Seating Chart Mystery
Seating Chart Mystery
Background and Goals
An assigned seating arrangement is helpful to the teacher and the class for many reasons:
- It establishes a sense of organization and procedure in the class.
- It assists in learning names and communicating with students.
- It established that students will need to work with new partners and not rely on established friendships, which are often based socio-economic factors.
The seating mystery activity provides a randomized seating arrangement, involves students in a learning activity and provides an opportunity for student interaction that helps students learn more about their peers. It can be used as an introduction to problem solving methods and science teachers can use it to introduce the so-called "scientific method."
Procedure:
On the first day of class, have the student fill out cards with information about themselves: for example: first, middle and last name, birth-date, street name, favorite food, favorite color, favorite hobby, elementary school, number of pets, number of siblings. Tell them the information will be used for an activity on the next day and they must remember what they wrote.
Make a seating arrangement based on some information on the cards, for example by favorite food alphabetized or first name spelled backward. One of the best is by birth-date since it avoids cultural groupings. Go in a specific order, such as a zigzag pattern from the front to back of the room.
On the second day put them in the new order and tell that it is their task to figure out the basis for the seating arrangement (the information used and the physical layout). Remind them of the information you could have used.
For the first step allot about 5-10 minutes for them talk only to the persons in front, behind, left and right of them. They should ask questions to look for similarities. They should not share information based on discussions with other students. Encourage them to take notes of what they learn.
Students then write a statement (hypothesis) that states what they can infer about the seating arrangement based on the limited information from their discussions. The statement should include what they think are possible items could have been used to form the seating chart and which they have eliminated as possibilities. The statement should also give evidence to back up their statements. The expected depth of this statement should depend on the grade level.
Next they can test their hypothesis moving about the room to talk to any student. Give them 5-10 minutes, depending on the difficulty of the arrangement and how close they were after the first step.
Have them write a conclusion statement based on their new information.
The discussion can include concepts of evidence, claims, inferences, direct observations, information sharing, and problem solving. You can also discuss the procedures you will use in the class and your expectations for their participation in activities.
- John Olson, Metropolitan State University
