7. Are these good classrooms?
WARNING!
Without Classroom Management,
all of these classes could be a disaster!
8. What is
‘classroom management’?
Classroom management n
The ways in which student behaviour, movement, interaction etc.,
during a class is organised and controlled by the teacher (or sometimes
by the learners themselves) to enable teaching to take place more
effectively.
Longman Dictionary of
Language Teaching & Applied Linguistics
Classroom management is a term used by
teachers to describe the process of ensuring that
classroom lessons run smoothly despite
disruptive behavior by students..
10. What do the experts tell us about
classroom management?
11. Di Guilo (2007) claims that there are 3 steps
to a managed classroom:
1) Preventative Intervention
Before the fact
2) Supportive Intervention
During the fact
3) Corrective Intervention
After the fact
12. Major (2008) has 8 rules of Classroom Management:
1) Keep students busy
2) Be Alert
3) Be Engaging
4) Be Consistent
5) Get to know your students
6) Don’t try to be your students’ best friend
7) …or their worst enemy
8) Praise good behaviour
Major M.R. (2008) The Teacher’s Survival Guide
“Teaching is NOT a popularity contestTeaching is NOT a popularity contest”
Marchesani (2007) The Field Guide to Teaching
14. Tip No. 1: Set Clear Rules!
• Classroom Contract
www.superteachertools.com
15. Tip No. 2: Be consistent!
Start as you mean to finish
Know your rules from Day 1
Keep Them!
Treat each ‘broken rule’ or unwanted
behaviour with the same consequence
16. Boring them to death is not an option!
(however tempting it may seem!)
17. Tip No. 3: Provide Clear Instructions
“Ok, everybody sit down. Now what you have to do
is, when you, you take this sheet of paper that I’m
handing out now and keep it secret and some of you
are “A”, it’s written at the top and some are labelled
“B”. Ok, can you see that? Don’t show your paper to
anyone and then you have to describe to your
partner; sit face to face. Could you move your chairs
around and describe what’s on your paper so that
your partner can find out what’s different and you
must agree; when you find something draw it on
your paper. Ok, do you understand?”
19. A “I’d like you to peruse these questions and have a ponder,
then make a stab at answering them.”
B “Could you just move your chairs a bit and get yourselves in
groups?”
C “Imagine if you were in this situation – how would you feel?
Do you see what I mean? No? OK, you – in situation –
feelings? what?”
D “Let’s just run through the answers shall we?”
E “Why don’t you just have a chat about this with your
neighbour?”
Tip No. 3: Provide Clear Instructions
21. What is the purpose of
teachers ‘monitoring’
student activity?
Tip No. 4: Effective Monitoring
How does the monitoring
vary depending on the
activity?
22. Advice taken from Jim Scrivener’s ‘Learning to Teach’
Tip No. 4: Effective Monitoring
1. Stand back to start with1. Stand back to start with
2. Quickly go round and check
1. Stand back to start with
2. Quickly go round and check
3. Don’t interrupt (unless..)
1. Stand back to start with
2. Quickly go round and check
3. Don’t interrupt (unless..)
4. Spread your attention
1. Stand back to start with
2. Quickly go round and check
3. Don’t interrupt (unless..)
4. Spread your attention
5. Don’t correct (unless)
1. Stand back to start with
2. Quickly go round and check
3. Don’t interrupt (unless..)
4. Spread your attention
5. Don’t correct (unless)
6. Be easily accessible
1. Stand back to start with
2. Quickly go round and check
3. Don’t interrupt (unless..)
4. Spread your attention
5. Don’t correct (unless)
6. Be easily accessible
7. If you need to, feed in ideas
1. Stand back to start with
2. Quickly go round and check
3. Don’t interrupt (unless..)
4. Spread your attention
5. Don’t correct (unless)
6. Be easily accessible
7. If you need to, feed in ideas
8. Give encouragement if necessary
1. Stand back to start with
2. Quickly go round and check
3. Don’t interrupt (unless..)
4. Spread your attention
5. Don’t correct (unless)
6. Be easily accessible
7. If you need to, feed in ideas
8. Give encouragement if necessary
9. Take notes
23. Tip No. 5: Control the noise levels
What happens
when you try to
win an argument
with a child by
screaming?
So what should
you do?
24. Tip No. 5: Control the noise levels
Don’t try to talk OVER the noise
Have a consistent strategy
- Fingers on lips
- 3, 2, 1
- Marble tin
- Agreed noise level
- Wait!
- Scale of punishments
- Lights
25. Tip No. 5: Control the noise levels
The ‘No Game’ Bar
NO GAME
NONO
GAME !GAME !
26. You’ve got the power!
Are they still acting up?
Take it away!
(if the problem lies with a thing)
Differentiation
(keep them busier with special /
important tasks)
Change seating
(during the break)
Don’t Get
Walked On!
27. You’ve got the Power!!
Student
Area
of
control
Out of
control
Teacher
29. Tip No. 6: You have the power of seating
Rearrange seating whenever necessary:
• Avoid power groups developing
• Prevent talkative or disruptive students sitting together
• To support mixed ability groups
30. Consider these possible seating arrangements
What activities would they be most suited for?
Traditional Horseshoe Grouped (facing Teacher)
Grouped
(facing each other)
Closed circles Open circle
Tip No. 6: You have the power of seating
31. What activities would they be most suited for?
Traditional Horseshoe Grouped
(facing Teacher)
Grouped
(facing each other)
Closed
circles
Open
circles
Mingle / class surveys Topic discussion
lecture Be easiest to change pairs
Pair work Maximum student production
Teams performing task Class with discipline problems
Test Your typical lesson
32. Think about your own position in the room
Stand or sit?
Static or moving?
Front of room or somewhere else?
Does it
matter?
34. Task
You will be given several example situations.
In your groups, talk about the following:
• What is the problem?
• Why has it arisen?
• How will you deal with it now?
• What will you do to prevent it arising in the future?
35. a) A student hits another student because of anger
b) You often find the lesson ends while you are mid-task
c) A student never completes homework assignments
d) You often find yourself trying to lower the noise level within the classroom
e) The entire class performed poorly on their previous test
f) One student seems not to want to work with any of the other students
g) One student always copies from his friend who sits next to him
h) A student enjoys playing the role of class clown, frequently disrupting
lessons
• What is the problem?
• Why has it arisen?
• How will you deal with it now?
• What will you do to prevent it arising in the future?
Work in Macau – how many of you have been there? But Macau is very small, so I like to go to conferences often
Well, they imagine you probably have very few students. All of them incredibly eager to answer the teacher’s every question, and to participate in every activity. Is this the classroom you work in? No, mine neither. Instead, the reality is more like…..
Noisy Layout of desks / seats Nobody paying attention to the teacher
4 classrooms. Audience decides if they represent ‘good’ classrooms’. Answer: Without good classroom management, all of these could be a disaster.
One of these is inherently different from all the rest. Discipline! Because this is something which is largely dealt with during the lesson, whereas the others are largely managed pre-lesson
+ maybe 1% family / home environment
6) Be friendly, not friends
www.superteachertools.com
So how do we be consistent? Major has 8 rules (next slide)
Notice that this is not one of Major’s rules!
www.superteachertools.com
These are not printed on handout
These are not printed on handout
Try to lower the noise level
Try to lower the noise level
Try to lower the noise level
Responsibility / control. You’re the boss!
Responsibility / control. You’re the boss!
Notice that this is not one of Major’s rules!
How is the relationship between the teacher and the students likely to vary in each case? How will it affect the classroom atmosphere? Which arrangements are most conducive to the teacher remaining in control? In which situation will the teacher dominate most? What will his/her role be in each case? Which arrangements are best for students to be able to talk to each other? How will the size of the group affect the arrangement? What activities might be suitable for each arrangement?
Seating arrangements can determine: How students feel about each other How they feel about the teacher How the teacher feels about them How students (and teacher) interact The types of activities that can be performed
Seating arrangements can determine: How students feel about each other How they feel about the teacher How the teacher feels about them How students (and teacher) interact The types of activities that can be performed
