How to get a large noisy class to be quiet

[INXS998]

It's a year 9 class with about 32 pupils, and I only them once a fortnight so it's hard to build a relationship with them.
They do the work but are just so noisy it gives you a headache. I've tried standing at the front, counting down, raising my voice, simply just waiting, but nothing works.
There are far too many students talking to give them all behaviour points, and the large class size doesn't help. They just won't stay quiet. I don't want to shout over them.

*chatterers, not charters!

@collywobblescar she used the Ralph Lauren photographs from google or something. It’s left me with a long lasting attraction for men in polo shirts

I've also started writing their warnings on the desk in front of them rather than on the board (science lab desks wipe down easily) I find it less disruptive to just go over and say 'you're talking' and write a W on the desk in front of them (if they wipe it off it escalates) and it's more discrete if they like an argument and it's much quicker because you can just walk towards them with your board pen out and it has the desired affect (sometimes!) not for everyone but it's something new for me to try!

I have had success with this strategy with this sort of class-

At the start of the lesson tell students you'll be doing three phone calls/ emails home at the end of the lesson, and the names will be picked at random (using name generator website)

Tell them you want the calls to be positive, but they will be completely honest

This drives me mad. Fine getting students to be silent for instructions or teacher talk but then constantly off task and talking with a ridiculous volume. Usually just go for silence if it's an OK class.

Did a random day of supply and went to a school for the first time today and the deputy said they expect silence all lessons (secondary grammar) but it's just not happening for me with cover work, with kids I don't know, with no discipline policy displayed anywhere!

Like that idea dumbledore

Good luck tomorrow

It’s year 9! And you have them once a fortnight. Sorry, but In my experience there is little you can do. Have you tried playing music quietly and telling them you have to be able to hear it? Other than that, earplugs? Do you have them before break or lunch or home time? If you do, you might find an effective system to be where if they talk they have to stay in. There really isn’t a solution to this problem, I’m afraid. They don’t see you often enough for you to establish yourself.

Please please don't do anything that will get hem MORE excited. In this camp, I would put whistles , clapping rhythms etc but also lots of tasks and constant changes of tasks. I have been teaching a long time and also done a great deal of behaviour work. ONE main tasks a lesson 9witha quiet starter possibly) which gets them to focus , concentrate and make them think HARD is the way to go.

It is the old fashioned 'bore them into submission'.

Also are you giving too many behaviour pints? I don't really work in one of those schools, but some teachers give out loads, and do names on boards etc. they are routinely the ones who have the least control over a class's behaviour. It excites the kids.

Lastly, 32 ! That's at least 2 too many. Have you spoken to your HOD about the class?

Behaviour pOints not pints ! That might not help (although they might go to sleep...)

I missed the once a fortnight. Oh dear, yes. That can be vvvv tough. I would try not to lose any sleep over a class I see so infrequently but it's hard.

I'd have it written on white board as they walk in.

In clear writing.

Come in and sit in silence.
For every minute it takes for lesson to start we will remain behind at the end.

When told to work in silence - I mean silence - again every minute you talk will mean a minute of silence at lunchtime.

(Works much better if you are messing before break, lunch or home time).

After a few weeks start writing names on board of actual kids doing it. Keep only them behind. It gets the quieter kids on board at first with telling others to shut up and then keeps them onside because they aren't punished when they are silent.

I'd make something like a noise level arrow. You know the red, orange and green semi circle with arrow. Tell them when it gets to orange to quieten down and red means whole class stays behind. Tell them if you get to red you'll ring bell and whole class gets 10 mins after school.

Some groups of children together are just so different to others. But that doesn't mean you cannot teach them harshly to have some self control.

I'd even send a group email to all parents of the class telling them the class are too noisy, they aren't responding to nice,y being asked and therefore you'll start setting lunch and after school detentions.
There's always hope you have a group of supportive parents who will talk to the children at home too.

I have one year 9 class I see once a fortnight, period 5. I feel your pain!

I don’t claim to have cracked it, but here’s what works most of the time:

• something on the desk that they get started in as they arrive. Ideally, make it the same type of thing each lesson (for me, five questions on the board for them to answer on whiteboards)
• never speak while someone else is. Wait. Even if it’s tedious. I count down from 5 when I want silence, then name those who are still talking. If I saw their name twice it’s recorded on the board then onto our behaviour system.
• read something hefty aloud (I teach English so this is usually possible!) - 10 minutes of me reading to them is usually enough to calm them down.
• very clear expectations of outcomes. “I want at least half a page of a4 by 3pm” or “I don’t care how long it is, but it must be perfectly punctuated and contain three syllables”
• periods of planned talking (“two minutes, discuss that question with your partner... right, back to silence”) so that you can say “there’s a chance to talk later. Now isn’t it”

And gin. I find gin helps. After the lesson, obviously!

I have a service bell and ting it

It’s not that loud but weirdly at the beginning they can’t resist it

Then look at them with a big (and slightly scary) grin

They get used to it but use it sparingly

Not a teacher but a tactic one of my kids teachers used for junior/middle high was to arrange the desks in the old fashioned manner, so 2 to a desk with all desks separated. Then he would allocate seats in alphabetical orders to each gender. So the first desk sat a boy with the first surname alphabetically sitting together with a girl with the first surname alphabetically. This meant friends were unlikely to be sitting near each other and at that age girls/boys don’t seem to be that chatty.

Oh and all the other stuff about episodes etc

I have used a very high frequency signal but always try and work it into the starter

Dumbledore that is an excellent idea. I may well ask you for behaviour advice in future! 😊

How about gin in a coffee cup ( for you, not the children)?

I find allowing students to talk while doing written work impossible. Silent working is the way forward! I like all Ms Jane Austen's tips above.

How about using positive behaviour management if the threat of sanctions is having little impact? Start the lesson with all 32 names on the whiteboard. Say that everyone whose name is still on the board by the end gets a reward ( point / credit / positive phone call home / whatever the school system is). To achieve that they need to follow the rules and work quietly. If someone talks too loudly delete their name from the board. You can always add it again later if they rectify their behaviour. I used this with year 9 (very challenging) and they responded to it because they wanted the reward. It got to the stage my hand would move up to the list of names and the student would immediately stop talking, so even the threat of taking the reward away worked.

And of course, needless to say, always follow through with all rewards or sanctions promised.

Definitely 15 mins of you reading something will help. Admittedly this is easier if you teach English or a humanity, but I'm sure there must be some way of working it in to any lesson.

For one class, I wrote SSSHHHH! in enormous letters on the whiteboard. As each one came in, I just put a finger on my lips. We were able to start in silence, which makes a big difference.

I've used this:

needsfocusedteaching.com/video/

as a school.

This is a process of settling classes right from the start, rather than at the point of them being noisy.
My staff found that following this consistently worked.

Blimey! That video was a very long winded way of saying 'greet them at the door' and 'focus on the positives'.

I'm starting supply teaching in secondary this year and have been watching Rob Plevin's classroom management videos on YouTube. He has a website too needsfocusedteaching.com He has some good ideas. The main idea with a particularly noisy class centres around making them all line up outside and letting small groups (the ones that are quiet and following instructions) into the classroom at a time. Have work set up on desks for them to start straightaway on, such as a 5 min starter. Basically get them quiet before they even enter the room.

@Reythemamajedi
Not being funny

You’re right, you’re not. Not funny. Not informed. Not a teacher either.

Sigh...

Hmmm... with this lining them up outside, at my school if you let them in bit by bit the ones left outside would see this as a challenge and try it on (then the ones inside would get noisy?). Our kids are very entitled and WILL do battle. I am all for greeting them at the door and getting them straight in. It's partly the design of my school buildings but I have a NEVER line them up outside policy. Be in the room already/ at the door (where poss) so they come in bit by bit and get settled rather than en masse. Standing in your doorway also helps you monitor their behaviour and noise in the corridor as they approach and heads off interactions with undesirables form other classes!

I don't have starters on the desk but often have something to distract them on my whiteboard screen.