages from this chapter:

A focus on motivation and engagement is the key to any effort to improve adolescent literacy habits and skills.

Sustained engagement in reading and writing tasks coupled with effective instruction leads to improved learning.

Three strong strategies for improving motivation and engagement are authentic tasks, critical literacy, and use of technology to support literacy development.

Students' motivations to read and write are highly variable and dependent on purpose, perceived value, self-efficacy, interest, and context.

Focusing on instruction without attention to motivation is not likely to be successful with adolescents.

Classroom environments and teacher actions can sustain and encourage, or undermine, student motivation and engagement in academic literacy tasks. Three important instructional practices are having students make connections, creating safe and responsive classrooms, and having students regularly interact with text and with one another about text.

Increasing students' competence through explicit literacy instruction within the context of a supportive learning environment will increase student engagement and improve student achievement.

Literacy is an integral part of adolescents' identities. Many struggling readers and writers have decided that improving their reading and writing skills is not worth the effort. Teachers may not know what to do when confronted with students who do not or will not read or write. When school leaders are aware of the connection between student motivation, engagement, and achievement, and know the strategies and practices that have been effective in breaking through students' resistance, they can support necessary changes in classroom environments, instructional practices, and school culture. Principals can support teachers' professional development, sponsor discussions among teachers about what they can do to infuse their content-area teaching with the effective practices mentioned in this chapter, and ensure that classroom environments and instruction include a strong focus on student motivation and engagement. Caring teachers, along with instructional and environmental supports, can go a long way to turning around a history of failure for many adolescent readers and writers.

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Student Motivation, Engagement, and Achievement

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by Judith L. Irvin, Julie Meltzer and Melinda S. Dukes Why is this component important? Becoming skilled readers, writers, speakers, listeners, and thinkers requires ample opportunity for practice, authentic reasons for communicating, and effective instructional support. To achieve competence in literacy, students must be motivated to engage with literacy tasks and to improve their proficiency as readers and writers.

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During the past year or so, flexible classroom seating has become a popular topic for educators. This term can be interpreted a few different ways, but at the heart of it is the concept that students are able to choose different seating options that fit best with their learning style.

Here are just a few of the reasons why teachers are branching out and experimenting with this practice:

1. Motivation through choice: Humans are more motivated to complete a task when they have a choice (i.e. control) over the task. This is not a new concept in student behavior-much of the love and logic discipline format teaches adults to avoid power struggles with children by offering choices. Classroom teachers can embrace this concept and offer choices for projects, assessments, and other environmental factors (music, lights, etc.). Seating is just another option to help motivate students to succeed.

2. Student metacognition ("metasitting"): Now that students have their physical needs met and are more motivated to learn, they can start to reflect and consider the different seats and how they like them. For example, most students know very quickly if something like a T-Stool works for them or not. Teachers can use this reflection to deepen the metacognition of the class by asking questions such as "How do you learn best?" and "What environmental factors help you learn better?" As secondary students study more at home, the library, and many other places, they need to know what works for them and what doesn't. This helps them to be successful-both in school and in life.

So how do you put a flexible seating plan into action? Here are some ideas to help you implement this practice in your classroom:

Exercise ball: These balls allow a student to bounce and move, which can help keep them more focused. However, these large balls are not easy to store in a classroom, so having too many of them can be tricky. When looking at seating options though, keeping three or four in a classroom for students to choose from works well.

There is a classroom management component to consider, so it may be a good idea to introduce the options one at a time instead of all at once. There should also be a system in place for who gets which seats when. This could be a rotation or a selection process, but think it through prior to starting in order to give every student their best chance at classroom success.

Regardless of how many options or even which ones, giving students a choice increases engagement and motivation.

We would love to hear from you about how seating arrangements have impacted your schools and classrooms. Leave us a comment below and let us know what has, or hasn't, worked in your classroom!

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Can Flexible Seating Enhance Student Success?

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During the past year or so, flexible classroom seating has become a popular topic for educators. This term can be interpreted a few different ways, but at the heart of it is the concept that students are able to choose different seating options that fit best with their learning style.

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Letting them fidget may keep students focused on learning.

Working with an ergonomic furniture company, Brown designed an adjustable-height desk that allows students to decide how they want to learn: They can stand, sit on a stool, or balance their feet on a swinging footrest.

"The students can't stand all day, but they can lean against the stool, and the footrest allows for natural movement," said Brown. "It's a comforting kind of fidget that helps them stay focused."

Today, teachers across the country have embraced the surprising idea behind the standing desks' success: that movement, when channeled correctly, can actually enhance learning. Whether through desks like Brown's, or do-it-yourself tools and activities like exercise equipment or yoga, teachers have found innovative ways to get students active and improve focus-without derailing the learning process.

"This way, students feel much more in control. They feel like it's their option, and they don't have to sit perfectly still and feel confined," said Brown, who received grant money, including funds from Education Minnesota, an affiliate of the National Education Association, to pay for the desks. "It's empowering for them."

What the Research Says

Research by a number of experts supports this fidget-friendly mindset. A 2008 study found that children actually need to move to focus during a complicated mental task. The children in the study-especially those with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)-fidgeted more when a task required them to store and process information rather than just hold it. This is why students are often restless while doing math or reading, but not while watching a movie, explained Dr. Mark Rapport, the supervisor of the study and professor of psychology at the University of Central Florida in Orlando.

Increasing students' activity level in the classroom provides physical benefits, as well. Dr. Donald Dengel, director of the Laboratory of Integrative Human Physiology and an associate professor at the University of Minnesota, co-authored a 2011 study that examined changes in caloric expenditure due to standing desks. His study found that participants using the desks burned 114 more kilocalories per day, or about half a candy bar.

"That doesn't sound like a lot, but if you add that up for five days a week, it's about two and a half candy bars per week, and over the course of the school year, it adds up to almost six pounds," said Dengel.

Ideas for Accommodating the Wiggles

Teachers don't need to purchase new desks to provide these physical and mental benefits to their students, however. Kent, Washington, high school teacher Michel Plemmons fashioned footrests using old tires to make giant rubber bands, which she strung between the legs of traditional desks to give her students an outlet for foot-fidgets.

"The old tire trick was recommended to me-you could outfit a whole classroom, if you had to, with a few bucks' worth of recycling," she said. "I don't go first to the expensive, teacher store, items. Shoeboxes and paper tubes and plastic tubs work just as well, and teach a recycling ethic."

While Plemmons sometimes uses handheld tools like squishy balls, she prefers the footrests because they keep students' movements out of sight and allow them to write freely.

In keeping with Plemmons' recycling ethic, North Carolina elementary school counselor Scott Ertl asked friends and community members to donate used exercise bikes for a "Read and Ride" room. Teachers can rent the room for 15-minute intervals, in which their students can read while pedaling away, and many have integrated exercise equipment into their classrooms.

"I've been surprised how eager some students have been to read-especially boys," Ertl told Education World. "Because they love being active, they find that the movement allows them to have more fun reading. Many students previously thought reading was boring or too hard, but now they see reading can be fascinating and fun."

Trichel House, a kindergarten teacher at Russell Primary School in Russell, Kentucky, created her own techniques to enhance students' focus. She uses movement, coupled with music, to help students exercise and concentrate during the school day.

"I have found that I had to change my comfort zone to allow for more than the norm of fidgeting," she said.

At Brittin Elementary in Fort Stewart, Georgia, Gwyn Ann Raczkowski underwent a similar adjustment when she taught a student who liked to walk while reading-and it actually improved her comprehension.

"Kids hate sitting all day, and I do also, so the idea came to me that if they can make a responsible choice and get their work done, it doesn't matter if it's at a desk, on a stool, or cross-legged on the floor with a clipboard," she said.

Since then, Raczkowski has embraced a "whatever works" approach with her students: She uses stability balls, sitting on the floor, and a variety of other tools and activities to help her students stay active and focused. Yoga exercises, especially a few minutes before a test, help Raczkowski's students concentrate on the task at hand.

Raczkowski admits that her approach may not be the solution for all teachers; but for her, it's a perfect fit.
Illustration by Dave Clark

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Working with an ergonomic furniture company, Brown designed an adjustable-height desk that allows students to decide how they want to learn: They can stand, sit on a stool, or balance their feet on a swinging footrest. "The students can't stand all day, but they can lean against the stool, and the footrest allows for natural movement," said Brown.

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J.B. Nachman Elementary third-graders arrive at Rachel Thomas' classroom and are no longer told to find "their seat."

"Choose the seat where you learn the best. That's basically what I tell them," Thomas says.

Her classroom at Nachman and some others in Rapides look different this year. Stability balls, height-adjustable desks, futons, reading mats, rocking chairs and more have replaced rows of desks.

Teachers say the flexible seating and a little movement in the classroom are going a long way in helping students concentrate and behave better.

Nine schools, including Nachman, are being offered resources to provide flexible seating and training to make the most of it through the district's SCALE UP initiative, which is focused on increasing student engagement. The other schools are Buckeye Elementary and Junior High, Cherokee Elementary, Forest Hill Elementary, J.I. Barron Sr. Elementary, Mary Goff Elementary, Pineville Junior High and Tioga Junior High.

A goal of the initiative is also for the ideas to catch on and spread beyond just nine schools. All teachers can introduce flexible seating as they are able, and some already have.

Tammy Dean, a fifth-grade English language arts teacher at Nachman, went into the school year with a healthy dose of skepticism about the whole concept. She wanted students to still take learning seriously and also not be thrown off by the change. Just a few weeks into the school year, she has a different outlook.

"I was really nervous and didn't know what to expect," Dean said. "Now I wouldn't change it. It's working."

Adjustable bar stools and other comfortable seating options fit perfectly with Dean's coffee shop-themed classroom, which she calls "The Learning Cafe." The setting also couldn't be better for a reading and writing class, in Dean's opinion, because the activities "don't feel like a chore. It's a relaxing environment."

"I really love this classroom because it gives you the freedom (to move)," her student Jadyn Brunk, 10, said. "I think it really helps, because you're comfortable, so learning is a lot easier."

J.B. Nachman fifth-graders Danielle Post (left) and Rylee Gauthier sit on stools in Tammy Dean's coffee shop-themed classroom. (Photo: Miranda Klein/The Town Talk)

J.B. Nachman fifth-grader Isabella Aguillard reads in a rocking chair in Tammy Dean's classroom. (Photo: Miranda Klein/The Town Talk)

Younger students seem to agree, too.

"Sitting at the desk you want to sit at, I can't believe I'm saying this, but it's like paradise," said Linkin Pratt, 8, whose favorite class is Mrs. Thomas' "because we get to sit wherever we want."

Thomas had a head start so to speak when it came to introducing flexible seating. She started doing it gradually on her own years ago. With the extra grant this year, she purchased height-adjustable furniture for the first time.

"When you get comfortable, you focus. It seemed like a common sense thing, which is why I started it," Thomas said. "I didn't know what was going to happen ... but it grew into something that now I don't think I could teach any other way."

READ MORE: Recess has gone away for some Rapides elementary students | Brame sends supplies south | School seeks donations to help family after house fire | Rapides students all smiles after getting iPads | Group reaching more Rapides students with education on dating violence | Rapides public schools recovering from enrollment dip

Read or Share this story: http://www.thetowntalk.com/story/news/education/2016/09/01/flexible-seating-promotes-student-engagement-teachers-say/89539654/

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Flexible seating promotes student engagement, teachers say

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J.B. Nachman Elementary third-graders arrive at Rachel Thomas' classroom and are no longer told to find "their seat." "Choose the seat where you learn the best. That's basically what I tell them," Thomas says. Her classroom at Nachman and some others in Rapides look different this year.

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Have you heard of flexible seating? Many teachers are transforming their classrooms in an effort to make their learning spaces more student-centered. When I started posting to Instagram and Facebook about my class moving to flexible seating, I was flooded with all kinds of questions from curious and intrigued classroom teachers. I have compiled all of these questions along with answers from myself. I hope that these help you out if you are wanting to learn more about flexible seating!

How did you introduce flexible seating to your students?

I decided to implement flexible seating after coming back from winter break. I spent a lot of time researching and thinking about this process. I wrote down specific things that I wanted to make sure I
explained and demonstrated to my students. i.e. how to sit on the stability/yoga balls, what to do if you wanted to move spots in the middle of an activity, etc. Everything that I could think of as being a potential issue had a plan and response. It is crucial to set up rules/procedures/norms for your students before they begin. I made an anchor chart with the most important rules and for the first week of implementing flexible seating, we revisited this anchor chart every morning. It is also important to stick to these rules, be firm, be fair, and be consistent. The kids need to feel that it is a privilege to have this type of set up and they need to know that you mean business.

Did you have any challenges with students choosing to sit next to their friends and getting distracted?

The benefits far outweigh the challenges when it comes to students sitting next to their friends. Going back to my rule from the anchor chart..."Mrs. Olson has the right to move anyone at any time." My students enjoy having the opportunity to sit next to a friend but also realize that there are no warnings involved. If they aren't working, I get to move them. It has an interesting way of being its own built-in incentive program.

Did you encourage the class to try out each seating option before setting them completely free to choose or did you just set the expectations and then you let them choose?

When introducing my students to flexible seating, I encouraged them to try out each spot within the first week. I stress the importance of self awareness. The students are responsible for finding what feels best for them and what kind of seating will make them the best learner that they can be.

Do you have quite a number of workbooks?

No. We do have several notebooks and folders though. These are stored on crate shelving.

Where do you put all of their stuff?

Most of the supplies from their desks went into crate seat shelving. Crayons, scissors, glue, pencils, highlighters, and markers because community supplies. We didn't start the year with community supplies but the kids don't seem to mind having to share. My students do have an art box that stores their own personal art supplies needed for art class. These supplies are not shared.

Do you find that it takes time to pass them out and then collect them?

I place a lot of responsibility on my students when it comes to passing out and collecting supplies. This doesn't seem to be a lengthy process. I actually find that the time spent passing out and collecting notebooks/folders is shorter in comparison to them trying to dig through their unorganized desks to find something they need. Good bye messy desks!

Where did you buy everything that you use for flexible seating?

Round colored tables are from Classroom Direct
Standing desks are from Hertz Furniture
Stability/Yoga balls are from Oriental Trading Company although I have learned recently that they have been discontinued. You can also buy them at Sport Smith.
Colored bath mats are from Target.
Crates are off Amazon. Click below for affiliate link:
Sterilite 16929006 Storage Crate, Black, 6-Pack
Material for crate seat tops are from a local fabric store.

What did you do with the old desks/tables?

The only piece of furniture that we had to get rid of was one of our tables. We were lucky to be able to trade a table for 5 standing desks from one of our fourth grade teachers in our school. I encourage you to think about the teachers you teach with. Do any of them have different seating options than you? Consider approaching them about swapping out some of their seating options with some of yours. It ends up being a win-win situation for both classrooms!

Did your school finance the seating?

My school supplied the tables and desks. I supplied the actual seating options.

Do your kids argue over seating?

The first week of flexible seating was the toughest. The new seating options in my classroom were the most desired because of their novelty. After about a week, my students were choosing seating that worked best for them as a learner. I tell my students that if anyone is fighting over a seat, I get to choose where they sit for that activity. That seems to do the trick. If one area consistently becomes an area that kids argue about, I will put that area in "time out" for a day or two.

How did you introduce this to the parents?

I use the Remind app to communicate with my parents. As soon as we started using flexible seating in our classroom, I started the conversation with them. I have sent my families pictures of the seating in action along with little updates. I encouraged my families to ask their child about how it was going in our classroom. The parents have been very supportive of this new journey.

How do you manage chatty groups?

I am finding that my students are the most quiet that they have been all year. I'd like to think it's because of two things. 1.) They are working hard and don't want to be moved due to unnecessary talking with their neighbors. 2.) They are sitting in a place that allows them to focus and work hard on the task at hand. My seating options are spread out all over the room so the kids are not sitting really close to other groups anymore.

What about procedures when you have a sub?

In my sub notes I have a small explanation about the seating. I also have the anchor chart rules hanging up in the classroom. My students know that the sub has the right to move anyone at anytime as well. I have not had a sub in my classroom since starting flexible seating but I will update this section of the blog post as soon as I do!

How do you do testing?

Testing works out great with this type of seating because my students are spread out even more than they were before. We have a crate shelf that stores all of our folders. The kids use these folders as privacy/test folders. We don't seem to have any issues with testing.

What does the start of the year look like?

Because I started the flexible seating option in the middle of the year, I can't answer that question quite yet. I will definitely use this same system next year. I do plan to start the year right away with the different options. The key is MODEL, MODEL, MODEL.

Do your kids have a hard time with not having a space to call their own?

So far, my students are loving their seating options and don't seem to be affected by not having a specific space. If I do have any students that express this to me, I plan to provide them with a desk of their own. Each year is different. Each classroom is different. Each student is different. Bottom line: Students need to be successful in the classroom. If they need their own space then we, as teachers, need to make adjustments and make that happen for them.

Do your students all come in at the same time?

My students come to class at 8:10 every morning. They are responsible for moving their name on the SMART board for attendance purposes, turning in their BEE binder, putting away their reading bag, reading the morning message, and then choosing their spot to sit. I thought it would be a chaotic start to the day as they rushed to find their desired spot to sit but they are spread out pretty evenly. It has also improved their sense of urgency for making it into the classroom on time since they want to choose their first choice of spot to sit for their morning work time. Again, win-win for the teacher to have all her students in the classroom before the bell rings!

Do you have a rotation of seats?

I do not believe in having assigned seats with the flexible seating option because I think it defeats the purpose of the whole concept. It all comes down to choice. That being said, after I deliver a whole group lesson from the carpet, I release them by rows to make a seat choice. If I started the day by allowing the purple row to choose first, they will not be the first row of students to choose the next time.

What has worked well?

Some of my favorite benefits of having flexible seating has been organized supplies, no more lost assignments hiding in desks, no more wasted Fridays spending time to clean out desks, the increased sense of pride and community, and the level of productivity that my students give me. I have seen a decrease in the number of missing or late assignments. I am also seeing more happy and engaged kids!

What has been the most difficult part of transitioning from traditional to flexible?

I think that the hardest part has been me getting over the fear of it not working out. I have a little bit of a Type A personality. I don't think I'm alone with that one. Right teachers? I worried about the same worries so many of you have expressed to me. It took a few days for me to realize that this was a good decision for our classroom.

Which kinds of seats do you see the kids liking the best?

My students' favorite spots have been the floor using the bath mats and the table with the stability/yoga balls. I visited with another teacher friend of mine and I asked her this same question. In her classroom, the balls were rarely used and most of her students loved working on the floor with a clip board or at the table with the bath mats. I think it all comes down to the make up of your classroom and students.

Do you have the same number of seats as you have students?

I have 7 extra spots in my classroom. This does not include the clipboard and floor choice because this can be an unlimited number. I think that this point is important to make because if you move a student out of the spot that they are working in, you will need to have another option to place them in. Another reason to have some extra spots is because not all students are going to work well in all of the spots. So, if you have a student, for example, that does not like to work from a standing desk, it would be a shame if this was the only and last available spot to choose to work. I would say that the flexible seating system would be failing that student if this happened.

What if I don't have a very big classroom?

Although some of my pictures make my classroom appear to be large, it really isn't. I think that flexible seating has actually provided my classroom with more space because the kids are sitting in groups. When it comes to furniture in my classroom, I have a total of 3 round tables and 5 standing desks. I do plan to pull in a couple of desks to place in quiet corners of the room as another option for those who prefer to work in a quiet place by themselves. There is still quite a bit of room for natural flow of traffic.

What is the least favorite seating option in your classroom?

For the first half of the school year, my students sat on crate seats. This is their least favorite option at the moment (I am 2 weeks in) but I also attribute that to the fact that they have used crate seats all year and the other options are new. Time will tell.

What do the kids have to say about flexible seating?

This was a question that I got within the first couple of days of trying out flexible seating in my classroom so I decided to write down comments (good, bad, and ugly) that were made by my students.
"This is awesome."

"Mrs. Olson, how did we get so lucky?"

"Does this mean that we won't ever have assigned seats again? Won't it get crazy?"

"I like to stand when I work. It's so much better than sitting all day."

"Last night I told my mom and dad how cool our classroom is!"

"Can I bring my parents into school to see our classroom?"

"Will my teacher do this with us next year?"

What seating options do you have in your classroom?

So far I have 5 standing desks, 5 stability/yoga balls at a table, 6 rugs at a table, 2 sensory squish cushions (not sure what they're called!), 3 regular chairs, 6 crate seats at a table, and a class set of clipboards.I plan to submit a request for 6 hokki stools from Donor's Choose. I am also considering bringing in a couple of desks for my students who prefer to work alone in their own space.

How do you do direct instruction?

The majority of my direct/whole group instruction is done from our carpet. I do give assigned spots on the rug because I prefer to strategically place my students next to a good fit, turn & teach partner. We do a lot of turn and talks.

How can I save money doing this in my classroom?

Have you heard of Donor's Choose? If you don't have financial support from your district's administration nor do you have other classrooms to trade with, I would definitely try out Donor's Choose. The application process is pretty easy and projects are funded daily!

I would also consider reaching out to your families and local businesses. They may have bean bags, couches, yoga balls, clipboards or maybe even be willing to donate money towards the purchase of these items!

Here are some links to other resources about flexible seating:
Flexible Classrooms: Providing the Learning Environment That Kids Need Rethinking the Classroom: Spaces Designed for Active and Engaged Learning and Teaching
Feel free to pin this image to your Pinterest board so you can refer back to this post later too!

If you have any other questions that you don't see answered in this post, feel free to leave them in the comment section below and I can edit this post to get your question answered!

This post contains affiliate links for Amazon. By purchasing an item on the Amazon site using these links, I will receive a small commission on your purchase. For more information about my Disclosure Policy, please visit this link.

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Flexible Seating - Lucky Little Learners

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Have you heard of flexible seating? Many teachers are transforming their classrooms in an effort to make their learning spaces more student-centered. When I started posting to Instagram and Facebook about my class moving to flexible seating, I was flooded with all kinds of questions from curious and intrigued classroom teachers.

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Edutopia is a free source of information, inspiration, and practical strategies for learning and teaching in preK-12 education. We are published by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization.

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Flexible Seating Elevates Student Engagement

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Breaking up rows of desks fosters collaboration and empowers kids to think about how they work best.

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Flexible Seating, or also called Alternate Seating, provides a 21st Century Classroom for scholars! There is no better way to show you support a student-centered classroom, than creating a classroom from a child's point of view!

Comfortable Students = Student Engagement!

Classroom Ownership = Student Engagement!

Empowering Choice = Student Engagement!

Being uncomfortable is unhealthy in numerous ways, but most importantly it does not improve attention and work ethic. As an adult, I can not or could not, sit at a desk all day in an expensive comfortable chair, let alone a student school chair. I get very uncomfortable, things start to hurt and all I'm focused on is how much longer I have to sit like that. I have no focus on my work at hand, let alone anything else. So why would we do that to students? When it's time for me to focus and work, I grab my materials and I CHOOSE a place to work where I know I can do my best. This is what I want for me and this is what I want for my students.

I am here today to share my journey of CHOOSING to create this environment for my students, the implementation, the reasons and more!
The Start of my Flexible Seating Journey:
Returning to the classroom in the Fall of 2016, I had a taste of the benefits that providing Flexible Seating to students as a Literacy Coach. My roommate and teaching bestie is the EC Lead and a 3rd - 5th grade Inclusion Teacher. She provided her 3rd-5th grade students Flexible Seating. At first I was skeptical, but as time past I loved it! Every day when I arrived at work, I kept dipping my toes in the Flexible Seating water. I observed the students daily, students with a variety of differences and similarities. I observed their work ethic, their listening skills, but most of all I observed their attitude. Our classroom was their favorite place to be each day! They felt like it was their own classroom and Mrs. Keiser, was their favorite person to be with. The student's attitudes towards school and learning told the whole reason for success in their career as a scholar!
How I Implemented Flexible Seating in my Classroom: The Process of Transition!
I introduced the idea of Flexible Seating to my parents during Open House in Pre-Planning. I simply just spoke about it and shared information through a brochure and flyer. This was not a current trend at my school, so I knew it was a new concept to the parents. Midway through the first nine weeks after going through beginning of the year classroom procedures, I introduced the idea of Flexible Seating to my students. We looked at different photographs online of types of Flexible Seating in other classrooms in the United States. We then had 2 mini lessons. The first mini lesson was about what is Flexible Seating in our classroom. The second mini lesson was about the rules for Flexible Seating in our classroom.

Then slowly, from September to October, I switched out 1 table group of desks at a time. During this time, I allowed all students to try the new option for Flexible Seating. We continuously reviewed the rules of this new choice. We modeled proper and improper ways of using the new type of Flexible Seating. We continuously went through this process until my entire room was transformed. I left 2 regular student desks as an option for students who still preferred traditional seating.
How I Offorded to Implement Flexible Seating In My Classroom: Tips and Ideas!
As a busy mother of 2 young children and a USMC active duty wife, I have little time to search and a budget! Therefore, I turned to the online garage sale groups in my neighborhood and community on Facebook. If you are not a part of any of those groups, you should be! Just log into Facebook and search online yard or garage sale groups in your neighborhood, town or community and join! Moving every 3 years or so, this is how I've always sold items. Here is where I scored 2 butterfly chairs for $10 and for $8. Next, I was selling some items online that wouldn't fit into our downsized home. I contacted a seller that was selling a black futon for $70. Long story short, she needed some of my items so we did a trade and I got the futon for $30! I spent $48 to get 4 great Flexible Seating options. Next was the stability balls. You can find inexpensive stability balls for cheap at local stores. But, I'm an Amazon girl. I save $ and time not having to drive anywhere and walk around a store. So I purchased 6 stability balls on Amazon at $10 a piece [Deal of the day!]. I did go to Walmart to grab 10 frisbees at $.10 a piece in the summer clearance section that my stability balls sit on [Teaching bestie's idea!]. The last thing I purchased were 6 black stack stools from Ikea at $5 a piece. So I personally spent $138 + tax on Flexible Seating for my room. For me to budget this over 2 months was not a huge strain, I say this because my students back to school shopping list covered everything and more that I would need for my classroom. What it didn't cover I put up at open house for parents to donate and send in [Idea- Next year post some Flexible Seating items for parents to donate or ask parents if they have anything at home they no longer use!]. I also get a little money for supplies of my choice. So I didn't even need to purchase much to start the school year.

Next, I did a DonorsChoose project. All items came from Amazon and my project was fully funded! I ordered 6 stability balls, stacks stools, wobble stools, recreation stadium seats, video rockers and a rug! What a blessing! If you do not have a DonorsChoose account you need to sign up! When I sign up to places, I always "unclick" receive emails and stuff. But, DON'T DO THAT here! You want to receive emails so you know when there are people or companies donating to projects in your state, when they are matching to double your donations or more! Those are the best times to post a new project! It's so easy!

To grab any of my Flexible Seating items from Amazon, click on the titles below:
The Benefits of a Flexible Seating Classroom: Researched Based! Flexible Seating SUPPORTS:
To grab the Stack Stools from Ikea, click on the link below:

You can google Flexible or Alternate Seating and read about tons of information. That's what I did! It is a huge decision and commitment to changing and redesigning a classroom, so I wanted to make sure I was doing it for the right reasons! Here is what I learned from the research about the benefits of Flexible Seating.
Classroom Management:

Collaboration

Communication

Critical Thinking

Creativity

Oxygen Flow to Brain

Blood Flow

Better Posture

Core Strength

Burning Calories

Increasing Metabolism

Engagement

Focus

Better Behavior

Brain-Based Activities

Student Choice

Enhancing the Learning Process

Long Term Memory

Knowledge Acquisition

Information Retention

Higher Level Reasoning

Development in Life and Work Skills

Conflict Resolutions

Interpersonal Teamwork Skills

[The list goes on!]

Before implementing a Flexible Seating classroom, make sure your classroom managment is great! Students need to be aware of how your classroom functions. Make sure students know the following:
How we Rotate:

Caring for classroom materials and supplies

Entering and leaving the classroom routines

Caring for personal materials

Caring for classroom furniture

Understanding the roles of classroom jobs

Knowing where to locate items

Knowing where to turn in materials, check mailboxes and receive new materials

Daily classroom agenda

How we treat classmates

Most Importantly: HOW WE CARE FOR FLEXIBLE SEATING CHOICES

Have Flexible Seating Mini-Lessons too! Go over the expectations and rules!
The Mental Teacher Shift:
Having these items and more in place means you do not have to teach your students how anything operates in your classroom. Yes, they are children so they still need directions and reminders. But, once you give them that they can do it without your assistance.
Student's Opinions:
I teach 5th Grade ELA with 51 students currently. We rotate every Tuesday upon entering class. Some people rotate weekly or let their students pick when they arrive. I couldn't do that because 5th grade students have jobs around the school in the morning so they come to class last daily. Which meant they would never be walking into my classroom at the same time during the morning block. All of my students enter between 7:30 am - 8:00 am. So I needed a routine that allowed all students equal choices. I have a magnetic chart that displays seating choices and student numbers on magnets. Students are in line order, I simply call out the numbers and students go to the board, move their number to an open choice and go get started! I have a class roster, and everyone gets a turn to be first. I check the number of the student who starts first every week so I don't forget. The first week I started with #1, then the next week #1 went to the bottom and I started with #2 and so on each week. There's never been a problem, we have so many seating choices and students love them all!

(Click on any of the photos below or HERE for a direct link to this display!)

This is a BIG change, and it is harder on the teacher than students. You are going to have to visualize the end goal of your room. You need to embrace the small changes on the road to your vision. The room arrangement will change and you need to be OK with that. Depending on the size and layout of your room, furniture might have to change positions. You are also not going to be in charge of telling students where to sit. Meaning, you won't be able to arrange students the way you like. You need to be OK with students lying on the floor, sitting on the floor, standing and more during your instruction and their work period. You also need to have organized storage solution to replace the inside of the desk, so you need to visualize how that will work as well. The biggest mental shift is that it is not your classroom to decide on the arrangement, it is now the student's classroom. Having a student-centered classroom means your room will resemble how 10 year olds [or the age you teach] feel most comfortable. Most teachers will have to let go, step back and facilitate the change in environment based on your student choices. Doing this is hard, but we are doing it for the benefit of students mentally, emotionally, physically and most importantly academically.

Here are some examples of how my students feel about our classroom seating options. This is what they included in our Thank You letters to our donors from DonorsChoose.

"In my opinion, it helps our behavior improve because students have comfy chairs which helps us relax and stay calm." [5th Grade Student]

"The reasons I love Flexible Seating in the classroom are it gives me better back posture, it makes the classroom a nice environment to work in, and the seats are very comfortable." [5th Grade Student]
Parent's Opinions:
"The reason why I love Flexible Seating in my classroom is because I can have fun while I'm working and when I am enjoying myself while working I do much better." [5th Grade Student]

"The reasons why I love a Flexible Seating classroom is because it helps me focus and have fun while learning. It's improved my grades!" [5th Grade Student]

"The reasons why I love a Flexible Seating classroom are you can figure out where you want to sit because if you sit at the same chair ALL day that would be SO boring and SO uncomfortable. I can't learn when I'm uncomfortable." [5th Grade Student]

"I feel this learning environment helps me because I can concentrate more. Research says the Flexible Seating increases your blood flow, I think this help me." [5th Grade Student]
Why I will NEVER go back to Traditional Seating: Things to Consider:
I posted to parents this question, "How does a Flexible Seating Classroom benefit your child in the learning environment, and how Flexible Seating empowers a Student-Centered Classroom?" Here are what my parents said:

"Tyler loves the Flexible Seating! He's more comfortable and it gets him excited about learning!" [Parent]

"Lily says the seating takes stress and pressure off her back which actually allows her to focus better and absorb more of what she is learning. Thank you!" [Parent]

"Quinn is always raving about the Flexible Seating arrangement! It allows him to get out some of his hyperactive energy without being disruptive to the class." [Parent]

"Sahana thinks Flexible Seating gives her more energy to be focused throughout class. It allows her to also be more relaxed in a comfortable environment." [Parent]

I have officially "ditched the desks" for good! I might even ditch the last 2 I kept for a traditional seating option in the future because students rarely sit there. I will never go back to traditional seating because I don't like it and neither do my students. How can I expect them to sit straight and still all day in an uncomfortable desk and chair if I can't even do that? I finally feel complete with the Best-Practices for students and have a complete Student-Centered classroom. I gear my instruction around the data that shows me what my students need academically. I used quotes based on my students actions and attitudes to teach character education. Now, I have an environment that is what my students wanted. My students wanted a comfortable seat next to their favorite peers and they have it. I've gained so much more by doing this, I've gained student trust and appreciation. The students are comfortable with me and thankful for me. The students enjoy being in my classroom and by giving them the power of choice, I now have their undivided attention at all times. What else could you ask for? I want my students to be healthy and happy, a Flexible Seating Classroom cultivates an environment for better health and better education.

Budget

Space [vision multiple arrangements]

Seating size [think of the age of students you have]

Be thrifty and crafty [search yard/garage sales and thrift shops, spruce things up]

Make a plan of implementation

Put feelers out to administration and parents

How you will allow choices

Look for tables not being used in building and adjust legs to wanted height

Ask parents if they have unused items to donate or money

So, that's a wrap! I hope you find this post about Flexible Seating inspirational and helpful!

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Flexible Seating, or also called Alternate Seating, provides a 21st Century Classroom for scholars! There is no better way to show you support a student-centered classroom, than creating a classroom from a child's point of view! Comfortable Students = Student Engagement! Classroom Ownership = Student Engagement! Empowering Choice = Student Engagement!

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Abby McKimm's fourth-grade-students were fidgety. During classroom instruction time, McKimm often noticed her students shifting in their seats, becoming antsy, and losing their focus and concentration.

"I noticed students standing at their desks and frequently asking if they were allowed to work on the floor," McKimm said.

In an attempt to re-focus her students, McKimm decided to try implementing flexible seating. A current trend in education, the purpose of flexible seating is to create various opportunities for students to work in an environment they can be most successful and productive in. From sitting the floor, to a chair, to simply standing at a desk, students are able to choose how they want to learn and work, which increases intrinsic motivation and productivity.

"Flexible seating allows students to collaborate without distracting the rest of the class because students are able to work next to their peers, by choice," McKimm said. "People are social beings and my instruction has to respect that."

McKimm began by creating limited flexible seating. She turned three desks into standing desks, and purchased clipboards so students could work on the floor.

"After a week of very limited flexible seating, I completely 'flipped' my classroom and adopted flexible seating," McKimm said.

With the help of a coworker, McKimm transitioned her classroom from traditional seated learning to a combination of floor tables, raised tables, yoga ball seating, floor pillows, and foam exercise rollers.

"My students that need to fidget while they work benefit from the foam rollers because they can move without distracting others or themselves," McKimm said.

Students have already been responding with enthusiasm to the new seating arrangements, and McKimm has noticed a positive impacted on student engagement and learning.

"Students love flexible seating," McKimm said. "Students are allowed to pick where they work, which has drastically increased student engagement and productivity. Flexible seating encourages students to make decisions that benefit their learning style the most."

For McKimm's class, flexible seating has given students the ability to move, collaborate, communicate with their peers, and develop critical thinking skills.

"I love seeing my students working together, focused on their work, and excited to learn," McKimm said.

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Flexible Seating Encourages Student Engagement

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Abby McKimm's fourth-grade-students were fidgety. During classroom instruction time, McKimm often noticed her students shifting in their seats, becoming antsy, and losing their focus and concentration. "I noticed students standing at their desks and frequently asking if they were allowed to work on the floor," McKimm said.