classroom

management
Sophia . Binnendyk
 The physical environment of the
classroom
Consider four categories:
1. Sight, sound, and comfort
As trivial as it may first appear, in the face of your decisions to implement language-teaching principles
in an array of clever techniques, students are indeed profoundly affected by what they see, hear, and
feel when they enter the classroom. If you have any power to controi the following, then it will be
worth your time to do so:
• The classroom is neat, clean, and orderly in appearance.
• Chalkboards are erased.
Chairs are appropriately arranged (see below).
• If the room has bulletin boards and you have the freedom to use them, can you occasionally take
advantage of visuals?
•The classroom is as free from externai noises as possible (machinery out-side, street noise, hallway
voices, etc.).
• Acoustics within your classroom are at least tolerable.
Heating or cooling systems (if applicable) are operating.
 Seating arrangements
If your classroom has movable desk-chairs. consider patterns of semi-circles, U-shapes, concentric circles, or--if
your class size is small enough-one circle so that students aren't all squarely facing the teacher. If the room has
tables with two to four students at each, try to come up with configurations that make interaction among
students most feasible.
Should you determine who sits next to whom? Normally, students will soon fall into a comfortable pattern of self-
selection in where they sit.
 Chalkboard use
The chalkboard is one of your greatest allies. It gives
students added visual input along with auditory. It allows
you to illustrate with words and pictures and graphs and
charts.
 Equipment
The "classroom" may be construed to include any equipment you may be
using.If you're using electrical equipment (say, an overhead projector or a
video player),make sure that.
•the room has outlets,
the equipment fits comfortably in the room,
• evervone can see (and/or hear) the visuai/auditory sumaius, you leave
enough time before and after class to get the equipment and return it to
its proper place,
•the machine actually works,
• you know how to operate it,
there is an extra light bulb or battery or whatever else you'll need if a
routine replacement is in order.
 Your voice and body languace.
Another fundamental chassroom management concern has to do with you and the
messages you send through your voice and through your body language.
One of the first requirements of good teaching is good voice projection.Here are some
pointers:
• Let your body posture exhibit an air of confidence.
• Your face should refiect optimism, brightness, and warmth.
• Use facial and hand gestures to enhance meanings of words and sentences that might otherwise be unclear.
• Make frequent eye contact with all students in the class.
• Do not "bury yourself" in your notes and plans.
• Do not plant your feet firmly in one place for the whole hour.
• Move around the classroom, but not to distraction.
• Follow the conventional rules of proxemics (distance) and kinesthetics (touching) that apply for the culture(s) of your
students.
• Dress appropriately, considering the expectations of your students and the culture in which you are teaching.
 Unplanned teaching:Mindstream lesson changes
Now that you have considered sore of the factors in managing the physical space and your physical
self, imagine that you have entered the classroom and begun your lesson. Students are clear about
why they are doing this task and have launched themselves into it. Classroom management involves
decisions about what to do when
• a student is disruptive in class,
• you are asked a question you don't know the answer to (e.g., a grammatical
point),
• there isn't enough time at the end of a class period to finish an activity that
has already started.
Teaching under adverse circumstances
1. Teaching large classes
Ideally, language classes should have no more than a dozen peopie or so. The
should be large enough to provide diversity and student interaction and small
enough to give students plenty of opportunity to participate and to get individual
attention. Large classes present some problems:
Proficiency and ability vary widely across students.
• Individual teacher-student attention is minimized.
• Student opportunities to speak are lessened.
•Teacher's feedback on students' written work is limited.
a. Try to make each student feel important (and not just a "number") by learning names and using them.
Name tags or desk "plates" serve as reminders in the early days of the course.

b. Assign students as much interactive work as possible, including plenty of "get-acquainted" activities at the
beginning, so that they feel a part of a community and are not just lost in the crowd.

c. Optimize the use of pair work and small-group work to give students chances to perform in English. In
grouping, consider the variation in proficiency levels (see next section, below).

d. Do more than the usual number of listening comprehension activities, using. tapes, video, and yourself.
Make sure students know what kind of response is expected from them. Through active listening
comprehension, students can learn a good deal of language that transfers to reading, speaking, and writing

e. Use peer-editing, feedback, and evaluation in written work whenever appro-priate.

f. Give students a range of extra-class work, from a minimum that all students must do to challenging tasks
for students with higher proficiency.

g. Don't collect written work from all of your students at the same time; spread it out in some systematic way
both to lighten your load and to give students the benefit of a speedy return of their work.

h. Set up small "learning centers" in your class where students can do individualized work.

i. Organize informal conversation groups and study groups.

Teaching multiple proficiency levels
in the same class.
There is often a wide range of proficiency levels among students in the same class,
especially in large classes, but even relatively small classes can be composed of students
who in your estimation should not all be placed at the same level. Here are some
suggestions to consider:
a. Do not overgeneralize vour assessment of students' proficiency levels by blanket ofersenetions into "the good
students" and "the bad students" It is a common mistake among teachers (we all do it!) to talk about smart and
dumb students in our classes..
b. For most students, competencies will vary among the four skills, within each skill
c. Offer choices in individual (written and extra-class) techniques that vary according to needs and chalienges.
d. Take advantage of whatever learning centers or tutorial laboratories may be available in your institution.
c. Obviously, the tenor of your classroom teacher talk (instructions, explana-tions, lectures, etc.) will need to be
gauged toward the middle of the levels of proficiency in your class. But group work tasks offer opportunities for
multiple-proficiency issues.
 Compromising with the
"institution"
Asome time in their careers: teaching under institutional conditions that
do not mce their ideal standards or philosophy of education.
Sometimes such circumstances.
• classes that are far too large to allow for the kind of results that the
admir istration expects (see above),
• physical conditions in the classroom that are onerous.
administratively imposed constraints on what you have to teach in your
Las course «the curriculum, possibly in great detail),
•administratively imposed constraints on how you should teach (a
specific methodology that you disagree with is required),
• courses that satisfy an institutional foreign language requirement, in
which students simply want a passing grade,
• courses that are test-focused rather than language-focused.
 Discipline
subject of classroom discipline. If all of your students were hard-working, intrinsically motivated, active,
dedicated, intelligent learners-well, you would still have what we could label "discipline" problems!
• Learn to be comfortable with your position of authority.
•Gain the respect of your students by treating them all with equal fairness.
• State clearly and explicitly to your students what your expectations are regarding their behavior in class
(speaking, turn-taking, respect for others. group work, individual work, test-taking, etc.), attendance (tardiness
and absence policy), and any extra-class ("homework") obligations.
•Be firm but warm in dealing with variances to these expectations.
•If a reminder, reprimand, or other form of verbal disciplinary action is war-ranted, do your best to preserve the
dignity of the student (in spite of the fact that you could be frustrated cough to want to humiliate the student in
front of classmates!).
• Try, initially, to resolve disciplinary matters outside of class time (ask to see a student after class and quietly but
firmly make your observation and let the student respond) so that valuable class minutes aren't spent focusing
on one student.
• In resolving disciplinary problems, try to find the source of the problem rather than treating symptoms (for
example, if a student isn't paying attention in class, it could be because of a lack of sleep caused by trying to work
a late night shift, in which case vou could suggest a different shift or a dif ferent time bracket for the English
class).
Teachers’ roles and styles
1. Roles
authority figure, leacer, knower, director, manager, counselor,
guide, no even such roles as friend, confidante, and parent.

2. Teaching styles
Your teaching style is another affective consideration in the
development of your professional expertise. As you consider the
teaching styles below, remember that each represents a
continuum of possibilities.

3. Cultural expectations
One major consideration, there-fore, in the effectiveness of playing
roles and developing styles is the culture in which you are teaching
and the culture of your students.
Creating a positive classroom
climate
1. Establish rapport
Rapport is a somewhat slippery but important concept in creating positive energy
in the classroom. Rapport is the relationship or connection you establish with
your students, a relationship built on trust and respect that leads to students
feeling capable, competent, and creative.
• showing interest in each student as a person,
• giving feedback on each person's progress, openly soliciting students' ideas and
feelings,
• valuing and respecting what students think and say,
• laughing with them and not at them,
• working with them as a team, and not ugainst them, and
• developing a genuine sense of vicarious joy when they learn something or
otherwise succeed.
Balance praise and criticism
Part of the rapport you create is based on the delicate balance that you
set between praise and criticism. Table 13.1 shows the contrast
between effective praise and ineffective praise.
 Generate energy
Energy is what you react to when you walk out of a class period
and say to yourself, "Wow! That was a great class!" or "What a
great group of students!" Energy is the electricity of many minds
caught up in a circuit of thinking and talking and writing. Energy
is an aura of creativity sparked by the interaction of students.
Energy drives students toward higher attainment. Students (and
teachers) take energy with them when they leave the classroom
and bring it back the next day.
- Thank you -