PART MANAGEMENT SKILLS FOR TEACHERS 16 Classroom management In this chapter you will be encouraged to think more carefully about class- room management skills in relation to three main areas: creating and maintaining motivation, maintaining classroom control and discipline and organizing learning activities. Classroom management will also be influenced by your teaching style, the amount of pupil independence that Is acceptable in your context, the amount of competition and cooperation you establish in your class and the role and use of the L1 in your class. Motivation Motivation is a term which in the past has been used quite loosely. For example it sometimes refers to feelings, a goal, a mental process, a certain type of behaviour or a personal characteristic. More recently, motivation, has been seen as a set of beliefs, thoughts and feelings that are turned into action. According to Démyei (1998:117), ‘motivation has been. widely accepted by both teachers and researchers as one of the key fac- tors that influence the rate and success of second/foreign language (L2) learning’. Being motivated to learn a language is the first impetus. At first, the novelty factor may be enough to carry children’s learning forward. But feelings of enjoyment, challenge or success will need to continue for many years if the difficult task of learning a language is to be achieved. If children now learn English from the age of six or nine, they may well be learning it at school for up to nine years. If the pupils are not enjoy- ing their lessons, the teacher's job is much harder. We have already dis- cussed the fact that young children will not necessarily have the same kinds of motivation as adults. In some countries pupils will be all too aware of the benefits that knowing English can bring, such as a better job or better opportunities for studying abroad. However, for young children these reasons will not be relevant to their immediate, day-to-day con- cerns. Cajkler and Addelman (2000), suggest that, in order to keep levels of motivation high, language teachers should adopt a ‘critical attitude’ to the activities and tasks they use and the expectations they create. This is done so as to develop a healthy questioning of the work they prepare for their pupils and the schemes of work they follow. We have already referred to the need to provide a classroom atmos- phere which promotes pupils’ confidence and self-esteem so that they 218Chapter 16 Classroom management can learn more effectively and enjoyably. This echoes two key factors in motivating learners that Dornyei describes. The first is how far a learner expects to be successful in doing the task, the second is how much the learner thinks being successful in doing the task is important. Judging how far a learner will have feelings of success comes partly from their past experiences in learning, partly from the kinds of judgement they have made about their own abilities and partly from their feelings of wanting to feel good about themselves, known as self esteem. Children seem quickly to become aware of their position within a class and tend to know whether they are one of the ‘clever’ pupils at school or not. Studies show that where classes are divided into ability groupings, the children know whether they are in the top ability group or not, even if the groups are given innocent names like Tigers, Leopards, Lions, and so on. If children have had very negative experiences with language learn- ing, or feel they are not good at language learning, they may under- achieve even if they actually enjoy it. Classroom control and discipline Here we shall consider five main areas that help to create an effective learning environment. Establishing routines When children enter school they are faced with a new set of social rou- tines and relationships which even a kindergarten may not have pre- pared them for. According to Nelson (1977) children develop scripts, or mental maps, to understand routines in their lives in the same way that adults do. As adults we know what to do in a doctor's surgery or in a job interview, both of which can be stressful situations if we do not know what to expect. In the same way, children learn how to cope with the demands of school and the stress of being in a large class, receiving little individual attention and facing unfamiliar rules and conventions. Young children gradually become familiar with established classroom routines that help to make them feel confident. Anxious or immature learners will tend to react negatively to changes in the normal classroom pattern, so it is a good idea to develop familiar patterns with young learners in their first year of schooling. If children in your school learn English at a very young age, teachers need to be careful not to speak too much in English. The children may become very bewildered and uncomfortable if the teacher talks to them all the time in a strange foreign language. Gradually introducing pupils to use English for a short period of time through songs or rhymes will help to ease them in slowly. 219Part 4 Management skills for teachers Finding a balance Children very quickly work out which teachers are inconsistent in their standards of discipline. Some are very authoritarian, and this may be part ‘of the normal classroom culture, but a classroom’ with little discipline may descend into chaos where nothing is learned. Finding the right bal. ance between order and flexibility is very important. The most effective environment for learning is often found in a classroom where the teacher is firm but kind and encouraging so that pupils, especially very young children, feel confident and happy. One way of establishing this is quick- ly getting to know the pupils’ names, as this will help to create a secure and friendly atmosphere. It will also enable you to control and discipline the class much more effectively, as it helps to identify who should respond in class, it ads the organization of learning activities and it helps you to identify troublemakers more easily. You will Have to decide whether you are going to address the pupils by their original names or whether you want to give them special English names. You may like to ask the children to vote for their preference. Many primary classes have fewer than thirty-five children; learning names for larger classes can become quite problematical. A four-point action plan could be: © Copy out class lists and the names of children you commonly put into groups; write their names on any piece of work you collect or display. © If you call a register, look at the children as they respond. © Ask the children to write their names clearly on a piece of card which they place on their desks. Collect them, then distribute them at the beginning of each lesson. + Keep a seating plan of the class. At first you may wish the children to, remain in the same seats, although it would be a pity to let this orga- nizational convenience dominate your decision to let the children work in different groups once you know their names. Children generally like to work within a framework where the bound- aries of acceptable and unacceptable behaviour are reasonable and con- sistent so that they know where they stand. You will need to decide what you consider acceptable behaviour in the light of the general ethos of the school, the age of the pupils, the size of the class and your person- ality. You may find that in order to establish your authority a clear indi- cation needs to be given early on of your classroom rules and your determination to keep them calmly and fairly. The number of rules you make should be kept to the minimum and the reason for having them 220Chapter 16 Classroom management should always be explained to the children. They will probably focus on. the encouragement of reasonable behaviour and sociability. Older chil- dren could be involved in making up a set of classroom ries, perhaps under a list of Dos and Don'ts, which they, and you, have to observe! You may like to draw up a class contract with your class at the beginning of a school year (see Greenwood 1997:11 for an example). Getting the pupils’ attention - With young pupils you may need to establish a signal for getting the pupils’ attention. This may be when you say FREEZE! RIGHT! or clap, or use a musical instrument, or knock on the desk, and so on. Quickly start an activity such as an action song or rhyme to create a momentum and keep them occupied. When you want to gain the attention of the whole class you can also try these steps: * Firmly name the children still talking: Jules and Michelle, stop talking please and maintain eye contact. As soon as the children become quiet, give a short verbal instruction, such as Let’s begin. «Start a well-known activity or routine or give instructions for a new activity to keep the pupils’ attention. Keep eye contact with talkative children for a while to show them their behaviour is being monitored. © Wait for quiet before beginning a new activity. «Once these routines have become established you should be able to cut down on the amount of time you spend disciplining pupils. Finding an acceptable noise level Once the lesson has started and the children are working on tasks that you have set, you may find the children becoming nosy. If the children are engaged in communicative activities to develop fluency in pairs or groups, the noise level will inevitably rise. Most language teachers would find this acceptable, as long as the talk is ‘on-task’. If the noise level rises too much, pick out the noisiest group, name one of the children in the group and gesture them to quieten down. Remember that the noisier the teacher is, the noisier the children will become. Sometimes the noise levels rise because the tasks you have chosen are not clear, are too easy or too diffi- cult. If so, you may need to re-think the activity. Giving praise You can quickly establish good relationships with your pupils by prais- ing good behaviour, commenting on good work, making, helpful sug- 221Part 4 Management skills for teachers gestions and encouraging pupils’ efforts. This is important in setting the right atmosphere, providing a good model for your pupils to follow and boosting your pupils’ confidence and self-esteem. However, if you con- stantly over-praise pupils, it may become valueless. Some of the kinds of pupil behaviour you might want to encourage and praise include: © thinking before answering, trying something difficult for the first time, achieving something difficult, persisting with a difficult task © sharing with others or helping a classmate, working well together © listening and following directions well, using English correctly or cre- atively, making a big improvement * observing classroom rules, putting classroom materials away, com- pleting homework on time The kind of English to praise young learners will have to be quite simple, especially in the early phases. You can simply use words like: well done, brilliant! superb, good reading/writing/spelling; what a good listener/ speaker/reader/writer/speller, what neat work, very good behaviour/manners. If you want to praise older pupils in a slightly more sophisticated way, espe- cially in the early days when you are establishing a routine with a class, it may be useful to use the L1 occasionally. You might say things like: You must be proud of ... See how you have improved in ... You have worked so hard. In summary, what you are trying to do when giving praise is: pin- point what you like by being specific; give praise with sincerity and enthusiasm in a variety of ways; use praise consistently and frequently, especially when the pupils are first learning something; praise groups or the whole class as well as individuals; vary to whom you give praise (i.e. not always just the ‘best’ in the class) and look for and name at least two children who are doing what you want to avoid ‘favouritism’. Organizing learning activities Find out the textbook your pupils used with their previous class teacher, what topics they have studied already and found particularly interesting, what kinds of activities they liked, etc. Ask about hobbies, clubs they may be in, their favourite games, toys, sports, TV programmes, music, and films. This will help you to build up a picture of topics and activities that you can draw upon in your lessons to make them interesting or to sup- plement the textbook. When children endlessly repeat activities on the same topics or when language activities are pitched at the wrong level or are too mechanical, they are liable to become frustrated and noisy. In some contexts pupils’ main motivation is to pass English tests and they 222Chapter 16 Classroom management may be less willing to engage in activities which they think do not pre- pare them for these. In these cases, teachers must determine an appro- priate balance between teaching to the tests and other language learning. i Dealing with bilingual pupils} some pupils in your class may already speak English well because they have an English-speaking parent, may have lived in an English-speaking country or may holiday in such Countries. Some children may also have extra English lessons outside school hours and will have more advanced levels of English than the rest of the class. If these pupils’ learning needs are not catered for, they may become bored or disruptive, which is a pity as their skills can be seen as a bonus! Use strategies for encouraging these children to: ‘show and tell’ some of their experiences in the country of the target language; explain the instructions for games to groups or even act as the teacher in demonstrating a game; help others in groups (only where this pupil has the right attitude and does nor ridicule slower learners, etc. and where this does not happen too much so the pupil becomes bored and resentful); make recordings of stories or other lis tening activities; write stories, instructions or descriptions for other * pupils to read and act upon; make games which require sentence cards or board games and ‘Chance’ cards; test pupils, e.g. spelling and com- plete individualized work at a higher level It generally means making higher demands on and having higher expec- tations of these pupils and not allowing their work to become sloppy (see more in the section below on mixed ability classes). Managing pair and group work Berman (1998) suggests that very young learners prefer working alone and can be reluctant to share. Imposing pair or group work on pupils who are not yet ready for it can sometimes have a negative effect, so be aware of this when trying it out for the first time with children under the age of seven. For some activities it is often easier and more fruitful to organize work in pairs than in groups where pupils can easily work with the person next to or behind them. Alternatively pupils can work "pack to back’, especially where they are working with an information- gap activity using different sets of information, or working from infor- mation you have pinned on walls. This information could take the form of large pictures, charts or graphs which one child asks questions about and the other answers, for example, in a guessing game using pictures. There are several ways of organizing groups to work together. The easiest is to ask pupils who sit near one another to form a pair or group. 223Part 4 Management skills for teachers Another method is to use the children’s choice. Such friendship groups are probably the most popular with pupils and these may work well. On the other hand, they may encourage pupils to become easily distracted from their task and their talk may be ‘off-task’. With all groups you will have to be careful about determining how well the memibers of the groups will work together. It is also important that groups do not always remain the sare as they may not contain a good mix of gender or abil- ity levels or the children may become bored with working with the same people all the time. The group members you select may either mix or match the ability level in a pair or group. When quicker learners work in mixed ability pairs or groups it may be necessary to provide extra activ- ities for these pupils after they have finished the main activity. Other ways of organizing pupils into groups include choosing group members using features of a project the pupils may be doing, or lan- guage they have just learned. For example, while doing a project on Birthdays groups can be organized by month of birth, those born on odd days of the month and those born on even days. In using pair work or group work, preparation and discipline is important as the teacher is not so centrally in control. Pupils need training in how to work in pairs or groups, especially if the English lesson is the only time in the school day when this happens. Pupils need to get used to starting and stopping when you tell them to (use some kind of sound signal); switching quick- ly from one activity to another with minimum noise and disruption; working quietly on activities and listening carefully to instructions. The rules you may have established with pupils should include ways of work- ing in groups. A move to more independent learning also changes the role of the teacher and pupils and has several implications for the way you organize resources, monitor the tasks different children work on, the kind of learner training you provide and the way you record progress. Pupils need to be clear about your expectations. The effects of different kinds of classroom activities ‘Teachers need to anticipate the effects on their pupils of different kinds of activities. Activities which usually engage and stir pupils are those where the learners are physically or mentally active and thus more involved in their learning. These include activities which involve rea- soning or imaginative thinking skills such as problem-solving, puzzles or information gap, matching or sequencing with pictures or words, rank- ing to list things in order of importance. Some activities occupy the learners physically e.g. paper and pencil activities such as listen and drawing, completing charts, copying, games such as action songs and rhymes. On the other hand, there are activities which usually calm and 224Chapter 16 Classroom management settle pupils, for example when using mechanical routines such as to start or end the class. Teachers sometimes use writing tasks simply as a way of calming pupils down, which is fine as long as writing is not always seen as a way of maintaining classroom control. Here are some general principles for using stir and settle activities. How fardo you agree with them? ¢ Start a lesson with a settling activity to calm pupils dowr. if they seem. very lively or restless. If they seem very tired or lethargicat the begin- ning they may need waking up with a lively, stirring activity. «| Make sure lively, stirring work returns to something calmer and more settling. «Make sure everyone has something to do, especially in group work. * Avoid activities which are emotionally or intellectually ‘empty’ or meaningless, e.g. too much copying or repeating. * Try not to have a sequence of only settling or stirring activities throughout the whole class. Sandwich something lively between calming activities. For more on this see chapter 17. The mixed ability class Many textbooks assume that all your pupils are at the same language level, whereas the average classroom is normally of very mixed ability. When a lesson has gone badly the checklist below may help you to pin- point difficulties which may have arisen because of your organization of learning activities: © Was the task given to pupils too difficult? Did you explain the task carefully enough or give sufficient practice or models to follow? Would more pictures or charts or tables make the task more manageable? © Was the task rather boring and mechanical with too little contextu- alization or focus on meaning? Some practice is bound to be repeti- tive but if it is disguised, as in a survey or game, or if older children know it is leading to more purposeful language use, it may become more motivating. Was the task too easy? The pupils may have done similar work before and finished the task more quickly than expected. © Was there too much ‘dead time’? If there is not a sufficient range of tasks at different levels, the able learners will always finish more 225_ Part 4 Management skills for teachers quickly, while the slower learners may cope with the task by finishing it quickly but in a very superficial manner. » In each lesson there should be a core of the most important concepts, skills and language that should be straightforward enough for every- fone to do. You may then need extension activities to challenge the more able pupils and more support activities for the less able. Making activities that cater for different levels is called mixed ability teaching or ‘differentiation’. To do this successfully, teachers can organize dif- ferentiated learning activities by considering seven key factors: 1 The text used: for young children, listening to a simple spoken text is usually easier than reading the text in English. Later on, read- ing a simple text while listening Is often easier than simply lis- tening to a text by itself. Pupils can read different versions of a story, e.g. the text can include more or less complicated details, many or no pictures, mostly direct speech or mostly narrative. You may record the story onto cassette so that young pupils can. listen and read at the same time. 2. The task used: pupils can work on the same topic but the tasks can be graded in difficulty. Playing Dorninoes is easier if the cards have words and pictures rather than words alone. Playing Bingo is easi- er than ‘Opposites Bingo’ where you have to cover the opposite of the word called out. 3. The support provided: some pupils can be provided with extra help, such as a checklist, a substitution table with useful phrases for producing writing, a chart with notes under headings for produc- ing written work, picture cards, posters,ctc. 4 The outcome demanded: writing something is of course more diffi- cult than just talking about it; a drawing with a simple caption is easier than re-telling a story. Performing actions is easier than speaking out loud. 5 The ability group used: we have discussed earlier ways in which ability groupings can be organized. 6 The range of activities used: teachers who are aware of pupils’ dif- fering learning styles (visual, auditory, kinaesthetic) can ensure they use a variety of activities which will cater to all these styles (see chapter 4). 7 The choice of activity: older or more linguistically developed learn- ers may be allowed to choose which activity they would like to 226Chapter 16 Classroom management pursue according to their own interests. They can choose whch kind of task they are interested in, which skill to use, which topic it is based on and what kind of outcome they would like to fro- duce (a picture and writing, a survey, a graph, a board game et-.), ‘This requires a bank of materials or suggestions, organized into sets and colour-coded or labelled. (see more on creating resources in Part 3) Here is an example of how to do this. If pupils are asked to ask d- dies about animals for other pupils to guess, most children will find this easy once you have provided some examples. Others will need more support, often In the form of visuals to provide scaf- folding, such as large pictures of various animals, perhaps labelled with bedy parts such as legs, long tail can be placed on the walls for pupils to refer to, as well as model sets of questions and answers for pupils to use. You can also break down the task into smaller sub-tasks by providing some form of organizer, such as a tickchart. Figure 44 is an example for riddles such as I’m thinking ofan animal with no legs. What is it? No legs 2 legs 4 legs lion x x ca snake 4 x x elephant x * v hen’ _ x v * Fig. 44. Tickchart for asking riddles What you are doing in providing more support is choosing a selection from the following kinds of scaffolding: * breaking down the learning sequence into smaller steps + simplifying the language, narrowing the range of possibilities © using more spoken language before moving onto written language translating abstract concepts into more concrete ones using physical movement * using more audio-visual support © providing a greater variety of activities 227Part 4 Management skills for teachers More able pupils can apply skills and knowledge to different situations or contexts; engage in more problem-solving; be encouraged to draw on a wider range of vocabulary; be encouraged to draw on a wider range of language functions; do more written work, often in the form of products that other children can use and be encouraged to do more finding out and ‘research’ using a range of resources. Time management Even experienced teachers can be over-optimistic about how much can be done in a lesson or despair that they will ever have enough time to work through a scheme of work or syllabus. It is very useful to train yourself to plot realistic timings for the completion of certain activities; this avoids having to rush, which may lead to inattention or ineffective learning. On the other hand, you may be left with time to spare at the end of the lesson, in which case you need to have some activities ‘up your sleeve’ which might include songs, rhymes, games or puzzles. It is useful to build up a repertoire of these so you can select one that revis- es language or fits in with your current teaching focus. When ending a lesson, here are several points to bear in mind: * Plan, so you do not have to stop in the middle of an activity. + Finish work on the main teaching point a little early rather than late; you can always find an activity to fill up a few minutes. © If you want to give out homework, take time to explain it beforehand. and give an example. Avoid squeezing it in at the very end of the lesson. * Plan a teacher-led review session at the end of each class. (See chap- ter 5.) Try to give praise and encouragement about what the children have achieved during the class. With older pupils you can review the language or learning focus you have concentrated on that lesson. Classroom organization and layout Careful planning of your classroom is very important as it helps to cre- ate an organized and secure atmosphere. In an ideal situation, you would be able to organize the classroom in the way you think is most effective for children’s learning. In practice you may not have total free- dom to reorganize the layout of the classroom in the way that you would wish. However, if you have some possibilities of doing this, here are six points for you to consider: 1 A grid plan made to scale Is especially useful if you have a large class 228Chapter 16 Classroom management squeezed into a small area. Round tables take up more space than square or rectangular tables. S 2 Think carefully about whether you want he children to sit in rows or groups. Primary schools often have tables arranged iry groups to seat four to six children, which makes pai: and group work easier. 3. If you decide to have a ‘teaching base’, make sure you have a clear view of the whole room. Although you may have a base in one place, you could try varying your actual teaching position. Montgomery and Rawlings (1986) suggest that there are ‘action zones’ where children who sit closest to the teacher concentrate more and work harder; you need therefore to vary the action zones by changing position or, alter- natively, by changing at periodic intervals the children who sit close to you. Don’t put troublemakers at the back of the classroom! 4 A story corner for younger children is also a good idea. See chapter 14 for setting up a book corner. 5 You may also like to include a listening or computer corner which is screened-off by cupboards or screens to provide a quiet corner. for lis- tening to cassettes of stories or pre-recorded listening activities or for working on a computer activity. With older, more reliable children, a quiet listening corner can sometimes be set up temporarily in a corri- dor or cloakroom outside if there is no space in the classroom. If you do this, the children must know how to operate the cassette on their own and must have clear instructions on the task they are to perform. ‘This task should have a definite outcome, such as a drawing or pic- tures to sequence and should have been demonstrated and practised beforehand. Make it clear that you will tolerate no misbehaviour as it leads to automatic withdrawal of their right to work unsupervised, 6 Make sure you include some areas to display children’s work, using notice-boards, screens or a table. The layout of the room can be var- led and sections remodelled by the use of simple screens, such as large sheets of corrugated cardboard to make moveable walls and par- titions, This can also be used for displaying pupils’ work. Keeping teaching records Teaching records are a kind of teaching log, memory aid, or reminder of the language points or the stories and topics which have been covered in a term. The information can be a record for the teacher alone, or with older children can also be made public for the whole class to see and to use. Large wall charts can show which language functions, structures, 229Part 4 Management skills for teachers or vocabulary children have been taught with accompanying questions such as Have you put some new words in your dictionary? How many new words did you learn this week? Can you say ........ in English? Charts can also show which pupils have completed particular activities, especially where these are free choice or optional. For example, if the class has worked on a story like Princess Smartypants (see Ellis and Brewster 2002) there may be a ‘free choice’ lesson with five different activities which the children can choose from. The children can sign their names alongside different activities (see Fig. 45). Charts are also useful for keeping track of homework activities. Older children may also be encouraged to keep a personal record of work they have done which summarizes the language and learning skills they have covered. Activity Names 1 Plan a drama retelling the story. luis, Ana, Jorge, Maria, Aracelita, Guillermo Jesus 2 Find out about and design coats of arms. Carlos, Nelita, Enrique, Beatriz, Ricardo 3 Find out ut royalty and make a magazine. ete. 4 Rewrite the story with a different ending. etc. 5. Make up spoof characters, draw and describe them. | etc. Fig. 45 Storybook activity record card ‘This chapter has tried to illustrate some of the ways teachers can reflect on, and perhaps improve, their classroom management skills. It is hoped that developing confidence in these skills will make teachers more effec- tive and less stressed. 230 =