ABSTRACT
An initial consideration in any teacher’s classroom is how space is utilised to the best possible effect. There are many advantages to a comfortable and attractive carpeted area which allows the class to sit together and share ideas. It has to be acknowledged, however, that the size of many classrooms makes this difficult to achieve. Whether there is a carpeted area or not, the space must allow for the delivery of whole class activities such as the class reader, shared reading, word-and sentence-level work, plenary sessions. In the past it was considered ‘good practice’ to have particular designated areas that would support language work. These included book ‘corners’ with comfortable seating or cushions; listening points with audio-cassettes and headphones; display areas such as ‘author of the week’; message boards; role-play areas. Although we feel that these kinds of organisation are still very important we regret that the advent of the literacy strategy has meant that this kind of practice is more difficult to prioritise.
