How seats are arranged in the classroom is part of an effective comprehensive classroom management plan. More is involved than just placing students into assigned seats. The direction of the seats and how many groups of seats there are in a classroom impacts student learning. Who each student sits next to also impacts how well each student pays attention and stays on task. Each student's activity level, prior history, medical needs and social needs must be taken into account so that he feels secure in the classroom and is able to learn and not disrupt the classroom.
Elementary students also need to understand the rules of the classroom. Teachers must teach the signals to be used to reinforce the required rules. For example, if the rule in a certain classroom is to be quiet and pay attention while the teacher is talking, then the teacher must teach a signal she will use to ask for the students to stop talking and to look and listen. The signal can be a verbal request such as "eyes and ears on me" or it can be a sound such as a bell. Whatever signal is used must remain constant and taught to the students from day one.
Comprehensive classroom management takes into account how well the lesson is planned out. An effective lesson plan is well-paced and engages students. It is well organized with specific goals and objectives each lesson must achieve. It includes the necessary materials, procedures to follow and assessments to determine how well the students learned the information and if re-teaching is necessary. The lesson plan itself does not have to be typed out in a formal fashion unless required by the school district. Educators can write their own lesson plans in whatever format makes sense to them. Some use mind maps and others write it out in outline form.
One of the goals of a comprehensive classroom management plan is to foster a positive student-teacher relationship in the classroom. Reinforcement of positive behavior that leads to learning encourages this relationship as well as motivating the students to learn even more. In order to reinforce a particular student's proper and good behavior, the teacher must first identify what motivates that student. Proper reinforcement not only lets the students know what is not acceptable, it teaches them the proper behavior to replace the improper behavior. It is used to teach simple things like turning in assignments on time to more complicated things such as not disrespecting the teacher and peers.