Unit 5 Classroom Management

Unit 5 Classroom Management Background information: Students: 50 sophomores Lesson duration: 2 periods

Teaching objectives: By the end of the lesson, students should be able to: • 1. know the roles teachers play in in the classroom • 2. grasp the different ways for student grouping • 3. know how to maintain discipline in the classroom • 4. master the technique of questioning in the classroom • 5. master the technique of dealing with errors

Teaching contents: • 1. the role of the teacher • 2.classroom instructions • 3. student grouping • 4. discipline in the language classroom • 5. technique of questioning in the classroom • 6. technique of dealing with errors

Key and difficult points: • the role of the teacher • the rules for making classroom instructions • technique of questioning & dealing with errors

Teaching approaches: 1. Lecture ( Computer-aided Instruction) 2. Demonstration Teaching aids: Multi-media, whiteboard, pictures

Teaching procedures Step one Introductory Remarks • In this unit, we are going to discuss how language teachers can manage the classroom more effectively and efficiently. Classroom management is the way teachers organize what goes on in the classroom. The goal of classroom management is to create an atmosphere conducive to interacting in English meaningful ways (Gebhard, 1996:69). Efficient classroom management can be achieved when the following six conditions are met:

1) The teacher plays appropriate roles. • 2) The teacher provides clear instructions • 3)The students are grouped in a way suitable for the learning activities. • 4) The teacher asks appropriate questions • 5)There is discipline and harmony in the class. • 6) The students’ errors are treated properly

Step two Presentation I. The role of the teacher • Although many people consider the role of the teacher an important component of efficient classroom management, some researchers regard it as part of the design of a methodology or approach. different approaches stipulate different roles for the teacher. we are going to discuss the most common roles that teachers play in present-day second/foreign language teaching. 1.1 Lead-in activities

1.2 Discussion Let Ss brainstorm the issues that teacher roles are related to, think about what a teacher does before, during and after the class. Then work in groups and share your ideas.

1.3 Presentation • In the following sections, we will confine our discussion to the roles that the teacher plays during the class. • Based on the functions that the teacher performs in different activities, Harmer defines the teacher s roles as controller, assessor, organizer, prompter, participant and resource provider (Harmer, 1983:201).

1.3 Presentation

1.4 Practice • Ask students to work in groups and finish the TASK 3 (page 69-70) to decide what role the teacher is playing in each activity and then present the reasons for their choices.

2. Classroom instructions 2.1 Lead-in activities • Classroom instructions refers to the type of language teachers use to organize or guide learning. they are very important, as a teacher, if you couldn't give clear and concise instructions, Ss would be confused, and your tasks and activities couldn’t be done successfully. Your meaning couldn’t really get across.

2.2 Presentation There are rules to follow for making instructions effective. • Use simple instructions and make them suit the comprehension level of the students. • Use body language to support your instructions • Use the mother- tongue only when necessary.( teaching grammar) • Demonstration is more effective than words , don’t speak too much.

2.3. Practice • Ask students to prepare some classroom instructions and then let some of them make performance in the front of the classroom. Teacher makes some comments on their presentation.

3. Student grouping • An important feature of today's language classroom is that students do not always study as one big group. Rather, for much of the class time, Students are broken down to groups of different sizes. The most common student groupings are the following

3. Student grouping • Lockstep is where all the students are under the control of the teacher. They are all doing the same activity at the same rhythm and pace. • Pair work is where the students work in pairs. It could be a competition over a game or co-operation in a task or project between the two students. They could also do certain exercises together or oral practice.

3. Student grouping • Group work is where the students work in small groups. Each group has 3, 4, or 5 students, depending on the activity. What students do in group work is similar to pair work. Only there are more members in the group. Group work is most beneficial when the activity requires contributions from more than two students.

3. Student grouping • Individual study is the stage during the class where the students are left to work on their own and at their own speed. Usually they are doing the same task, but the teacher may give them a choice of tasks. Some activities cannot be done in pairs or groups, for instance, reading and writing.

3. Student grouping • Note:The biggest problem for group work is the selection of group members. Below are some possible ways to group the students: • Group the students according to seating arrangement; • Students select their own group members (risky); • Strong students and weak students are mixed together; • Strong students and weak students are grouped separately to do different tasks; • Group the students by drawing lots.

3. Student grouping • All these grouping methods have advantages and disadvantages. The teacher should use the most appropriate method and should vary the form from time to time. Besides, the teacher should also pay attention to the group size. In order to make each group self-organized, a group leader could either be “democratically” selected or assigned by the teacher, who can act as organizer or a mini-teacher.

4.Discipline in the language classroom 4.1 Lead-in activities • Discipline here refers to a code of conduct which binds a teacher and a group of students together so that learning can be more effective. It is important to realize that the code of conduct that determines the behavior of a class is as necessary for the teacher as it is for the students (Harmer, 1983). • Listed below are some possible characteristics of a disciplined ELT classroom. Do you agree with them? Can you add any more? When you finish, go into groups of four and decide on the three most important characteristics which are typical of a disciplined ELT classroom.

4.1 Lead-in activities • 1. The class is under the teacher's control. • 2. The classroom is quiet. • 3. The teacher and students are cooperating smoothly. • 4. The teacher and students show respect to each other. • 5. Indisciplined students are punished. • 6. The lesson is proceeding according to plan. • 7. The teacher appears to be the authority. • 8. Learning is taking place. Although discipline is a necessary but not sufficient condition for effective learning, a thoroughly indisciplined atmosphere will surely yield no learning at all.

4.2 Discussion Let Ss list some indisciplined acts about students and teachers: • Certain acts on Students’ part: • arriving late for class • coming to class without a textbook • failing to do homework, making noises in class • not paying attention • refusing to cooperate with peers, or causing disturbances

4.2 Discussion Certain acts on the teacher's part: • being late for class • going to class unprepared • being inconsistent • threatening students • being absent-minded • giving boring lessons • being unfair • being rude to students.

4.2 Discussion • Although discipline is often discussed together with classroom management, classroom management skills are not sufficient if discipline is to be achieved. Rather, a variety of teacher's behaviour contributes to discipline, such as the teachers' choice of methodology, their interpersonal relationships with students, and their preparation for the lesson. Besides, students' motivation, which can be enhanced by teacher action, is extremely important for discipline (Ur, 1996).

4.3 Presentation • Read through the following practical hints for maintaining discipline in the classroom and choose the ten most important hints. When you are ready, go into groups of four and share your choices.

Practical hints for teachers on classroom discipline • 1. Start by being firm with students: you can relax later. • 2. Get silence before you start speaking to the class. • 3. Know and use the students' names. • 4. Prepare lessons thoroughly and structure them firmly, • 5. Be mobile: walk around the class. • 6. Start the lesson with a "bang" and sustain interest and curiosity, • 7. Speak clearly.

Practical hints for teachers on classroom discipline • 8. Make sure your instructions are clear. • 9. Have extra materials prepared (e.g. to cope with slower/faster-working students). • 10. Look at the class when speaking, and learn how to "scan". • 11.Make work appropriate to pupils' age, ability, cultural background. • 12. Develop an effective questioning technique. • 13. Develop the art of timing your lesson to fit the available period. • 14. Vary your teaching techniques.

Practical hints for teachers on classroom discipline • 15. Anticipate discipline problems and act quickly. • 16. Avoid confrontations. • 17. Clarify fixed rules and standards, and be consistent in applying them. • 18. Show yourself as supporter and helper to the students. • 19. Don't patronize students; treat them with respect. • 20.Use humor constructively. • 21. Choose topics and tasks that will activate students. • 22. Be warm and friendly to the students. (Taken from Ur, 1996:263)

Practical hints for teachers on classroom discipline • Factors in an ELT classroom, such as culture, age, sex, motivation, vary so greatly that there cannot be sure "wise advice" for classroom discipline. An indisciplined act frequently occurring in one culture may rarely occur in another. A management skill effective in one class may be fruitless in another. In most cases, teachers have to search for and develop their own strategies to maintain discipline in their classroom. And when indiscipline does occur, they should take the most appropriate measures to put things right.

Harmer (1983) suggests the following measures for indisciplined acts and badly behaving students: • 1) Act immediately: Stop indisciplined acts immediately so that less damage is caused. Of course, the teacher's action on a particular student's indiscipline should not be done at the expense of other students' time and attention. • 2) Stop the class. If the indiscipline is so disruptive as to hinder the progress of the whole class, the teacher should stop the class and make it clear what is wrong.

Harmer (1983) suggests the following measures for indisciplined acts and badly behaving students: • 3) Rearrange the seats: Separate troublesome students. Besides, if students are moved to the front of the class they may behave better. • 4) Change the activity: If indiscipline occurs due to inappropriatcy of the activity, a change of activity will often restore the class.

Harmer (1983) suggests the following measures for indisciplined acts and badly behaving students: • 5) Talk to students after class. Talk to the troublesome student after class. Give students a chance to explain why he/she behaves in this way. • 6) Create a code of behaviur: The teacher and the learners can work together to create some basic rules for the class during activities.

Notes: Problem-making students are not necessarily "bad" boys, and sometimes students are not aware of their indisciplined acts. So when the teacher is trying to act against indiscipline, he/she should be careful not to hurt the students. Ur (1996) gives the following advice about problems in class: • Deal with it quietly. • Don't take things personally. • Don't use threats.

5. Questioning in the classroom 5.1 Lead-in activities • to focus students’ attention • to invite thinking and imaginations • to check understanding • to stimulate recall of of information

5.2 Classification of question types

5.3 Practice • Ask the students to learn the material in TASK 9 (page 84--85), and discuss the differences in teachers’ questioning strategies. Ask some students to present their results of discussions. Teacher make some comments on their presentation

6. Dealing with errors • 6.1 Lead-in activities Errors are an inevitable part of the learning process, it is through errors that we learn something. teachers’ behaviours in dealing with errors can reflect their different attitudes towards errors.

6. Dealing with errors • 6.2 Presentation • This part we will focus on how to deal with spoken errors • When to correct • Generally speaking , it is best not to interrupt students during the fluency work unless the communication breaks down; during accuracy work, we may need to intervene more because the purpose of the activity is to get what is learned right .

6. Dealing with errors 6.2 Presentation • How to correct self correction different ways and techniques for correcting errors peer correction whole class correction

6. Dealing with errors 6.3 Discussion • Let students work in groups and do TASK 10 , discusswhether the ways to correct students’ errors are suitable or not ( page 88)

6.3 Discussion Conclusion • In this unit we started with the discussion of the teacher's roles in the language classroom. Different assumptions about the teacher's roles will stipulate different classroom management policies; and different methodologies entail the adoption of different teacher roles. Borrowing Harmer's concepts of the teacher's roles, we believe teachers are multi-functional in the language classroom. This is especially true if the class is conducted in a variety of formats such as whole class activity, individual study, pair work and group work. varying student grouping can help to create a dynamic language classroom and thus improve learning effectiveness.

Conclusion • Another important issue in classroom management is maintaining discipline. However, teachers should be careful when judging what behavior is indisciplined. It should be noted that different cultures have different assumptions about discipline. If ever possible, problems around indiscipline should be dealt with in friendly rather than hostile ways.

Assignments 1. How can language teachers manage the classroom more effectively and efficiently? 2. What is controlled practice, half-controlled practice, and free practice? 3. How to treat the students with indisciplined acts ? 4. Write some classroom instructions as much as you can.

Unit 5 Classroom Management