Module 1:

CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT

ELT Division – FELTE - ULIS

 Module objectives
By the end of this module, trainees are able to…
•Identify different areas of classroom management;
•Compare the presented concepts with their own language
learning and teaching experience; and
•Use the knowledge and skills gained from this module to carry
out practice tasks on classroom management issues.
Session 1 - What’s on today?
 Let’s start
• Watch the video.
• Comments on the teacher’s classroom management techniques
in terms of…
+ beginning, transitting, pausing the lesson
+ seating arrangement
+ her positioning
+ giving instructions
+ giving comments and feedback

How do the students react to the teacher’s guiding and instruction?

 Classroom management…
…refers to the wide variety of skills and techniques that
teachers use to keep students organized, orderly, focused,
attentive, on task, and academically productive during a class.

When classroom-management strategies are executed

effectively, teachers minimize the behaviors that impede
learning for both individual students and groups of students,
while maximizing the behaviors that facilitate or enhance
learning. 
Some areas of classroom management

• Grouping and seating

• Activities
• Authority
• Critical moments
• Tools and techniques
• Working with people
 Part A:
Beginning, transition and ending

• Beginning punctually
• Establishing a positive mental set
• Smooth transition
• On-time and well-signaled ending
 Discussion

Reflect on your English classes.

What do the teacher and you do…
-When entering the classroom?
-At the first two or three minutes of the lesson?
-To signal the start of the lesson (teacher) / your readiness to
start the lesson (you)?
 Positive mental set

Positive mental set:

-Check if ss are ready for the lesson
-Establish “links” with previous lesson
-Pose a question/ conduct activity to kick-start the lesson
-Give ss “advanced organisers” at the start
Smooth transition

“smoothness” vs. “jerkiness”

 Ending the lesson

- On-time ending
- Getting ss ready for the end of the lesson
- Well-ordered exit from classroom
Part B: Seating arrangement
Seating arrangement
Seating arrangement
 Teacher’s positioning
• Action zone (or T-zone)?
• Learners’ interpretation of T’s positioning?
• L’s on-task behaviors?
• Levels of control and task forms?
 Giving and checking instructions

Read the situation below and identify the problems with the
instructions.
Ms. Lan is teaching a group of intermediate students.
Ms. Lan: “OK, so if you wouldn’t mind, open your books and look at the
pictures about what the man does now and what he used to do – OK, yeah,
they are on page 87 – yeah, you can find them in just a second, doesn’t really
matter now. OK they are just some ideas for you to think about. OK, and then
what I want you to do is, you are going to write some sentences, about four,
maybe a few more, don’t worry if you find it difficult, just have a go anyway.
So, write some sentences about things you used to do, but you don’t do now,
OK? And when you’ve done that, I want you to compare your sentences with
your partner – or you can work in threes if you’d rather – I don’t think it
matters – OK, understand? Ah, and after that I would like you to mingle
around the class and try to find someone you have something in common
with. Got it? Can we start now?”
Students: [Silence]
 Giving and checking instructions

Problems with the instructions:

- Her instructions are lengthy and wordy. She inserts OK and yeah
several times  distracting for ss
- She is not consistent in what the ss need to do. E.g. she says they
need to open the book, then she tells them they can do it later.
- She doesn’t check if ss really understand her instructions.
 Why giving and checking
instructions?
To let students know what they are expected to do about

the tasks/ activities

To check whether students have understood the

instructions
 Techniques to give instructions
“Step-by-step” or “feed- in” approach
Break the instruction into separate steps

Demonstrate it, “model” it, “show- don’t- tell”

A demonstration is easier to understand than an
explanation, and reduces teacher’s talking time.

Say- Do- Check

T say instruction- S do it- T check
 Techniques to check instructions
Student recall: for checking instructions
T may ask S to recall in Vietnamese helpful for students
of low level

Note
It’s Not What language you use but How you give the
instruction that matters. Therefore, Vietnamese or English
is NOT important in giving and checking instructions.
 Practice – Improving instructions
• Task 6
Session 2 - What’s on today?
Group work, 10 minutes
• Sketch an image of your English classroom (either
your classroom at university/ high school/ secondary
school or your “dream” classroom)
• Take a show of pictures
• Certain groups will be invited to elaborate their ideas.
 PART 2
TEACHING AIDS
 Let’s start 1
Teaching aids…..

……..are the resources and equipment available to teachers in the

classroom, as well as the resources teachers can bring into the

classroom.

Two main categories of teaching aids:

+ visual aids: visual representations which support presentations in

the form of text, cartoons, graphs, illustrations, photographs.

+ interactive tools: a video programme, resource pack, role-play, etc.

 Let’s start 1
Visual aids and main teaching purposes

Visual aids Main teaching purposes

Black board/ - Writing words and ideas that come up
White board during the lesson
- Drawing or displaying pictures
- Building up ideas in diagrams, word maps,
etc.
- For learners to write answers
- For whole- class compositions
The teacher and the Gestures/ action/ facial expression
learner to help show meanings of words
To illustrate situations
To prompt practice
 Notes on using the board

Don’t hide the board when you are writing

Stand sideways, half facing the board and keep “eye contact”

with class as you write

Write clearly and large enough

Talk as you write/ Ask students to suggest what to write

Organize the board (H model)

 Visual aids and main teaching purposes
Visual aids Main teaching purposes
Pictures and images Structure practice
(flashcard/ large wall Used in drills (grammar items, cueing
pictures/ photographs/ sentences, practicing vocabulary)
illustrations/ cue cards) Communicative games (describe and
draw…)
Creative writing (from a series of
pictures)

Realia (real objects brought  present new language (vocab. or

into the classroom) structure)
Help students get into character when
acting out a dialogue or role play.
Used as props for dialogues or role plays
( real money for a shopping scene, etc.)
What are the advantages and disadvantages
of
using visual aids?
 Advantages of using visual aids

• Illustrate meaning more directly and quickly than verbal explanation

• Attract students’ attention and aid concentration
• Add variety and interest to the lesson
 Advantages of using visual aids
• Help to make the associated language memorable
• On permanent display, they can help make the classroom simulating
and attractive
 Disadvantages of using visual aids
• They can be time-consuming to prepare
• Sometimes there is a lack of materials for making visual aids in low
resource areas
 Disadvantages of using visual aids
• Some teachers may have limited ability to prepare their own visual
aids.
• They are frequently under-exploited or used “cosmetically” but not to
enhance real learning.
 Notes on preparing visual aids
Make sure that the visual aids brought to class are
 Big enough to be seen
 Unambiguous
 Presentable
 Safe and economical to use
 Notes on using visual aids in class
When showing a visual in class, make sure….
 Everyone can see it
 Students are interpreting the picture in the way you intend
 You can refer to it later

After class, make sure…

 Teacher can store and classify their visuals so that they are reusable
 Practice
• Task 2
 PART 2
ELICITING TECHNIQUES
 Eliciting techniques

Answer the following questions

What does eliciting refer to?

What types of questions does the teacher ask to elicit?

At what stages of the lesson can the teacher do

eliciting?
 Let’s start 2
Why eliciting?

Involve the class by focusing students’ attention and making

them think

Encourage students to draw on what they already know or

partly know useful for mixed ability class/ those from

different backgrounds

Give teachers a chance to see what students know and what

they don’t  T adapt their presentation

 Note
Eliciting usually takes more time than
straight forward presentation
 Types of eliciting

Using pictures
Using games or activities
Using texts and dialogues
Miming: Using gestures, facial expression, body
language
Using questioning techniques
(Doff, 1988)
 Practice
• You are going to teach Unit 1 – The generation gap in English
11 (new textbook).
• What are some questions you can ask at the start of the
lesson in order to interest the students and to elicit some of
their personal feelings and reactions?
 PART 4 FEEDBACK
GIVING CORRECTIVE
 Giving corrective feedback

Which teacher would you agree with? Why?

I never let my students make

mistakes. If they say anything
wrong, I would stop them and make
they say it correctly. I don’t want
them to learn bad English from each
other.
Teacher B

I correct my students sometimes, but not

all the time. If we are practising one
Teacher A particular language point, then I insist
that they say it correctly. But if we’re
doing a freer activity, then I try not to
correct too much. If I correct students, I
try to do it in an encouraging way.
 Let’s start 4
Attitudes towards mistakes and correction

Attitude to mistakes Attitude to correction

Traditional -Mistake = a bad thing -No attention was paid to
attitude -A perfect lesson = a lesson correcting students’ mistakes
without mistakes - Correcting mistakes =
giving the correct model +
ask Ss to repeat

The -Mistakes = positive steps -Correction = a technique to

communicative towards learning get Ss refine what they want
approach -No mistakes in the lesson = NO to say
real learning has taken place -Correction = integral part of
-A perfect lesson = a lesson full a lesson
of mistakes and Ss correcting -Positive attitude to
themselves and each other correction. Correction
techniques are used to
encourage Ss
-Self and Peer Correction are
both encouraged
 Techniques for oral correction

1. Finger correction

Use each finger of your left hand to represent the word, with your palm
words you and your little finger representing the first word of the
sentence. Point to the “words” with your right hand. Students read it the
other way round, from left to right.
 Techniques for oral correction
2. Question Mark
Use a question mark, in your voice and/or in your face.
e.g. S: I go yesterday
T [turns face to the side a bit and frown]: go?
S: Oh. Yes. I went yesterday.
3. Alternatives
Give ss an alternative: tell them the correct answer and their wrong
answer, put a question mark into your voice and get them to choose the
correct option.
e.g. S: I go yesterday
T: I go or I went?
S: Oh. Yes. I went.
T: say it again.
S: I went yesterday.
 Techniques for oral correction

4. Blackboard Prompt
e.g. S: I’ve been here since two years.
T: [points at the word “for” on the board]
S: Oh sorry! I’ve been here for two years.

5. Students-to-students correction
e.g. S1: You turn left.
T [use finger correction to elicit “can”]
S1: You turn left.
T [point to S2 and then S1]: Help him.
S2: You can turn left.
S1: You can turn left.
 Techniques for oral correction

6. Modeling (Teacher- to- student)/ Back- chaining

When other techniques don’t work, repeat a good model for
ss to copy.
This is helpful to pronunciation mistakes and problems with
long sentences.
7. Delayed correction
During pairwork and groupwork, T observes Ss’ activity
without interferring. T notes down big/ common/ serious
mistakes they are making and correct them later.
 Correcting during ORAL WORK

Focus on what they have got right not what they have got wrong

Praise students for correct answers or even partly correct

answers
Avoid humiliating students or making them feel that making a
mistake is bad
Give students chance to correct themselves by pointing out what
is not good enough. If they can not, quickly correct the errors
 Correcting WRITTEN WORK

• Correcting simple written work in class

• Correcting students’ work individually

 Correcting simple written work in class

Write the correct answers on the board (either T or S)

Students correct their own work

Teacher moves around to supervise what they are doing

Students can exchange notebooks and correct each other’s
work
When teacher notices errors made by a number of
students draw attention to these mistakes for the benefit
of the whole class
 Correcting students’ work individually

Only correct errors that seem most important or only

errors of certain kind.
Reduce the amount of underlining  Write correction in
the margin (this would make the page look less heavily
corrected)
T could simply indicate the errors and ask students to
correct them themselves.
TEACHING LARGE CLASSES
 CHALLENGES OF LARGE CLASS
• Maintaining discipline
• Mixed abilities and different learning styles
• Individual attention
• Short of teaching materials
• STT vs. TTT
• Building rapport
 WHAT TO DO?
• Using groupwork to increase learning and/or deal with
inadequate resources
+ Groups of same ability/ mixed ability
+ Group leaders
+ Lots of T movement to control group work
• Developing good discipline
+ Establishing agreed codes of behavior
+ Appointing group leaders.
 Final words
Using teaching aids appropriately can help teachers
motivate students, generate their ideas about the topic, and
save explanation time.
Proper elicitation can encourage students to think and
share their opinions/knowledge and give teachers a chance
to see the students’ level.
The process of giving and checking instructions should be
done according to KISS principles: Keep It Short and
Simple.
 Final words
Teachers should use a mix of teachers’ correction, peers’
correction and self-correction.
When and how to correct students’ mistakes depends on
the learning purpose, the learners’ characteristics and the
situation.