Teacher talk - student talk (practice)

Today, I would like to reflect on the teacher - student talk. Lately, during observations in the school, I was focused one two learners to scrutinise their behaviour during the lesson. Student A is an active student, whereas Student B is also active, but not always when it is needed. Both students answer questions addressed to them by name. Interestingly, I noticed that during one lesson, the teacher mentioned the name of the Student A four times, whereas Student B was mentioned 16 times. Pupil A usually needs teacher's encouragement when the question is asked. When the teacher is talking to the whole group or concentrating on someone else Pupil B tends to walk around the classroom, plays with the hands, displays and it happens that the student runs at the back of the classroom. I noticed that sometimes the teacher approaches Student B to talk for a while. I heard also the teacher asking whether Students B needs some time for himself / herself.

The teacher addresses students by name and her voice is warm when she speaks to them. When students answer questions, the teacher encourage them to speak or correct them to use English instead of Polish. When students are too talkative, the teacher uses some attention grabbers, which I already mentioned in my previous posts, for example, hop, hop; one two three, eyes on me; hocus pocus, everybody focus; or finger up, finger down, finger on your lips. The teacher is always very clear in her instructions, she always gives explanations and some examples. However, she usually needs to repeat the instructions many times. When there are some key words, which are new for students, the teachers says them in Polish. For example, when talking about food and calories, and when asking whether adults eat the same amount of food as children, after asking the question, the teacher said the word 'amount' in Polish as it was crucial for students understanding. 

Moreover, there was a situation that one of the students was misbehaving during the circle time. In spite of many warnings, the pupils was disrupting. Then, the teacher stopped the activity and focused on that student. The student was asked to leave the circle, but was reluctant to do so, so the teacher was waiting and asking again. The teacher spent maybe 5 minutes on the discussion with the student, it took quite a while, but I think it was needed and worth it. By neglecting students disruptive behaviour, they may continue going undesired actions and as a result, it negatively impacts other pupils as well as the teacher. I appreciate that the teacher was consistent in this situation and despite the student being disobedient, the teacher continued with the requests and explanations.

How would you deal with a student who is constantly disrupting the lesson? Do you have any  tips to share?

Angelika :)