My class won't be quiet

amother

Mon, Nov 03 2014, 7:10 pm

I'm having a particularly challenging time with a new middle school class I'm teaching this year. No matter what I try, they will not all be quiet at the same time!

If I call on one girl to be quiet, a girl in the opposite corner starts talking to her neighbor. This happens CONSTANTLY when we have a classroom discussion. I can only get them ALL queit when we either read aloud or read to themselves, but as soon as I start to explain something, about half my class starts chatting among themselves.

I've tried deducting points. I've tried rearranging seats.

Nothing is working!!!!!!

Help, please!

busymom

Mon, Nov 03 2014, 7:58 pm

Give them something to do. Let them do exercises with partners, and then go up and down the rows and have each pair read one thing aloud. Have them do things in groups of 3-4. YOU be the one who gives them what to do and what to talk about, so they don't find ways to keep busy themselves. There are tons of ways to do this, though without knowing your subject it's hard to give specific ideas.

Mrs. Estee Hebel from Lakewood gives workshops on active participation. Maybe you can pay her a flat fee for her to give you an hour of her time and explain her methods. PM me for her contact info. There is also a phenomenal book by Rabbi Ginsberg on lesson planning which includes these and other ideas for presenting engaging lessons. You can order it on http://chinuchsupport.com.

amother

Mon, Nov 03 2014, 8:03 pm

I had the SAME EXACT PROBLEM last year with my ninth graders. You cannot let this lack of respect go on any longer. It's unfair to you, the non-talkers and to the talkers! Everyone loses in the process.This behavior may eventually burn you out to the point that you won't want to get up to go to work in the morning.
This is what you should do....
Call two of the talkers' parents to discuss the matter. Word will get out the next day that you mean business and won't stand for this lack of respect. Believe me, the rest of the class will be quiet. If that doesn't work, call two more parents the next day. Eventually they'll get it.
I'm a seasoned teacher with many years of experience and mentored other teachers. Teaching is such a rewarding profession and you shouldn't let misbehaved students ruin it for you! Keep me posted if you want.

mema613

Mon, Nov 03 2014, 8:05 pm

Are you sitting or standing in front of the room?If that is the case try walking around the room as you talk so your presense is felt equally by all students. Try having the students do the writing on the board inorder to engage them in the lesson. If a student is still out of line just give that student a stare and save your voice. Its almost impossible to have a completely quiet class but I found that these tricks helped. I am a retired math teacher.

granolamom

Mon, Nov 03 2014, 8:44 pm

I had a halacha/jewish history teacher who used to do two things to address talking (this was in high school). one, he'd give 'dots' next to the talker's name in his roll book, 5 dots = 1 pt removed from your final grade. every now and then he'd tell everyone how many dots they had and sometimes offer extra work to remove dots.
and two, he'd throw a small piece of chalk at the person who was talking, without breaking stride, changing his tone of voice or even expression. it was kinda funny and light, and it worked.

amother

Mon, Nov 03 2014, 11:57 pm

amother wrote:

First of all, you are NOT alone!

If not for the fact that you specified middle school, I'd be wondering if I wrote this and forgot about it.

I've been having this issue with one of my classes. I'm not a new teacher, I maintain an interactive classroom, and I've found that this year even during Reader's Theater, multiple student boardwork, and jigsaw they have trouble with gathering and settling and staying on task! I also found that some of the behavior is unusually rowdy. I actually had a student tackle another student when I called someone up to the front of the class to write something. While I'm obviously not ignoring the problem, I've tried speaking with students before/during/after class about their behavior, sending students to the principal, deducting points, rearranging seats, and "bell ringers" at various different times during the period instead of during the first five minutes. I'm starting to wonder if some of the kids need additional sensory input...but then I blank out on items that might help them with maintaining focus. So far nothing has worked!

I need help too!

mochacoffee

Tue, Nov 04 2014, 8:24 am

A tactic I find that really works is- when I see my students start talking and making trouble I go over to the board and write a 15 and put a circle around it. I explained to my students the first time I did this that they were allotted 15 minutes of recess every day (you can write 20 or however much time you get) and if I hear talking or I have to stop for certain students, I'll take off a minute of recess each time. I've had days where my number was down to 5. Once they see that instead of losing points for themselves, they're losing recess time for the whole class, they stop. Truthfully the students aren't generally keeping track of time by recess and I know we all need our recess so I'll only shorten the recess time a few minutes. After a few weeks the talking slowed down a lot.

On a side note, when I was in high school I had a teacher that couldn't control the class and would give out 0's every time a girl talked. The zero would be averaged into your grade. I wasn't a talker and I probably accumulated 10 zeros over the year. She handed them out like candy, this method was so not successful there was talking throughout the whole year. It just didn't work, try not to over-use the deducting points like this teacher did.