how to manage a classroom to be condusive

A. General Suggestions

When teaching a new or difficult skill, teach the class in groups of 15 to 20, instead of trying to teach the whole class all at once. For example, if you have a class of 45, you will have three groups of 15. While you are teaching the first group, the other two groups can be given practise or drill exercises on the previous day.s lesson (enrichment or remediation, as needed) that they can do on their own, with little supervision from you. Then, when they are ready, you can give the first group practise exercises on the newly-learned skill while you move on the second group. Repeat the process with the third group. Divide a large class into two or three groups. Assign practise or review exercises to the other group(s) while you teach one groupThe smaller groups will be much easier to teach and will enable you to pay closer attention to individual learners, thus reducing the chances of serious learning problems. This may be difficult to do at first, but it will get better as the pupils get used to the process and as you become more experienced in teaching groups this way. Also, it may seem somewhat time-consuming at first, but you will find that, in the long run, the pupils will have fewer learning problems. This will greatly reduce the time needed for remediation.

The second one is Assign pupils to small groups of 5 to 7 and give them simple tasks or projects to do together. Do this as often as possible so that they will get used to group work. Change the grouping every once in a while.e.g., every month or every two months.
The next step is Establish simple rules of acceptable behaviour for everybody to ob­serve when working in groups or individually, such as: how to work together on a group assignment.i.e., how to be a good leader and how to be a good member of the group;

• How to talk softly without disturbing others during group work;
• How to take turns and how to wait for one.s turn;
• How to work together as peer pairs during enrichment or remediation
• How to be a good tutor (the pupil giving remedial help to another pupil);
• How to be a good tutee (the pupil receiving remedial help); and
• How to work on individual assignments.

Other way is Train all the pupils how to lead a group. Give everyone a chance to be the group leader. Make sure the members of the group take turns being the leader. When the groups are working on their assignments together, have them sit around in a circle. This will increase the chances that everyone will participate.

We also can Seat the pupils who need more help closer to you where you can easily see them during direct group instruction. This will help you spot difficulties more readily while you are teaching. Whenever possible, provide immediate (timely) remediation during the lesson.

Next step is When you want a large group (e.g., the whole class) or smaller groups of 15 or less to give a group response to yes-no types of questions, you can have the pupils give their answers without shouting and without .copying. From a classmate. You can do this by using signalling techniques and special ways of having the pupils give their answers. For example, you can have them hold up a green response card (.yes.) or red response card (.no.) together, at a given signal, such as a click of your fingers, signalling up and down with your hand, etc. Here.s an example of how this may be done.

• Ask the question.
• Pause to give the children time to think. Give the children a longer time when the questions require more thinking.
• Give a .ready. signal. Look around to make sure that all the pupils heard the question.
• Give the signal to respond together.
• Be alert for children who hesitate and who look around at the others before giving their own answer.
• Provide immediate reinforcement for correct responses (e.g., saying.Very good..) or provide correction and remedial help if needed.

The last is Train your pupils how to routinise classroom chores. They should do these tasks efficiently and with a minimum of noise even when you are not directly supervising them. At the beginning of the school year, train your pupils to follow simple standard procedures for routine classroom chores, such as:

1. How to go in and out of the classroom when classes start, during re­cess, and when classes end for the day;
2. How to distribute books, papers, and other materials;
3. How to pass papers, books, and other materials to the front;
4. Where to put school materials after using them; and
5. How to keep the classroom neat and tidy.

B. How To Organise Remedial and Enrichment Activities

• Organise the pupils who need remediation into small groups or peer pairs. Those pupils who have similar learning needs should be grouped or paired together (.homogeneous.groups or peer pairs).
• Organise the pupils who need enrichment into .homogeneous. groups or peer pairs. That is, pupils who have reached approximately the same level of mastery of a given skill may work together in groups or in pairs. They may also work individually, if there are enough materials to allow individual work.
• Make use of other people (other .human resources.) to help tutor pupils with learning difficulties. The teacher is not the only person who can tutor or provide remedial help. With some training, others can help tutor pupils who need extra help. Here are examples of people who can be trained to be tutors:

a.Classmates (peer tutors)
b.Students from higher grades or older students (crossage tutors)

Fred and Carol Chernow give us some some tips taken from Classroom Discipline and Control:

1. Be sure the child knows exactly what to do. Structure the learning situation so that the student fully understands the process. An anxious student will worry about what might happen or what could go wrong and what mistakes he or she might make. Do not assume the student knows what to do.
2. Have the student compete with his or her own past performance rather than another child in the class. Eliminate peer pressure as much as you can. Ask questions like, "How did you do compared with last time?" or, "Is this what you expected on the test?
3. Assure the student some success in learning. If the student is fearful of reading aloud in class, provide some practice time or allow the student to use a tape recorder. Let the student draw a book report instead of writing, if necessary.
4. At first, accept less. Reduce the criteria for success or correctness. Gradually raise your standards to meet the level of the rest of the class.

As a classroom teacher, I am sure you will have fewer discipline problems if you make the learning as individualized as possible. Again some ideas from the Chernow book:

1. Plan your classroom environment. Set up listening areas, activity centers and various curriculum corners.
2. Arrange your books and materials according to subject area and use color coding to help children know where to return things.
3. Prepare a simple profile for each child; include scores, observations, test marks, strengths and weaknesses.
4. Have the students help you set up rules for these learning stations.
5. Schedule learning station work. Decide where the students should go and have a list or board with assignments.
6. Use contracts with students; decide what is to be done and what the time limits are. Allow students to be involved in the decision making process.
7. Use the activity centers for part of the day, and whole class and small group instruction for another part of the day.
8. Share the record keeping with the students; many activities can be self-checking.

Take your time in implementing this plan; try one or two centers at a time. Evaluate the process as you go along. In this type of classroom even the most reluctant learners may find something of interest and be able to succeed in learning.