PreTeaching Classroom Procedures

Posted by Dorit Sasson Oct 4, 2007

By now, all of you should know that without an effective classroom management system, you won't get a lot of teaching done. Managing a classroom takes time, work and most of all, a lot of patience. The real work though comes in the planning: What procedures do you want to teach? Or in other words, what procedures are instrumental for managing your class? Take a few minutes now to write them down.

When you have finished with that, think of the steps involved in teaching them. In illustrating exactly what I mean, use the example below for group work:

• Explain the work. Students should know that this is the time they are sitting frontally listening, perhaps following the steps on a worksheet or simply taking notes.
• Students should know how much time will be allocated to task and what type of seating arrangement will be carried out? For example, will students be expected to turn their desks or do they have five minutes to decide who they are going to work with?

There are two options for procedures for this point on, which you of course should plan ahead.

• How will the students end the activity? What procedure is needed for ending the activity? Do they need to go back to their original seats or can they do the follow-up (end of the group task) from their seats?

Group work is a multi-involving procedure that involves a variety of instructional tasks. If you find that it is too much to plan, you can always start small using classroom organizational topics for starters.

Do you have a question or concern you would like to ask about pre-teaching classroom procedures? Now's your chance to email them.