Classroom Management Series #1: Defining some terms

We are starting a series on classroom management, where every Wednesday we will address behavioral problems that typical classrooms have. 

Before we get into this week’s topic, we need to talk about a few things.  What does classroom management mean?  What are these solutions?  How can I implement them into my own classroom?

Let’s start with defining a few things. Classroom management means

1.    The process of making certain that lessons run smoothly despite disruptive behavior by students.

2.    The prevention of disruptive behavior.

Well, what is disruptive behavior then?  Disruptive behavior is students actions that get in the way the ability of teachers to teach and students to learn. 

What are some examples of disruptive behavior?

• Talking when the teacher or others are talking
• texting or playing on their cell phones
• Using profanity
• Entering class late or leaving early
• Eating in the classroom 
• Calling out
• Constant entering and leaving the classroom (students going to the bathroom, students getting drinks of water)
• Getting out of their seat frequently with or without permission
• Disruptive noises
• Verbally harassment of others (name calling, mimicking, taunting)
• Physical harassment of others (poking, pinching, punching, kicking, stealing

Our solutions (yes, remember you are offering tips as well) will be complied into two lists.  The lists will be divided up as preventive solutions and responsive solutions. 

Preventive solutions are solutions to put into place before students do the behavior.  
Such as have the classroom rules and consequences displayed. 

Responsive solutions are solutions to stop the behavior immediately. 

Such as moving the student who is talking away from the rest of the class. 

The last thing you need to know is that you must experiment.  What works for one teacher, class, or student doesn’t work for everyone.  Pick one or two solutions and use them for a week. 

In order for this to be most successful, you should explain your expectations to your students beforehand, provide good and bad examples, post your expectations or rules in the classroom for all students to see, and be consistent.  

Now, don’t forget to check back EVERY Wednesday for solutions and to answer the next week’s question!  

Leave any solution tips you have for tomorrow's question:  What do you do about students who talk when others are talking?  

Classroom Management Series #1

If asked to describe my perfect class, I would say:

• lesson plan and materials are prepared
• I was able to greet students at the door
• class started on time 
• students followed rules and participated!
• students understood the material 

I ask teachers this question at the start of every classroom management workshop I do.  Most every teacher mentions the students behaving as part of their perfect class.  When asked what is the hardest part of their perfect class, teachers normally say the students behavior.  

This series on classroom management will focus on the students' behavior.  Every Wednesday, we will conquer student discipline problems.  That's right!  We, as in you AND me, will be tackling those issues such as students talking when they should NOT, cell phone usage in class, interrupting, etc.  

Each Wednesday, I will post a student behavior we want to address and your tips.  Tips I gather from my readers, tips from the teachers at the classroom management workshops, tips from books, and my own experience.  

How will I get my readers' tips?  I will post the next week's question at the end of that day's post, and the readers will leave their tips in the comment section.  Like this: 

How do you handle students who talk when they are not supposed to?  Please leave your tips in the comment box below!  

Please check back THIS WEDNESDAY to see your's and other's tips for handling this discipline problem.  

Conversation Club Activities

I have just finished up my 8th and final conversation club for the English teachers in my area.  A conversation club is made up of a group of people who want to practice speaking a language.


The courses I facilitated were credited by the country I am serving in (meaning: teachers will get a small pay raise for successfully completing this course through the Ministry of Education).  Teachers had to complete 40 hours, one day a week for five weeks.  The mornings were dedicated to playing games and doing activities that encouraged the teachers to talk, talk, and talk.  The afternoons were focused on teaching strategies (many of which have been posted in this blog).

I have included all the activities done in these eight conversation clubs in the Resource tab.  Please feel free to check them out and use them in teaching second language learners.


If you have any questions about conversation club, please feel free to leave a comment below and I will do the best I can to help you.

How to Plan a Successful Lesson Series: Formal Assessments

Today is the last post for the series “How to plan a successful lesson plan”.  Today we will finish up with formal assessments.  We are finishing up with formal assessments because it is usually the last thing we do in a lesson and/or unit. 

We have:

1.    written a lesson plan backwards (to teach to our objective)

2.    learned the difference between the different assessments (because assessing is part of teaching)

3.    learned about the different types of informal lesson plans and when to use

and now we are going to talk about the different types of formal assessments and when to use them. 

Formal assessments can be defined as structured tests with a standardized measure or defined criteria, summarized from Scholastic website.  

Formal assessments tend to be the end of the chapter/unit test or the standardized tests normally given at the end of the school year by the state (US) or national department of education (Costa Rica). 

Types of formal assessments are:

• *Essay: Students write about a certain question, topic, or statement
• You can let the students know of the essay options before they take the test so they can prepare beforehand.  
• *Multiple-choice test: it can include the A, B, C, D choices as well as true or false and matching. 
• *Short answer exam: Short answer is one or two sentences
• Presentations (with rubric): In an English learning classroom, students give a variety of presentations-from oral reports to student created commercials.  
• The best way to measure these presentations is with rubrics.  Rubrics are set expectations of a task.  Rubrics are great for oral presentations, skits, book reports, art assignments, dialogues, etc. 
• RubiStar is a great website that provides you with a template to create your own rubric as well as a large database of teacher created rubrics. (I used it all the time while teaching in the States, and they do not know that I am promoting them here).
• Always allow the students to see the rubric before hand!
• Research (with a rubric): same as above

*All these types of formal assessments can be included on the same end of chapter/unit test as well as standardized tests. 

*Remember* when creating your formal test, grade the objectives you have taught in that unit. And grade according to the skill of that objective.  If it is a speaking objective, the student must speak as part of their final grade.  

Check back soon for more posts on classroom management and teaching English as a foreign language!  

How to Plan a Successful Lesson Series: Informal Assessments

 Last week, I did an overview of assessments.  What they are and when to use some of them.  You can check it out here.  This week we are going to talk about the types of informal assessments that can be used in an English as a second language (or any other class for that matter) class. 

Informal assessments are "observing the learners' performance as they learn".  I like the above definition from here because it is simple and straightforward.  

Below are listed some different types of informal assessments along with their description, possible examples, and when they can be used.  
Types of informal assessment:

• Checklists: Checklists are where a teacher writes down the objectives in the unit and the students' name.  When a student has accomplished the objective, all the teacher has to do is write a check mark under the specific objective next to the student's name.  
• A checklist can be one sheet for the whole class like here or one sheet a paper per student (for a more detailed account).  
• The teacher can make a check mark on the sheet as they see students understanding the objective during practice and production of the lesson.  

FREE download HERE

• Portfolios: A portfolio is a collection of student’s work to chart progress and achievements. 
• For teaching English as a second language, a portfolio can include a recording of student’s reading, a writing assignment, a reading assignment with comprehension questions, self evaluation, and student selected pieces.
• Teacher puts in turned in homework or projects in the portfolios
• Self evaluations: Self evaluations are documents that allow students to "grade" their own progress.  
• Teachers can make self evaluations using the objectives of a unit, just put them in “I” statements.  For example: I can describe the parts of the body.  I can identify prefixes.  And then having columns labeled in various ways so students can mark if they understand the objective(s), need more help, or don’t understand. 
• This can be used as an Exit Ticket to be handed in at the end of the day or as a warm up the day after learning a certain objective. 

FREE download HERE

  

• Exit  Ticket: Students take about 5 minutes to write down what they learned from the lesson or unit or answer 1 or 2 questions about the objective.  
• The students give it to the teacher (who is standing at the door) as they leave the classroom.  
• Enter Ticket: Students take about 5 minutes to write down what they learned from the lesson or unit or answer 1 or 2 questions about the objective.
• The students do this as a warm up the day after the objective was taught
• Peer teaching: Students teach their classmates what was learned.
• This can be after the first few students have completed the practice OR in pairs.  
• Participation: Students fluency and understanding can be graded with participation.  In a class that requires students to talk, the teacher can state a certain amount of times a student must talk in order to receive full credit for that part of the grade.  
• For example in a 40-minute class, a teacher can state that students must talk a minimum of 5 times.  
• Teachers can monitor this with a checklist or simply by keeping tally on the board each class.

Tallying Up how many times a student talks

Parts of the Body (beginner language learner)

Being able to identify your body in your second language can be crucial for many learners.  This can help them explain to someone what is hurting in a case of an emergency.  Being able to identify parts of your body is also another small step towards becoming fluent in a language.

However, the parts of the body can be daunting if taught all at once.  This topic is best done when broken down into smaller sections.

Vocabulary

• Face
• Hands
• Head
• Leg
• Foot/feet
• Ears
• Eyes
• Nose
• Mouth
• Elbow
• Knees
• Wrist
• Neck
• Shoulder
• Stomach/abdomen
• Back
• Ankle

Grammar Structure

• What is this?
• This is my _________________?
• Where does it hurt?
• My ___________________ hurts.

Warm Up

Label the Body

• Procedure: In students first language, have them label a body (a student, a poster, a drawing, etc.).

Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes

• Procedure: Teach students the song, “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes”.  “Head, shoulder, knees, and toes, Knees and toes. (x2) Eyes, and ears, and mouth, and nose. Head, shoulder, knees, and toes.”

Practice

Draw the Monster’s Face

• Procedure: Each student has a pencil and blank sheet of paper.  The teacher reads a description of a monster’s face (for example: 3 eyes, huge nose, sharp, pointed teeth, etc.).  Students draw the face and then show it at the end.
• Management tip: Draw first and if you want them to color, have them do it at the end for like 5 minutes (set a time!).
• Modifications:
• Students draw the whole body of the monster, famous person, picture, animal, etc.
• Work in partners instead of whole class doing the same drawing.

Simon Says

• Procedure: Teacher lead the class in Simon Says (for example: Simon says touch your nose, touch your ear, etc.).  Simon Says is a game where a leader tells participants to do something, BUT participants must only do the action that starts with “Simon says…”.  If participants do an action that does NOT start with “Simon says…” then they are out.
• Management tip: Once students are out, have the do an independent activity (such as a worksheet) at their desk or help monitor the Simon Says game.

Concentration

• Procedure: Students are put into small groups with a set of cards with the terms and pictures of the terms on it.  The cards are shuffled (mixed up) and placed face down.  Each player takes a turn turning over two cards at a time.  They get a point if one of the cards has a term that matches the picture of the other card.  This continues until there are no more cards.  The player with the most matches wins.

Click HERE for free download

Trace Me

• Procedure: One student lays down on a piece of paper bigger than their body.  Another student traces the student who is laying down.  Then students draw and label the parts of the body.
• Management tip: Have students do this in pairs or small groups.

Label a Classmate

• Procedure:  One student is chosen to stand in front of the class.  The other students are given a small piece of paper with a part of the body on it and tape on the back.  The students tape the label to the correct body part of the student in front of the class.
• Management tip: Have students take turns checking to make sure the labels are placed correctly throughout the activity.  For example, have the first student check the next two, then change the “checker”. 

Production

Follow Directions

• Procedure: Students read or listen to a description and they draw what they hear.
• Modification:
• Students must label, match, or color what is described. (These modifications are all for if you have a worksheet)
• Students are shown a picture and they must write a description of what they see.  (The boy has two eyes, one nose, and one mouth.  Etc.)

Label the Body

• Procedure: Students are given a worksheet that has the body on it with blank lines next to what needs to be labeled.  Students label the body parts.
• Management tip: Provide students with a word bank to choose words from on the worksheet.

Listen to me

• Procedure: Teacher interviews each student or small groups of students and asks them to point to a specific body part on their own body.
• Management tip: If interviewing small groups of students have them stand in a circle facing out and/or close their eyes so they can not cheat off of each other.

How to Plan a Successful Lesson Series: Assessments Overview

Before I even begin this post.  I want to loudly declare that I AM NOT AN EXPERT!  I am writing about this topic because of what I have seen in the classrooms in the States as well as here in Costa Rica; not because I believe I have vast amounts of knowledge on this topic.  This post has come after hours of research, discussions with mentor teachers, and countless rewrites. 

What I have decided to do in this series is define assessment, list the various types of assessments with examples, and explain what all good assessments should include.  Then the following two parts of this series will talk about two specific examples of assessments and how both can be used in your lesson plan. 

The purpose of an assessment is to document students’ learning of the objective(s). 

The types and when to use them (as I have been taught and believe them to be):

• Pre-assessment: The assessment before a new unit is started to gain information about students’ prior knowledge and areas of weakness are
• Formative assessment: Assessment that happens during the teachings.  These are to gauge students learning, to know what needs to be emphasized more and what they have accomplished.   This is not necessarily for a grade, and it can be formal or informal.
• Post assessment: This assessment is done at the end of a unit and for a grade.  It evaluates the students understanding of all objectives taught over the course.
• Informal assessment: This type of assessment tends to be checklists, a portfolio, peer/self evaluations, presentations (with rubric), and participation.   These are great formative assessments to gauge students’ learning throughout the unit. 
• Formal assessment: This type of assessment tends to be a paper test, quiz, or written report (using a rubric).  These tend to be post assessments. 
• *Objective: Objective assessment of either a formative or post assessment is where there is only one correct answer as seen with multiple choice, true/false, and matching.
• *Subjective: Subjective assessment of either a formative or post assessment tends to be more open ended like short answer or essay questions.

*These two types of assessment *can* be seen on the same pre-, formative, and post assessments. 

All good assessment should start with the objectives.  Write down the objectives you will be assessing.  Then decide how and when you will measure them.  A great teacher continuously assesses their students’ learning whether formally or informally. 

The next two weeks of this series will be diving into formal and informal assessments more so CHECK back NEXT WEEK!