It may be early days, but so far this term this is proving to be an effective classroom management technique to limit Spanish in the class.

It’s a simple “button” which I stick next to a student’s name when they speak Spanish.  When another student speaks Spanish, the button moves.  Whoever has the button at the end of the class stays behind to help tidy up…wiping off the board, putting the tables and chairs straight, etc.

It’s handy as well as they police each other!

• Engage the whole class at the start of the lesson, with a drill or something similar.  My colleague Ceri Jones has a great activity in which she divides the class into two teams, A and B.  She says a question and then says either A or B.  If she says A, team A repeat the question and B answer.  It encourages everyone to listen as they need to know what the question was and which team is going to ask it.
• Think about how you can address the group rather than the individual – if you have a class of fifteen students and want to spend a minute with each one, what are your other students doing for the fourteen minutes when your attention isn’t focussed on them?
• Do you have an effective points sytem?  Is it based on the individual, a team or the whole class?
• What role do fast-finishers have?  We often use those quick students as helpers and correctors, but do they know how to do this effectively?
• Think about the level of noise in the classroom.  Michael Linsin suggests a scale so everyone knows what’s expected of them at any one time.
• Finally, think about the things you do on a daily basis and whether they could be done more effectively.  For example, writing the students’ names on the board takes time at the start of every lesson – could you have them pre-prepared on paper, or ask a student to do it?