Teacher Tech: Getting Control of Your Out-of-Control Class

It was my first class, and I did it badly.  They were often completely out of control.  The only thing that seemed to bring them back was when I yelled over their noise or blocked the door at recess/lunch time until they could become quiet.  My class was an unpleasant place.

How I wish I could go back and make it up to those students!  Especially Booney, my most difficult student.

Since I can’t go back, perhaps I can make it up by helping another teacher gain control over a dysfunctional classroom.  Maybe I can help a Booney out there grow to love school.

Start Over

If your students are noisy and sloppy about following directions, you’ve basically trained them to be that way.  They know that if you “get mad” and force them to be quiet, in a few minutes it will be perfectly all right to strike up a conversation.  The signal for students to start up a conversation is for one student to begin talking and not face a correction by the teacher.

Simply improving your behavior management will result in slow, uneven progress.  You will need to tell your students that the class will be different.  

Name It

If you name the set of classroom behaviors you want, your students can understand the change better.  For example, if you say, “Today we are going to do things the Westgate Way for the next lesson.”  Then you explain the Westgate Way is when we work quietly during independent times and raise hands to contribute to a discussion or ask a question.  Later you can do the Westgate Way all the time.

Control Yourself

Your class can never learn a new way of behavior unless you discipline yourself.  Be patient with yourself as you learn this and feel free to point out to your students that you are learning the Westgate Way as well.

Here’s what you will have to learn:

•            Never talk over your students.  Never.  You won’t give directions or deliver content while they are talking or not paying attention.

Rookie teachers often talk over students.  They, like I did, probably figure that since most students appear attentive, it's ok to talk.

Signals

If you teach your students to respond to practiced signals, you can get and keep their attention with very little effort.  Teach them some behaviors to do on a signal like Heads Down, Hide Your Eyes, Clear Your Desk, and Sit On Your Hands.  Other signals like Echo Clapping, Hands on Your Head if You Can Hear Me, should also be in your toolkit.  These behaviors and signals should be age-appropriate. 

Practice and reinforce your signals and realize that each time you use a signal, it loses power.  If you do Echo Clapping more than once or twice in a 45 minute period, you are over-using it.  If students do not respond correctly to a signal, practice it then avoid using it so it can become fresh and effective in a future lesson.

You can limit distractions and use carefully planned seating arrangements to help students become successful at the Westgate Way.

•  Make sure each and every student follows your directions.

This means you need to be very careful about what you say to your class.  If you say No talking, when would it be ok for them to talk?  Should they wait until you are busy, then talk?  That’s how they got out of control in the first place.   Don’t tell them No talking unless they know when they can begin talking. 

Is it reasonable to expect a class full of children to work quietly for 45 minutes?  Some teachers tell the class something like this You need to work silently for the next 5 minutes, then only use quiet voices so you don’t disturb the other children working nearby.  Watch the clock and your students like a hawk and confront any student who talks prior to the 5 minutes.

Use the least harsh corrections first.  If you smile sweetly and put your finger to your lips to signal a student who’s talking out of turn, that’s a less harsh correction that telling the student to follow directions.  If the non-verbal doesn’t work, ask a question.  If you say Booney, is our 5 minutes up yet? that’s less harsh than Booney, quiet down.

If you tell your students to raise a hand to ask a question, you can not respond to a called out question.  If a student calls out a question, you should ignore it and call on a student whose hand is up or look directly at the student who called out and raise your hand and smile so he knows what you want him to do.

• Make Sure They Know What To Do When Done

After a student finishes an assignment, there should be clear expectations about what to do next.  If the class is noisy, then silent reading is an unrealistic expectation.  Some teachers deal with this by having on-going projects students can work on.  For example, a poster or comic strip about a topic the class is discussing.  The when-you-are-done activity should be clear prior to students starting their independent practice.

•  Constantly analyze the work you give your students to determine if it’s at the right difficulty level.

Even the most compliant student will misbehave when the work is too easy or too hard.  One way to address this is to have an example up on the board and whisper to your low-ability student that she can copy the example.  Have an engaging extension ready for your high-ability students.

Avoid giving assignments with short, fill-in-the-blank answers, but instead, provide opportunities for students to write their responses out.  Put examples of strong student efforts up in front of the class (after getting permission from the student) to show what you want and what they are capable of doing.

•  Point out success.

How do you know when you are riding a bike correctly?  It just feels right.  Students need to know how a pleasant, well-functioning classroom feels.  Maybe one of your behavior signals is FREEZE!

I have “frozen” my class when they are behaving perfectly and told them that this is what they should expect in a class: hardworking students who are enjoying their learning.  I tell them they should feel good about their behavior and decide that next time we have independent work, this is how they will approach the time.

There are other aspects and techniques to learning how to get your out-of-control class on track.  This article was meant as a place to start.   A teacher can further improve classroom management skills by observing other teachers, asking a principal or colleague to teach a lesson in the class and reading up on the subject.

I remember what my first principal told me when I complained to him about my out of control class, If Booney misbehaves, he needs to learn control.  If the whole class is misbehaving, the teacher needs to learn control.