Teacher Discussion Forums

What if the students are out of discipline when they are doing activities? The whole class just looked like a mass and they made lots of noises. Thank you!!

to begin with,i think you should whether your activity suit the students. do the students really interested in it. maybe they are not interested in it. secondly, you can give diffrent students diffrent tasks. Otherwise the good students may acheive their task more quickly. So it may arise disorder situation. finally you can also cease the activity to ask them to be quiet.

First of all, was it "good noise" (English!) or "bad noise" (Chinese!)

I have done activities that make a lot of "good noise"--different kinds of dictations, a grammar auction, team games where students have to think of vocabulary words to fit different categories etc. The key here is to make sure everyone understands the directions so that people aren't asking their neighbor "what does she want?" in their native language.

I also give points to the winning teams, but tell them clearly that if I hear anyone speaking English, that person's team will lose a point. If I hear English, I say the student's name loudly and make a note, so everyone is reminded of the rule.

Sometimes I have activities where one group finishes very quickly. I then go to that group, see if they have done the work correctly, and then assign students from that group to go to other groups to give hints/help out. That way, everyone stays busy and the early finishers have something useful to do.

Thank you for your reminde. I'll check whether my games are arouse their interests or not. But, anyway, different people have different taste. Maybe my activities are suit for him not for her, besides, some students just so shy that they dare not to speak out in class! And also, if I send so many assignments at the same time, perhaps it will made me confused at last!

You are a so experienced teacher! I'll try your method next time. By the way, how do you raise your students' motivation, for example in the morning, they are all very sleepy and the whole class seemed so dull? Do you have any efficient method? Thank you!! waiting for your reply.

Pick something to use as a reward for good behavior. Use some sort of token that can be saved up and traded for a prize, or stickers, or drawing a smiley face on their paper, or cheap candy, whatever.

Then as soon as you catch a kid doing something good, praise him specifically for the good thing, "You're sitting very nicely in your seat, Chel Won!" Then follow up with the reward. The other kids will want the reward and will do the good behavior.

As time goes by you will have to reward the kids less often as they get in the habit of being good.

But I have to repeat what everybody else said: Make sure you're doing activities that are appropriate for the kids.