Engaging Students Using Flexible Seating in a Language Arts Classroom

Through changing times, engaging students in the classroom has become a more challenging task than ever before. It is believed that engagement is flexible, sensitive to contextual cues, and adaptable to changes in the surrounding environment (Fredricks et al., 2004). Fredricks et al. (2004) emphasized categories of cognitive, emotional, and behavioral engagement and suggested examining engagement in the three categories: cognitive, emotional, and behavioral. This classroom research focuses on student engagement in the classroom particularly during language arts lessons. I use flexible seating, a classroom with the ability to arrange the seating to best suit each lesson (Tanahashi, 2007). I was able to implement flexible seating in a first grade classroom and observed how it impacted the students’ cognitive, emotional and behavioral engagement. In this qualitative study, I collected feedback about seating preference through a survey, analyzed student work, as well as observed the students' participation and perseverance during language arts lessons. Through analysis of literature review and my classroom data, I was able to find connections between engaged students and the classroom implementing flexible seating. I aimed to find strategies that can best help myself and other teachers to engage students in the classroom, particularly during language arts lessons. Students were enthusiastic to have flexible seating in the classroom and I found that they both preferred and their work showed that they were more engaged in class.