Get your room organised at the beginning. This is difficult if you are using someone else’s room but it can still be done. Get the first students in the room to help you move tables and chairs as you want them. If you want children to move into groups in the middle of the lesson, it can help to do it table by table while everyone is doing a quiet writing or copying activity. This reduces the amount of furniture noise.

 

3. Have something ready for the children to do when they enter the room.

In the go4english lesson plan ‘on the farm’ the teacher has stuck cards around the walls. You could have a puzzle on the board for them to look at, a list of words from last lesson, something on each desk that is a small revision game. Giving them the answer makes a good start to the lesson.

 

4. Reward good behaviour at the beginning of lessons. Give credit marks or points for a quick and quiet entry. You can time how long it takes to get settled and make it a game!

 

5. Have your lesson plan outline on the board for the children to see. They are more likely to listen for 5 minutes if they know they do not have to ‘just listen’ all lesson.

 

Teaching language

 

In a large class it will take you some time to find out the ability and learning styles of all your students. So you must make sure that you think about using visual stimulation and letting the children use the language every lesson as well as making them listen and be quiet. See the go4english teaching tips on ‘mixed ability’ and ‘learning styles’ to give you some ideas.

 

In a big class children will stop concentrating as there are more distractions / noise and they feel very far away from the teacher when s/he is standing at the blackboard presenting. Do not ‘present’ and talk about language for more than 3 or 4 minutes. Cover one point and then let them do a mini exercise before you move on. In a large class you can use ‘concept check’ questions, just as you do with a smaller class but remember, they do not let you know what the whole class can do. To do that you need to be moving around the room.

 

Make board work very large and clear so that everyone can see at the back. When the children are copying from the board, walk round the room and check what people are doing. Give praise for good copying.

 

Organising activities

 

Group work is essential for large classes. New teachers are sometimes frightened to do it as they think they will not control the class, but a good task can make everyone work well.

 

As soon as you can in your class you should try to set up regular groups. Regrouping 40 people every lesson can be very tiring.  Most primary schools have regular groups that they work in, so that the teacher can say ‘Get into your groups’ or can set the class up at the beginning of the lesson. These groups can be in ability groups or mixed. They are easy to monitor as the teacher knows where and when most help will be needed.

 

Varied groupings are good too but in a large class these need to be chosen by the teacher to some extent or there will be chaos! One technique is to allow students to choose a partner and then put them with another pair so that everyone has a friend to work with. Plan group work very carefully as you will only want one complete reorganisation of the furniture in a lesson with so many people to move!!

 

Controlling the class        

 

From your first lesson you need a routine of how to allow the students to speak to you, how to allow the students to speak to each other and how to stop the whole class.

 

Speaking to you, students need to put their hand up to ask a question. Try not to let one student speak to you for very long in front of the whole class, as the others will stop listening. Long questions should be answered when students are working individually or in small groups. Do not answer questions in the middle of language presentation or instructions. Use a hand gesture to indicate that you will answer the question at the end of what you have to say.

 

Give clear (estimated) time limits for a group activity before you start and then give warnings ‘two more minutes’ during the activity. In this way, when you ask students to finish and listen to you, they will be ready to do so. Do not keep stopping group activities to talk to the whole class. DO stop a group activity briefly if the noise level is getting too high and encourage the students to talk more quietly. Sometimes quiet background music helps students to keep their noise down so they can hear it. This can also work for individual work. Keep moving around and reminding students to use English.

 

Have a signal for stopping the class. Drama teachers, whose students are all talking and moving use a hand up gesture. As each student notices the teacher’s gesture they put their hand up in the air also and stop talking. Other teachers use a whistle, or a tune on their CD player or rap on the white board. It is more effective if you also tell the students what to do: ‘pencils down’ ‘close your books’ ‘look at the board’.

 

These routines need to be followed carefully.

 

Ending and giving homework

 

At the end of the lesson everyone needs to know what they have been doing in this lesson and why, what the homework is and what they need for next lesson.

 

This will take AT LEAST five minutes with a large class but it does not have to be the very last 5 minutes. In large classes there will always be some people who pack up their stuff in the last 5 minutes when the teacher is trying to do an important review, because they feel the lesson is finished. If you wait until the bell rings NO-ONE will be listening!

 

Get the homework on the board earlier. Stop the lesson BEFORE the last 5 minutes and show the students their task for homework. Also write up what they need to bring for next lesson. Then let them go on with their work and you can go round and check that everyone has written this down.

 

Review time must be seen as important. Get selected students to come up and tick off on your board plan what they have done in the lesson.  Give points and credits in this part of the lesson for good recall or participation, just as you would in the main body of the lesson. If the students are working in groups for the last part of the lesson, remember that you also have to put the furniture back!

 

Don’t end up doing it all yourself. That’s a terrible way to end the day!

 

Marking

 

How can you mark 45 books every week? Answer? Try not to!  Plan a fixed number of formally assessed tasks during the term. For small activities such as sentence completion and grammar exercises, have students self-mark or have them exchange books and mark their friend’s book according to a key on the board or OHP. Give short tests in class that you can mark together quickly.

 

When you do take in an assessed piece, make that a chance to review a section of the student’s notebook and check they have done their other work well, putting comments on it. So that you do not have to return all 45 books before the next lesson, plan the next lesson to be done on paper or as a design project.

 

The better you know your large class, the better they will behave for you. Lead by example! Get yourself organised and the class will feel that they know what is happening. That way they will relax and enjoy English lessons! And if they are absorbed in what they are doing and feel secure, your life will be easier and a lot quieter. Then you can have fun. Good luck!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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