Dr.

ADAMA COLY
MODULE: CLASSROOM
MANAGEMENT

Classroom Management

CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION

I. TEACHERS PHYSICAL PRESENCE IN CLASS

1. WHAT MAKES A GOOD TEACHER IN THE TEACHING-LEARNING PROCESS?

3. MOVEMENT AND CONTACT

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II. THE SEATING ARRANGEMENT OF THE CLASS

1. ORDERLY ROWS
2. CIRCLES AND HORSE SHOES
3. SEPARATE TABLES

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III. STUDENTS GROUPING IN A CLASS

1. WHOLE CLASS
2. GROUP WORK AND PAIR WORK
3. SOLO-WORK AND MLE

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IV. EVALUATION OF THE SUCCESS AND FAILURE OF A LESSON

A. LESSON AIMS: DID I REACH OR ACHIEVE SOME OR ALL THE AIMS OF MY LESSON? WHY OR
WHY NOT?
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B. ACTIVITIES: FOR EACH ACTIVITY, YOU SHOULD MAKE BRIEF NOTES INCLUDING REASONS
BASED ON THE FOLLOWING:
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CONCLUSION

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REFERENCES

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Introduction
Classroom management relates to skills developed in teaching and provides information
about how teachers organize and deliver instruction. It also refers to the way the teacher
organizes and controls students behavior, movement and interaction during a lesson, to
enable teaching to take place effectively. Good managerial skills are essential on the part
of the teacher for a good teaching and learning process. In a well managed class,
discipline issues are narrowed down (reduced, minimized) and students are actively
involved in learning tasks and activities; the result is high motivation and expectation for
success.

I. Teachers physical presence in class

1. What makes a good teacher in the teachinglearning process?
In a very succinct way, good teachers care more about their students learning than they
do about their own teaching. (Harmer, 2005)

1/a Teachers should make their lessons interesting so that their

students may not be bored or fall asleep.
Indeed, teachers who look fed up or unhappy with what they are doing in class tend to
have a negative effect on their students. They should hence put on a good teachers face
when they enter the classroom and face the students.

1/b Teachers should be entertainers in a positive sense, be

approachable and evolve in a stress-free environment.
Learners enjoy being entertained, amused, which gives a positive feedback to the teacher.
Moreover, it is important that students can talk to the teacher, when they have problems
and cant get along with the topic.

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1/c A good teacher is someone who has affinity with his/her students.
Drawing out the quiet ones and controlling the more talkative
ones.
Ask questions to volunteers and non-volunteers. The relationship between the teacher and
the student, together with the character and personality of the teacher are a crucial issue in
the teaching/learning process taking place in the classroom. Successful teachers are also
those who are able to identify with the hopes, aspirations and difficulties of their students
while teaching. In addition, some classes are dominated by bright and extrovert students
who easily captivate the teacher, giving no chance to the quiet and shy ones. A good
teacher is thus someone who asks the students who dont always put their hands up.

1/d

A good teacher should be able to correct learners without

offending or frustrating them.

Example: help rather than shout. You should also know their names. Use non-verbal
communication when a student makes a mistake (facial gestures).
One of the most difficult teaching acts for the teacher is to explain to students that they
have made a mistake. It has to be carefully done with teacher measuring what is suitable
(convenient) for a particular student in a particular situation. Besides, managing students
and controlling boisterous classes is one of the fundamental issues in discipline and skills
of teaching.
Talking to students becomes important when teachers are giving their students
instructions. The best activity is a waste of time if the students dont understand what they
are supposed to do. There are generally two rules for giving instructions:
They must be as simple as possible and they must be logical. Before giving instructions,
teachers must ask themselves the following questions: what is the important information I
am trying to convey? What must the students know if they are to deal with the activity
successfully? Which information do they need first before starting the activity? Which
should come next?

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In that process, getting the students to speak, using the language they are learning (target
language) is an outstanding part of the teachers work. Students are those who need the
practice as a whole not the teacher. As a whole, a good teacher maximizes Students
Talking Time (STT) and minimizes Teacher Talking Time (TTT). Even though good TTT
may be beneficial if teacher knows how to talk to students, giving them a chance to hear
language which is at time above their own productive level at which they can more or less
understand. They hence provide comprehensible input (a term coined by the American
methodologist Stephen Krashen). Obviously, the teachers physical presence should be
appropriately used in the management of the classroom environment.

2. Proximity and appropriacy

The distance between teachers and their students should be appropriate to enable good
interaction and teachers must be aware of that. Some students dont appreciate being too
close to the teacher whereas for others being faraway from the teacher is a sign of
coldness. Proximity and appropriacy should be taken into account by teachers assessing
their students reactions to what is taking place in the classroom.

3. Movement and contact

Moving around in the classroom is a matter of personal preference and style, where he or
she feels most comfortable for the management of the class. Anyhow, teachers who dont
move can bore students whereas teachers who are always moving may have their students
attention exhausted in the long run. Moreover, making eye-contact if not culturally
forbidden to watch what students are doing; listening to what they have said and reacting
accordingly; staying at the front of the classroom; walking around the class at random;
standing at the back or far end of the class; are as many positions of teacher in class
activities.
So the teachers physical presence and personality also goes with another aspect which is
one of his chief tools: the voice with two main characteristics, the first aspect is audibility
(to make sure that the students at the far end of the class can hear her or his voice), the
second aspect is variety and conservation of teachers voice in varying its quality and
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taking great care of it, changing the quality and volume of their voices depending on the
type of lesson and the type of activity.

II. The seating arrangement of the class

Apart from the rigid and traditional seating arrangement, there are different approaches
and the different arrangement of chairs and tables to enable learners to get into groups,
walk around, do physical activities.

1. Orderly rows
There are advantages in having the students seating in rows: the teacher has a clear view
of all his students who can all see him; he can maintain discipline and eye-contact with the
learners he is talking to, especially the distractive ones. The teacher can then keep every
student involved and in asking questions, he must remember students to ask students at the
back, the quiet ones maybe rather than the nearest ones, moving round so that he can see
the whole class and their reactions to whats going on.

2. Circles and horse shoes

In small classes, circles or horse-shoe seating arrangements are suitable for both teachers
and students, with all the people seating in a circle including the teacher. There is a greater
feeling of equality (and socializing is easier) than when the teacher is located in a central
position and has much opportunity to get close to the students.

3. Separate tables
With separate tables or students seating in small groups at individual table, teacher can
walk around, checking the students work and providing help if they have difficulties. This
arrangement gives a feeling of autonomy to students. Teacher can walk at one table while
the others are getting on with their own work without immediate teacher involvement.

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III. Students grouping in a class

Teachers and learners can interact in several ways according to some interaction patterns
which are more appropriate for learners and the teaching methods and activities.

1. Whole class
One type of classroom organization is to have a teacher working with all the class
whatever the seating arrangement. Students can then focus on him and the activity in
progress.

2. Group work and pair work

As a whole pair work means two learners working together whereas in group work the
class is divided in two halves, or small groups of three or four (depending on the size of
the class with students discussing a topic, doing a role play in their group or solving a
problem. This makes both types of interactions cooperative with students working
together with teacher controlling every detail of the learning process. They can also work
without the whole class listening or paying attention to what they are doing; the teacher
can then work with individual students, or groups who need special help. Conversely in
difficult classes, group activities may encourage some students to be more boisterous or
disruptive than they would be in a whole class seating arrangement, using their first
language rather than English when the teacher is not working with them. Other
alternatives to whole class teaching to pair-work and group-work are solo-work and
mle.

3. Solo-work and mle

In solo-work learners work at their own thinking time that keep them from the groupcentral nature of language teaching. They also get free from the whole class teacher
control environment and consider their own individual academic preoccupations and
progress.
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In mle learners move around the class and interact at random, especially in games.

IV. Evaluation of the success and failure of a lesson

Evaluation is concerned with gathering data on the dynamics, effectiveness, acceptability
and efficiency of a program to facilitate decision-making (Popham, Jarvis and Adams,
1975).
Assessment is the process of analyzing and measuring knowledge and ability (Cora
Lindsay and Paul Knight, 2006).
Evaluation which is carried out at the end of a course in order to measure how effective it
was in reaching its goals is summative evaluation. And evaluation carried out during the
development and implementation of a program or course in order to modify and revise
aspects of the program or the materials and to ensure the effectiveness of the program is
formative evaluation. Assessing students knowledge of the language and ability to
communicate can be done either informally or formally. In informal assessment of a
lesson, teacher checks whether his or her students have remembered what he or she taught
them, if they have understood what he or she is currently teaching them. Formal
assessment is done using tests and examinations.
After teaching a lesson, its a good idea for teachers to evaluate it. The following questions
can be asked:

a. Lesson aims: did I reach or achieve some or all the aims of my

lesson? Why or why not?

b. Activities: for each activity, you should make brief notes

including reasons based on the following:
It took more time than planned; it took less time than
planned; it went as planned.
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Learners enjoyed/didnt enjoy it. I enjoyed it/I didnt enjoy.
Learners found it easy/OK/difficult.
I would change. If the activity again.
Teacher gives some brief ideas of follow-up work he would
do for his lesson, thinking about ways in which he could
deal with the difficulties he and his students have met.

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Conclusion
A good teacher manager should consider his or her physical presence in the class, pay
attention to his or her proximity to the students, move around the class and make students
behavior a crucial issue in connection with ways of arranging classes physically and
grouping his or her students. New techniques should be tried out and evaluated to find out
whether students found them useful and enjoyable.

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References

Gower. R. Phillips, Dand Walters. S. Teaching Practice Handbook, new edition,

Heineman, 1995.

Underwood, M. Effective classroom management. Longman, 1987.

Harmer. J. The Practice of English Language Teaching. New edition, Longman,

1991.

Lindsay, C. Knight. P. Learning and teaching English. O.U.P, 2006.

Ur, P. A Course in Language teaching. C.U.P, 1999.

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