8/3/2019 Does It Make Sense to Teach Students to Learn
Alanguage
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Does it make sense to teach students to learn alanguage, use it
appropriately, think deeply,andsolve problems in
silence?ManagingStudent TalkingClassroom ScenarioSaid Mr. Dennis,
Im in control in my classroom. Students speak whenspokento. You
wontwalk past my classroom and hear any noise unless itscoming from
me. My students know that I insist upon quiet. And he wasright.
Upon entering his
classroom, students were greeted with a scowl f r o m M r . D e
n n i s . H e w a st a l l i n s t a t u r e a n d s h o r t o n w
o r d s . T h e s i l e n c e i n h i s c la ss ro om w asdeaf enin
g. Mr. Den nis was the most fea red and drea ded teacher in
theschool. Each day, he doled out the days lesson in his oh soquiet
and threatening tone. Andthen the students got busy
completingworksheets and writing paragraphs and reading
hisloudlyred commentson their papers. Therewas no
activeparticipation, no student talking, no col-laboration, and no
noise! It was just as Mr. Dennis likedit.T h e o f f i c e n e v e
r h e a r d f r o m M r . D e n n i s , a s h e h a d n o d i s c i
p l i n e p r o b l em s . H e literally scared his students
silent. O ddly enough, at the end oft h e s c h o o l y e a r , h i
s s t u d e n t s i n e v i t a b l y s c o r e d l o w , b o t h o
n t h e i r r e p o r tc a r d s a n d o n t h e d i s t r i c t s
c r i t e r i o n - r e f e r e n c e t e s t i n E n g l i s h . M
r . D e n n i sh a d t h e p e r f e c tjustification every year:
Students today just dont care. Neither do theirpar-ents. If they
cant learn English in my classroom, they wont learn it any -where.
But Ill keep drilling it into them, whether they like it or
not.Whats EffectiveAfter reading about Mr. Dennis, you may be
tempted to skipahead to WhatsNotEffective, because if you are an
effectiveteacher, then you know that Mr. Dennis typifies
what is not ef-fective. But be patient. Well get to him in a
minute. First, con-sider this: Ifyou were learning a language,
could you do it in si-
7T eac h i ngC h al l enge2
lence?of course not. In an effective classroom, regardless of
whatsubjecty o u t e a c h , u n l e s s , o f c o u r s e , y o u
a r e t e a c h i n g s p i e s t o r e m a i n s i l e nt u n d e
r t o r - ture, silence is not the norm. But lets be clear on the
difference between in-appropriate noise and constructive noise.
Inappropriate noise occurs inthe classrooms of
teachers lacking in classroom management skills. In
theseclassrooms there is no order to thenoise. Students are engaged
in casual con-versations completely unrelated to the subjectmatter.
The teachers in theseclassrooms are usually adding to that noise by
begging,pleading with,andt h r e a t e n i n g t h e s t u d e n t
s . T h i s t y p e o f n o i s e i s n o t e f f e c t i v e . O k
a y, s o w h a t iseffective? In the classroom of an effective
teacher, students actually do mostof the talking.They are
constantly involved, either in discussions with theteacher or in
structured discussionswith one another. There is rarely a
silentmoment inthe classroom ofaneffectiveteacher,aside from
students takinga t e s t o r c o m p l e t i n g a t a s k i n d e
p e n d e n t l y . C o o p e r a t i v e g r o u p i n g i s t h
e
n o r m i n these classrooms. These classrooms are exciting
places. You see, it is virtu-allyimpossible to have a silent
environment that is exciting. In the excitingclassroom, of
course,noise levels are controlled so as not to be
distracting.Again, structure is the key.
