As
a new teacher, finding your rhythm in your classroom will take patience and
time. But imagine if one of your teaching
jobs was located in South Korea. How would
you adapt to not having a classroom size of 30 EFL (Non-Native English
Speaking) students, but to the new cultures around you? That is exactly what this article
explores. Natalie Britton, an elementary
school teacher, wrote this article about her personal experience teaching EFL
students in South Korea and shares 4 helpful techniques that helped her
“control a large classroom of EFL students.” (Britton, 2013) Britton’s 4 techniques she shares in her
article are quiet signals, teams and team points, timer and develop
relationships.
Britton does well breaking down each category by
comparing what some teachers use for their teaching methods and what she does
in terms of using and applying these 4 shared techniques. The first technique is quiet signals. Britton discusses how it is “essential for
effective teachers to have a quiet signal in class.” (Britton, 2013) As a teacher myself, I can relate to
Britton’s statement. In my preschool
classroom when I first started teaching, I was like the teachers who Britton
mentions in her article; who used the “raise your hand” signal to get the
classroom’s attention to quiet down.
From personal experience it worked sometimes but I would still have
students who would continue to talk until their heart was content. As Britton continues to discuss about quiet
signals, she describes another quiet signal used by teachers who would say to
the class to get their attention “one, two, eyes on me!” and the classroom
would reply with “one, two, eyes on you!” (Britton, 2013) I used this quiet signal method as I became
more comfortable teaching in my classroom and for me personally it worked very
well with my students. Britton reports
that “for ESL students, your signals should incorporate a combination of
student listening (auditory), student looking (visual) and student movement
(kinesthetic). She goes on to describe
two ways she would demonstrate these signals.
One way she uses the quiet signal is by doing a “clapping pattern where
she will clap a pattern and her students knew they had to be quiet after they
clap back.” (Britton, 2013) This signal
uses Britton’s recommended combination of listening, looking and movement. Her second quiet signal she uses with her
class is counting down from five. She
holds her hand up and shows the numbers on her fingers as she counts down,
“Five, four, three, two, one, and quiet.”
This signal is another example of both listening and looking and Britton
reports “this signal is appropriate for most ESl learners as well since
counting to five is a basic English skill.”
(Britton, 2013) In addition to using
“one, two, eyes on me and one, two eyes on you” as a quiet signal method, currently with my
school age classroom I use what’s called “Quiet Coyote.” This method uses Britton’s suggested combination
of looking, listening and movement. If I
need to get my students attention and need them to be quiet I will say out loud
“Quiet Coyote” and with one hand, I make a coyote by having my middle, ring and
thumb fingers come together with the index pinky finger pointed up in the
air. This signal represents it’s time to
be quiet and listen up because important instructions are coming their
way. After I say “Quiet Coyote” I count
down from 3…2…1 and when I get to 1 my students understand that the expectation
is to be completely silent when complete my countdown. This method is quite
affective in my school age classroom of 22 students.
The second technique, team and team points, Britton
discuss how she organizes her over 30 students to decrease chaos in the
classroom and increase team work.
Britton discusses that she “divides her students up into teams so they
can collaborate, work together and earn team points.” (Britton, 2013) She continues to say that “all throughout
class, points were given for good behavior and correct answers.” (Britton, 2013) She feels that by “giving points throughout
class, students are kept accountable both for their behavior and for their
academic performance.” (Britton,
2013) This technique would be more
beneficial for larger classrooms and with upper grades such as 3rd
grade and up. To adapt this to smaller
and younger aged classrooms (Pre-K-2nd grade) you could, for
example, have the students work with a partner and do a scavenger hunt around
the classroom and the pair who finds the most items could earn the something
positive for the classroom like 10 extra minutes during recess time.
The third technique Britton recommends is a kitchen
timer. She uses this technique for when
her “students continue to talk after her quiet signal is given. Once the timer is started if those students
continue to talk at the end of the class those students must stay in the
classroom with their heads down on their desks for the amount of time shown on
the timer.” (Britton, 2013) Britton adds
that “her students hate staying late because they have a short break in between
classes and therefore they usually stop talking within 5 seconds of her
starting the timer.” (Britton, 2013) In
my preschool classroom, I found a kitchen timer to be most useful when rotating
play centers. Before my students would
be dismissed for their play centers, we would sit together on the carpet and I
would let my students choose the center they wanted to play at, dismissing them
two students at a time. Once everyone chose a center, the timer would be set
for 10 minutes. During those 10 minutes
the kids were not allowed to leave their center and choose another until the 10
minutes was up. After 10 minutes, the
kids were instructed they would have 2 additional minutes on the timer to clean
up their centers appropriately. Once the
time was up I would go around to each center and make sure it was cleaned up
appropriately. Once all centers were
checked, students would rotate centers and another 10 minutes would be placed
on the timer. It taught my student to be
accountable and responsible for their center as well as utilizing their
auditory (listening for the timer), visual (seeing me, their teacher, come around
to each center to ensure the centers is picked up appropriately) and student
movement (kinesthetic) (rotating their centers appropriately).
The fourth and final technique is to develop
relationships. Britton does a
sensational job discussing why it’s important to develop relationships with
your students. “Despite how many
classroom management techniques you have established in class, nothing can
compare to the relationships that you develop with your students. Establishing a friendly, encouraging (yet
rigorous) milieu in your class can do wonders for your ability to manage a
classroom. If you take time to talk to your students outside of class time, you
will gain their trust. When students
trust you, they respect you as a teacher and much more likely to pay attention
in class.” (Britton, 2013) For Britton,
she reflects on what developing relationships with her students was like. “During the first few months, I was
apprehensive and nervous and made little effort to connect with my
students. After I relaxed and felt more
comfortable teaching. I began developing
a rapport with students by talking to them before class, after class, at my
desk, and in the halls. About four
months into teaching, I noticed a huge shift in student attention during my
class.” (Britton, 2013) After reading this section of the article, I
reflected to when I first started teaching and what it was like to build
relationships with my students.
When
I first started teaching in my preschool classroom, I had a few students that
appeared to trust me right away, but I had a few students, one in particular
who it took months to build a relationship with. This student frequently would act out during
class, struggled to pay attention during any lesson being taught and overall
struggled listening and trusting any adult figure. After months of trying everything I could
think of to build this trust relationship with this student one day after she
threw a huge tantrum after not wanting to get up after nap time, I sat down
with her one-on-one after she calmed down and asked her if there was something
I could do to make her more comfortable to be around me. Her answer was honest, heartbreaking and
simple all at the same time. She
replied, “Don’t promise me anything if you can’t keep it.” I admit I was a little taken back by her
response. Before I could respond she
added, “I just don’t want you to be like my dad. He promised he’d never leave me and he
did.” This was hard to hear but I
realized in that moment that just by her opening up to me the way she did, we
were on a good path to building a trusting relationship. I found it easy for myself to honor her
request because I had always never promised anything to anyone if I knew I
wouldn’t be able to keep it. By showing
her this, she continued to open up a little more everyday and by the end of the
year we had a very strong and positive student-teacher relationship.
“Natalie Britton is an elementary school teacher and has
taught ELL (English Language Learners) and EFL (Non-native English Speaking)
students in North America, Central America, Africa and Asia.” (Britton, 2013) This article is insightful for any teacher in
need of helpful techniques to being able to organize and manage their classroom
but also if, like Britton, you have a classroom with one, some or all EFL
students.
Britton, N. (2013).
Classroom Management with EFL Students http://www.teachingvillage.org/2013/06/18/classroom-management-with-esl-students-by-natalie-britton/,
Pgs. 1-4
