This will focus on classroom management for children (6-13) in the ESL setting. A full program for classroom management includes consequences. Consequences can be used for when students do not follow the rules. But before you issue a consequence you'll need to have a set of classroom rules in place and make sure that the students are familiar with them.
Small children can be really sensitive, so it's important that whenever a consequence is given that the student knows that the problem wasn't with them, but with the rule that was broken.
Positive reinforcement works well, however it's not going to work in every situation. Consequences are a form of negative reinforcement. They are a kind of punishment. Negative reinforcement should not be confused with being "bad". In short, when we use positive reinforcement we give something (+) and when we use negative reinforcement we take something away (-).
They are two different sides of the same coin and we can use them both to make our classes better. The whole point of classroom management is to make a better learning environment.
Here's a list of possible consequences.
- Change the students seating. If you have two misbehaving students then separate them.
- Remove the student from the game or activity. If you are doing something fun and a student is misbehaving then remove him or her and give them a worksheet or something else to do.
- Subtract time from something fun and let the class know why you did that.
- Stop the game or activity and note why. If the students are getting too noisy then stop what you are doing and do something less fun.
- Subtract a point from the team. If you have a misbehaving student take a point from their team. You'll have peer pressure working for you then.
- Subtract a point from the student. You can put a minus one by their name. (-1)
- Make them stand for as long as they are old. A ten year old would stand next to his desk for ten minutes. (-2)
- Give the student a time out for as long as they are old. Take the student outside to talk in a calm manner and tell him what you want him to do. Hand him his book or a worksheet and then let him back in after his time is up. (-3)
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