U06 Classroom Management Strategies 2

Transcription

1 U06 Classroom Management Strategies 2 I. Making Classroom Rules A. For majority of English co-teaching classrooms in Korea, class management has been left exclusively for Korean teachers. B. When making classroom rules, discuss and come up with acceptable and unacceptable behaviors. This way, students will not be confused on whose rules and standards they need to follow. C. The purpose of making rules is not to punish our students, but to prevent students from being punished. D. It is ineffective to make too many rules. When there are too many rules, students don't pay attention to them as much. Limit the number of classroom rules to less than five. E. Keep the Rules Simple Avoid long and complete sentences. Rules should be very direct and straightforward. Ex. Instead of writing, 'If you have a question or want to speak out loud, raise your hand.' WRITE 'Raise your hand'. Rules should consist more of 'do' words instead of 'no' or 'don't' words. According to studies, students are likely to feel suppression and be stressed if you have all the rules with negative words like 'no' such as 'no eating', 'no swearing', 'no sleeping', 'no horsing around', etc. Ex. Instead of 'no eating in class', WRITE 'eat after class'. Instead of 'no swearing', write 'speak kind words', etc. F. Post the Rules Try not to post the rules in the back of the class. Make sure the rules are in your students sight at all times. Make the fonts big enough for students in the back of the class to be able to see.

2 G. Communication Between Teachers One unacceptable behavior of a student might be acceptable to the other teacher and vice versa. It is important that you and your co-teacher continuously communicate about such matter after class whether certain behavior of a certain student today was acceptable or unacceptable. H. Keeping Consistency in Carrying Out Rules Be consistent and fair in scolding your students. If you are generous one day and strict on the next day, students will be confused on which is right or wrong. I. Effective Way to Manage Class More rewards and positive reinforcements should be given to students instead of punishments. II. Reward System I A. Hall of Fame For majority of our students, being embarrassed in front of their friends can be the biggest disgrace and the scariest feeling they can experience. On the other hand being proud in front of their friends can be one of the most rewarding feeling they can feel. Making them feel proud and raising their self-esteem can be one of the best ways to internally motivate them. This motivation will last much longer than external motivation such as candies. This hall of fame does not only praise students for an instant but actually makes that particular student and also other students remember the time, leading to even longer duration of motivation. B. Steps to Make Hall of Fame Make a fancy hall of fame board. Find a place to post the board; make sure everyone can see it clearly. The system of selecting the student to go on the hall of fame is up to you. Ex 1. One possibility is for the teacher to just pick a student of the week. Ex 2. Another possibility would be to play a quiz game and post the picture of the winner or winners. Ex 3. For any activities, homework, class work, and games, you can add up points and select the best student or team as the student or students of the

3 week, or just pick the winning team on the last game you've played in the class. Take a photo of the student(s) and write a legend below such as 'student of the week', or 'quiz masters'. You can leave the picture on for a week and replace the picture with another outstanding student in the following week. III. Reward System II A. Using Personalized Stamps For elementary school students, it can be very joyful to have such stamp on their notebooks IV. Conclusion A. Praises are the best vitamin children can have. B. Such praises added to effective reward system will maximize the result of your lessons and any other means of your teaching. C. Motivation of the student can be considered as the key factor to effective classroom management. D. Teacher's control over the class of many students will be very limited without the cooperation of students themselves. E. In eliciting the cooperation of students, internal motivation would be the best thing.

4 U06 Classroom Management Strategies 2 I. Rules A. Enforce Rules Consistently Rules must be applied equitably to all students. If a student who rarely misbehaves is seen running indoors, for example, he or she should be reminded of the rule just as quickly and sternly as a student who regularly acts out. B. Use Positive Reinforcement Teachers shouldn t respond to negative behavior only. A teacher should make a point to also discuss positive behaviors with students and try to point out when students are following their rules well. II. Supportive Measures A. Teachers need to continually take supportive measures to remind students of rules, help students to manage their own behavior, reward positive behavior, and quell problems before they boil over into disruptive situations. B. The best supportive measures are those that can be taken without stopping or otherwise disrupting the lesson. C. Following are some tips for such supportive measures that can be taken by teachers. Proxemics If the teacher notices one student starting to lose focus or behave inappropriately, simply walk to that part of the classroom and stand next to him or her without stopping the lesson delivery. Touch The teacher can simply touch the student on the top of the head with a single finger to let them know they are being watched. Note that in some cultures, physical contact of any sort between a teacher and student is not accepted. In any event, it is best to limit any touch to the top of the head and using a single extended finger.

5 Name Dropping A good technique for regaining the attention of a student who has lost focus in a language class is to use them by name in an example. Random Calling To insure that students are called on randomly as recommended in the discussion about applying the Aural-Oral Approach in the above Applicable Theories and Approaches section and to keep track of which students have and have not had a turn, the teacher can simply remove photos from the previously discussed attendance board as students are called on. For the next round of nominating students, the teacher chooses students at random by just picking photos out of a hat. In this case, he or she returns all the photos one by one to the attendance board. Another way to do this is to use name cards or name sticks. The teacher writes student names on note cards or craft sticks (Popsicle sticks) then draws a card or stick from the pack and calls on the student whose name is written there. What Did So-And-So Say? Regularly follow them up by calling on various students and asking them what the other student s response was. The Talking Stick For important meetings, tribes often used a talking stick, or talking feather. One could only speak while holding the special stick, then handed it on to another who wanted to speak. In a class discussion, the talking stick is passed around the circle until each child who wants to share something has had a chance to do so. A more modern prop that could be used for this purpose is a toy or cardboard microphone. Zero Noise Signal A zero noise signal or the universal cooperative learning signal might be triggered by the teacher by raising his or her hand and making the sign of OK or peace. Students should be taught to stop their activity upon seeing the signal and to quiet down, make the gesture themselves, and communicate silently to their classmates that they should do the same. SALAME Some teachers hold up their hand and use their five extended fingers to indicate the words represented by the acronym SALAME (Stop And Look At Me). The teacher calls out SALAME (pronounced, sah-lah-mae ) and has the children repeat each of the five words as he or she points to the tip of each finger in turn with his or her free hand. Give Me Five The teacher says, Give Me Five, and the students go through five steps: 1) Eyes on speaker 2) Quiet 3) Be still 4) Hands free 5) Listen. Dan, Da-Da, Da, Dan... The teacher sings all but the last two notes to the familiar tune that goes, Dan, da-da, da, dan...dan, dan! but lets the students sing the last two notes,

6 showing their attention. Rhythmic Clapping The teacher starts clapping in the rhythm of a familiar beat, song, or chant. Upon seeing and hearing this signal, students should join in the repetitive, rhythmic clapping until all students are clapping along. This not only secures their attention, but requires that they put down whatever they were doing in order to have both hands free. Left in the Dark As a signal for the students to return to their seats and become quiet, the teacher switches off the classroom lights. Often a given amount of time is allotted with the lights out, then they are turned back on. Any child not in his or her seat, still, and quiet when the lights come back on is given a minor negative consequence. Lights, Camera, Action! The teacher snaps a clapboard or a similar prop to stop an activity. He or she may also wear a director s hat or speak through a director s cone to say firmly, Lights! Camera! Action! to indicate a change of scene or a transition to a new activity.