keeping students quiet

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keeping students quiet
By D Allen

Sometimes it is difficult just to get them quiet for seconds, not even minutes. Two different tricks I have used are 1) Play the quiet game. Ask the students how long they think they can be quiet. After all, you may not
have heard them quiet all day. Count out loud, or count on your fingers. This really appeals to their competitive nature. You may have to separate the contest into all of the class, except (name of noisemaker). I did this once, not to isolate the child, but because he was insistant on standing out and making noise. Another option is 2)playing heads-up seven up. This works well for

younger grades, as long as they know how to play. Seven students are selected to be it. All others lay their heads on the desk, eyes closed, and thumbs up. The "its" then select one student by pushing their thumb down. Once all "its" are back at the front of the class, the teacher says, "Heads up, seven up." Those who were selected stand and guess who chose them. If correct, they trade places with the "it" who selected them. This should be a quiet game, but one fifth-grade class was noisy even with this game! But they all enjoyed it. It was a good reward for both the students and the sub.