The Socratic Seminar layout was employed to emphasize that group discussions and collaborative

work are the focus of the classroom climate. I had to adapt the shape to accommodate differing
class sizes (ranging 7 to 23 among the 6th, 7th, and 8th grade classes), allowing smaller classes to use
the seats in the middle to close the gap for communicationwhile allow allowing larger classes to
spread out (not using the middle seats. The teacher can also walk freely in the center to check work
and engage in discussion.

Desks are oriented so that everyone can see the boardthe focal point of the classroomwhere
videos and pictures are displayed to give context to Tier 3 vocabularya significant part of the
population are English Language Learners.