Three reasons I was wrong about tables

Two years ago my room started out set up in six rows and ended in eight tables.  I'd have the kids move their tables into rows for a particular activity and then back into rows when they were done.  Throughout the year the change over to tables was gradual.  Every time we moved desks, it would be longer and longer until the desks went back into rows and eventually they just never went back.  

If I had sat down and actually thought about it, I'm not sure I would have decided to rearrange desks like this.  These are a few of the reasons that I was not in favor of tables and why I was wrong.

• Kids won't pay attention in tables.

I thought that if kids weren't facing front then they wouldn't pay attention.  This is one point that I was really wrong about.  It's all about classroom management.  When I let the students know that they would be staying in tables, I let them know that they were expected to behave and pay attention when necessary.  I assigned specific jobs to kids to ensure that they worked well together and were accountable for their behavior as a group.

• Focus should be on the board.

I think that having the seats facing the board creates a classroom that is more teacher centered.  The focus is on the teacher and the instruction.  When I switched over to tables I noticed that I gave students the opportunity to work together much more often.  It created an environment that was more focused on the work that the students were doing.  Working together became the norm instead of just something they did sometimes.  

• There's a bigger possibility for distraction in tables.

I thought that if kids were sitting in a group then they would have access to at least three other people that they could distract at all times.  This part is true, but what I didn't quite realize is that in rows there was actually more of a possibility for distraction.  I have a little picture to explain quite what I mean.

In this set up the kid in dark green has five other kids that they could potentially talk to.  And that's an end seat.  A kid in the middle of a row of three would have eight different students around them. When there's like seven different kids I'm trying to separate from each other it becomes really hard to do.

In this set up the same kid only has three other people around him to talk to.  What's even better is that the rest of the kids are really far away from that kid which I like even more.  It was so much easier to create groups of three or four kids that would work well together than trying to plan out rows where there were so many kids all around each other.

I'm very happy I made the switch over.  After making the change for good, I realized there were a bunch of things I loved about the seating arrangement.  My favorite thing is that it makes it so much easier for me to get around to help students and check work.  Instead of just moving around the room from one student to the next, I can move from table to table and address all issues or check all work at once.  If they're all having the same problem I can sit down and help them all together.

I also couldn't imagine doing the ISN without having the kids in tables.  I'm planning on explaining how I do supplies later [update: check out supplies here], but the quick idea is that each table has a basket of supplies that they all share.  When getting new papers to use for the day it is someone's job to get all papers for the group. I also have another person in charge of cleaning up.  Without tables, I would have 25 different kids all trying to do the same things instead of just 5 or 6.

From what I've seen and heard, I'm not sure that this setup is as common in high school so I'm looking forward to switching things up there and giving it a try.

What do you use?? Tables or rows... and why??