Dear Tam High families, guardians, and students:
Through professional development, department and campus-wide meetings, the last year has inspired many exciting changes to my Spanish class at TAM. Over the summer I did extensive research and reading on current methods to teach a second language and now my classroom is changing to reflect those methods.
I have joined one of my colleagues and have replaced the standard student desks with free standing chairs. I believe this one change will have a tremendous impact on the classroom; instead of having rows or groupings (that may be distracting) I now have the possibility of arranging a classroom with no far back corners inaccessible to the teacher or from seeing the front. A simple circle, or two half circles arranged like an amphitheater allows every student a privileged position to observe and interact with the lesson. I can monitor engagement by teaching to the eyes of students, something nearly impossible when a sea of heads extended back thirty feet.
Research has found that student desks can serve to inhibit student learning in language classes. With 30+ desks obstructing my vision, it is easy for students to surreptitiously spend the class period monitoring social media on their cellphones, put their heads down and sleep, or unfortunately deface the property. Additionally, by placing work for other classes on top of their notebooks, it is easy to spend the class period completing other assignments while it appears that they are engaged in the current lesson. Now there are no longer desks for students to rest their heads and disengage. In fact, the student desks get in the way of what your student needs most to acquire a language: their full attention during class.
While student desks are useful for lecture courses that require a lot of note-taking, World language classes, on the other hand, no longer require extensive note-taking. In a typical class period, students dedicate the first 5 minutes to a warm-up in their binders/notebooks. Then, depending on the unit or lesson notebooks may not even be used. In which case, they would be placed under the chairs and the rest of the class period is dedicated to activities that help students develop the ability to use Spanish naturally. This could be done via games, technology, moving around the room, reading books or singing songs, call and response etc. If you were to visit one of my classes you would see students actively responding to the spoken language throughout the period, while also moving around the room, taking advantage of all the space!
Listening, reading, speaking and writing all still have a place in my class. Positioning their notebooks/binders or Chromebooks in their laps has been proven to be sufficient for such a short duration of time. In the case that a student needs to be accommodated, I have available desks for use.
Overall the use of chairs only helps students engage in class to become more active learners and contributors while using the language, rather than passive note-takers. This will also allow me to be more creative and mindful teaching. This is an exciting pedagogical shift for me this year. I hope to improve student engagement, learning, fun and spontaneity along the way.
Thank you in advance for your support and excitement.
¡Pura Vida!
~ Ms. Gilbert
Through professional development, department and campus-wide meetings, the last year has inspired many exciting changes to my Spanish class at TAM. Over the summer I did extensive research and reading on current methods to teach a second language and now my classroom is changing to reflect those methods.
I have joined one of my colleagues and have replaced the standard student desks with free standing chairs. I believe this one change will have a tremendous impact on the classroom; instead of having rows or groupings (that may be distracting) I now have the possibility of arranging a classroom with no far back corners inaccessible to the teacher or from seeing the front. A simple circle, or two half circles arranged like an amphitheater allows every student a privileged position to observe and interact with the lesson. I can monitor engagement by teaching to the eyes of students, something nearly impossible when a sea of heads extended back thirty feet.
Research has found that student desks can serve to inhibit student learning in language classes. With 30+ desks obstructing my vision, it is easy for students to surreptitiously spend the class period monitoring social media on their cellphones, put their heads down and sleep, or unfortunately deface the property. Additionally, by placing work for other classes on top of their notebooks, it is easy to spend the class period completing other assignments while it appears that they are engaged in the current lesson. Now there are no longer desks for students to rest their heads and disengage. In fact, the student desks get in the way of what your student needs most to acquire a language: their full attention during class.
While student desks are useful for lecture courses that require a lot of note-taking, World language classes, on the other hand, no longer require extensive note-taking. In a typical class period, students dedicate the first 5 minutes to a warm-up in their binders/notebooks. Then, depending on the unit or lesson notebooks may not even be used. In which case, they would be placed under the chairs and the rest of the class period is dedicated to activities that help students develop the ability to use Spanish naturally. This could be done via games, technology, moving around the room, reading books or singing songs, call and response etc. If you were to visit one of my classes you would see students actively responding to the spoken language throughout the period, while also moving around the room, taking advantage of all the space!
Listening, reading, speaking and writing all still have a place in my class. Positioning their notebooks/binders or Chromebooks in their laps has been proven to be sufficient for such a short duration of time. In the case that a student needs to be accommodated, I have available desks for use.
Overall the use of chairs only helps students engage in class to become more active learners and contributors while using the language, rather than passive note-takers. This will also allow me to be more creative and mindful teaching. This is an exciting pedagogical shift for me this year. I hope to improve student engagement, learning, fun and spontaneity along the way.
Thank you in advance for your support and excitement.
¡Pura Vida!
~ Ms. Gilbert
Below are some blogs, articles, and other teacher websites that talk about the benefits of going deskless:
- https://www.edutopia.org/blog/design-thinking-and-deskless-classroom-tracy-evans
- https://misclaseslocas.blogspot.com/2017/07/a-classroom-without-desks-deskless-faq.html
- http://www.desklessclassroom.com/
- https://lamaestralocablog.com/2017/02/21/deskless-and-seatingchartless-keep-them-moving/
- http://tprsforchinese.blogspot.com/2016/08/the-deskless-classroom-pictures-and.html
- https://fluencymatters.com/trending-toward-deskless-by-kristy-placido/
- https://funforspanishteachers.com/2017/09/a-peek-inside-my-deskless-classroom/
- https://www.edutopia.org/blog/design-thinking-and-deskless-classroom-tracy-evans
- https://misclaseslocas.blogspot.com/2017/07/a-classroom-without-desks-deskless-faq.html
- http://www.desklessclassroom.com/
- https://lamaestralocablog.com/2017/02/21/deskless-and-seatingchartless-keep-them-moving/
- http://tprsforchinese.blogspot.com/2016/08/the-deskless-classroom-pictures-and.html
- https://fluencymatters.com/trending-toward-deskless-by-kristy-placido/
- https://funforspanishteachers.com/2017/09/a-peek-inside-my-deskless-classroom/