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ESL forum >
Ask for help > GROUP CONTROL
GROUP CONTROL
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karluchitas
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GROUP CONTROL
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Hi to everybody!!! I īm asking for your help because I īm new at teaching in an elementary school and I īm having some problems with my control of groups. In fact, this is my third month in the school.
I have groups from first grade to sixth and the most difficult for me are 4th and 6th. Talking about material and teaching techniques I feel very comfortable because I īm good at it. Actually your materials have been very helpful.
Do you have any tips or advices to control these groups?? Because I usually spend the half part of my class punishing and calling off my students, they keep on standing up from their chairs, fighting with other students, shouting and so on... and of course this situation makes me feel desperate and sometimes I get frustrated because I can īt finish the activities that I had planned to do during my class!!
As I have just got into that school, I īm being evaluated and supervised constantly and honestly I īm afraid to be disaproved because of this.
Please any advice, comment or tip will be really worthy for me!! Thank you so much! Regards from Mexico City. |
8 Mar 2010
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manonski (f)
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Maybe you need to take a break of English and have a good discussion with your students.
Instead of punishing them, why don īt you ask them what kind of reward they would like for good behavior? Catching them doing good can go a long way. I have many rewards system in my class: at the beginning of each class, I give each of my students 3 coupons. If they speak French, they lose coupons, if they make an extra effort, they get bonus. At the end of the class, they put the coupons in a bag and I give away prizes at the end of the month. I also have pink (for love) slips where I tell the parents how proud I am of their child for different reasons (good work, helpful student, risk taker...) and orange ones when I need to communicate something that is not working. They beg for the pink slips. They really make a good effort to earn them.
Also, is there any ways you can talk with the other teachers of these students? Maybe they can give you hints about how they succeed with class management.
I teach grade 1 to 6 as well. I know that young ones need to have short activities so I sing with them, read stories and have them work in the same class otherwise they get bored. |
8 Mar 2010
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suxanita
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My dear,
During my 1st year as a teacher I had stars as a system of reward.
You can do teams (each team should choose a name) and the best Week or Month team wins something. Don īt forget to set the rules ( e.g each team should only have 1 red, or 2 yellows etc...)
Rewards can be: a film (at the end of the lesson 12 min with popcorns - e.g country mouse by cambridge), a song, do some research on internet, crafts, a game etc
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8 Mar 2010
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suxanita
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By the way: don īt scream!!! Use the behaviour chart and laminate the word silence and use it!!!
If they don īt obey take the points from the Ŧbad� team for the others. |
8 Mar 2010
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PhilipR
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Try the reward method as described above first. If this doesn īt work, use the carrot and the stick. If still unsuccessful, pick out the most disruptive ones and talk to them, either in (small) groups or privately. Address them personally, and ask them what is wrong. Make sure to let them know that their behaviour is unacceptable, but that you īre willing to give them another chance. Assure them that you īll address the matter with either the principal and/or their parents. Tell them you don īt really want to do this, unless they force you. Just a few ideas. Do try the motivation and reward approach first, but don īt forget that in the end, you īre the teacher. Also, talk to colleagues (or even your supervisor) about this problem. They might be aware of it already. Ask your supervisor for ideas as well. BTW, Iīd love to give some of my students the pink slip...
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8 Mar 2010
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manonski (f)
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Philip...LOL...
They īre too young to understand the real meaning of a pink slip. But I do get you on this one. I wish I could give some "therapeutic butt kickings" |
8 Mar 2010
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victorserafin
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Try to use some condutivist therapy...
1) Try to keep them busy giving them activities in which they will have to focus completely i.e. a songs "if you happy and you know clap your hands..." a game "Out came the witch... ... holding a knife.... ... so she can put some butter to her bread," "whoever speaks-makes a noise when you talk loses the game and they start speaking very softly and try to increase the volume gradually.
2) Try to be funny and feel comfortable in your class-for some reason students have this wierd extra sense that will pick up a teacher who is losing control of the class and they will do everything possible to be the hay that brakes the camels back.
3) Pick one student out of the many who is alwasy playing and making noise and send him/her to the principal office for a time out-but not as punishment.
4) the last resource will be punishment, but do not use it frequentely or it will losse its power. E.g. have their parents pay you a visit to talk about their son/daughter behavior. etc.
Remember that children are always playing and looking for activities are are fun to do so turn your class into fun activities like "whoever finishes first wins," "the one who behaves in class gets a star on a group list on the wall and at the end of the week gets a price," and there are many more that have work with me; your imagination is your limit. Have fun and you and your class get along bettern and learn more.
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8 Mar 2010
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karluchitas
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Well, I guess you īre right. I really appreciate your advices and for sure, I īll apply these rewards systems you īre suggesting. Actually, you īre right, I īve noticed that children are very challenging and it works when they work in teams. I īve been more creative with smaller children such as first, second and third grade and it has worked very good, but I guess my mistake is threating the rest of my groups as "older children" because as you īve written, they also wanna play and have fun.
So thank you very much Manonski, Suxanita, Alicia, Philip, Vic and well we īll be in touch of course. If there īs anything I could do 4 u, I īm here. Have an excellent week.
Regards from Mexico City. 
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8 Mar 2010
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