ENGLISH FOR YOUNG LEARNERS

Definition of Classroom Management

Classroom management refers to the ways in which student behavior, movement and interaction during a lesson are organized and controlled by the teacher” Richards (1990, 10).

Definition of Discipline

• To maintain order and to keep the group on task and moving ahead, not to spot and punish those students who are misbehaving. “( Greenwood and Parkay, 1989)

The best teachers anticipate when misbehaviors are likely to occur and intervene early to prevent them. The most effective interventions are subtle, brief and almost private. They do not, therefore interfere with classroom activities.

• Causes of deviant behavior (Cole and Chan, 1987)

Class Rules

• At the beginning of the school year, establish the class rules.

• Discuss Classroom rules with the students and consequences of misbehavior.

• Post room rules and consequences of misbehavior.

Students’ Seating

The way the students are seated in the classroom will often determine the dynamics of the lesson. Indeed, a simple change in the seating pattern can make an incredible difference to group coherence and student satisfaction.

In many cases the seating has been a crucial element in the success or failure of the lesson.
In some cases, the desks are fixed to the ground or the school has strict rules about not moving the furniture.

Student numbers are also going to be an issue.

Teachers have different preferences for seating arrangements each group is seated round small tables is often one choice. This is probably the best option for the larger classes.

For smaller numbers and with adult or teenage students I think the horseshoe shape, which I find has all of the advantages of groups, and none of the disadvantages. A horseshoe may be desks in a U-shape with a hollow centre, students in a semicircle on chairs with arm-rests and no desks, or students seated around three sides of a large table, with the teacher at one end.

In any case, whatever seating pattern you choose or is imposed on you, the class is likely to be more successful if you keep the following principles in mind:

Try and maximize eye contact.

Make sure students are seated at a comfortable distance from each other.

Think in advance about how you will organize changing partners or changing groups.

Students’ Names

• Make two sets of name tags – one for the child's table space or desk, and one for the child to wear around the neck to special classes.

• Hang name tags on a hook by the door.
• Make it private: call to desk, whisper, nonverbal cues.

• Briefly talk to student/assess penalties.

• Time out at desk or another room.

• Communicate positive expectations to students: convey confidence in students’ ability to do well and maintain high expectations.

Teacher Talk & Drawing Attention

• Don't speak when children aren't listening and ready. Wait.

• Establish a signal for getting the group's attention:

1. turn off the lights
2. clap a pattern with your hands
3. Say “Freeze!” and everyone halts right where they are, like a statue. Then say “Melt!” when you are ready for them to move again.

• Practice numbers, in the beginning, even when children are doing well, just so they get the idea of how to respond to your signals. Then praise them.

Example: “One, two, three

eyes on me”

• Establish good listening habits for story time. Sometimes we read and listen, and sometimes we read and discuss, but we always listen.

Giving Instruction

• It is better to make your instructions for primary students precise and concise.

• Use puppets to help with classroom management. Puppets can whisper in the teacher's ear, and they can write messages to the class.

• Compliment leadership in students. "Oh, I like the way Antonio is ready!" will cause everyone to turn to look at the ready student and to get ready also.

• Use the same standards for everyone no favorites!

Using Pair and Group work

• One of the successful ways, if the teacher is resourceful and skilful enough, to motivate his/her students to participate in the lesson is to use “pair work” or “Group work” appropriately.

Language is best learned through the close collaboration and communication among students. This type of collaboration results in benefits for all or both learners. In fact, learners can help each other while working on different types of tasks such as writing dialogues, interviews, drawing pictures and making comments about them, play roles, etc…

Setting Time Limits

1) You should set time to each activity when you are planning your lesson so that           you would know if you would be able to finish your objectives or not.

2) You should tell your students about the time assigned for each activity when   you give them a task to do in class.

3) Your students should gradually be aware of the importance of the time issue and respect it.

Role Play

• This is a technique to vary the pace of the lesson and to respond to the fundamental notion of variety in teaching. Teachers are advised to use the role- play activity in order to motivate their students and to help the less motivated learners take part in the lesson. Besides, certain tasks in the student’s book are followed by a role- play activity where it becomes a necessity to undergo such an activity. As good examples of that we can state: the hide (item) and guessing game, dramatizing an interview of customer and shop assistant, doctor and patient conversation, etc…

Tasks for Early Finishers

• This especially happens when students finish an assignment while other students are still working on it. That’s why you need to include an “early finisher” activity with every assignment.

• Think in advance for possible activities, options including extension activities related to the current topic, journal writing, silent reading, and educational games

Whole Class Feedback

• Take a look at the following classroom exchange:

Whole class: He bought a sandwich. (Sea of noise in which the teacher hears the answer)
Teacher: And number 4?
Whole class: He drank orange juice. (Sea of noise in which the teacher hears the answer)

• Sound familiar? How many times have you done feedback like this? Probably many. Why do we fall into the pattern of getting feedback in this way? Is it the easiest way? The quickest?

• I began to realize that generally it was only the stronger or the more confident students who would shout out the answers. When I looked at individual student’s work, I saw that they didn’t always have the correct answer and, more importantly, they didn’t know what the correct answer was.

• Feedback is better checked through each student’s response on a written form paper.

Using Whiteboard

Make sure students easily see the board.

Have your lesson objectives clear for your students. Write them on the board or get the kids to know them at the beginning  by the end of this lesson I will have learned……

These clear objectives provide a guide to what you want to achieve and can be the basis of the lesson structure. A map on the board can help to show the kids where you are going with the lesson.

Young people today come to school with a different orientation than past generations. Traditional student disciplining approaches are no longer successful for far too many young people. For example, a parent related the following to me after a discussion of how society and youth have changed in recent generations:

The other day, my teenage daughter was eating in a rather slovenly manner, and I lightly tapped her on the wrist saying, "Don't eat that way."
My daughter replied, "Don't abuse me."
The mother had grown up in the 1960s and volunteered the point that her generation tested authority but most were really afraid to step out of bounds. She related that her daughter was a good child and added, "But the kids today not only disrespect authority, they have no fear of it." And, because of rights for young children—which we should have it's hard to instill that fear without others claiming abuse.

So, how can we discipline students, so we as teachers can do our jobs and teach these young children who refuse to learn?

In many cases we resort to punishment as a strategy for motivation. For example, students who are assigned detention and who fail to show are punished with more detention. But in my questioning about the use of detention in hundreds of workshops around the country, teachers rarely suggest detention is actually effective in changing behavior.

Why detention is an ineffective form of punishment.

When students are not afraid, punishment loses its effectiveness. Go ahead give the student more detention that he simply won't show up to.

This negative, coercive discipline and punishment approach is based on the belief that it is necessary to cause suffering to teach. It's like you need to hurt in order to instruct. The fact of the matter, however, is that people learn better when they feel better, not when they feel worse.

Remember, if punishment were effective in reducing inappropriate behavior, then there would be NO discipline problems in schools.

The irony of punishment is that the more you use it to control your students' behaviors, the less real influence you have over them. This is because coercion breeds resentment. In addition, if students behave because they are forced to behave, the teacher has not really succeeded. Students should behave because they want to—not because they have to in order to avoid punishment.

People are not changed by other people. People can be coerced into temporary compliance. But internal motivation where people want to change is more lasting and effective. Coercion, as in punishment, is not a lasting change agent. Once the punishment is over, the student feels free and clear. The way to influence people toward internal rather than external motivation is through positive, non-coercive interaction.

Here's how...

7 Things GREAT Teachers Know, Understand, and Do to Motivate Students to Learn Without Using Punishments or Rewards.

1. Great teachers understand that they are in the relationship business. Many students especially those in low socio-economic areas put forth little effort if they have negative feelings about their teachers. Superior teachers establish good relationships and have high expectations.

2. Great teachers communicate and discipline in positive ways. They let their students know what they want them to do, rather than by telling students what not to do.

3. Great teachers inspire rather than coerce. They aim at promoting responsibility rather than obedience. They know that obedience does not create desire.

4. Great teachers identify the reason that a lesson is being taught and then share it with their students. These teachers inspire their students through curiosity, challenge, and relevancy.

5. Great teachers improve skills that prompt students to want to behave responsibly and want to put effort into their learning.

6. Great teachers have an open mindset. They reflect so that if a lesson needs improvement they look to themselves to change before they expect their students to change.

7. Great teachers know education is about motivation.

     Unfortunately, today's educational establishment still has a 20th century mindset that focuses on external approaches to increase motivation. An example of the fallacy of this approach is the defunct self-esteem movement that used external approaches such as stickers and praise in attempts to make people happy and feel good. What was overlooked was the simple universal truth that people develop positive self-talk and self-esteem through the successes of their own efforts.

If you follow the advice above and in my book "discipline without stress, punishments or rewards" and you will promote education and social responsibility in a positive learning environment.