Earlier today I wrote about my response to students feeling sleepy in class during the time when they read a book of their choice (see Keeping Our Eyes On The Wrong Prize). As I wrote in that piece, I explained why I let students choose to sit on a desk and the many benefits I believed would come from that decision.
Today, everybody chose to read in their seats. However, at one point, one of those same students put their head down. I waited for a minute to see what might happen — would he decide to do something that would keep him awake? He didn’t have a chance, though. His friend who sits at the next desk quickly poked him gently and said, “Why don’t you sit on the desk?”
Now, that’s a prize worth keeping an eye on….
Interesting update to an interesting post. I shared the gist of your post with high school staff in my district. Our high school just implemented SSR (silent sustained reading) this year. I got a few responses, mostly in agreeement with your sentiment, and one response that went something like this: sitting on desks is like sitting on tables, and is therefore inappropriate. No response yet to my follow-up question: what about sitting on the floor?