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Ask for help > Students behaviour
Students behaviour
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rosammd
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Students behaviour
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Hello!!
I �m teaching 9/10 year old students, their behaviour is normal according to their age, but the problem I �m facing these days is that it is very difficult to keep them silent. They are talking most of the times and it is somehow difficult to follow my teaching program. I �m all day with "silence, please" in my mouth and my throat is starting to ache.
Today, I tried with some relaxing music, but it hasn �t been totally effective. I would like to know what do you usually do to keep them silent, or if you follow any techniques to modify their behaviour.
Thanks,
Rosa |
22 Sep 2010
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yulya_esl
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Hello!
One of the ways is to appoint the most talkative one to take care of the discipline (every lesson it can be different student or two students) and at the end of the lesson if he/she was successful in fulfilling the task you can give him/her a small prize (like a sticker or smth). The one who collects more stickers during the term will ... (here you can think of smth )))
Good luck ))) |
22 Sep 2010
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manonski (f)
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I thank those who are paying attention instead of pointing out those who don �t. I give them positive notes to give to their parents.
At different times during the schoolyear, I give away prizes. They start the class with tickets but they lose them if they speak their mother tongue. If they make an extra effort, they can also earn extra tickets to put in the box for the draw.
And one thing I never do is translate. If you translate all the time, they will stop paying attention and wait for the translation.
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22 Sep 2010
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Kisdobos
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I have the same thing with 9 and 10 graders. With the younger ones I have a pile of extra words for the next test waiting for loud students to pick up. This method works more or less, but you have to be strict and consistent about it, I find. With the older ones, they had a serious "I don �t care about English" problem. Now I �m halfways curing them. I made them write a written language exam, �which made them realize how bad they are after 16 classes per week last year. We agreed to revise basic grammar, and now it �s a lot better. Still, I have to silence them, but from next classes I will have my extra words and extra HW prepared on my table. All in all, being stricter and being consistent about it helped my case. Good luck! :) Peter, http://islcollective.com |
22 Sep 2010
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Kita19
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Well, Rosa, I had the same problem last year and, because the students knew me from the previous year, they really didn �t listen to me when I asked them to be silent.
This year I changed school and decided I had to be "mean" right at the beginning. lol With children, you simply can �t go to a class smiling in the first classes or they will think they can do everything they want. I don �t know if the students already know you from previous years?
Some of my students like to talk a lot. After a few warnings, if the talkative student don �t calm down, I ask him/her to sit down in front of the blackboard (as a punishment). Sometimes I say that the lesson is over for that student, but sometimes you can also leave him there a few minutes and then ask him if he is calmer or will continue talking. Usually they will be calmer and (specially if you �re doing a funny activity and they want to participate) behave better afterwards. If the answer is positive you can ask him to go back to his place BUT you tell him if he starts talking again, the punishment will be till the end of the lesson! (And do that really! You have to be strickt, or the next time they will think you talk, talk, talk but at the end you never do what you say you are going to do).
I will also use a reward system. This year I made a table with my students � names with 10 rectangles. At the end of each lesson we will decide on the behaviour of each student and if it was good/very good, he/she get 1 rectangle colored. If the behaviour was not that bad, but it could be better, I colour half of the rectangle and if the behaviour was bad, the rectangle stays blanc. The aim is to have the most rectangles coloured, because when they have 10, they receive a sticker (or any other thing you want). If you remember them from time to time during the lesson about the "behaviour system", they may also calm down (in order to get the rectangle coloured).
I hope I could help with some ideas!
Hugs from your neighbour Portugal,
Patricia
P.S: I�ve just remembered another system, but it doesn�t always work. It depends if you can make your students stay in your room some minutes after your class is over or not. Here it goes, anyway:
If you�re students are talking too much, you simply don�t say anything for 30 secs. or so. After that, without saying anything, you write "1" on the blackboard. Students will ask why did you write that on the board. Your answer then will be "That�s the time you have wasted in the lesson talking, so it�s the time you�ll be staying here after the class is over". Increase the number of minutes as they keep talking and write them on the board. You can even watch your watch if they are talking, so that they realize you are counting the time. ;)
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23 Sep 2010
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cauffeepot
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I �m only at my school for a short time, and I �m also teaching French, which I don �t like, so I �ve made up games that the kids can play. If we �re learning �how are you � in French, I have a game for that. It may not keep them quiet but at least they �re learning while they �re talking. Especially card games. |
23 Sep 2010
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cacucacu
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Dear Rosa I teach the sme level you teach and after having lots and lots of sorethroats I discovered that the methods were the �talkative ones � or naughty ones are exposed i.e the sad face on the blackboard or sending that person outside the classroom or as someone has suggested here, sitting that person at the front; don �t work in the long run. Sometimes children need to call our attention and they do things: hey talk or they do pranks and that way we write ttheir name on the blackboard or we make everybody sees them. What I do in my class is Take minutes from breaks/recesses. I just draw lines on the blackbord (they know this means minutes) and everybody stars hushing thier classmates. That way I don �t shout, well I don �t even speak in fact, and my tudents are silent. Extra homework also works especially for those who don �t care if their friends loose minutes from break. I have also designed I corner inside the classroom with pockets made of cardboard paper where I put extra ws. So that the children that finish their work can go and pick one extra ws That corner has a poster saying: WORK DONE? PICK ONE. I wish you luck and be pacient these things need time. I �m sure you �ll find the right activity for your kids. Love Naty |
23 Sep 2010
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SueThom
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Patricia, reading your post made me chuckle!
You sounded just like my master teacher years ago when I was a student teacher. She �d taught for over 30 years and used to say, "Never smile until Thanksgiving." (That �s towards the end of November and school starts in early September.) She said if you started out "mean" and consistent, then you could gradually let up; but if you didn �t, you �d never get control of the class all year.
Sue
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23 Sep 2010
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rosammd
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THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR SUGGESTIONS
ROSA |
23 Sep 2010
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