TS 7: Manage behaviour effectively to ensure a good and safe learning environment
– Manage classes effectively, using approaches which are appropriate to pupils’ needs in order to involve and motivate them
Observation – Year 10 class
Blog Post
Year 10, Friday afternoon. Energy and excitement levels are far higher than a Monday morning. This class is notorious for their lack of the following:
* Care for the subject
* Care for learning
* Lack of self-control
The class is a mixed ability Religious Studies class, with one third having SEN and two EAL learners with little English. Miss is a new teacher to the School but with many years experience and an excellent record of student achievement as well as the understanding of a variety of behaviour management strategies.
From the beginning of the lesson, when students enter the classroom, they are being generally unruly, which is nothing out of the ordinary for this class. Miss calms them, tries to settle them. There is a fun Do it Now! on the board, and a new seating plan which was created after several unproductive lessons with this class. Students mess around in the classroom, throwing lip glosses across to each other. Two girls bicker over a tin of vaseline and continue to punch each other.
Miss has raised her voice. No one is listening. She has moved on from the Do it Now! slide to the lesson title, date and objective. Still no one is listening. Only a handful of the same diligent students are paying attention, have their books open and have written the lesson title, date and objective.
Miss proceeds to move around the classroom and speak to the students who are ready to work. She asks them to come to the desk at the front of the classroom, and to bring their equipment with them. Once seated, around 12 students (less than half of the class). The students listen to Miss as she explains in a softer voice that they would be using the textbook to work on some revision of the topic including the key terms, in preparation for an upcoming end of topic test.
As I watch from the back of the classroom, students are now looking around to see where Miss is. They are trying to locate her with their eyes as well as by listening for her voice, which has now dropped to a low, ‘one to one’ level as opposed to raised to gain attention of the whole class. They look restless, asking each other “what is going on?” and “why is Miss ignoring us”. They start to shout out to Miss, “why are you ignoring us Miss, why don’t you care?”
Miss responds “I am teaching those who want to learn. You wouldn’t listen to me nor want to learn so I am leaving you to do what you wanted to do from the beginning of the lesson; Talk!” She then asked “Are you ready to listen, and learn?” They replied “Yes Miss”.
Drawing reference on Robert Laslett and Colin Smiths Four rules of Class Management, Miss had Got them in, got on with them (some) and let them get on with it (most)!
Following this, the lesson generally proceeded in a constructive way. This is not to say students listened entirely, nor did they give their 100%. But, this strategy did make them think about how much they could learn from Miss, her knowledge and excellent way of communicating information. She just touched the tip of the iceberg here, but persistence with this class will hopefully pay off as they year progresses. This begs the question; Is Ignorance really bliss?