Classroom Layout for Facilitate Student-to-Student Directed Learning

On the previous page is a diagram of a 3rd grade classroom at Fair Oaks Ranch Community School in the Sulphur Springs School District of Santa Clarita, CA. The classroom, as a whole, felt a bit small, cluttered, messy, and cramped. There was an overload of student artwork and information, like the alphabet and numbers, hanging on the walls with little to no actual empty wall space. The student desks were in 2 long rows with 4 rows of chairs, each student facing another student. The actual desk area seemed more spacious than the rest of the room, with plenty of room between the rows, ample space on each individual desktop for supplies, books and papers needed for the current activity, and bins along the desktops that held enough pencils, markers, crayons, glue and tape for about 4 students. Cubbyholes were located underneath each student’s desk area for storage of books and papers not currently in use. Anything being taken home was put into a student “mailbox” that sat on one wall between the window and the door.
Since there were only two, long rows in this particular classroom desig...