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.

I’ve read through this whole thread and made lots of mental notes. I have a couple of similar classes and it’s tough going.

Lining them up outside and letting them in when you’re ready is great if you’ve got the space, but at my school you haven’t

It also assumes that you have your own classroom and get there before the kids. Settling classes is a lot more difficult if you’ve trekked across the school, a colleague has told your class to go in, they’re having a chat and you’re trying to get your planner out and log onto the computer.

In those situations I use a silent starter like numeracy ninjas or or something from mathsbox once I’ve managed to log in. The routine of the starter being silent settles them even though there’s chaos disorderly behaviour in the classroom beforehand. I find it works if the starter is timed, so they have to engage straight away, and competitive, so they are encouraged to do it well.

Lining them up outside and letting them in when you’re ready is great if you’ve got the space, but at my school you haven’t

This is so true! Also the space where my kids line up is down half a flight of stairs and around a corner from my actual classroom. So I get them beautifully quiet and then I have to choose between either leading them in and the ones at the back getting silly or sending them in with me following and the ones at the front getting silly 🤦‍♀️ There’s no space for me to stand in the corridor to supervise both halves of the class. With 34 of them it’s pretty manic at changeover.

A teacher I worked with would put the radio/music on, low enough not to disturb other classes and so the student would have to quiet down to listen. He would also let students pick a song. Not sure if you classroom is set up for this, but when left alone with a class of student to teach, I used this and it worked quite well.

I wouldn’t let students pick unless you want them doing their work to bloody Stormzy. I made this mistake at Christmas when I said they could have Christmas music. Dear god they listen to some shit.

But also inexplicably like Michael Buble.

Mine are younger but I work at a school with a high number of ebd children, no behaviour policy as such, no sanctions and no reward system. They can be a right pain to settle down.
We often use "Dumdadadumdum" and the kids say "dumdum".
They also respond to singing (and I'm terrible...perhaps they just want me to shut up).
With my younger ones, I do
"Make a circle, make a circle..1..2..3...all my friends are here with me."
In the corridor, we currently sing "In Harmony" from Sing Up, which they really like. Makes them stop bickering and pushing and kicking. Instead...they focus on me and sing along.

In lessons, they get three strikes and they are out. (That is not part of our policy but I've got to do something.) This is followed by an email or phone call home. I'm lucky in that we've mostly got parents, who are supportive of this and want their kids to behave themselves.
We work quietly in lessons as a rule. We have a group work area where they can go and work with a partner or in a group and are allowed to chat. If they are being annoying out there, they lose that privilege.

I write ‘Fussy Minutes’ in a bubble on the board. When I ask for quiet, I wait a short while - if anyone carries on talking I put one mark in the Fussy Minutes Bubble. The rest of the class encourage the chatterers to stop. If they don’t stop, I put another Fussy Minutes mark on the board. Fussy Minutes are the minutes that the whole class stays in at playtime- peer pressure helps to keep this to a minimum.

If your school doesn't allow you to write the names of pupils at risk of a sanction on the board, which mine doesn't, I have found drawing a smile and writing the names of students who are doing what they should be on the board to be really effective with noisy classes.

From my experience it heavily depends on the schools behaviour policy. What's it like there? In my school, the kids all know the policy, and how to get removed from class. On calling a student is common and the school has a efficient system of removing children from class. It is actively encouraged. Very little behaviour orobelsm and the school is known across the federation as having excellent behaviour. I personally do a count down when it's getting too loud, and if anyone talks, I issue warnings according to the policy, and if that child reaches their on call amount, I email and the on call collects the child. Easy peazy.

Teachers teach. If a child is disruptive, they shouldn't be in the room. If the school allows disruptive children to remain in classroom, the school is failing at managing behaviour.

Guess that doesn't help you too much, I'm persoanlly a fan of countdowns, and then issue warnings after I give a couple of chances. Often just saying excuse me and use their name works as it catches their attention.

Don't be too softly softly but also not too aggressive. Calm confidence. You never say please either, you say thank you and move on. Don't get into debates with students.

If you have no behaviour policy I suggest creating your own in class,somethijf like 3 warning ticks and you have a detention.

4 warnings is removal from class and call parents.

That kind of thing.

Also, make sure you know who everyone is and where they're supposed to sit. Consider your seating plan carefully. Sit at home and think about who shoukd sit next to who.

When you have a new plan, have them kine up back of the room and tell them where to sit.

Omg I wish I worked at your school!

I have space to line students up that helps and we have a clear consequence system. 4 consequences and they are removed and have a lunch time detention, an after school detention and a letter home. Where you place yourself in the room matters and an way of recording warnings - I use the seating plan on idoceo. You don't want to be turning round to write names on a board when a class are playing up.

i also have everything out at the start of a lesson. At the end of a lesson a class give out books for the next class. If they need to get equipment during the lesson there is a clear time to do that, I usually say 2 mins for the class to collect colours and then the chance is gone.

This is my routine with every key stage 3 class

Line up outside the door. When they are 95 % settled and looking my way I tell them they will enter the room in silence.

I then stand at my door boundary and they are silent as they enter my room. They will stand behind their chairs in silence when they enter. I don't leave that position. If they speak they go to the back of the line and get a warning.

When they are all in the room I stand at the front and say " I am scanning the room now to check for silence". Anybody speaking gets a warning. I deliberately let the silence hang to show control.

They then sit down and have a task to do in silence whilst I do the register. Again if they talk they get a warning.

Nobody talks when I do or when a student is contributing or that is a warning.

During the lesson they will also do some silent written work. I set the task, check for questions and they say " we will now work in silence for .... minutes, I am now going to stand here and watch"

That works. The word silence is key. Be quiet is open to interpretation.

If they get 2 warnings in a lesson they get a note on their SIMS behaviour record. If they get 3 warnings they get a note on their SIMS record and a detention.

As a head of faculty I run behaviour reports every week. Any student with 2 behaviour points on the system within a half term from the same subject gets a letter home. If they get to 4 ( hasn't happened yet this year) we will remove them from lessons and in invite parents in.

We also do lots of positives. Student of the lesson, lots of merits and lots of contact home for good reasons.

I also don't say please when giving a behaviour instruction because is an instruction not a request. I give an instruction and follow it with thankyou because that implies that I expect it to happen.

Tone of voice is also very important. Make sure your voice goes down slightly at the end of an instruction and not up. Going up implies a question and not a statement.

I was recently invited into a y10 class to talk to them about doing a budget, basic economics, what I do at work. This was at a successful central London school.

I was shocked at their behaviour - talking over the teacher(and me), ignoring requests to be quiet and get on with their work. I would expect instant silence when the teacher is talking and quiet when working. When the bell rang for the end of class , many just got up and left without waiting to be dismissed. Three children were sent out of class but you could hear them messing around on the corridor.

Not sure I’ll be going back or offering work experience!

Quiet teacher= quiet class.

Once you've got their attention, speak just slightly louder than a whisper, so they have to almost strain to hear you. I had a colleague that taught like this (I've always struggled) but her classroom was always so quiet and calm compared to mine!

was shocked at their behaviour - talking over the teacher(and me), ignoring requests to be quiet and get on with their work

Par for the course. The parents back these kids to the hilt. Against my better judgement I have to grudgingly admire schools like Michaela for insisting on something better than this. It needs to be all or nothing with kids these days.

One of the toughest scenarios, when you see a class infrequently. There’s little opportunity to form a relationship with them.

I used to put a smiley face on the whiteboard too and write names of students who cooperated on it. I had a miserable face too and names went on that, but were erased if they stopped talking. I told them that I expected the whole class to be on the positive side by the end of the lesson.

I’d also make a point of noticing who was working quietly and thank them. That usually has the effect of encouraging those around and then the wider class.

For some reason, noisy students of this age always manage to watch video clips quietly. I don't know why. Literally anything vaguely relevant works. A 5 min clip at the beginning means you can finish your coffee and have a shufti at the name list to remind yourself which ones to hover over. Stand behind them to watch. Maybe another clip to introduce the plenary.

A colleague used to like to silently approach off task students with a big eyeball drawn on a show-me board (Big Brother is watching you).

I really like the reception bell idea.