Classroom Management

What does classroom management encompass?

Creating and maintaining student engagement.

Creating and maintaining a positive classroom environment.
Adopting different roles.
Time management.
Keeping students ‘on track’
Dealing with difficult situations.
Exploiting a variety of interactional patterns.

Some basics

The teacher’s behaviour and body language is essential in creating and maintaining student
engagement and establishing a comfortable learning environment.

Smile. A smile shows you are friendly, approachable and interested. It encourages and gives positive
reinforcement to students’ contributions.

Eye contact. It creates confidence and assists rapport. Maintaining eye contact shows you are
listening. It can be used as a non-verbal indication of who is to speak. You can, to a certain extent,
gauge whether students have understood. You can indicate an error has been made by frowning.
You can use eye contact to maintain involvement and bring errant students back into the group.

Position/movement. Stand where all the students can see you and no one is excluded. Avoid
advancing too far forward into the horseshoe for this reason. If you can’t hear students, ask them to
speak up. Try to avoid blocking the board when writing on it or referring to information on it. Avoid
turning your back on the class. Use an open, natural stance. It’s fine to sit down and you will find
that students are likely to contribute more when you are ‘on a level’ with them. Standing suggests
you are in charge, and is best when you want to present information. Sitting is essential when
playing a CD and helpful for whole class feedback, especially discussions cross-class. If on your feet,
try to avoid pacing around excessively, it can be distracting. If sitting, try not to get ‘stuck’ to the
chair.

Monitoring. You cannot monitor effectively from your chair. Get up and move around checking
students are on task and making yourself available for questions / difficulties they may have. If you
are tall, crouch so as to be on an eye-level. Monitoring shows you are interested in what students
are doing and gives you essential feedback as to how students are coping, whether they are going to
need more/less time to complete a task. It can also help you to effect positive feedback, avoiding
embarrassing students who may get an answer wrong. You might also use monitoring to point
weaker students to the correct answers.

Gestures. Use of gestures cuts down on unnecessary teacher talk and makes it physically clear what
is happening in the classroom. Avoid pointing at students with your index finger or board pen. Use
an open palm-up hand to indicate who is to speak. Ensure pairs are indicated with large bold
movements. You will develop your own range of gestures such as tugging on your ear for ‘listen’, ‘T’
with your hands for ‘time up’ and so on. Observe gestures used by your peers and experienced
teachers.

Voice. Project your voice so students can hear you. Use intonation to modulate/signpost what you
are saying. Use pauses and vary the volume to punctuate and signal that you are moving on. Avoid
inappropriate /over-use of rising intonation.
 Teacher talk – some habits best avoided.

Habit Example Comment

TTT 1. Teacher: When nothing else is Who needs the practice? The more you speak the less
happening in the classroom – I open opportunity the student has to actively participate in the
my mouth. I’ve no idea what I say lesson.
most of the time, but it stops those If this is a problem, try sitting. Use pairwork frequently. Be
horrible silences. It’s probably useful interested in the students. Ask rather than tell. Aim to be
for them to listen to me speaking an involver / enabler rather than an explainer.
English after all I .....
Echoing 2. Student: I went to the cinema You may think you are helping, but you are not. Echoing is
Teacher: You went to the cinema, yes , a controlling behaviour, it means that all communication
good, you went to the cinema, the is being channelled through you and it impedes a fluid
cinema cross-class dynamic. If you think other students haven’t
hear/understood their classmate, ask them to repeat
themselves rather than ‘take over’.
Finishing 3. Student: I think smoking is.. Do allow students to finish what they are saying. This
students’ Teacher : .. a bad thing yes I quite attitude displays impatience and poor listening skills.
utterances agree, when I go into a pub I ...
Being over- 4. Teacher: So if you don’t mind, it would Students need short clear classroom instructions. This is
polite be nice, if you could please possibly not being ‘bossy’ it’s about clarity/efficiency. Accompany
stop, just stop speaking, sorry commands with a friendly smile and no one will take
offence. Students expect you to be in control.
Not really 5. Student: .. and then after a long illness Do remember to listen to the message as well as the
listening my cat died language!
Teacher: good good
Running 6. Teacher: So now what I’m gonna do is Students don’t need to be given a blow-by-blow account
commentary I’m gonna write these words on the of what you’re doing or why you’re doing it.
board, and oh yes, I’m not supposed to This is usually a result of nerves. On a similar vein, clever
write in capitals so I’ll just rub that out. asides should also be avoided, students won’t ‘get’ them
and at worst might feel they are being mocked.
Flying with the 7. Teacher: So what’s the answer Just because one student knows the answer it doesn’t
fastest Ramon? mean they all do. You need to check with the whole class.
Ramon: Only on Tuesday unless it’s ‘Do you agree?’ is a useful phrase. If one student
raining dominates by shouting all the answers, use nomination to
Teacher: Yes, very good, everyone got indicate who is to answer. Flying with the fastest will lead
that? And why did he buy an elastic to non-participation of a whole section of the class, who
band? will become demotivated and fearful to speak out.
Ramon: So he wouldn’t lose his
letters.
Teacher: Good, so everyone
understands then
Not grading 8. Student: Teacher, what means Think about the words you use in relation to the level you
your language exhausted? are teaching. Avoid colloquialisms. It is best practice to
to the level Teacher: It means, you know, weary, use words of a simpler level to explain new vocabulary.
extremely fatigued. Consider carefully and plan how you will clarify language
items in the simplest language possible.
Giving instructions

Dos Don’ts

1. Raise your voice slightly to indicate that you’re about 1. Don’t invite students politely to do tasks, be
to instruct. Make sure you have everyone’s attention. assertive, tell them what to do.
2. Be aware of the speed of your speech. 2. Don’t use modal verbs / second conditional
3. Keep language to a minimum. Instructions should be sentences which make questions /
short and simple. instructions abstract. Keep things in the here
4. Avoid giving more than one instruction at a time. and now.
Explain step by step. 3. Don’t say:
Give instruction Got it?
Let students carry it out Do you understand what you have to
Give next instruction do?
5. Write instructions on the w/b or h/o where 4. Don’t waffle.
appropriate. 5. Don’t rephrase uncontrollably.
6. Check all but the simplest instructions. Use simple 6. Don’t keep issuing instructions once students
yes/no questions e.g. have started the task, nor interrupt to
Are you going to work alone? In pairs? reinstruct unless in an emergency.
Are you going to write the answers? 7. Don’t give out materials before giving
Hand up As, Bs instructions.
7. Demonstrate instructions. Use the first example of an 8. Don’t ask lower level students to repeat back
exercise as a model. instructions, “So what are you going to do?”
8. If you find instructions problematic, try scripting them is more suitable for higher levels.
and rehearse what you’re going to say.
9. Give specific start signals and set time limits.

In an emergency

 Be decisive
 Say ‘Stop’
 Take a deep breath and repeat instruction
 Don’t panic

Example of pre-scripted step-by-step Example ICQs for the same activity

instructions for a “Spot the difference” activity

1. Sit opposite your partner

(T. waits while st.s move)
• So are you going to work alone? In pairs?
2. Some of you are A. Some are B.
(T. chests handouts) • Hands up As. Hands up Bs.

3. Don’t show your paper to anyone. • Are you going to show your picture to
(T. mimes hiding) your partner? (nominate?)
(T. distributes handout)
• Are you going to describe your picture?
4. Some things in picture A are different
from picture B. • Are the pictures the same?

5. Describe your picture to your partner. • Are you going to write the differences?
Draw them?
6. When you find something different,
draw it.
(T. mimes drawing)
Top tips for using the board

• Plan it

• Divide it into sections e.g. vocabulary column.

• Try not to block the board or turn your back on the class.

• Involve the students in the boardwork, “How do I spell that?” “What word goes next?” etc

• Write neatly, legibly and quickly, in a straight line.

• Check pens before the lesson, use different colours to highlight items.

• Write in lower case, only capitalise where accurate to do so.

• Ensure the board is a supportive record of learning, indicate speech parts, add useful
collocations etc

• Remember to clean it for the next teacher.

Methodology FH