"My students won't stop talking!" "I just have a chatty class this year." "If they'd stop talking we could get some learning done!"
Every class comes with a personality and, as teachers, it benefits us and our students when we take the time to learn the group's personality and build upon it through our content and structure. With that being said, some classroom personalities are easier managed than others.
My first year teaching, about a month into the school year, my role was switched to be a push-in art teacher in the afternoons in a Title One school in inner city Washington, D.C. This gave me the chance to see a lot of different classrooms, personalities, and management styles. These ranged from teachers who spent their days shaming students into submission, teachers who had the biggest hearts but no structure and had students hanging from the ceiling when I walked in to teach (yes, truly from the ceiling), and teachers who had what seemed to be a magic touch--never raising their voices or uttering a mean word, and yet having a beautifully calm, productive, and kind learning environment.
One class I pushed into was referred to as "the oasis." This classroom was run by one of the greatest classroom management gurus that I have ever observed (and she happened to be my mentor!). Teachers said she sprinkled "magic pixie dust" on her students each day because they had no better way to describe how she managed her room.
On day one of art teaching, I entered her classroom and her 30 seven-year-old students were sitting up attentively in their groups, waiting for my lesson. She left the room and I began teaching, naively believing this was just an exceptional group of students, and then something happened... A slow buzz of chatter began. Students started fidgeting around in their seats. And the next thing I knew, this peaceful and productive classroom was pure chaos. Like a student balancing on top of my easel hitting the ceiling tiles or a student swiping all the art materials off of the kidney table and onto the carpet with one big sweep of his arm...that level of chaos. My lessons devolved like this for quite some time.
Ok, so these behaviors were more extreme than just a "chatty class." What I soon learned from my mentor and administration was that her class was in fact "stacked" with students who had extremely challenging behaviors the previous year. She was given the seven most challenging students of the grade level. When I say challenging behaviors, I am talking about students running away from classrooms, throwing chairs, climbing up window sills, knocking over bookshelves, dangling from stairway railings three with a three-story drop...it goes on. Again, this is more extreme than a talkative class, but it is relevant! Because I learned something really important from this teacher:
A strong manager can always cultivate the classroom environment and behaviors that they want.
After a year of working in this teacher's classroom, observing her, being videoed by her, and receiving feedback from her, I now have a little of that "magic pixie dust" to share.
First a note on common solutions for managing a talkative class:
Like I said, by pushing in to classrooms that first year, I was able to observe a lot of management styles and behavior management strategies. The most common ones were:
writing student names on the board and giving checks next to them if they called out or held side conversations
taking away recess time for the whole class each time they talked out of turn (usually by way of starting a timer each time the class spoke out of turn or got "too loud")
saying "I'll wait" (oh lord, these teachers could be waiting indefinitely while students shouted at each other, "BE QUIET!" "SHE'S WAITING!" and it would be a solid fifteen minutes into my teaching block)
verbally reprimanding students each time they called out of had side conversations (but no actual consequence occurred)
letting the class talk and talk and get so loud until the teacher exploded and everyone, teacher, students, myself, felt stressed
And my mentor...she did not touch a single one of these strategies. What she showed me is that people learn new behaviors faster through POSITIVE reinforcement AND these behaviors are more likely to become habitual, just a part of who the child is, over time, rather than a temporary reaction to a consequence. And her class really did develop these positive habits (more like character traits) over the course of the year--traits like self discipline, kindness, attentiveness to detail, and respect for teammates, adults, and belongings.
So how did she do it? Was she broke from giving out rewards and candy with all her positive reinforcement? On the contrary. I never saw her bring in a physical reward!
And without further ado, here is her magic pixie dust:
Clear, actionable phrases for behaviors
Practice, Praise, Practice
Immediate "consequences" for wanted and unwanted behaviors--but her "consequences" might not be what you are thinking!
Clear, Actionable Phrases for Behaviors
She let her students know explicitly when to speak, when to be silent, and at what volume to be speaking. There was never any guesswork on the students part. To ensure that every child understood the expectation, she had anchor charts and lessons to introduce each chart. She reinforced the expectation with every content lesson she delivered.
Start with the voice volume chart.
There are a range of appropriate and inappropriate vice volumes for a class--from completely silent to over the top yelling. The voice volume chart has each level of voice listed and a clip next to the appropriate level.
Examples of the levels and appropriate times for them are as follows:
0 Silent (independent practice, assessments, hallways)
1 Whisper (independent practice, asking to borrow something, library)
2 Soft/restaurant/low (partner practice, group work, library)
3 Speaking/talking (lunch, recess, sharing an answer to the whole class, presenting)
4 Yelling (emergency)
This chart is not just part of the classroom décor. It is a regularly referenced chart-- I'm talking multiple times during every lesson. "Voice volume zero while we transition to the carpet please." "Voice volume one when you reach your seats to complete your math practice." (Sometimes I feel that whispering during practice gives students the chance to support each other without creating major distractions). "Voice volume 2 as you speak to your partners about the character's motivation." You get the idea.
Additionally, there was an anchor chart with behavioral expectations for every block of the day and for every type of activity within each block. The charts for behaviors had three columns: look, sound, and feel. She would write clear, concise, student friendly phrases under each column describing how the class should look, sound, and feel. And being that this was second grade with a wide range of reading levels, she included stick figures who illustrated the expectations, as well. Below are two examples of how these charts might look for different times of the day.
I use the chart below to introduce independent reading. The "sound" section is where I am very explicit with the level of noise and talking that is allowed (none). I also talk about the volume that our bodies can make because a tapping pencil or kicking foot creates just enough noise pollution for students to think that they can get away with whispering (which leads to talking, which leads to yelling, which leads to premature gray hair)
.
We practice these expectations after I introduce it, I reinforce it everyday (more on that in the next section) and I reference the chart every day before this block of time.
The next chart is one I use in every block of the day. Partner talk. Partner talk is so, so important and can also get wildly out of hand if you have a very social class.
Again, the "sound" section of the chart has clear, actionable volume expectations for students. At the beginning of the year, before we do any turn and talk, we refer back to the chart and review our expectations. This means that for the first month of school, I am referencing this chart at minimum 4 times a day.
In addition to the anchor charts, there are short, clear phrases that my mentor would say to redirect students. It was never, "stop talking" or "why do you all talk so much, I'm always having to tell you to be quiet."
With her, it was always, "our mouths are silent when someone else is speaking," "turn your sounds off," "our bodies are still and silent so we can do our best learning," "our voices are silent to show respect to our teammates who are focused." No extra fluff, just the directive and a good reason why we should follow it.
Practice, Praise, Practice
Practice, praise, practice is a key component of any behavior management strategy. She provided students practice with talking in groups and then turning their voices off to listen. She provided students with practice whispering at their tables to ask a neighbor for an eraser. She provided students with practice using indoor playing voices at stations around the classroom. If there was a time where students needed to speak or to be silent, they practiced it.
Her practice was rolled out slowly. First, she would model the appropriate voice volume. Then, one student would model the appropriate voice volume and she would narrate what she observed and heard (insert her very clear, actionable phrases for behavior here--i.e., "Navaeh is working without making any sounds so her teammates can focus"). Then a group would practice, while she narrated what she saw ("I can see Jayden's lips moving, but cannot hear his voice because I am not right next to him. Dylan (sitting right next to Jayden), can you hear him? Yes. That is the perfect whisper. Only your neighbor can hear what you are saying"). Then the whole class would practice. And if they didn't get it right...they would do it again.
Praise: She did not have a lot of rewards in her class. Very few in fact. But what she did have was constant, consistent positive narration, especially at the beginning of the year. She would tell her students "voice volume zero" and then IMMEDIATELY start narrating all the students who were following the expectation. She would circulate the room with a string of "Jaylon is working silently" "Marissa's body is silent while she reads her book" "Ray picked up her pencil and got to work without making any sounds" "Xavier's sounds are off so his teammates can focus."
Honestly, I think this narrating made the biggest difference. I've heard teachers grumble about over praising students for meeting bare minimum expectations. I get that, I do. And while I call this praise, really all she was doing was reminding the whole class of the expectation while highlighting a student who was following it. There was no lavish praise or reward involve. She rarely said "thank you" while narrating. It was usually just a description of the very specific behavior she was looking for in her class. And she said it in a borderline monotone voice. There was no jumping and clapping, bells and whistles. She was a very calm person.
Now, the one reward she did have at the beginning of the year was a 100% Chart. This chart is a picture of a little jar. Each time 100% of the class followed the expectation, they earned a sticker. When the jar was filled, she took them to the roof (because this is where the playground was since it was in the middle of the city...stressful I thought) for extra recess.
She was serious about 100%. It had to be every student. And it had to be exactly what she asked them to do. If she said every student is silent while she talks, and one student whispered one thing, then they did not meet the expectation. That being said though, she made sure to create plenty of opportunities for her students to fill that jar. She was so specific with her expectations, narrating them as students met them to reinforce them, and so happy to give students a sticker in the jar when they did all meet the expectation, that this wild class had no trouble filling it up in the first month. Be sure to build in lots and lots of opportunities for practice and success so that students get that positive reward.
Immediate Consequences
Ok, so positive narration is great and all, and yay for 100% jars, but what about that one child (or seven in her class) who have more trouble getting in line with their teammates?
Before I share her series of consequences, I want to say that I never saw her sitting down while students were at their desks. Ever. I was with her all year. There were only two times she would sit: when she called her class to the carpet for a mini-lesson because she would occasionally sit in a chair at the front of the carpet to use the document camera; or when she was at her kidney table working with a reading group (but for this time of day she had reading spots designated around the room on little carpet squares so that students could independently read without distraction). I point out that she never sat while students were at their desks because this is an important part of her consequence system.
Here was her series of consequences during independent practice:
A quick pause in her lesson and direct eye contact with the student who is whispering/talking/fidgeting/or in the small beginnings of making any kind of distraction
Move next to the student who is talking
Use a small, non-verbal signal to signal to the child to stop talking. (Maybe tapping their desk softly to show you are aware of their behavior, maybe a finger to the lips).
Verbally tell the student to "turn their sounds off" or "our voices are silent right now"
Move the child away
When I started implementing consequence 1 and 2, I was truly blown away by their small actions, big power. It cracks me up to this day how sneaky students think they are. They are truly unaware that we can see everything. And by moving next to them, looking directly at them, or silently signaling to them--showing them that you do, in fact, see them speaking out of turn with a neighbor--stops most behaviors. Be seen looking, see everything, do not turn your back to the class (yes, this does require you to master writing sideways on the white board)!
When she was teaching or modeling a lesson with students on the carpet, she did not use proximity. Instead she heavily relied on the pause and eye contact:
Pause and look at student talking, they will notice quickly that you stopped for them and 9/10 will hush. Resume the lesson quickly once they stop.
Pause again and look at chatting student and say, "I've stopped for you twice now. Turn your sounds off and do not interrupt again. This is important."
Move the child away
I loved watching this. She would be teaching. A child would turn to whisper something, or try to call something out loud, and she would stop. Purse her lips. And make eye contact with the child. Then after her noticeable pause. She'd resume her teaching. If it happened again, she'd stop midsentence, and noticeably pause again, perhaps with eyebrows raised this time. If it happened a third time, she'd use her line, "I've stopped for you twice now. Turn your sounds off, do not interrupt again. This is important." Rarely did she reach that line. Those pauses somehow kept her students in line (and they work in my classroom to this day!).
Now for the move the child away. At some point, a child will come in having a bad morning. They will be ready to raise hell no matter the kind, consistent, clear management strategies you use. And in this case, they do not need to be sitting near their team where they can distract their teammates from their valuable learning time.
She never put children out of the classroom. Everyone was an important member of the class and everyone needed to be present to learn. But she did keep a few desks by themselves, separated from the groups. If students were having a hard time staying quiet in groups, they were moved to these "islands." She was the calm, collected, kind leader of the classroom during these times. In a firm voice (but still kind, never snarky) she would say, "it seems like you are having a hard time staying silent. Let's move you to that desk over there so that you and your teammates can do their best work. This work is important."
Ok, ok, but do you have really challenging students in your classroom? Like you are imagining saying those words and then they laugh in your face and say no? Have their parents on speed dial. This was her final strategy and it worked every time.
At the beginning of the year, she called every parent with something positive to say. She established great relationships with each child's family through regular communication. She made it clear to the parents that they had a partnership and she was on their child's team. So when she needed to, she could call the parent up in the middle of class and say, "Hi, just calling because Marc is having a tough time in class today. He's struggling with following directions and staying on task. I would love for him to have a great rest of his day and I was hoping if he got to speak with you, it could help him turn his day around." And pass the phone off to the child.
Quick Summary of the Strategies
All right, to sum this up--none of my strategies for a talkative class have to do with games and rewards and prizes and jumping up and down or taking things away. Really what it comes down to is the three main components of good management--clarity, consistency, and connection. So, make sure that students know exactly when, how long, and how loud they can talk. Give them time to practice. Narrate what you see all year long to constantly remind them of the expectations. Consider a 100% chart. And practice those tiny, but massively effective consequences. (For more on consequences and rewards, check out this post). Never turn your back, notice everything, and let them know that you are seeing everything. Establish good relationships with parents and guardians just in case you reach the end of your rope. You got this!
Looking for more classroom management support? Check out this Comprehensive Classroom Management Plan, complete with guiding questions, checklists, and exemplars to help you set both you and your students up for a peaceful, productive year!
