4. Check that students understand your explanation. Once you have explained the activity, ask a series of simple questions to check students understanding. For example, ask students: Do you work in pairs or in groups? Is your partner the student on your right? 5. Establish a method to have students stop what they are doing and focus their attention on you. It is often challenging to get students attention when signaling the end of an activity if students are very involved in doing it. In order to get students to turn their attention to you, it is valuable to have an agreedupon signal that you will use to indicate the end of an activity. This could be turning off the lights or ringing a bell. When establishing conventions like these, make sure that everyone understands them and then use them consistently. What can you do to resolve discipline problems when they occur? Disciplining students is a challenge that all teachers face. The following is a list of common student misbehaviors and suggestions for dealing with them in a nonthreatening, positive way. 1. Disruptive talking. This is probably the most common type of classroom misbehavior. One suggestion is simply to ask the student in a friendly, yet authoritative, way to stop talking. If he or she continues talking, pick up the students textbook, carry it to a desk at the back of the room, and gesture to the student to follow you. Have the student sit there, away from his or her friends, for a few minutes. The advantage of this is that it does not interrupt the lesson. If the talking persists, meet with the student one-on-one after class to try to find out why he or she is not paying attention. 2. Lateness and absenteeism. Lateness interrupts the flow of the class, as students entering the class break the concentration of students who are working. Keep several vacant chairs close to the door so that latecomers can join the class with a minimum of interruption. In order to minimize lateness and absenteeism, you could establish a policy at the beginning of the school year whereby lateness and missed classes affect the students final grades. This is very often an effective way to prevent this problem. 3. Not doing homework assignments. It is important to check all homework since it will help students feel that doing their homework is not a waste of time. If students consistently fail to do homework, meet with them one-onone to try to find out why. Completion of homework can also be made part of the final grade. To encourage students to do homework, have them share their homework in the next class in a group context (as in the Connect Theme Projects preparation). Students are more likely to do homework if they feel responsible to their group. You could also have students display their homework in class, or give extra points to students who do their homework regularly. 4. Cheating on tests. If possible, place students chairs with enough space between them to make it impossible for students to look at another students work without being noticed. Alternately, seat students you have observed cheating in the past at a distance from the other students. You could also deduct points from the final grade of any students who cheat during tests. This should usually be a last resort. It is always best to talk to students to find out why they feel they need to cheat, and then try to find a solution.
5. Unwillingness to speak English in class. The reasons for a students unwillingness to speak English in class are complex. Low self-esteem and an unwillingness to take risks for fear of sounding stupid or silly are two major reasons. In these cases it is a good idea to use activities such as information-gap activities, which demand that all students use English in order to complete the task successfully.