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.
• 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.
awesome
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