If there is one thing likely to frustrate hard working, dedicated teachers its students talking out of turn.  You’ve worked hard preparing a lesson, but you just can’t develop a flow as students interrupt your lesson with inappropriate comment after comment.

Being able to prevent students talking out of turn is a fundamental classroom management strategy. So how exactly do you stop students interrupting the flow of your lessons to the detriment of teaching and learning in your classroom?

One effective classroom management  strategy which I use to prevent students talking out of turn is to proactively manage the behavior that I expect.  For example, before I ask a whole class question, I will briefly explain my expectations during this phase of the lesson. I will explain that I am about to ask a question, and that I want to hear their answers, BUT they must raise their hand and wait to be called.

This might just be a small, subtle change to your teaching, but by explaining your expectations in advance there is an increased prospect of improved student behavior.  I do this daily and rarely have problems with students speaking out of line.  Follow this simple tip and you could do the same. 

In the majority of cases, students want to behave well.  Sure, it might not seem that way sometimes, but it is the case for the majority of the students that most people teach.  Proactively explaining what is good behavior in advance is just common sense.  If you explain what you expect of the class, before you begin a task, you really will reduce the frequency of students talking out of turn.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 8th, 2007 at 7:12 pm and is filed under Classroom Management Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.