by: Rob
Johnson
1. The
first thing to remember is that you are the boss.
Self belief is incredibly important in this job. You can’t
expect pupils to respond positively to you unless you believe, really believe,
that you fully deserve their respect and compliance. The thought that you are
the leader in the classroom must be at the forefront of your mind.
If you give any sign at all that you are NOT in FULL
CONTROL, children will sense this and exploit your weaknesses. You MUST project
strength and the impression that you will not tolerate any disobedience.
All too often a teacher will enter a lesson filled with
dread and give out the signal that they are beaten before the lesson even
starts. Pupils sense this. If you’ve been having a hard time with a particular
group they will come to expect that you will be a walk-over and get into the
habit of talking freely with total disregard for your threats.
2. Have
definite rules on noise
Once you’ve decided on your rules (preferably with input
from the pupils) you need to ensure the pupils are totally clear what those
rules are. There must be no ambiguity and therefore no room for argument.
We all know how important consistency is in terms of
classroom management but unless you have a clear set of rules to work to in the
first place, you can’t consistently apply them. So, what is your rule on noise?
Mine is simple: If I say there is to be no talking, then
there is to be no talking. I will not tolerate being interrupted without taking
action. I seldom enforce this rule for longer than a few minutes – just at
those key times when I am either explaining something, starting a new task or
taking a register etc. - but if I tell a group that I want total silence, then
I mean it. And any pupil who ignores this is dealt with straight away.
For example, never let a pupil shout out without reminding
them to put up their hand. Never, allow pupils to continue talking at the start
of a lesson when you’ve started explaining the objective. Never, let pupils
interrupt you without reminding them that it is unacceptable to do so.
If you let them get away with it once, you have effectively
trained them to try and get away with it again.
3. Control entry to the classroom
The ideal place to establish control over your pupils is
outside the door - before you even let them in the room.You must start the
lesson under your terms. And the lesson starts before they enter the room with
you having them line up outside the door in an orderly manner.
This is the perfect time to gauge the mood of the group and
indeed the individuals in the group. You can easily spot potential problems
(unhappy pupils, cases of bullying, arguments etc.) and deal with them rather
than letting them go unnoticed and having them escalate into serious
disruptions during your lesson.
If the group won’t stand still and quiet don’t let them in
the room. They must do EXACTLY as you say before you let them through the door.
If they run to a chair bring them back again and make them walk. If you let
them get away with anything at this important stage, you will set the tone as
being one where they can get away with things. You don’t want that.
4. Have ‘settling work’ ready for them when they
enter the room
If you have a group who just won’t settle try presenting
them with some of the following ‘settling work’ as soon as they enter the room.
But… make sure you add this little twist to ensure the pupils get stuck into it
straight away…
On your board have the following written up…
“Complete the work detailed below. You have ten minutes. If
you don’t finish it, you will return at break to complete it.”
Obviously you need to adjust individual work targets for
less able pupils to make it fair. Once they’ve started you can go round the
slow workers very quietly, out of earshot of the others, and tell them where to
stop. i.e. give them a work target which requires less writing than the others –
“James, you can stop when you get to the end of this
sentence”. (And put a pencil mark where you want them to get up to.)
The great advantage of this strategy is that it gives you a
few minutes to get your resources sorted out. I do use this if I want to show a
DVD clip and haven’t had time to set the AV equipment up for example.
On each desk you could have a quick topic-related puzzle, a
review quiz of last lesson’s work, a cloze exercise or some text copying work.
Nothing too difficult – you don’t want to confuse them because they’ll spend
ten minutes asking questions instead of settling down. Choose something simple
(and preferably light-hearted or fun) that requires no explanation or fuss.
As well as having the instructions written on the board,
greet them at the door and say…
“Get started on the simple task on your desk – you have ten
minutes to finish it.”
Once they’re in the room you can then add…
“Anyone not finishing this little task will finish it at
break – there should be no talking. If you talk you’ll come back at break and
do it in silence then.”
If you want them to copy notes from the board (or a book)
make sure there isn’t a huge amount of text otherwise you will provoke
complaints. You can ‘hide’ extra work by having five or ten lines of text for
them to copy and then a note at the end saying “Now answer question 2 on page
46” which could be another five or ten lines of notes.
Comments like…
“It is entirely your choice as to whether or not you get
break. If you want break, do the work. If you don’t want break, sit and chat.”
…can be used if they don’t settle straight away.
5. The Right
Way To Ask For Silence
You may have been told that an alternative to shouting for
silence is to simply wait for rowdy pupils to calm down.
And wait… And wait… And wait…
Teachers have mixed views as to the effectiveness of waiting
for silence before continuing with the lesson because in many cases it just
doesn’t work.
Some classes will respond positively to this strategy almost
straight away but a hard class will test your mettle and try to push you way
beyond 5 or 10 minutes.
They’ll enjoy watching your expression turn to desperation
and laugh at the fact that your plan isn’t working.
At a time like this you need to bring in sanctions and make
them see that their continuous disobedience will not be tolerated.
If you have a strong, commanding voice you can shout for
quiet and explain what the sanctions will be if they continue talking. If you
can’t be sure that your voice will cut through the noise sufficiently, you can
communicate via the board by writing your instructions. Write up your
instructions in bold, capital letters. You may need to give them slightly
longer time to comply – allowing for the fact that they may not all read your
instructions straight away.
This is what to say…
(You may think that these sanctions won’t work with your
toughest class but they are phrased in a very specific manner as you’ll soon
see. If you rigorously and consistently apply them you will win. Your class
will settle. I’ve never known it fail).
“If you wish to continue talking during my lesson I will
have to take time off you at break. By the time I‘ve written the title on the
board you need to be sitting in silence. Anyone who is still talking after that
will be kept behind for 5 minutes.”
Phrasing your instructions in this way when you want a class
to be quiet is very powerful and almost always guarantees success. Let’s
examine why:
Firstly, you are being very fair and giving the pupils a
warning…
“If you wish to continue talking during my lesson I will
have to take time off you at break.”
When teachers try to issue a punishment without a warning…
“Right you’ve just lost your break!”
…they are often met with a torrent of abuse…
“No way, that’s not fair – we weren’t doing anything!!!”
I always find that giving pupils a fair warning about an
impending sanction takes the sting out of a confrontational situation.
Secondly, you are telling them exactly what they are doing
wrong, and exactly how to put it right…
“…you need to be sitting in silence.”
Thirdly, you are giving them a clear time by which you
expect full compliance…
“By the time I‘ve written the title on the board you need to
be sitting in silence.”
Fourthly, and very importantly, you are telling them exactly
what will happen to them if they don’t do as you ask…
“Anyone who is still talking after that will be kept behind
for 5 minutes.”
These key features are important if you want pupils to
follow your instructions because they leave no room for questions, debates,
arguments or confusion. The pupils know exactly what they’re doing wrong, what
will happen if they continue and how to correct their behavior so as to evade a
sanction.
References:
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