A fundamental skill in the teacher’s arsenal, and one that seems effortless to the casual observer, is in fact the result of various iterations of trial and error. I’ve seen and practised a few variations which I explain below. These are from the ICT point of view which assumes students are facing away from you which obviously makes it slightly more challenging. I’ll update the post if I come across any new ones.
Request and named follow-up
- Issue a polite request for quiet: “Thanks everyone”, perhaps accompanied by a clap if particularly noisy
- Identify a few usual noisy students and add: “Thanks James… Thanks Simon… Thanks Sarah…”
- The students addressed will stop talking and the class will hopefully follow suit to avoid being named
I first saw this done by a teacher with a great deal of respect and presence, which are beneficial to the technique working. The downsides are it takes a bit longer than the others but it’s very low key and controlled and if you can master it you will probably save your heart and voice a fair bit of damage!
Three calls
- “First call for quiet”, “Second call for quiet”, “Third and final call for quiet”
A fairly simple technique which works pretty well. Designed to be used with a strike system (as below). After a while, students will get used to paying attention from the first request.
Shout and wait
- “Quiet please!”
- Stand, wait and stare
This usually only works if you have either an exceptionally loud voice or a massive presence, if students don’t respond to the first request, you run the risk of begging for quiet.
Three Strikes
- <Student continues talking>
- “Okay Joe, you’re talking after I’ve requested you stop, that’s your first strike; three and it’s a detention”
Whilst not a method in itself, it’s pretty effective when used in conjunction with others. Detention can be replaced with a smaller sanction such as loss of privileges, extra minutes after the lesson etc. Students tend to work well when on their second strike, for obvious reasons!