Term 3 - the geography of the classroom

In response to student feedback, we have offered our students the opportunity to sit with their friends, regardless of which class they have been allocated on the timetable.  We are continuing to do listening tasks together, as N10/N12 facilitates this.  We combined our first session: table groups participated in a reflective task on students' prior knowledge of French food, but the problem continues of students becoming chatty - due to the large number in the room (even though we could stretch out from N10 into part of N12) and the reduced ability of the teacher to maintain classroom control in a less structured environment.  It would be interesting to see if students would be more focussed in an environment that was explicitly set up for the purpose of team teaching and collaborative learning.  The classrooms seem so cold and 'transient' - there's nothing there that welcomes them in, and nothing they can leave behind.  They are there 3 times/week for French.