Category: classroom management

Having engaged students who take part in classroom discussions is the objective of any language teacher, however, improving student participation in our lessons requires much more than time and planning. The way we interact with our students reflects how significant participation is in our classes and inevitably, it affects their attitude and input.

Naturally, the key to having more involved students is creating an environment in which everyone has the opportunity to learn by sharing ideas and exploring different perspectives. While the most enthusiastic students raise their hands, (and voices!), others ponder quietly on the given topic before shyly voicing their opinions. Since, our objective as teachers is to ensure that we create conditions which enable students of various personalities to be dynamic participants in interactive speaking activities; there are some tactics which can be adopted to encourage the quieter students to speak up and not be overwhelmed by their more effusive peers.

One easy strategy, which is frequently overlooked, is the way the classroom is organised. So, bearing in mind the size of the class, try moving the chairs around to form a circle or  a “U”, thus creating an environment in which students are more actively involved in discussions, while allowing you to move around and gently prompt the input of the quieter ones, and control the liveliness of the others.

Next, since participation is a two-way street, why not allocate some responsibility to your students for greater engagement in class discussions? How about asking for their views on what contributes and generates animated yet cohesive “talks”?  Then, and based on their input, come up with a list of “dos and don’ts” which can be put up on the classroom notice board as a reminder of their “commitment” to be more active participants in speaking activities. Not only will it highlight students’ accountability for the success of the set activities, it will also serve to make them more co-operative participants in discussions and speaking tasks.

Moreover, learners’ enthusiasm and involvement can be boosted by eliciting topics from them and arranging activities in which they can play the role of “advisers”, who not only listen to their colleagues’ talk but also give feedback on how they believe the presentation could be improved, bearing in mind items such as organization, the lexical range and the language used. By having students assess and advise their peers on their contributions means that greater attention needs to be paid so that the feedback may be constructive and objective.

If you are preparing a discussion activity, integrate short texts into the lesson plan in order to introduce concepts, clarify doubts and help students understand the subject, include small-group discussions or informal writing assignments before or at the start of the class to prompt students to consider the discussion topic before presenting their views to the whole class. Such steps can be effective in providing shy students with the time and means to think about and develop ideas which they can then use in the class discussion with greater confidence and more readily.

Then, it’s vital that students are given time to think before they answer questions. Do not be afraid of silence and giving students a few seconds to think and formulate a response. If no one volunteers an answer, rephrase your question and prompt some feedback rather than giving in to the temptation of answering your own question. By supplying the answer, students fall into the habit of waiting for the appropriate reply rather than participating and sharing their views, so be patient and do not be afraid of silence.

Additionally, use both verbal and non-verbal cues to encourage input. Avoid relying on the same volunteers to answer your questions. Respond to frequent volunteers in a way that indicates that you appreciate their contribution, but want to hear from others as well. Move around the classroom; smile at and make eye contact with the quieter students to encourage them to speak up. In the same way, when frequent volunteers speak, look around the room, rather than only at them, so as to encourage and motivate everyone to participate. Furthermore, encourage students to respond to one another, rather than merely to you. By making eye contact with other students lets them know that you expect them to be listening and responding aptly to what is being said. Listen fully to your students’ questions and answers and resist the urge to interrupt when you think you know what the student is going to say or ask. Often, such well-meaning interruptions result either in incorrect assumptions or misinterpretation of what the students had planned to say or ask, not to mention the frustration they will feel in seeing their efforts being curbed and cut short!

Make sure you give specific, positive, varied replies. Point out what is useful or thought-provoking about a student’s response, pick up on comments that were made so further discussion can be carried out and ask follow-up questions to prompt students to clarify and develop their ideas. When a student gives an incorrect answer, reply in a way that encourages the student to think the answer through, and come up with a more appropriate response. Furthermore, highlight students’ ideas whenever you can. Referring back to a comment made by a student earlier in class or in a previous lesson shows that you value what your students have to say. Likewise, avoid using general, standard praise as nothing discourages students more than not being seen as individuals.

Finally, as active student participation does not happen naturally when learning a foreign language, its success depends not only on careful planning and varied approaches, but also on team working and exchanging ideas with other teachers. One way to do so is asking a colleague to observe your class. Frequently, outside observers can recognize patterns that hinder participation, but which may not be apparent to you. Take notes of your peers’ advice so that you have a record of what went well and what you should change in order to improve your students’ participation and heighten their confidence and fluency in the use of the language they are learning. After all “Teaching is a strategic act of engagement”. – James Bellanca

It’s funny how over these 20 years the number of “challenging” students in my classes have increased. It’s not just in my classes, I know, but after a while you kind of think “Why me?” They’re grumpy and annoying and their whole body language is screaming out saying “I don’t want to be here!”. However, they do stay and they do interrupt our lesson 1 million times in 10 minutes and they make us lose our patience more often than we like to admit.

Does this sound familiar?

Unfortunately, I think it’s a reality for most teachers.

So what do we do? One thing to always bear in mind is: It’s not you, it’s what you stand for. You stand for rules, objectives, knowledge. Sometimes misbehaviour is just a mask to hide their own fragilities, the things they don’t know. Sometimes they don’t want us to be aware of all their learning difficulties. If they are unpleasant enough, they’ll keep us away. Odd? Yes, but true.

Different teachers deal with these situations in different ways. In my opinion, you can’t give up on kids. I know we won’t be able to reach every and single one of them, but if we try we might get to one. There are no magic tricks but if you are having problems with a group/student try one of these tips.

1. Turn off the lights. Use natural light instead of the lamps on the ceiling. Most of the times we can teach without the lamps on. The room becomes cosier, less aggressive so kids are more likely to calm down, too.
2. Greet them at the door. This is your room. You don’t greet your guests while cooking in the kitchen, do you? So it’s the same here. You can’t be getting your desk ready and expect kids get in orderly. Meet them at the door, showing them a smile and a nod or a warm “hello”. This way you’re letting them know a) you appreciate the fact they are there and that b) this is your room and you’re letting them come in.
3. Personally I don’t like telling students off in front of the whole class. I’d much rather ask them to step outside with me for a minute and calmly ask them if they are feeling well. “Do you need to go to the toilet and wash your face?” “Do you want to grab a cup of coffee quickly?” Show that you care. There might actually be something happing that triggers their behaviour.
4. Praise behaviour you want them to have and ignore misbehaviour (as much as possible). Why? Most of the times they just want attention. If you get close to a student and you say “You’re really making an effort today. I just wanted you to know I’ve noticed.” you’ll see the difference. Especially if they’re used to being told how bad they’re behaving. If you praise enough they’ll want more.

But remember: miracles don’t happen overnight, so you might expect things to get worse before they get better, or that halfway through the year you might have problems again. The key is to keep on trying and eventually we (and they) will get there.

“They’re all students, aren’t they? So what’s the big deal? How come I can’t teach all of them the same way?”

Dear reader,

I’m sure the above questions will either make you frown or smile. Some will say “How can a teacher not see that adults and children are completely different?” while others will think “They’re not that different and anyway, they seem to like my lessons.”

I don’t really have an answer. However I can share my opinion with you. Yes, adults and kids are different and, yes, I do work with them in different ways. But how different and different how? Even because I’ve used things with adult groups you wouldn’t normally use and it worked.

There are, in my opinion, some key words to bear in mind and here they are:

Motivation

Children don’t “have to” learn English. They’re not usually under pressure, their job or promotion does not depend on it. They learn for the sake of learning, because it’s either fun or parents are making them learn. Adults, on the other hand, often come to us with true horror stories. “I have to learn English in 4 months, or else…” “I need to take the IELTS in two weeks and score a band 7, or else…” “My boss/professor told me to look for an English course. He told me to do it, or else…”

So, clearly, they’re much more focused and eager to work, but on the other hand they’re much more concentrated on how you’re teaching them, on exactly why you’re doing this or that and this leads us to…

Expectations

Children don’t usually think about how much they’re going to get out of a lesson. They’ll say they’ve enjoyed it or not but they won’t go away thinking “Well, can I use this tonight while I’m writing that email?” “Will I remember about that phrasal verb when I pick up the phone tomorrow?” And they sure have different expectations regarding your role in the class. Adults are more likely to be looking for a more traditional form of teaching with the teacher being “god knows it all” and expecting to be quiet, just listening, making their notes and being corrected right away whenever they make some mistake. Remember adults “need” it more than kids do, so topics have to be more than just interesting, they have to be relevant.

(to be continued)

I´ve always found group work an interesting form to organize the classroom but it can be a bit messy and noisy, especially if the class is big or if students are noisy already! Sometimes some students do not work properly and take advantage on their classmates’ work and effort.  So, because of this, I decided to look for better ways to implement group work in a more productive way. I started to research and read about this subject and I realized then that I was looking for cooperative learning, not the traditional group work we use to do when we were students.

So, what is cooperative learning? In fact, it is group work, but it is organized in such way that student’s learning is improved. It obeys to an asset of principles and techniques that allow learners to work more effectively in order to achieve their goals and, therefore, success.

I believe we can say that cooperative learning is a methodology which transforms heterogeneity in a positive thing that facilitates learning. Contrasting traditional teaching, it gives voice to the student and silences the teacher. However, we must bear in mind that in this type of learning the teacher must have a strong action and awareness of his role. In traditional teaching, there is the concept of knowledge transmission in which the teacher is the depository of knowledge and, interactions that matter, are those that take place between teacher and student. What happens between students is considered parallel and often disturbing. Cooperative learning is based in teamwork and Kagan (1992) defines team as “Four individuals, giving and taking. By interacting four becomes more.” Johnson and Johnson (1990: 4) define it as:

“(…) working together to accomplish shared goals. Within cooperative activities individuals seek outcomes that are beneficial to themselves and beneficial to all other group members. Cooperative learning is the instructional use of small groups so that students work together to maximize their own and each other’s learning.”

However, Johnson, Johnson and Holubec say : “Sitting students near each other and telling them that they are a group in and of itself does not produce cooperation or the higher achievement and other outcomes typically found in cooperative learning groups” (1990: 7-8). Let’s see the main differences between traditional group work and cooperative learning groups:

Cooperative Learning Groups                       Traditional Learning Groups

Positive interdependence	No interdependence
Individual accountability	No individual accountability
Heterogeneous membership	Homogeneous membership
Shared leadership	One appointed leader
Responsible for each other	Responsible only for self
Task and maintenance emphasized	Only task emphasized
Social skills directed taught	Social skills assumed and ignored
Teacher observes and intervenes	Teacher ignores groups
Group processing occurs	No group processing

          These five elements above are essential to promote cooperation:

1) Positive interdependence, which consists in creating situations where students work together to maximize all learning, sharing resources and achieving success together. This element is central, because students must believe that each one is only successful if all are.

2) Individual accountability – the group shall assume responsibility for achieving their goals and each member will be responsible for doing their part to the common work. Students must have clear objectives and be able to assess progress concerning the goals and efforts of each element of the group.

3) Stimulating interaction, that is, the ability of students to influence each other  to get involved in learning from each other in such a way that will promote the learning of others and acquire a mutual personal commitment and with common goals.

4) Social skills should be taught so that there is real cooperation. Students must know to wait for their turn, share and compliment, ask for help, be patient, and so on.

5) Group assessment, which takes place when the members analyze to what extent they are achieving the goals and maintaining effective working relationships.

So, how can we organize our classroom in order to have cooperative learning working effectively for us, teachers, and for our students? Here are some strategies, ideas that can be used and adapted. We can use the same all the time, we can mixed them, or even use a different one each week. It depends on us and on our students. We can also start with homework correction in pairs and then go to the group work and use it  all class long.

1. Roundtable

Present a category (such as a vocabulary area) have students take turns writing one word / phrase at a time.

1. Write around

For creative writing or summarization, give a sentence starter (for example: If you give an elephant a cookie, he’s going to ask for…). Ask all students in each team to finish that sentence. Then, they pass their paper to the right, read the one they received, and add a sentence to that one. After a few rounds, four great stories or summaries emerge. Give students time to add a conclusion and/or edit their favorite one to share with the class.

1. Numbered Heads Together

Ask students to number in their teams from one to four. Announce a question and a time limit. Students put their heads together to come up with an answer. Call a number and ask all students with that number to stand and answer the question.

1. Team Jigsaw

Assign each student in a team one fourth of a page to read from any text or one fourth of a topic to investigate or memorize. Each student completes his or her assignment and then teaches the others or helps to put together a team product by contributing a piece of the puzzle.

1. Tea Party

Students form two concentric circles or two lines facing each other. You ask a question (on any content) and students discuss the answer with the student facing them. After one minute, the outside circle or one line, moves to the right so that students have new partners. Then pose a second question for them to discuss. Continue with five or more questions. For a little variation, students can write questions on cards to review for a test through this “Tea Party” method.

There is so much more to say about cooperative learning but I hope these (few) ideas can fire up your curiosity and help you to enrich your classes.