Unit 5 Classroom management
I. What does classroom management involves?
The teachers most important job might be to create the condition in which
learning can take place. So the skills of creating and managing a successful class may
be the key to the whole success of a course. An important part of this is to do with the
teachers attitude, intentions and personality. However, the teacher also needs
organizational skills and techniques.
So classroom management involves both decisions and actions. Actions are what
is done in the classroom. The decisions are about whether to do these actions, when to
do them, how to do them, who will do them, and so on. Thus, the essential basic skill
for classroom management is to be able to recognize options available, to make
appropriate decisions between the options, and to turn them into effective and
efficient actions.
Classroom management involves teacher recognizing options, making decisions
and putting them into actions.
Classroom decisions and actions are greatly determined by the teachers own
attitudes, intentions, beliefs and values. The relationship between teachersdecisions
and actions and beliefs and values may be well illustrated by the following diagram.
II. Whats the goal of classroom management?
The goal of classroom management is to create an atmosphere
conductive to interacting in English in meaningful ways.
Effective classroom management can be achieved when the following
three conditions are met:
1) the appropriate roles of the teacher
1
2) Suitable grouping of the students
3) Discipline and harmony in the class
III. The role of the teacher
Teachers roles are related ultimately to assumptions about language
and language learning at the level of approach.
Different approaches stipulate different roles for the teacher.
Although different approaches stipulate different teacher roles, there
are some common roles that teachers play in most of the major
approaches.
A. The teacher as controller of everything that goes on in the
classroom. He controls not only what the students do, but when they speak
and what language they use;
B. The teacher as manager/organizer, organizing the activities;
C: The teacher as assessor, giving feedback and advice, as well as
correction and grading;
D. The teacher as participant (co-communicator) in an organized
activity such as debate or role play;
E. The teacher as prompter to encourage students to participate or
make suggestions about how to proceed in an activity;
F. The teacher as resource, that is a source of language and
knowledge;
G. The teacher as instructor, actually teaching the new language
points and training students in language skills.
IV. Student grouping
1. Common student groupings
1) lockstep
2) pair work
3) group work
4) individual study
2. the advantages and disadvantages of the above grouping
grouping
Lockstep
Advantages
All
the
Disadvantages
areStudents have little chance to
class
concentrating;
goodspeak;
Same speed for different students;
modeling from teacher;
comfortable
in
choralNervous in front of the whole
class;
practice
Pair work
Not enough communication;
More chance for practice; Students stray away from the
Encouraging co-operation; task;
Relaxing atmosphere;
Using native language;
Noise and indiscipline.
Group work Communication in its real The same as those in pair work;
sense;
plus
some
students
might
More dynamic than pairdominate;
work;
Difficult to group;
Individual
Promoting self-reliance;
No outside pressure;
Less dynamic classroom;
study
Study at own speed;
No co-operation;
3. Further suggestions about student grouping methods.
1) When working in lockstep, the teacher should not speak too much.
2) When organizing pair work, the teacher should give the clearest
instructions. If necessary, the teacher should demonstrate with one student first. To
give appropriate instruction, it is necessary to follow the following principles.
(1) economy with words: the teacher should use as few words as possible.
(2) Simple and clear language at all points: language should be easy to
understand.
(3) Demonstration of what is needed.
(4) Check of students understanding: the teacher can check individual students to
make sure that students understand the instruction and know what to do.
(5) Use the native language when necessary.
3) some possible ways to group the students:
grouping the students according to seating arrangement;
students select their own group members,(risky)
strong students and weak students are missed together.
Strong students and weak students are grouped separately to do
different takes.
Group the students by drawing lots.
4) Although pair work and group work can provide students more chances
for practice, individual study should not be totally neglected.
(2) Try not to pair two poor students together. They may fail to fulfill the task
because of low proficiency.
(3) For any task, the objectives, operation, timing and techniques to get feedback
should be clear.
V. Discipline in the language classroom
1.Whats the final goal of discipline in the language classroom?
The ultimate goal of discipline is to make more effective learning
possible, but the relationship between discipline and learning is not as
straightforward as it appears.
2. Practical hints for teachers on classroom discipline.
3. Measures for indisciplined acts and badly behaving students( by
Harmer)
1) Act immediately.
2) Stop the class.
3) Rearrange the seats.
4) Change the activity.
5) Talk to students after class.
6) Use the institution.
VI. Principles to follow for classroom management
1. Choose the right interaction model
2. Give proper instructions (refer to Gu Yueguo 1999:250)
3. Ensure that every student has task to do.
4. Control the timing of tasks.
5. Arrange proper seating.(refer to Gu Yueguo, 1999:299)
6. Correct the mistakes at the right with the right method. (refer to Gu Yueguo, 1999:
255)
7More things to remember
(1) Try to activate every student in class. Do not ignore any student. Give the poor
students more help.
(2) Foster a warm, safe, and orderly environment with no chaos.
(3) Timing all the activities.
(4) Assign more tasks for quick students
(5) Remind the students of the timing.
(6) Increase the variety of instruction.
