Question by Amanda: What should a teacher do when students keep talking out of turn in her classroom?
The students do not raise their hand to answer/ask questions. She just keeps reminding them you need to raise your hand and does not call on them until they do so or ignores them. What’s a better techinique so she does not have to keep taking time out of the class period to remind them? This is a special education classroom. Also what could she do if a student keeps whining instead of just ignoring his behavior or lecturing him.
Best answer:
Answer by sonomanona
You didn’t say how old the students are, and that can have some impact. But in general, ignoring kids who fail to raise their hands is the best strategy. I teach special ed students ages 5 to 8, and I don’t acknowledge them if they don’t raise their hands, although I will give them the visual cue of raising my hand. And since they are really young and don’t have a lot of school experience, I will also sometimes say something like, “I can only call on students who raise their hands.” You can make this more powerful by giving a reinforcer to students who do raise their hands – with these little guys, I sometimes say, “Wow, great hand-raising, John! Here’s a Skittle (or a sticker, or whatever) for your great hand-raising! And great answer, too – you’re right, today IS Monday!”
It takes a bit more time initially to remind (in general, not specifically to the student) that kids need to raise their hands to be called on. And it can also take some more time to reinforce the kids who are properly raising their hands. But in the end, you will save time when everyone understands that hand-raising is the only way to get called on.
If one of my young kids is whining, I will say something like, “I can only talk to kids who raise their hands and use their ‘Big Kid’ voice.” You need to tweak that to match the appropriate age group, but it really doesn’t take very much time at all to give that short prompt and then ignore any outbursts. When they do raise their hand, you have to call on them and reinforce their good hand-raising, and give a few prompts to get an appropriate verbal response. I would advise avoiding a lecture, because getting the teacher’s attention in that way can be reinforcing.
I am not huge on ignoring behaviors, because I find that teachers too often ignore behaviors that then escalate into something that needs to be addressed. But whining and lack of hand-raising are both areas that are very appropriate to ignore. There is no magic wand that goes with this procedure, but if you consistently ignore the misbehavior and consistently reinforce the appropriate behavior, you will win.
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