The Child and His Learning Environment

The Bank Street Laboratory School

Community of Learners Series

ORGANIZING A DECENTRALIZED CLASSROOM*∗

By Joan Cenedella

The underlying aim of the organization (and constant reorganization) of the

classroom is the achievement of grace and ease in the use of time and space. Not merely
are these pleasant conditions for a classroom but more importantly they represent to me
certain ideas about the way children learn – ideas that pervade the writings and practices
of the Progressive Movement and, more recently, the so-called “open”, or informal
classroom.

Learning should be interrupted as little as possible by frequent beginnings and

endings of time segments by a child’s need for materials stashed away in the teacher’s
closet and by the whole group transitions from one activity to another, to name just a few.
There is not much new or original about the ideas behind the organization of my
classroom, but each teacher who deals with the problems of organization and tries to
achieve a sense of wholeness and fluidity does so in her own particular way, thus creating
a “freshness” in the process. This, then, is mine.

Room Arrangement
My classroom is divided into five discrete areas: math, language, science, reading
and meeting, and arts and crafts (including cooking). These areas grew out of my
increasing feeling that I did not want to teach to the entire group, or even half the group,
most of the time. Further, I wanted to reduce to a minimum teaching in segmented time
units in which beginnings and endings (though not necessarily completions) were ruled
by the clock. From these inclinations grew the idea that children could work on different
activities simultaneously and decide for themselves when to begin, when to finish. This
is, of course, not an original idea and there were many models around for me to learn
from once I moved in this direction. But it only made sense when it became a need for
me in the process of becoming a teacher. Once I felt I wanted to “open” or informalize,
or, as I think of it, decentralized my classroom, I had to learn techniques and develop
some of my own for making this work. I will describe the process of creating art and
science areas in some detail, the others briefly.

I had an art table from the start, but the children used it infrequently and nothing
very exciting seemed to happen there. This was because I found that in addition to their
art periods in the art studio (out of the room), I had created art periods in the room during
which the whole group would do some kind of art work as a follow-up to a trip, movie, or
some other language or social studies related activity. At those times, the entire room was
given over to art. I found these art periods, though pleasant and productive, rather

∗
1975 Bank Street College of Education
awkward in certain respects. Amassing and distributing enough material for 24 people
became, in itself, a production. Some children did not really respond to the particular
experience I had set up and did perfunctory work simply to meet the requirement or to
please me. The children tended to compare their work with others’ and to copy the best
artist in class. I tended to relate to the children more as a group than as individuals or
small groups and somehow never set a chance to do any art teaching on any other basis.

At other times, when some children wanted to use the art table for self-initiated
project, they come to me for material that I didn’t have or for help that I could not at the
moment give. I began to build up a notion of the kinds of materials which should always
be out and available, what kind I might keep tucked away. The more sophisticated I
become about what to provide for the children, the more ingenious, creative, and prolific
became their art. And, as other interest areas began to develop, with small groups of
children in each, I began to be able to spend small amounts of time at the art table with a
few children to introduce some new techniques.

The art table is big enough for six children. Hence, in the tag system which
governs the distribution of children in different areas of the room, there are six spaces for
children. (More about the tag system later). The children may sign up for art any time
during a work period. (A work period is the block of time, usually three hours in the
morning and an hour two afternoons a week when we work at math, reading, writing,
skills reinforcement, science and art.) Thus, instead of being a special activity, set apart
and often considered recreational, art becomes an integral part of the program. For
example, when a child has written a story he really likes, he makes a picture book out of
it and uses felt tip pens, water colors, India ink, crayons – whatever he feels is most
suitable – so that storywriting and art become very much connected.

During the first few weeks of school, the children learn about and explore the use
of the art area both in terms of housekeeping and in variety of uses, such as illustrations
of stories, science, drawings, observation (life) drawings, social studies projects, graphs,
and of course, art for art’s sake. The area then becomes self-sustaining and independent
with very little input by the teacher beyond offering suggestions and making material
available. Unless I am teaching a specific new craft (stitchery), or demonstrating the use
of a new material (India ink) or launching several children on a large project that needs
planning, the children can work in this area with very little supervision.

The science table grew out of two boxes in a closet that children had to drag out
and put back. The box was full of wires, bulbs and batteries; the other, beans, terra cotta
pots, and soil. This in-and-out procedure interfered with the work, and with every one
nearby. There was no special place for planting, so the activity occurred wherever there
seemed at the moment to be space. It was very distracting to children who were working
at, for example, math.

The science area is now a table, and bookshelf with books and materials on it, and
another, smaller table with an aquarium, magnifying glasses and natural objects. As in the
art areas, the availability of needed material creates the possibility of undisturbed,
independent work. The children (3 to 5 at a time) have lessons in such skills as the use of
the microscope. When they are ready, they then go on to use the task cards that provide
suggestions for using the microscope, and especially, that introduce them, via this
instrument, to the microscopic world of pond water, an ongoing study in our room. Every
child must learn how to use the microscope, but beyond a certain point of familiarity with
the instrument, exploration is a matter of choice.

Planting is simpler, but children need to be encouraged, through the use of

teacher-made task cards, to experiment with planting, to keep records, make drawings,
and create charts. Most of the task cards suggest inquiries that children have themselves
raised, such as, will a plant grow upside down? Children are not required to work with
planting, but they are expected to participate in some kind of activity where record-
keeping and inquiry are involved. For example, following the development of a tadpole,
trying to determine the guinea pig food preference, etc.

The use of children as teachers is sometimes critical in a decentralized classroom.

I had, for example, two children whose fascination with the microscope was so deep that
they went far beyond the others in the number of pond creatures they observed, identified
and drew. Both were extremely helpful to me and their peers. I could not have helped
seven children go further, but they were able to.

The math area contains a large table that seats about eight, and a long table that
seats about four nearby, plus two bookshelves that contain math materials (rods,
geoboards, table blocks, tangrams, straws, counters, rubberbands, etc.). The long table is
used for weighing and measuring tasks and weighing equipment sits on it. Children are
expected to do math everyday, and during most work periods a teacher sits with them and
helps with the math assignments. The curriculum in the form of math cards and ditto
“packets”, and all work is done in a teacher-made work book.

The language area operates very much like the math area, with a table that also
seats about eight. Nearby is a bookshelf that contains dictionaries, various word games,
and a box of teacher-made language cards that have tasks much like the kind that might
be found in workbooks for skills reinforcement, with many games and activities, plus a
whole section on suggestions for things to write about. The children are expected to write
everyday and to do a certain number of language skills tasks each day as well. When
working in the language area, I divided my time between it and the reading area, a place
with benches, pillows, and a rug, with shelves of books closing it from the rest of the
room. Here, children stretch out and read, alone or with a teacher. Children are expected
to read everyday and when they finish a book to make out a card for the reading file
which tells about the book and suggests who in the class they think might like it.

The reading area doubles as the all-important meeting area where we gather
together on the benches and rugs for various purposes that require everyone’s attendance.
In a decentralized classroom, the cultivation of group feeling and the ability to function in
a group becomes a matter of great concern because it can so easily get lost in the variety
and separateness of the various areas. We have several kinds of meetings:
  Business meetings, during which I might communicate to them
anything special about the day, notes to take home, trips to plan, etc.
 Problem solving meetings in which we discuss and try to solve social
problems that arise out of our living together
 Sharing meetings, during which the children share what they’ve made
or done;
 Social studies meetings, which are the core of our social studies
program, and which are both presentation on my part and exploration
of ideas by the children.

How the Children use the Room

When we are not at a meeting or at music, gym, or other class – that is, when are
not moving as an entire class – we are having what I call a work period. This is usually 2
½ to 3 hours in the morning and an hour to an hour and a half in the afternoon, 2
afternoons a week. We have a “play” time after lunch for half an hour during which
children play games (jacks, etc.) that they are not allowed to play during work period.
Sometimes, they use the play time to continue with some things they were particularly
involved in during the morning. Gym is scheduled three times a week and we go out to
the park 2 or 3 times a week, but not always at the same times. We go when it feels as if
everyone needs it. This is true also of planning meetings. Although we almost always
meet before lunch for 25 minutes to ¾ hour for a sharing time, our other meetings are not
scheduled on a regular basis, but rather like some medicines, as needed. For example, if
the day does not begin itself well, we have a morning meeting to get organized. There are
3 to 4 regularly scheduled social studies meeting a week in the afternoon and I read to the
children almost everyday after play time.

Otherwise, the children are free to move around the room and out of the room
freely within a certain structure. On a large tagboard, I have a round tag with each child’s
name on it. On the same board are designated the art, science and cooking areas in the
room; and the bathroom. Each area has the number of hooks that the area can
accommodate without a teacher. The children then put their tags up to indicate what area
or what room they’re going to and when that area is filled, a child has to wait for an
opening. This obviates a lot of discussion about what children are doing, who got there
first, etc. The language and math tables will accommodate as many children as there are
chairs.

When a child comes into the room in the morning, he looks on the blackboard for
his name. Posted there are the names of children who have neglected to read, write, or do
math for, say, two days. When their names are posted, it means that they must catch up
before they can go on to anything else. Also on the board are the names of children or
groups of children who must meet with a teacher to clear up some work they haven’t
understood or to have a lesson. Otherwise, the children are free to make their own
decisions as to how they will use the work period. (remaining with the distinction
between work period and non-work period activities.)
 Most children flourish in this setting, a few may languish. For those who have
difficulty organizing their time or who find it difficult to focus, I make the choices more
limited and make a more directive role in how children spend their time. But the goal is
always to help them do this planning better themselves.

All teaching is hard work. Organizing an informal or decentralized classroom may

seem to require an even greater than usual effort on the teacher’s part. In some respects –
especially in the thinking and planning that go on outside the classroom – it does. It has
been my experience, however that many of the stresses of life within the classroom have
disappeared. I attributed this to these factors: children make decisions about how they use
their time; they have freedom of movement; I am free to meet individual needs;
expectations are clear. The result is an informed, relaxed atmosphere in which the
wearing task of managing and keeping order is all but taken care of by the organization of
time and space. Both children and teacher are free to work together on the really
interesting and important tasks of classroom life.