Running a classroom for students with special learning needs requires a special set up. Individual student seats oriented to a lecturer is not what we’re going for here. When you teach in a self-contained special education setting, your needs are going to be a lot different from what’s going on in the rest of your building. Your classroom set up will probably change from year to year as your students grow or you get new students in your classroom.
Take a look at your students and their instructional needs and design your classroom around that. With that in mind, there are probably a few main categories of instructional areas you need to think about before you start moving furniture or thinking about classroom decor.
Let’s set up a classroom that is functional first and Pinterest-worthy second. We swear – you can have it all, but you have to do it in the right order.
Follow it up with a sophisticated classroom schedule and you’ll be ready to start the school year strong!
Steps for Creating a Well Designed Classroom Setting
1. Review student needs.
I mean, dig into those IEP’s! What are the recommended or required instructional ratios for each student? Many students in a self-contained classroom require low ratio instruction for new learning. That means you need a spot in your room set up for low ratio instruction, a table where you and the learner can face each other and work together. They might be working on increasing independence and persisting in completing work without adult support. That means you need an area for structured independent work with room for storage. Your students will also need to work on skills needed to be part of a group or to learn in a group. Make sure you have a group area where you can work on social skills and a more traditional group learning set up (kind of like the traditional desks oriented to a lecturer).
2. Assess your space.
Not all of us are gifted with large and well equipped spaces that allow us to fully set up for our students needs. Don’t give up if you have a smaller space. You might just need to have some areas on double-duty. How can you assign purpose to different areas in your classroom? How can permanent fixtures in your room be an asset rather than a hinderance for different instructional zones?
This is probably the toughest part but don’t get stuck. Remember – your students should be rotating through instructional zones, you don’t need enough independent work tables for each student, just enough for the max number of students you can teach independence skills at one time. In my experience, this is not usually more than three!
3. Figure out your big furniture
- Whole group table/tables
- Low ratio instruction tables
- Independent work areas
- Leisure time area
- Bonus Areas: Realistic life skills areas
What furniture do you want and what can you actually get? We really like using large group tables over individual student desks. This give us the ability to be right in front of more of our students at once. There are no heads in the way when are students are attending to the group leader and we have shared table space to work together on a lesson.
For low ratio instruction, we like smaller rectangular tables where we can sit across from one or two students. This gives us the ability to have instructional materials near us and plenty of space to manipulate those materials and prompt correct responding. I also want students to be able to see me modeling new skills and to be able to look at my student and share the joy as they make progress. We use study carrels for independent work when we are teaching students to follow a schedule, like we learned to do from TEACCH. Later, we use stations for independent work that are more realistic to a vocational setting.
As our classroom evolved, we started to look for furniture that felt more “home” or “office.” Our Tech Table area was designed to feel like spending time in coffee shop with chairs that might be found in a cafe. As things needed to be replaced or we had the option to use money from the budget, our furniture started to become more mature. This wan’t because we wanted it to look good in pictures, but because it feels more realistic. We don’t want our students to jump straight from a standard school classroom to a vocational setting. We started to evolve our classroom in anticipation of where we were trying to take our students.
4. Storage for each area
You can’t wrap up planning your classroom set up until you figure out how you are going to store materials. This is going to really depend on the students in your classroom. Are your students able to leave materials alone when they are left on open shelves? If they can, your options are endless. We’ve used a lot of Ikea shelving in the past, it does the job and doesn’t break the bank. If your students sometimes disrupt easy-to-access materials, you may need to store items in closed bins, like drawer system or shoe boxes with lids that can remain on the shelf.
Make sure you plan for easy-to-access data storage in each area, too!
5. Mark your instructional zones.
Have a clear marking for each instructional area. This can be a sign on the wall, a colored paper lantern hanging from the ceiling, tape on the floor, or whatever genius idea your creative brain comes up with. Bonus points if you come up with something that can be used in your students’ visual schedules instead of an abstract picture for ELA or Math. Think about it – your student schedule could include the “where” in addition to, or instead of, the “what.” How beneficial could this be for your students who don’t yet transition without support?
Our Favorites List:
- Whiteboard Tables or Whiteboard Circles for table tops
- Ikea cube shelves
- 3-tier Rolling Carts
- Task Card or Picture Card Storage (We use Clear bins for task cards & Color Bins for ITT/Picture Cards for Vocabulary/Language Instruction)
- Peg Boards from IKEA
- Cup Organization for Carts
- Clips & Bins for Independent Work Bins
- Unit Organization Bins for books, packets, etc.
- Storage Bins
- IKEA tables with Filing Storage
Our Don’t List
Don’t call kids to your desk for instruction or testing. Your students should always sit at a table where their legs can fit comfortably underneath. Your desk is for you, not for your students.
Don’t use too many study carrels in your classroom set up. Study carrels should be for independent work only. You can’t teach a student from behind them. Instruction should not happen at a study carrel unless it’s teaching them how to do independent work.
Don’t over-use file folder activities in your independent work area. Don’t use them at all to teach new skills.
