Hi there,
I'm new to TeachingEnglish and wondered if anyone out there has any advice for dealing with rowdy kids.
I teach mostly adults, but do have a couple of kiddie classes. With the very little ones, we just play games and sing songs, they are mostly passive receivers of English and things are going swimmingly. But I also have a class of 6-8 year olds who have never had English before, and their school expects them to learn according to a syllabus.
They don't understand me! I speak their L1 but am not allowed to in the classroom (I also don't like teaching with L1). There are a couple of them who just run wild, disturbing the others - and me! I'm trying to play more games and do handicraft activities etc, but they still don't understand my instructions, and the school wants to know why their syllabus isn't being covered. I have no teaching assistant and no real status in the school other than "the English lady who comes in once a week".
Any advice would be most welcome.
Thanks for a nice website.
- Login or register to post comments
Printer-friendly version
Log in or register
Follow TeachingEnglish
 |
 |
 |
 |
Hi there
I'm by no way a specialist in teaching young learners, but I've learned a few things during my teacher training.
Regarding the use of L1 in the classroom, which is forbidden: nothing prevents you from using it outside the classroom. You could talk to the troublesome children in their L1 after / before the lesson, and maybe ask to meet their parents.
Regarding the instructions now: do you use gestures at the same time as you give instructions? If you do so, your Ss will associate the instruction to the corresponding gesture, and it is more interactive at the same time.
Regarding the learning environment: did you decorate the classroom with the children? Young learners want their classroom to be bright, colourful, they want space to be able to move.
Regarding the relationships: teaching young learners normally requires closer relationships with the Ls. They need to be given particular attention, to work in pairs / small groups, to be encouraged and praised all the time. With YL, you have to offer varied activities during your lesson, for they are unable to focus on the same exercise for, say, over 10-15 minutes, after that they start fidgeting and become unmanageable. They like making and drawing things, activities that imply movement. Can you look at the syllabus and see how you could apply specific techniques to achieve your goals? Did you try using realia? I don't think you can do without, esp. with YL. You will have to be self-confident, cheerful and supportive during the lesson and outside the classroom if you see them.
Good luck, and keep us posted.
I am teacher. I found a website with classroom management tricks and I follow that. The interest, abilities, and time constraints of your students have to be considered. My students finish their assignments on time and ask for some more. Log on to www.classroom-management.org for additional information.
Good points! I wanted to add that a colleague once told me that an attention span of a person is equal to their age ie. 3 minutes for 3 years and 7 minutes for 7 years up to a maximum of 13 minutes for any YL or adult. Try it out. Next time you are listening to a speech, see how long it is before your mind starts to wander a little before you concentrate again!
Basically this has taught me that I need a LOT of different activities for the younger learners.
Hello,
With kids use more pictures or toys(objects), fewer words, shorter and less complicated sentences, repeat your instructions often, they have to get used to your commands. Show your emotions concerning their behavior: sad, happy. Sometimes praise them with little (stickers or something else) in their day-books(you can draw a star or a flower). If they are naughty give or draw clouds with rain or thunder. Let everyone gets your 'special sign' in the day-book every lesson. Tell them your name a few times, remember their names.
Good-luck!
Best Regards,
Svitlana Matyushenko
Dear Jessica!
Thank you very much for advertising this website. I logged on last week, and they sent me a free copy of the ebook "The Magic of Classroom Management". I've already read it, and I can say that it's fantastic! I started teaching English to secondary school students in September 2007, and I've suffered a lot because of discipline problems since then. Today was the first day I could really try out the techniques advised in the book (Monday was a national holiday for us here in Hungary, and yesterday was health day at school, only grade 12 students had lessons). I can advise www.classroom-management.org to everyone. One of my grade-9 students even said that he liked this kind of maintaining discipline! He is actually one of my problematic students! Believe me, it works! I was so desperate till I found this ebook, but now I thank God for giving me such a good book!
Let me advise another good website to everybody: www.behaviourneeds.com
Guys, after, I try to make my students discipline with a smple every class. I start with class: 3,4, and 6. Thats work...all students hear what I instruction, but I just little bit. I believe that 2 or 3 weeks will be come true...
GUYS WHAT ABOUT YOU ALL IN AROUND WORLD...
Oh....I know the feeling but the problem isn't insurmountable. Stick to the syllabus and keep asking them for answers. Check them all the time individually on every part of the lesson. Keep them going, keep them interested. If one stands up, allow no expression, just seat them at the front of the class and away from their 'friend'. You need to catch every wrong move the second it happens, confidently and firmly, and when you know the children a little better you will be able to relax a little more!
Hi, I think the first thing to do for disciplining the kids will be: make them interested. There is no use if they are not interested at the content of class. That's why we have to introduce games and group activities in YL class.
Good luck!
The five pillars of self-discipline are: Acceptance, Willpower, Hard Work, Industry, and Persistence. If you take the first letter of each word, you get the acronym “A WHIP” — a convenient way to remember them, since many people associate self-discipline with whipping themselves into shape.
I think the problem here is that the school has very high expectations, maybe even unrealistic ones, this in turn puts pressure on you destructing you from doing your job. It might help if somebody from senior management could seat-in for a class or two, this will enable them to adjust their expectations.