![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
On Latinteach a teacher was bemoaning the prospect of teaching a split-level class. I, naturally, had to toss in my two cents worth:
****
One thing to keep in mind is to take the time during the first week of school to set up PROCEDURES. (This is a biggy in Wong's _The First Days of School_.)
Split level class? Fine. Brainstorm about every single type of activity that you usually do this summer and figure out how you could plan so that many of these activities are still doable.
For instance, if you have the luxury of two overheads, put warm-ups on separate overheads and still begin class with warm-ups. Alternate days regarding which group you review the warm-up with first while the other part of the class does a different activity--vocab flash drill? Silent reading of yesterday's story? Low voice level paired practice of dialogs that focus on the new grammar? (I started a set of these the year before last but had to toss them when our periods got shorter this past year...still a good idea.)
Do you need to have the chairs facing in opposite directions? Well, that can be a PROCEDURE that the STUDENTS take care of when they come in. Give them jobs; post them daily. I had rotating jobs posted for all of my classes this year; just took 15 minutes to do before school started--well worth the organization.
What other jobs/procedures can the kids be taught during that first week to do on their own? Students LIKE responsibilities. They LIKE ownership of the class. Someone could be in charge of taking up homework or going over the answers to something on an overhead while you work with the other group.
And the best part is that if they have jobs or procedures to cover what to do in any given occasion, there will not be that deadly down time that provides opportunities for off task behavior.
I always had a person with the job of ringing a bell when there was 5 minutes left to go in class--this way we could put folders away, put desks back if we'd moved them, I could sign grade slips for athletics, etc. Also, I might mention, I had another rotating job for recording off-task behaviors (which could include anything). *I* had to be the one to say "write down so-n-so's name" but the student wrote down the name in a spiral. I had a written record of behavioral issues (and who had to stay after class when the bell rang), but only had to take 2 seconds from what I was doing to order that a name be written down.
Procedures and organization and structure. It doesn't have to be chaos. It doesn't have to mean that either group gets less of an experience with the language.
Take the summer to brainstorm and plan. If you get your procedures and organization set up, writing the lesson plans and running the class will fall into place.
****
One thing to keep in mind is to take the time during the first week of school to set up PROCEDURES. (This is a biggy in Wong's _The First Days of School_.)
Split level class? Fine. Brainstorm about every single type of activity that you usually do this summer and figure out how you could plan so that many of these activities are still doable.
For instance, if you have the luxury of two overheads, put warm-ups on separate overheads and still begin class with warm-ups. Alternate days regarding which group you review the warm-up with first while the other part of the class does a different activity--vocab flash drill? Silent reading of yesterday's story? Low voice level paired practice of dialogs that focus on the new grammar? (I started a set of these the year before last but had to toss them when our periods got shorter this past year...still a good idea.)
Do you need to have the chairs facing in opposite directions? Well, that can be a PROCEDURE that the STUDENTS take care of when they come in. Give them jobs; post them daily. I had rotating jobs posted for all of my classes this year; just took 15 minutes to do before school started--well worth the organization.
What other jobs/procedures can the kids be taught during that first week to do on their own? Students LIKE responsibilities. They LIKE ownership of the class. Someone could be in charge of taking up homework or going over the answers to something on an overhead while you work with the other group.
And the best part is that if they have jobs or procedures to cover what to do in any given occasion, there will not be that deadly down time that provides opportunities for off task behavior.
I always had a person with the job of ringing a bell when there was 5 minutes left to go in class--this way we could put folders away, put desks back if we'd moved them, I could sign grade slips for athletics, etc. Also, I might mention, I had another rotating job for recording off-task behaviors (which could include anything). *I* had to be the one to say "write down so-n-so's name" but the student wrote down the name in a spiral. I had a written record of behavioral issues (and who had to stay after class when the bell rang), but only had to take 2 seconds from what I was doing to order that a name be written down.
Procedures and organization and structure. It doesn't have to be chaos. It doesn't have to mean that either group gets less of an experience with the language.
Take the summer to brainstorm and plan. If you get your procedures and organization set up, writing the lesson plans and running the class will fall into place.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2006-09-14 10:30 pm (UTC)It may seem like we worry about small things, but classroom management is critical, esp with inner city schools (like I used to teach at). No structure, no productive work, no achievement.
I have a split class now at my new school and I have yet to do implement anything I considered in this missive. However, I'm currently reviewing them together. I start them on their own tracks soon.