More messages from the classroom

 

In a previous post I explained that we need to think about the messages we convey in our classrooms. In this post I list a few scenarios and offer some thoughts about what they could mean and what their impact would be on the classroom.

You set homework, but you don’t mark it.

For the students this will mean that homework is not important. And if teachers don’t mark their work, they will not put in the effort next time. Not every homework needs to be graded, but marking and providing feedback are crucial for students’ learning.

You don’t ask any questions during your lesson.

This makes students think that you don’t care for their views and consider them not good enough to add value and content. In the long term avoiding their questions will demotivate your students and misbehaviour will creep in gradually.

 

A pupil disrupts the class, so you send the pupil out of the classroom.

Firstly, you must remember that you are still responsible for the health and safety of that child, so sending someone out is not a brilliant idea, as you don’t know what’s going to happen next. The message you are sending is that your lesson isn’t important, so it’s okay to miss parts of it. And the other pupils will get the idea that if they don’t want to be in your lesson, they will just have to misbehave and be disruptive, and they will get to be sent out, too.

 

You haven’t prepared a lesson plan.

If you haven’t planned your lesson, you are not prepared for teaching, then why should you students prepare for your lesson? But if you have prepared the lesson with resources and an idea of what you do when and why and how and you just haven’t printed off a lesson plan, then that’s a different matter. But under no circumstances should you be in a lesson unprepared.