Answers to Your Questions About Effective Library and Classroom Design

Creating an Effective Learning Space

How can I make my space the most effective learning environment for my students? 

• Remove a few desks and see how the new space changes your perception of the room.
• Remove outdated items from the walls.
• Look for 10 items in the room that aren’t supporting the learning or are detracting from learning and remove them.
• Think about visual noise. Visual noise can be color, volume, or organization. Consider how each of these things is impacting students and what role it plays in learning. It is better to push a little outside your comfort zone when removing items you think might be distracting.
• Add a standing option for students, such as a sit-and-stand desk or a café-height table.
• Create a sanctuary area where students can calm themselves and have quiet space.
• Consider how nature plays a role in your classroom design, and find ways to integrate natural elements. Natural light has been shown to play a big part in boosting academic achievement, but if you don’t have access to this, you can also show images of nature on your digital display, bring plants and natural materials into the classroom, and get outside to learn when possible.
• Create a student design team to move items, try new things, and provide their opinion.
• Continue to create time and space to explore, be curious, and create.
• Keep the design momentum rolling by continually taking small risks, removing things, or trying something for 10 minutes. Look at one wall and change something. Do something in the area of instruction. Consider a new technology tool. All of these things support effective learning environments.

How can I update my classroom design with limited funding?

• Optimize what you have. Talk about it. Showcase it. Present a vision for what is possible. All of these things prime the pump, and often this results in money and support from parents, administration, your PTO, and your community.
• Be clear about your purpose and remove the items that aren’t laser focused on that purpose. Continue to look for ways to remove things as a strategy to see the space in different ways.
• Look for two to three items or ways to amplify your design, such as adding standing workspaces, a comfortable lounge area, or a unique seating option. You can consider turning your desk into a space for students as well.
• Survey the entire building for items that could be used in your space. There are often unused gems in other classrooms and closets.
• Ask the community, but be really specific in your asks. You don’t want your classroom to look like a garage sale, and you should be purchasing furnishings rated and designed for educational spaces.
• Provide more writable surfaces. Look for existing surfaces like glass, desks, or windows to let students write on, or get a piece of showerboard cut at a home improvement store and utilize the pieces as smaller whiteboards. You can also use a big roll of white paper.

How do you teach handwriting to young children without hard surfaces?

• There should still be plenty of hard work surfaces in a classroom. Removing the desks in a classroom may reduce the number of hard surfaces; however, you can use strategies such as station rotation to a greater degree.
• Students can use a number of temporary hard surfaces, such as clipboards, as they work in comfortable spots around the room.

How can I design a space suitable for different class sizes and the different subjects that I teach? 

• Consider including a variety of work-surface heights in one space or look at height-adjustable options.
• Add writable space, as this works for all classes and subjects.
• Have students set up the room for the next learning group. This avoids the loss of instructional time at the beginning of the hour.

What suggestions do you have for high school classes that switch throughout the day?

• Develop a set of learning space principles that you are pursuing with a group of colleagues. These can include asking for feedback, having less as opposed to more, giving students access to writable space, and providing some additional movement.
• At minimum, break up the rows and desks by having different configurations of desks and chairs that support different modes of learning.