Effective class management

by Guest Mon Jan 02, 2012 11:25 am

Classroom Management Tips e-Course
Part III: Increase Class Participation

As part of any strong instructional plan you must know effective ways to increase class participation. You see, class participation and classroom management are directly connected. The more you have students actively and constructively participating in your class the less discipline problems you are going to have. In fact, your ultimate goal should be to get 100% class participation.
Think it's impossible? It's not.
There are many simple strategies that you can use to drastically increase the percentage of students who participate in your class.**Just keep in mind, good class participation does not only consist of students raising their hands and volunteering information.**
A great way to increase class participation is by combining two simple teaching strategies known as the "all-write" and the "pair & share". For example, instead of asking a question and having the same handful of students respond by raising their hands, ask a question and tell all your students, "You have 3 minutes to write down an answer to..." After their three-minute time limit is up, you will then tell all students to take 2 more minutes to discuss their answer with their partner or group.
In this way you have taken what would have been less than 10% class participation and turned it into 100% class participation. And, those students who would have raised their hands anyway have now had a chance to develop even stronger answers.
By keeping students actively involved the teacher is being proactive. The teacher is limiting the opportunity for classroom management issues to arise in the first place by keeping the students involved in the lesson