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Original poster

Incessant talking in class

35 replies

itstimmytime · 25/05/2010 23:44

My dd is in 1st year at high school and is 13 in December (young for her year). Tonight was parents' night and was not surprised to hear that she talks all the time in class. Sometimes to the point she disrupts the class. She has had this problem at school since she was in primary and regularly had to sit alone.

She is universally liked by teachers who describe her as delightful, friendly, kind, bright, entertaining... They find her persistant chatting frustrating as they feel it will hold her back in the future as do I. She is academic and has been in the top stream of classes since primary, is challenged by much of the work, although not all. She is also popular, but I think she has developed a persona of 'class clown'. I know there are more disruptive children in her class as well, but I'd like to deal with this now before it affects her life chances/results etc.

Anyone had this problem? What did you do?

OP posts:
Goblinchild · 26/05/2010 06:12

As a primary teacher, I'm very surprised that it wasn't sorted out much earlier on. Years ago.
I had several very chatty children in my class of Y5 in September. Not intentionally disruptive, just enthusiastic and somewhat egocentric.
Whilst helping them recognise what they were doing and needed to stop, I used numerous strategies.
Verbal reminders
Yellow card, red card system
Making a tally on a whiteboard for how many times an individual called out in a discussion session.
Lots of praise for managing to comply.
Varying lessons, so there was some time for free discussion and 'think, pair, share'
Short sessions of working in absolute silence for the whole class.
Can't remember some of the other things I did, I also react as the situation demands and different children often need different strategies to be effective.
I also didn't get cross and explained why they needed to develop some self-control.

bloss · 26/05/2010 00:58

Message withdrawn

Original poster
itstimmytime · 26/05/2010 00:28

What's his number? Don't want history to repeat itself here

OP posts:
skidoodly · 26/05/2010 00:27

If it hadn't been for my Dad I think I would have gone completely off the rails as a teenager. He's an absolute genius at dealing with kids at that age.

Original poster
itstimmytime · 26/05/2010 00:20

She is both asking and chatting, but she should be waiting her turn and putting up her hand. Mostly she seems to shout out questions and there is a lot of chatting.

I actually agree with Skidoodly. I think my dd has not given enough thought to others - there is plenty of time to chat outside class and listening and concentration are such important skills.

OP posts:
Original poster
itstimmytime · 26/05/2010 00:14

She's my first and I was barely out of my teens myself when she was born, so teenage is fresh in my mind...

I mostly brought her up on my own although I now have a partner and 21 month dd also, so there are other issues at home. Not that she's unhappy, she just gets a smaller share of the pie now which is a bit different for her. On balance, she'd delighted with her sister, but I could see that this behaviour could be a way of attracting attention (poor child I had to take the toddler to parents' night as partner working! I will not do that again!). Not to mention the fact her Dad thinks she can do no wrong and her grades are all that matter. Thank feck he works away a lot!

However, there is no excuse for this bad behaviour and I need to put my foot down... Thanks again.

OP posts:
belledechocolatefluffybunny · 26/05/2010 00:08

My son's been doing this for a while. He finds it incredibly difficult to be quiet in class as he wants to ask questions (he's very, very bright). He finds it difficult to wait until the end of the lesson as he thinks the teacher will not know what he's asking about. He has the ability to multi-task (he did assume everyone else could do this aswell until I pointed it out to him), he can talk and do his work at the same time, I teach him that although he can do this, other's can't so he needs to talk to his friends at play time so they can learn. It did sink in eventually but doesn't stop him from asking his teacher questions.

Is your daughter asking questions when she's talking or talking to her friends?

I think your father was a little too blunt with you skidoodly.

skidoodly · 26/05/2010 00:04

I don't think I was quite like your DD in that I wasn't an incessant talker from primary school, it was something that developed at around your DD's age as I became a teenager and less shy, more popular.

I was really surprised by what the teacher (it was one in particular, the others all said I was bright etc.) had said and very taken aback by how seriously he took it.

So, yes, I think what he said made me sort it out. Not that there weren't other problems later that he had to have further words about , but teenagers love to make things harder for themselves than they have to be.

Original poster
itstimmytime · 25/05/2010 23:58

Thanks for your reply skidoodly. She said earlier that I had made her feel so bad about disrupting lessons for others that she would really try to be quiet.

I will certainly reiterate what your father said - I too think effort is much more important that academic grades.

I think I have been too quick to respond to the positive and I should have nipped this in the bud years ago.

Did you outgrow this or was it only your fathers'words which made you sort it out?

OP posts:
skidoodly · 25/05/2010 23:50

So she's bright, doesn't find the classes too hard, but is quite happy to disrupt them for other children who need to work a bit harder?

I had this problem when I was at school.

My father (a teacher) told me to stop it, that I was being a spoilt brat and behaving in an unjustifiably selfish way, that I was damn lucky and should recognise it, and that if he had to hear any more teachers telling him I was bright but disruptive in class that I would be in a lot of trouble with him.

He made it crystal clear that when reports of any kind came in from school he would be looking only at marks for effort and was not interested in grades. He expected me always to do my best and that getting good grades without effort was meaningless.

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