CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT

 Date: 22^nd April 2022

 

REFLECTION ON CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT

The objective of this observation was classroom management in grades 7. Today the students were 12. They are 12-13 years old, and they have the English language 3 times a week. I observed two lessons from the same class, one was the continuation of the chapter on Democracy, and the students were requested to work on a previously written task, and T gave specific instructions according to what level they were in performing the task. T stressed that it had to be individual work, that there is no word limit, and that they had to finish it on time, exactly at 11:50 -before the end of the period of 45minutes-, and she wrote it on the board. The other lesson was on Charity.

For the first lesson, those who did not complete the task had to complete it; those who got some feedback from T to improve their work had to follow T’s feedback and change, remove or add whatever was required of them. I noticed that some students were going to T’s table for a private talk. At first, I thought it was because they wanted help, but as I later enquired from T, these were those who completed their task, and T called them to discuss about the feedback concerning their work.  

To do this task, T put down the references to some resource materials on the board and provides 3 dictionaries that Ss could use to get vocabulary or lexical expressions for their essay. She also provided the cart board on which she pasted Ss’ contributions from a previous lesson to help them refresh their minds and get more ideas.  There were 2 students working with a laptop because as she said, one of them had handwriting that was difficult for her to read, and she showed me his book. The other one, besides the fact that his handwriting was also not quite readable, he had some physical disability. In this book, I discovered something really interesting; what T called the “green box”, divided into compartments, which she draws in Ss’ books to guide them on the writing stages and content of each stage. With specific and detailed feedback and recommendations. In my opinion, it makes things easier for Ss who would easily see which of his or her idea was supposed to go where, and (s)he just needed to transfer the information in the “green box”.

As far as handling noise and maintaining order, T usually counted downward, “3-2-1”. But I realized that today, she started from “5-4-3-2-1”, probably because the noise was too much and louder. Each time it worked, because Ss eventually kept quiet. Moreover, since the assignment was to be done individually, Ss maintained their sitting position. I however noticed that the Ss who usually isolated himself from the rest of the class had shifted a little bit forward and closed to the other Ss. Responding to my inquiry, he said that T suggested it to him and that it would be good for him to get closer. It was interesting because, T at first has been allowing him the freedom to feel comfortable in class, but gradually encouraging him to shift closer. 

Although it was an individual exercise, T did not abandon Ss with it. She went around to check the work progress and would stop where she noticed some struggle, as where ss needed help, and would spend some time clearing doubts and guiding the students, bowing down or stooping to ss’ level to engage in the conversation. It was really cool and I guess encouraging for the ss. For example, the isolated student did not start writing immediately, he held his head and thought for a long time, and it was obvious that he was looking for ideas or how to organize the ideas, he wrote some sentences at the top of the page, then skipped space to write toward the bottom, intending to come later to fill the middle space when he got the idea he wanted.  So, after the discussion with T, he could complete his task and go out for a break. I was happy for him because the beginning was not really easy for him.

One classroom management strategy that T adopted for this specific lesson, as she explained later to me, was that instead of waiting for all the students to finish before she started one-on-one feedback with Ss, she decided to start it with those who were done with their task already, while the rest of the class was working. It was time-saving, as she explained.   Also, for some students who finished earlier, T sent them to go and meet some of the ss who were not through with their work and share their opinion about what they had done so far. When the time elapsed, only all those who finished could go out for a break, while the rest had to continue working. T asked how many times they needed to finish their work, one said 20 minutes, but T said the maximum was 10 minutes. I think this didn’t still motivate them to work fast, and I would say these students couldn’t finish because they were distracted. There was a boy and a girl. I observed that this boy was discussing with another one who finished his work, then went to T’s table wanting to ask for something, but instead took one of the crutches of an ss to play with, distracting this student too. The girl was also discussing, and there wasn’t any rush in working, and she constantly needed to check the dictionary or the chart containing the students’ ideas from a previous lesson. Maybe T could have put more pressure by insisting on finishing the task that day and announcing that that would be the basis for their final grade, to get them more focused and serious.

To conclude, I would say it was a successful activity because the great majority of the ss finished their work, and with all the support from T, they probably improved on it. At the end of the class, I discussed with some ss who said the task was easy. I was happy for them, and for the new technique of the “green box” I discovered.