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Home : 2004 : October : 8

ideas
By Sarah

Well... books come and go, but I still use The First Days of School, which was really big a couple of years ago. It helped me immensely because it tells you that "procedures" and "rules" are different. A teacher needs clear,
regular procedures (e.g. how/when to sharpen a pencil, how to get class' attention, how to answer a question), and when students do not follow these correctly, you PRACTICE them until they do. Rules are behavioral, and when students do not follow rules, CONSEQUENCES follow. So you don't punish a student for not following procedures.
Point is, if you have a structured environment

and clear procedures and rules, students tend to behave better. Last year's class for me was tough, and I found that have regular, simple routines and keeping them busy all the time helped. Making them work quietly and giving explicit noise guidelines also helps (e.g. I'd say, "This next fifteen minutes is quiet time. That means no talking." or "This period you may talk quietly to your neighbor. If I can hear you, you're too loud. Let's practice the volume." and then if it got noisy, we'd switch to total quiet.)

Now, you might wonder how to keep a class totally quiet. Once they get used to working quietly, it's easier. So at first, if they're having trouble, I'd bring in consequences. I used to say, "The first person who talks gets 10 dictionary word definitions to write out, the second person 20, third 40, etc..." That works! or "The next three minutes are a Silent Zone"- if you talk or get out of your seat, you will write 10 dictionary words", etc...

Hope this helps! I know a chatty group can be wearing.