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Diplomado Session 2
Classroom Management

The

ability of teachers to organize the

classroom and manage the behavior of
their students is critical to the learning
process. Although good management
does not guarantee effective learning,
it creates an environment that fosters
learning.

An effective teacher has to be a good classroom

manager and organizer. Time and resources are
always limited, and teachers need to create lessons in
an economical and efficient way.

To make the most out of your classroom time,

concentrate on the basic components of a lesson.

Classroom management involves dealing sensitively

and sympathetically with people. Students cannot be
instructed/organized in a mechanical fashion.

A positive classroom and group atmosphere can

increase student motivation and self confidence and
greatly impact learning.

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Things we will be discussing in
detail.

Presence

Physical environment

Grouping/Classroom organization

Seating arrangements

Instructions

Lesson planning

Icebreakers

Decisions/options/discipline

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Physical presence
Proximity-how

close you want to be to your

students. Being too close to students will
make them feel uncomfortable. Being too far
away will be interpreted as being
uninterested/indifferent.

Appropriacy-the

way a teacher sits, stands,

using body language.

Movement-the

way a teachers moves around

a classroom.
Contact-eye

contact, paying attention.

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Voice

(please dont use me as a point of reference..)

Audibility-the

use of a clear voice to be

understandable.

Variety-vary

the quality of your voice and

the volume.

Conservation-its

very important to take

care of your voice, since you will likely be
teaching/speaking for extended periods of
the day.

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The actual classroom

Is there enough light?

Is there enough space?

Is the temperature comfortable?

Does air circulate?

Can students hear you/each other?

Can all students see the whiteboard?

Do students have enough space when sitting down, moving

around, etc..?

Can you change the layout of the room/move furniture?

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The classroom environment
Is

the room attractive?

Sounds-music,

external noise
disturbances, etc

Does

the environment look like it will

foster learning?

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Lesson planning/preparation
Different

stages need to be included in the

lesson.

Objectives

need to be clear and

understandable for the students. (students
need to know WHY they are doing what they
are doing)

Activities

point.

need a clear starting and finishing

What do you think are some of the components of a

lesson plan?

Lets find you new partners and you can brainstorm

some different ideas.

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Transitions

What is a transition?

A transition is a period of time when teachers direct

students to end one task or activity and begin another
(Arlin, 1979).

Transitions involve time management and behavioral

management.

The most successful transitions between

lessons/activities are quick and have clear
endings/beginnings.

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Strategies for transitions
Plan

ahead!

Have

clear routines for doing every-day

tasks/activities.

Let

sts know how much more time they

have/move around the room in case they
have questions/doubts.

Make

sure that each activity has some type

of introduction/conclusion

Making

the objectives clear from the start of an

activity.
Set

time limits for students to complete activities.

Use

grouping techniques.

Model
You

what is to be done.

can use pauses between activities like song

activities, short games, something to get your
students moving around, brain teasers, etc

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Classroom Organization
In

teaching, lockstep is a situation in

which all students in a class are engaged in
the same activity at the same time, all
progressing through tasks at the same rate.

Lockstep
When

is completely teacher centered.

the teacher asks questions, the

students speak either together or one by
one, as indicated by the teacher.

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Individual work

Individual study is the stage during the class where the

students are left to work on their own and at their own
speed. Usually they are doing the same task, but the
teacher may give them a choice of tasks. Some
activities cannot be done in pairs or groups, for
instance, most reading and writing activities. People
read at different speed, so they cannot read together,
though two people might share one book. It seems
writing can be done in pairs or groups, but what they
are actually doing when they are working together is
brainstorming ideas, discussing, or revising. When it
comes to the real writing stage, students should work
individually.

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Pairing
What

are different ways that you can

pair students?

What

are some of the benifits of the

following: students working
individually, students working in
pairs, trios, groups of 4, entire class?

Pairing

-Working

individually caters to learners who prefer

working alone.

-Working

in pairs promotes interaction and

participation time is usually divided amongst the
two people.

-Working

in trios can be benificial in that more

opinions/perspectives are involved, but partipation
is not equally divided.

-Working

in groups of 4 can also be very benificial,

but once again, participation time goes down as the
number of group members increases.

Pair work

Pair work is more appropriate than group work for tasks that are
(a) short, (b) linguistically simple, and (c)quite controlled in terms
of the structure of the task. Appropriate pair activities include:

1. Practicing dialogues with a partner.

2. Simple question-and-answer exercises.

3. Performing certain drills.

4. Quick (2 minutes or less) brainstorming activities.

5. Checking written work with each other.

6. Preparation for merging with a larger group.

7. Any brief activity for which the logistics of assigning groups,

moving furniture and getting students into the groups is too
distracting.

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Groups

Group work is where the students work in small groups. Each

group has 3, 4, or 5 students, depending on the activity.
What students do in group work is similar to pair work, only
there are more members in the group. Group work is most
beneficial when the activity requires contributions from more
than two students. The teacher can join each group for a
while, but only as a participant not as a leader or inspector.

By dividing the class into groups students get more

opportunities to talk than in full class organization and each
student can say something. Penny Ur recommends that
teachers working with large classes should divide them into
multiple groups which is the most effective organization for
practicing speaking. (Ur, 1996:232)

-Whole

group: If all students are motivated and

participative, this method can be very productive, but
also time consuming. Students will often be more
attentive. More often than not, though, a small group
of students dominate, while the rest simply listen.

Remember,

the larger the groups, the

harder it will be to manage the
classroom.

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Grouping/pairing techniques
What

types of grouping
techniques can be used in class?

Think

of one with a partner(and

can be done quickly), because
youre going to use it in a few
minutes with the group!

With

a little effort on behalf of the

teacher, unique grouping/pairing
techniques can be implemented in the
classroom that are directly connected
to the topic/grammar being seen.

Lets

start by looking at some grammar

techniques that can be used for
pairing.

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Grammar techniqueIrregular verbs

Speak

Bring

Spoke

Brought

See

Swam

Ate

Swim

Saw

Swum

Eaten

Eat

Spoken

Brought

Seen

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Sentence completion/Jigsaws
If

you won a million dollars..

If

you could travel to any country in the

world.

If

you could meet any celebrity.

If

you could travel in time to the past.

..what

country would you choose?

...what
...who

period would you choose?

would you choose?

what

would you buy?

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Sentence transformation
John

runs and exercises.

John

ran and exercised.

John

is running and exercising.

John

was running and exercising.

John

has run and exercised.

John

had run and exercised.

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Affirmatives, negatives, and
questions
Mary

watches her favorite program.

Mary

doesnt watch her favorite

program.

Does

Mary watch her favorite program?

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Pronouns
Jonathan

and Mary play the guitar.

Jonathan

plays the guitar.

They

play the guitar.

Mary

plays the guitar.

Mary

and I play the guitar.

She

plays the guitar.

He

plays the guitar.

We

play the guitar.

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Paraphrasing
The

dog moved very quickly down the

street.

He

studied for a long time last night.

The
He

poodle was running outside.

prepared for his test by reading

extensively.

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Translation
This

one is pretty straightforward and is

appropriate for students with lower
levels.

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Your turn!
Come

up with a grammar technique to

be used for grouping with your group
members. Take into account the
number of students in class right now.
You will demonstrate this technique to
the rest of us.

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Vocabulary Techniques
One

(maybe more) of the grammar

techniques we saw was also a vocabulary
technique, which one was it?

Vocabulary

is one of the easiest techniques to

create and adapt. You can use techniques
that are related to topics being seen in class,
a topic you are going to introduce, etc

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Synonyms/antonyms

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False cognates

Embarrassed-Pregnant

Current-Actual

Excited-energetic/enthusiastic

Soup-Soap

Exit-Success

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Problem words

Do-make

Get-have

Should-could

In/at/on

Who/whom/whose

What/that/which

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Function words

Main auxiliary verbs-do/have/be

Modals-can/could/should/must/have to/ought to/might

Prepositions-at/in/on

Pronouns-he-him, she-her, they-them, we-our

Articles-a/an/the

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Categories
Breakfast

foods, dinner foods, desserts,

etc.
Articles

of clothing

Music

genres/Movie genres (with titles

of movies, names of groups, etc)

Cities/countries

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Flashcards/Images
You

can download flashcards

and images online or create
your own.

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Unique techniques
Puzzle

pieces

Playing
Pogs

cards

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Time saving techniques
Sometimes

its easier to just have your

students stand up and form a line and you can
count/separate them that way. You can add
some twists to this though.

Date

of month of birth, alphabetical order

(mothers name, favorite music group,
favorite food etc..), time they woke up/went to
bed.

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Roles
Come

up with a list of teacher and student

roles in the classroom?

Traditionally,

education has been teachercentered. What do you think we mean by

this?

Now,

instruction is becoming student

centered. What do you think this means?

Teacher roles
With

a group member come up

with a list of common roles of
teachers/students.

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Teacher Roles
Transmit

knowledge

Support
Advise
Monitor
Evaluate
Faciliate
Encourage
Maintain

discipline

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Student Roles
Follow

instructions

Listener
Information

processor

Leader
Observer
Protagonist/decision
Active/passive
Express
Take

maker

participant

opinions/beliefs

responsibility

Complete
Question

tasks

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Deductive vs Inductive teaching

Whats the difference?

A deductive approach to instruction is a more teachercentered approach. This means that the teacher gives
the students a new concept, explains it, and then has
the students practice using the concept. For example,
when teaching a new grammar concept, the teacher
will introduce the concept, explain the rules related to
its use, and finally the students will practice using the
concept in a variety of different ways.

+ In contrast with the deductive method, inductive

instruction makes use of student noticing.

Instead of explaining a given concept and
following this explanation with examples, the
teacher presents students with many examples
showing how the concept is used. The intent is for
students to notice, by way of the examples, how
the concept works.

Using the grammar situation from above, the

teacher would present the students with a variety
of examples for a given concept without giving
any preamble about how the concept is used. As
students see how the concept is used, it is hoped
that they will notice how the concept is to be used
and determine the grammar rule. As a conclusion
to the activity, the teacher can ask the students to
explain the grammar rule as a final check that
they understand the concep

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Seating arrangements
First,

well do a short
reading/activity about advantages
and disadvantages of different
seating arrangements.

Now

lets practice, make it

practical!

Instructions

How

important are instructions in the

language learning class?

What

are some things we can do as

teachers to improve instructions?

Lets

do an activity!

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Be

clear/short-no complex
explanations.

Keep

it simple.

Give

the instructions before you give

the activity (why is this important?).

Check

to see that sts understood (use

the L1 if necessary).

Time.

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Check
Make

to see that sts are on task.

sure you have your sts attention.

Plan

how you are going to give instructions

ahead of time.

Explain

in stages.

Interrupt

slide.

to clarify if necessary. Dont let it

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Monitoring

After setting up an activity, the teacher needs to monitor

the students. How can this be done?

Questioning sts during classroom discussions/activities to

check their understanding of the material being taught.

Moving around the classroom/engaging students while they

are working.

Assigning/collecting/correcting homework.

Adjusting activities/pairing based on student

interactions/responses.

Use the whiteboard!

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Icebreakers
What

What

is an icebreaker?

are some examples of

icebreakers?

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Decisions
Keep

in mind that as a teacher every

decision we make affects the outcome
of a class. We make decisions before
class, during class, and after class.
Every single thing we have discussed
previously will have some impact on
the class.

What is Corrective Feedback??

Corrective feedback takes the form of
responses to learner production containing an
error. The responses are corrections made by
others and can consist of:
1)An indication that an error has been
committed.
2)An example of the correct form.
3)Metalinguistic information about the nature
of the error.
4)Any combination of the three.

What does all this mean???? Lets

take a look at some examples and
different ways to help the learner
correct the mistakes.
1)My father has 20 years old.
2)In the actuality there are many crime in
Mexico.
3)You goes to the cinema yesterday?

Other types of error correction

Delayed

Taking note of the errors and dealing with them at a later time in
the class/semester

Immediate

Dealing with the errors immediately when they occur.

Group-self

Asking the group to correct the error of a learner.

Direct

Addressing the learner who made the error.

Indirect

Addressing the entire group when an error has occured.

Body Language

What

percentage of verbal communcation accounts

for the actual message we want to transmit?

It

is often said that in face-to-face and even body-tobody communications, the words we speak actually
account for less than 10% of the message that we
convey, while body language accounts for more than
half of our message (our tone of voice supposedly
communicates the rest). Body language is
important, and if your words say one thing but your
body says another, the person you are speaking to is
more likely to believe the message your body is
communicating.
source: http://www.wikihow.com/Communicate-With-Body-Language

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Here is a body language expert.
see if you agree with what he says

Lets listen and

+L1 vs. L2 in the Classroom

Do

you think its appropriate to use

Spanish in the English classroom?
Why/why not?

What

are some of the benefits of

using Spanish in the classroom? And
some of the disadvantages?

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Which of the following can help
improve classroom
management?

Creating an attractive classroom.

Rearranging
Move

furniture

around the room a lot

Decide

where students should sit

Grouping/strategically

plan your grouping

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Continued
Repeating
Have

quieter moments/noisier moments

Positive
Be

instructions

vs negative reinforcement.

consistent with your behavior

Vary

activities

Icebreakers