Behaviour Scenarios

1. Behaviour Scenarios Resources to support Charlie Taylor’s Improving Teacher Training for Behaviour Scenario 4: Gaining attention in a noisy class This Scenario has been developed for Initial Teacher Training (ITT) to enable trainees to demonstrate knowledge, skills and understanding of behaviour management

2. Introduction Behaviour2Learn has developed 17 Scenarios focusing on the 8 areas highlighted in the Teaching Agency's document Improving teacher training for behaviour. These are: • Personal Style • Self-management • Reflection • School Systems • Relationships • Classroom Management • More Challenging Behaviour • Theoretical Knowledge Improving teacher training for behaviour has been developed by Charlie Taylor, the Government’s expert adviser on behaviour, to complement the new Teachers’ Standards that all teachers have to demonstrate from September 2012.

3. Scenario 4 Gaining attention in a noisy class The class are working on an exercise and becoming increasingly noisy. The quality of the noise suggests that they are not sufficiently focused on their work . You want them to move on the next task. How do you make the transition?

4. Key Learning Outcomes • Development of your personal style for managing behaviour . • Practice in ways to gain the attention of a class. • Understanding how and where to stand and move in order to be an authoritative presence in the classroom. • Understanding of the need to keep a focus on learning - the main purpose of the lesson.

5. What do you do? Consider these responses and choose the best one(s): • Gain attention using an established signal and ask, “Who has completed the task?” • Write the next task up on the board. • Pick on the noisiest individual and tell them to stand up and tell the class what he/she has done. • Move purposefully to stand where everyone can see you. Make eye contact with some pupils to show that you are about to speak. • Go round to each group in turn to give them the next task. • Clap your hands and say firmly, “OK everyone, pens down, stop and look this way, please.” • Raise your voice over the noise and shout, “Who is ready for the next task?”

6. What might be the best choice? 4. Move purposefully to stand where everyone can see you. Make eye contact with some pupils to show that you are about to speak. 1.Gain attention using an established signal and ask, “Who has completed the task?” In setting standards with the class, you should have agreed a ground rule about gaining attention (e.g. by holding your hand up and pupils copying you). Reinforcing it with praise helps to speed up the process and establish it more firmly. However, it is not enough to gain quiet. You need to seize the moment quickly and calmly and identify progress before rounding off the task and moving on. 5. Clap your hands and say firmly, “Right, pens down, stop and look this way, please.” Alternatively, a signal noise (other than shouting) can be used to attract attention and to ensure that pupils are all listening before you begin to speak.

7. How might you prevent a recurrence? • Plan for transitions as part of your lesson plan, anticipating possible problems and working out how to avoid them. • Practise routines with the class, making this fun if you can. Perhaps use tools (such as a musical instrument) to help you. • Asking pupils to do something, e.g. turn to face you or put their pens down, will gain their attention more effectively than simply calling for quiet. • Remind the class of the routine for changing tasks and say that it will be their learning behaviour objective next time. • Do not forget to do this – make a note in your planner if this helps or, better still, use reward charts or points for each time they change task quickly.

8. Underlying Principles • Changing the activity may improve behaviour and engagement - a new start can provide fresh interest and challenge. • Teachers need to find ways to establish quiet without shouting or nagging the class, both of which are likely to be ineffective. • Getting pupils to change what they are doing (“Pens down please and look this way”) is often more effective than simply calling for silence (“ Quiet everyone please”). • Skill and practice are needed to judge, then seize, the moment to achieve a change in work activity. • Setting up and reinforcing procedures and routines is time well spent, but is not an end in itself: the measure of success is the learning which takes place. • Smooth transitions from one task to another maintain the learning momentum.

9. Rights and Responsibilities • It is the teacher’s responsibility to establish a clear framework for classroom discipline to manage learners’ behaviour constructively and promote their self-control and independence. • Pupils have the right to be in a situation where they can learn without interruption from others, they also have the responsibility to behave in an acceptable way. • It is, however, the teacher’s responsibility to create the conditions in which learning can take place.

10. Activities to try • You will no doubt have observed or tried a number of approaches to resolve this type of situation. List them and evaluate the effectiveness (in terms of maintaining the learning momentum) of each in your experience. How far was their effectiveness dependent on the particular situation in which they were employed? • Choose, from your list, two strategies you have not tried before which appeal to you and try them out in the classroom, preferably with a colleague to observe their effectiveness. Arrange to discuss the outcomes: “What went well?” and “Even better if…”

11. Conclusions Research shows that the chance of disruptive behaviour is greatest at transition points in a lesson. It is therefore important to establish and practise systems for gaining pupils’ attention and making smooth transitions from one activity to another. Getting pupils to change what they are doing is often more effective than simply calling for silence. The purpose is to maintain the pace of the lesson. You should not have to waste time waiting to gain everyone’s attention. Pupils work at different rates and it is not necessary always to change the activity for the whole class at the same time. You can experiment with ways of moving groups or individuals on to new activities when they are ready.

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