Important aspects of classroom management

The use of space and time, the use of students' names, eye contact, the use of the blackboard, and the way checking is conducted are to be considered for successful classroom management.

1.Space In a lot of traditional classrooms the immovable desks are arranged in the way that the students see each other’s backs., with the teacher facing the class. It is fine for drilling and testing, but too rigid and fragmentary for the mixed-ability class with its need for flexibili­ty and variety. In many classes there is little the teacher can do by way of rearranging the desks, either because there are too many of them or because they are immovable. The suggestions that follow are for situ­ations where there is some flexibility in the way the furniture can be arranged.

So, if the desks are not screwed to the ground, use the space in a way that encourages students to listen to each other and to enable the maximum number of students to see the board and any visual materi­al the teacher may be holding up. For general classwork a semicircu­lar formation is best.

Use a circular formation for general discussion, with the teacher either joining the circle as an equal in the discussion or sitting just outside the circle to monitor the discussion or whisper useful lan­guage to students trying to express themselves but at a loss for words . In a large class with desks fixed to the floor, encourage students to work with students behind or in front of them or form groups of four or six.

2. The teacher's position. The way a teacher moves around the room at different points in the lesson can have a significant effect on student's concentration, dynamics, involvement in the learners. Teachers often go up close to the student speaking, but this actually excludes the rest of the class from what's going on.In addition, if a student's voice is not audible from the other end of the room, those students who can't hear will get irritated or just stop listening; the teacher's position should allow the teacher to keep an eye on a maximum number of learners at the same time and to focus their attention on the student speaking, the board, or visual aids.

3 Ways of taking time into account

· Don't plan to do too much in a lesson. (Have an "extra" such as an anecdote or joke in reserve rather than cramming the lesson with elaborate activities.)

· Tell students at the start of the lesson roughly what you intend to do and how long it's going to take.

· Tell students how long they have for a particular activity.

· Warn the class one or two minutes before an activity is due to finish.

· Use the last few minutes to check that learning has taken place and to summarize what the lesson has been all about.

· Allow students time to copy important information from the board before you rub it all off, particularly at the end of the lesson.

· Give "slower" students (for once the term is particularly appro­priate) time to answer your questions or present the results of a task

· Don't wait too long for a student to answer, as this slows the les­son down, and it may be difficult to pick up momentum again.

· If you forget your watch, borrow one from the students.

· Vary the timing of relaxed and intensive activity to build up a sense of rhythm in the lesson, to give it shape. Alternate light, quick interludes with longer phases of more intense activity.

4. Cross-checking. Attention in a large mixed-ability class can be focused and held if the teacher follows a simple routine for involving students in what their fellow -students are saying: the technique is one of "cross-checking." There are specific points in the lesson when this is likely to hap­pen:

answering comprehension questions

suggesting words to fill in blanks in a text

reporting the results of pair or group work

presenting the results of pair/group work in the form of a dialogue

asking the teacher to explain a point of grammar or vocabulary

asking the teacher to clarify instructions for a task

discussing a topic arising from a reading text

5. Checking: The Power of the Written Word. Pairwork should involve written answers wherever appropriate, even if only in note form. This has a number of advantages in the mixed-ability class:

• It encourages reluctant learners to complete the task (the end-product is a record of work done or not done).

• It discourages them from using only the mother tongue, as they learn to expect a feedback phase (in English).

• It gives better students more to do while you go round helping weaker students.

• It gives the teacher something to discuss with early finishers if their answers have been written down. (When the task is purely oral, you soon get fast learners sitting back twiddling their thumbs claiming to have nothing more to do.)

6. Nominating. Use students' names (first names where appropriate) when eliciting and checking. Using names makes for better rapport with students, and involves them directly and rapidly when need be. An over-reliance on volunteers to speak will degenerate into a show dominated by the best or more extrovert students. An equal distribution of questions is difficult without systematic—and encouraging—use of students' names.

7. Eye Contact Look at the student who is speaking, occasionally letting your eyes rest on another student (on the other side of the room) before coming back to the speaking student (Experiment with the reverse process and see the probably negative effects of looking up at the ceiling, at the floor, through the window, or at the wall as you are giving instructions or asking questions!).

8. Voice. Although voice train­ing is a skill requiring time and expertise, there are certain common-sense principles that all teachers may bear in mind as a starting point for taking full advantage of one of the most valuable instruments in a teacher's repertoire.

Vary the loudness and tone of your voice when the function of what you're saying changes:

• beginning the lesson

• stating the aims of the lesson

• giving instructions

• telling students to start a task

• telling students how long they have to do a task

• telling students how much time they have left to complete a task

• interrupting students to point out something important

• telling students that time is up

• asking the first and the last of a series of comprehension questions

• telling the class to copy something from the board

• explaining a homework task

• summarising what the lesson was all about

9. The Magic Board. The following points, which are relevant to keeping a class together:

• Use the board to record grammar, vocabulary, and content and point students' attention to this information when the lesson seems to be going off the rails.

• Use the board as one way of ensuring that instructions are clear.

• Write example sentences of the target structure on the board and remind students before the task and during it (if weaker students are having difficulty) that they should be using these structures.

• Use the board to jot down points made by all students (but par­ticularly weak ones) as a discreet way of emphasizing the value of their contribution and integrating this contribution into the lesson, where appropriate.

• At the end of the lesson, make sure students have copied into their notebooks any useful information from the board.

6. Teacher observation checklist as a practical instrument for helping the teacher become more aware of the elusive aspects of teaching.

Was the lesson mostly testing or mostly teaching?

1. Did comprehension questions check comprehension?

2. Did the teacher give reasonably accurate answers to students' questions?

3. Was the teacher's reaction to student errors encouraging or discouraging?

4. Was the teacher sarcastic?

5. Did the teacher shout for no good reason?

6. Was the teacher friendly?

7. Was there any humor in the lesson?

8. Were the students relaxed?

9. Did the teacher use the students' names enough?

10. Did the teacher look at students as she was speaking?

11. Did the teacher vary her position in the room according to the activity?

12. Did the teacher indicate how much time students had to do an activity?

13. Did the teacher use the board to record useful information?

14. Did the teacher use checking (questioning, elicitation) tech­niques to focus students' attention?

15. Did the teacher give students individual attention?

16. Did the students get the opportunity to use English to talk about topics that interest them?

17. Did the teacher speak differently to "weak" and "good" students?

18. Did the teacher's voice vary sufficiently to make her meaning clear and command students' attention?

19. How many different roles did the teacher adopt during the lesson?