CONFIDENTIAL

SGDU4041 Classroom Management

Take Home Exam INSTRUCTIONS: Answer ALL questions.

The most important thing in managing a classroom is to keep the activities flowing smoothly and to establish clear routines so that students know how to accomplish classroom tasks. Describe the FOUR (4) most important types of classroom activities that require clear rules and procedures. (20 marks)

Procedures and routines facilitate classroom management. It is a method or process for accomplishing things in the classroomfor example, what to do when entering the classroom, how to function in a lab group, or what to do when you have a question. A series of procedures and routines creates a structure for the classroom. When students know how the classroom operates, the class suffers fewer interruptions. A class with few interruptions is a class that advances learning. a. Set clear rules and procedure for the students when you enter the class. The students should be prepared and ready to learn, with all their learning materials including books, pen and pencil on the table within the given time. They should all be seated at their own place, and no one is allowed to go out of the class without your permission. Students should know that they should always arrive on time to class and make sure that if their classmate is absent, they should report to the teacher immediately. b. Going in and out of the classroom require the students to seek your permission first. For example if they want to go to the toilet, they should raise their hand or come in front to seek permission from you. Set limit for how many times the students are allowed to go to the toilet. I noticed that some students find excuse to the toilet because they are bored in the class, or simply want to go and have a stroll around the school. c. Assigning roles. Each student should be given roles or responsibility about what to do in the class. For example, A will be given the responsibility to clear the white board, B will make sure that the class is always clean and so on. I find that by doing this, the class runs smoother and I dont have to repeat my instructions every single time I enter the class. From time to time, student will get use to this rules and procedure and it will become part of the classroom culture. d. In a group activity, each student must follow the rules that you have established. Before moving to their respective group position, students must quietly walk to their own groups and sit down once they had found their seat. This is usually the time where the students will make noise and create disruptive behaviour in the classroom, so clear rules and procedures must be established before the activity begins.

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SGDU4041 Classroom Management

Explain why it is difficult for beginning teachers to establish consistency in enforcing classroom rules and procedure? What factors influence how students behave in school? (20 marks)

Classroom management and management of student conduct are skills that teachers acquire and hone over time. These skills almost never "jell" until after a minimum of few years of teaching experience. To be sure, effective teaching requires considerable skill in managing the myriad of tasks and situations that occur in the classroom each day. Skills such as effective classroom management are central to teaching and require common sense, consistency, a sense of fairness, and courage. These skills also require that teachers understand in more than one way the psychological and developmental levels of their students. The skills associated with effective classroom management are only acquired with practice, feedback, and a willingness to learn from mistakes. Sadly, this is often easier said than done. Certainly, a part of this problem is that there is no practical way for education students to "practice" their nascent skills outside of actually going into a classroom setting. The learning curve is steep, indeed. New teachers also often feel overwhelmed by the amount of information that consumes their mind those first few months in the classroom. They are often busy learning school policies, completing paperwork, grading student work, and planning lessons. They don't have much time to devote to re-teaching class rules every day. Therefore, it is imperative that new teachers have an effective classroom management plan in place to make their first year of teaching a successful, productive and happy one. An effective classroom management plan allows a new teacher to focus on teaching rather than student behavior. Students come from various backgrounds. Some are poor while others come from affluent household. They may come from strong family structures in which the parents are professionals or are highly educated, while others students may come from a single parent household and/or have parents with limited educational background. Students from affluent neighborhood will most likely have more educational support and resources to help them through school. Often, these neighborhoods have more tutoring companies, afterschool activities, and education stores than the working class or poor neighborhoods. In struggling, impoverished neighborhoods, education may be seen more as a way to get a job after high school. In some cases, the idea of getting an education is secondary. Economically surviving is more important. Max-Neef's classic hierarchy of fundamental human needs goes like this: subsistence, protection, affection, understanding, participation, leisure, creation, identity and freedom. Social factors such as family instability (divorce, frequent moves), absent parents, insalubrious neighborhoods (gangs, crime, bullying, substance abuse), and neglect (physical, psychological or emotional) undermine almost every single one of these needs, making it extraordinarily unrealistic for students in these situations to focus on academics. All the worse if one of the cultural issues our students are Ainu Shazwani Mohd Yusof 814293 Page 2

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SGDU4041 Classroom Management

battling is a pervasive "street bias" against succeeding in school. All these factors contribute to influence students behavior in school.

Caring classroom is one approach to classroom management that emphasizes the importance of relationship building, mutual problem solving, minimal punishments, and social justice From your own experience managing a class, describe FOUR (4) activities that you can offer to the student using this approach. (20 marks)

ACTIVITIES: 1. Name Tents - I give the kids a 6" by 9" piece of white construction paper and I have them fold it to make a "tent" that stands up. They write their name on it in fancy letters and decorate it with pictures that tell about themselves. Then they take turns telling about their name tents. I usually give about 30 seconds to a minute for each person's introduction. 2. Show you care. Invite children to make a Caring Card for anyone they care about. Provide paper, magazines, collage materials, tape, and glue. Be available to take dictation so those children who choose to can express their feelings in words as well as pictures. 3. Take action. Talk about ways people show they care every day. Then make a list together of things your group can do, such as watering plants, feeding a bird or fish, taking time to listen to a friend, and so on. Throughout the week, help children put these thoughts into action. 4. Team Challenges. Team challenges are engaging activities where students work together within their teams to compete against other teams in the class. These types of activities provide opportunities for students to learn how to collaborate in order to compete, and how to be good sports. Emphasize the importance of congratulating the winning team and not complaining or pointing blame within their own team.

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Critically evaluate the firm and fun or the strict and scary style of teaching and how these styles respond to the needs of students? (20 marks)

Just as people have individual learning style; teachers have teaching styles that works best for them. The firm and fun teaching style works the best for students as they create a safe environment for the students to learn. Students do not feel scared to make mistake because mistake is part of learning. If the teacher establish a strong relationship with the students from the beginning and conduct the class in a fun way that makes students enjoy the lesson, student will definitely acquire the knowledge given rather than merely regurgitate what they learnt. This style of teaching always makes room for students to give their ideas and opinion from time to time and they are able to participate in various activities that make the learning process fun, making it a student centered learning classroom. Strict and scary teacher acts as a dictator in the classroom. Students are scared of the teacher and this caused the learning environment to be very negative towards the students. Usually students only remember what the teacher teach, but does not comprehend the meaning. This style of teaching brings out negative impact for the classroom, as the students are not able to speak up their opinion because they are scared being penalize or humiliated. I think that what is most important for a teacher is to be competent in the field taught. That is the first criterion, without which you cannot be a good teacher, whatever your personality. And secondly, you must be willing to transmit what you know, because you think that your students should have the chance of receiving the knowledge that you were given. So, once you have those two criteria, the personality counts less. Some friendly teachers are good; some strict ones are good too. A teacher must find a balance between the two: be fun but not lax, be strict and rigorous, but not rigid and narrow-minded.

Teacher Shamsuls class has trouble getting settled down and ready for instruction. After moving into the classroom Teacher Shamsul tells the students to get into their seats and be quiet so that instruction can begin. Some of the students do as he asks. Others sharpen pencils, put their bags away, or continue to wander around chatting. Teacher Shamsul has to tell them to quiet down and get into their seats five or six times. By the time the class has finally settled in, ten minutes has gone by. This situation is repeated after recess and any activity that takes the students out of the room. Goal: When the teacher indicates that it is time to begin instruction, students will be quiet and ready within one minute

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Discuss the causes of Shamsuls class and how will Shamsul plan to deal with this misbehaviour. Describe the rationale for his decisions. (20 marks) It is important for a teacher to establish a clear rule, procedures and instruction at the very beginning of the class. Perhaps teacher Shamsul didnt do this, and if he did do it, he did not point out clearly what will happen if the students did not follow his instruction. His classroom management plan is quite poor, and students seem to be disrespectful towards his action thus ignoring his instruction. From my humble point of view, teacher Shamsul should have set out clearly what he expects the class to do whenever he comes into the class. Enforcing his classroom rules that should include a rule specifically for disrespectful behaviorwith an attitude of indifference strengthens of his authority and your classroom management effectiveness. Always remind the students to follow the rules that he had set out, and if they did not follow, there will be consequences for their negative behavior. A good technique for getting the attention of the whole class is to use a 'countdown' from 5 or 10 to allow students the time to finish their conversations (or work) and listen to the next instruction. Explain to the class that why you are using countdown to give them fair warning that they need to listen and that it is far more polite than calling for immediate silence. Embellish the countdown with clear instructions so that students know what is expected and be prepared to modify it for different groups. Making sure that Teacher Shamsul and his students clearly understand what actions and statements are appropriate and inappropriate in the classroom, and that everyone knows what will happen immediately if a student does or says something unacceptable, is the first step towards helping his students make the right behavioural choices. If a student chooses to follow the rules, then that student avoids the consequences and receives the benefits that come from meeting his behavioural expectations. If a student chooses to break a rule, then that student chooses the consequence. For example, temporary loss of privilege is a simple way to help a student remember to use that privilege (art materials, recess, group time) responsibly. Losing a privilege for a class period or a day can help a child pause to remember or relearn a rule.

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