Notes from Class Management lecture, 14th November 2013

Class Management Ideas

a lecture by Anette Igel (igelanette@yahoo.co.uk)

• the rules should be established in the very first lesson of the school year
• keep the rules positive, as few “don’ts” as possible
• it is a good idea to let students come up with the rules themselves by brainstorming and only guide them to what you actually aim for - all IN ENGLISH! A lot of grammar used just in this activity (turning negative sentences into positive ones, etc.) - there is a notion of responsibility among the students for the rules if they are actually the ones who came up with them
• Activity - Anti-rules: Let students come up with the OPPOSITE of what is expected of them in classroom (“Speak out loud whenever you feel like it.” vs. “Keep quiet.” etc.)
• see to it that rules are followed (it usually takes only one example and the others will get the message)!
• Activity - Pyramid discussion: Split the class into small groups of two, let them brainstorm six adjectives for a given topic, then join groups to a larger one and boil the adjectives down to six again, repeat until the group is not the whole class again and then put the remaining (and supposedly the most essential) adjectives on board.
• keep your personal attitudes and feelings outside the classroom, your personal viewpoints affect your professional judgment and performance
• Activity: give students some answers first and them let them brainstorm questions for these answers - practices forming questions and choosing the correct tense.

• Activity: Dictation: Ask students to put down fifteen numbers with the following things (example follows):

1 - green (favorite color)
2- crappy (type of weather)
3 - Karen Gillan (favorite actor/actress)
4 - Peter (favorite boy/girl name)
5 - July (favorite month)
6 - train (favorite mean of transport)
7 - dog (favorite animal)
8 - pizza (favorite food)
9 - the Netherlands (favorite country or city)
10 - jeans (favorite piece of clothing)
11 - coffee shop (favorite type of shop)
12 - running (favorite activity)
13 - hacky sack (favorite object)
14 - beer (favorite drink)
15 - happy (favorite mood)

Then dictate them a short text with numbers in it. They need to replace the numbers with the stuff they have written earlier:

It was a crappy day in July. I was in the Netherlands and I was drinking some beer. Suddenly the phone rang. It was Karen Gillan and friends. They were happy because I was late. So I put on my green jeans and picked up hacky sack. I made sure that Peter, the dog, had some pizza, and left. I quickly travelled by train and went to coffee shop. When I arrived, I was surprised to see my friends were running there.

• Activity - Getting to know each other: an activity to remember everyone’s name - acronyms out of students’ names are made into somewhat truthful sentences that describe them, make these into posters and hang them around the classroom. Check grammar of the sentences as well!

Anette is

Not

English

Though she

Thinks in

English

Mirek

Is

of Rather

Energetic

Kind

• Activity - The best homework excuses: how to deal with students constantly apologizing for forgetting homework - the first student has to put the excuse on paper (“My dog ate my homework.”), this paper will be hanged in the classroom and every time someone else forgets the homework, he or she must come up with a new apology (it doesn’t substitute the homework but at least it makes them use the language in some way)
• how to deal with a noisy classroom: after entering the classroom, put several page/exercise numbers of students’ text book on board and announce this to be the homework, then, during the lesson, reward good work by erasing one number in time, this will give the class the notion that the better they behave, the less work they will have to endure at home (it is a good idea to keep the most essential exercises that you actually DO want as the homework on the top and keep them there)