Classroom management

Classroom management

It’s not by chance that we talk about ‘classroom management’. Good teachers have to be
good managers, and if they are teaching a foreign language, they need particularly effective
management skills for learners to be as productive as they possibly can be. Good teachers,
like managers, are involved in three stages of work: planning, supervision and evaluation.

Planning
A lot of classroom management is ‘invisible’ because it is the result of the planning that goes
on before the lesson. If you watch a well-planned lesson, you may not actually see much
‘management’ happening. A good teacher, like a good manager, looks ahead and thinks about
everything: the learners, the available resources and how the lesson will be organised. A good
classroom manager plans carefully, knowing that the success of a lesson often depends on the
decisions taken before the lesson about:

 The learners. To manage teaching and learning successfully you, the teacher, always
need to think about three questions: What do my learners already know? What do they
need to be able to do (or do better)? How do they prefer to learn?

 The resources. Whether you are using the simplest classroom materials (such as a set
of flashcards) or the most technologically advanced equipment (such as an interactive
whiteboard), you need to be in control of your resources. This means being well
prepared, checking that you have everything you need (audio or video equipment,
materials, photocopies, etc.) and making sure that everything works. Then you need to
check for any possible problems!

 The lesson plan. A good lesson plan should be like a map, showing you where you
are going and how to get there. Use the plan to remind you about things you need to
remember during the lesson. For example, make a note of the timing you expect for
different stages of the lesson. Write down any prompts, instructions or explanations
that you might otherwise forget. Make notes about the organisation of activities in the
lesson.

Supervision
In the classroom, the teacher–manager is responsible for directing the lesson, organising tasks
and activities and monitoring the learners. As a result, you need to be aware of the following
during the lesson:

 The environment. Before you begin the lesson, you need to think about the physical
space you’re working in. Will learners be able to see and hear everything? Will you
and they be able to move around safely when necessary? Will you need to change
anything during the lesson (for example, the organisation of the furniture)? Review
this during the lesson. Is your plan working? If not, make changes as you are teaching.

© Cambridge University Press 2011

Classroom management

 The resources. One of the teacher’s basic classroom skills is the management of
resources. It will give you and your learners confidence if you know exactly what you
need and when you need it, and it will help avoid giving the impression of being
disorganised.

 Patterns of interaction. Decisions about how learners work (individually, in pairs, in

small groups, as a whole class) will have been made at the planning stage. These
decisions will depend on the nature of the activity, the stage of the lesson and the need
for plenty of variety in the lesson. If you are putting learners into pairs or groups, you
will also need to think about group dynamics: which learners are likely to work well
together? And which learners may not get on well with each other? Again, when you
are teaching your lesson, check how well your planned interaction patterns are
working in practice. If they don’t seem to be as successful as you would like, make
changes during the lesson.

 Your instructions. A key to ensuring that the lesson goes as planned is the teacher’s
skill in giving instructions. This is one of the most important aspects of effective
classroom management. Make your instructions clear and unambiguous, graded
slightly lower than the language level of the group. Plan and, if necessary, write down
your instructions so as to avoid any possible confusion, and check (in the same way as
you check understanding of new vocabulary) to make sure that your learners have
understood what they need to do.

 Flexibility. Classroom management is not only about control: during the lesson, the
good classroom manager needs to remain flexible. Listen to your learners and be
prepared to move away from your plan or even to cut stages out if necessary. To put it
very simply, if in doubt, teach the learners and not the lesson plan!

 Voice and body language. The way you use your body and voice as a teacher is also
an important part of classroom management. There are moments in a lesson when it is
important for learners to listen attentively, so you need to use your voice in a way that
will make them listen. You also need to develop a repertoire of gestures that learners
will recognise and understand, and to be aware of the effect of your physical position
in the classroom and of the way you move around the room.

Evaluation
Good classroom managers need to evaluate each lesson to see what they can learn from it.
Reviewing what you have done and what happened as a result will help you to make
decisions about what to do and how to do it in your next lesson. The process of evaluation
involves going back to your plan and asking yourself what worked well and what could be
improved in the future. For example, you can ask yourself about:

© Cambridge University Press 2011

Classroom management

 The learners. Were there any activities that would work better with different patterns
of interaction? Were the learners working in the best way that they could? Should
they work with different partners or in different groups in the next lesson?

 The environment and the resources. Did the arrangement of the classroom work as
you wanted it to? Were the resources appropriate? Were there any problems that you
could avoid by using different resources or by using the same things in different
ways?

 The teacher.
- Were your instructions effective? Did learners always understand what they had to
do? Do you need to simplify your instructions, or give them in a different way?
- Did your use of voice and body language help to make things clearer for the
learners? Are there ways in which you could speak or move or use gesture that
would be more helpful?
- Did you stick to your lesson plan, or were there moments when you departed from
it? On reflection, did you make the right decisions? If you were faced with a
similar decision in another lesson, would you do the same thing?

To sum up, a good classroom manager is responsible for planning and supervising what
happens in the classroom (the lesson), for dealing with the people working in the classroom
(the learners) and for evaluating the work of the person responsible for the lesson (the
teacher) with a view to improving future lessons.

© Cambridge University Press 2011