My students don t listen to me

Listen to my interview with Michael Linsin [transcript]:

Sponsored by Write Aboutand Peergrade

In my first few years of teaching, student talking was like popcorn.

I gave the class instructions for some kind of work; lets say journal writing. And for a few seconds, they did it. Things were quiet. Then, like that first kernel of popcorn, one student said she didnt know what to write, so I walked over to her desk to help her. While we talked, two more raised their handstwo more popsand said they were stuck, too. I signaled to them that Id be over in a minute, but in the meantime, someone else was closing his journal, finished already. Another pop. The two who were stuck asked him what he wrote about.

The room needs to stay quiet so we can concentrate, I told them.

Someone else had a question. Another pop. I squatted by her desk, and behind me, a conversation started between two others. Pop pop. Another journal closed while a different hand went up.

Okay people, I said, this time louder. Lets keep it down. And with rascally smiles, they turned back to their journals to pretend to write some more. At this point, it had turned into a game.

Someone needed to sharpen their pencil. Pop. Someone else decided to race them over to the sharpener. Pop. In a matter of seconds, the whole room had erupted, a huge hysterical bowl of popcorn, exploding all around me, and I couldnt find my way out.

And then I yelled.

If this sounds anything like you, youre not alone. I hear it from teachers all the time. One of the things they dont teach us in our education courses is just how freaking much students talk, and how hard it can be to quiet them down in order to get anything accomplished.

To find solutions to this problem, I went to Michael Linsin, the creator of Smart Classroom Management and my go-to person for all classroom management needs. Last year, he taught us how to set up a clear, simple classroom management plan. Now hes going to help us understand the causes of excessive talking, what you should be able to realistically expect from students, and how you can fix the problem.

First, two quick caveats.

One: I believe students need to talk. People need to talk. So if youre shooting for a classroom environment where students sit silently and do rote seat work all day long, where they never have an opportunity to talk to their peers, where they never get out of their seats, and where the work is not engaging, you are going to have problems.

Two: A big part of good classroom management is building good relationships with your students. If you havent taken the time to get to know them as individuals, if you mispronounce their names, if you regularly use sarcasmor make them feel stupid for asking questions, then they arent going to want to behave well for you. And thats a different problem.

So this post is based on the assumption that youre planning engaging lessons and you have a decent relationship with your students. Without those two, these solutions might kind of work, but youre still probably not going to love your job.

Why Its Happening

Before you can solve this problem, you have to understand its cause. According to Linsin, excessive talkingtalking that occurs during independent work time or direct instructionhappens for two reasons.

Reason 1: They dont believe you mean it.

Despite the fact that you specifically tell students not to talk, deep down they dont believe you mean it. Or they dont care, Linsin says.

At some point, he explains, Your authority has faded. If youre able to teach to a quiet classroom in the beginning of the year and now youre not able to, or if it happened right off the bat, then somehow at some point, the students respect for you and for the process, for the classroom, and your authority has faded.

So even if they hear you, even if they understand that you want quiet at a certain time, they dont believe anything negative will happen if they ignore your request. If they come to you with this behavior, its likely that it has just been part of their conditioning.

Because so many teachers struggle with this problem, Linsin explains, many after a while kind of throw up their hands and just decide theyre going to talk over students, theyre going to do their best to keep things as quiet as possible during independent work time, so the students come to you [from] classrooms where the teacher asked them to be quiet but doesnt really follow up on it.

Reason 2: They dont understand what no talking means.

This one is going to be harder for teachers to believe, but bear with us here: No talking may not mean exactly the same thing in different contexts, and if your students are talking more than you want them to, theres a good chance youre working with different definitions.

When they come to your classroom, Linsin explains, and theyve had teacher after teacher say the same thing, yet continue to allow it to happen in the classroom, then students think, Well, he or she just means we need to kind of keep our voices down, or Were mostly quiet, but if we have important things to say to a neighbor, then were allowed to do that. And so theyre confused as to what the definition of quiet really is.

In many cases, Linsin notes, the problem is likely being caused by a combination of both of these reasons. But notice that neither reason is a blanket statement about students being disrespectful. This is why I like Linsins approach: He puts control for classroom management in the teachers hands, rather than placing blame on the student. Thats not to say that you wont have disrespectful students, but shifting the blame to them means you have no power over the situation. Blaming the students simply isnt a useful way to address the problem.

When students are not doing something that youve previously taught them how to do, Linsin says, whether its talking or entering the classroom, and they dont do it well, even though the students are responsible for their behavior, when most of the class is not doing what you ask, its on you. Its about you. Theres some disconnect there, theres something theyre not understanding.

What You Should Be Able to Expect

Some teachers might wonder whether its reasonable to expect students to be quiet at all, especially if they are younger. Linsin says yes without hesitation. You should absolutely expect, no matter where youre teaching or what grade level, that the students are able to sit quietly while youre giving instruction or directions, and they should be able to sit quietly and work during independent work times.

Should there also be times when talking is permitted? Absolutely, Linsin says. Its really important to give students an opportunity to express themselves, to get up and move around, to work in groups and pairs and discuss. Classrooms should be vibrant and interesting, exciting places, and so Im all for getting students up and moving and having fun. Those things just make classroom management stronger, and they free you to ask anything of your students, including silence.

The Solution

If you came here looking for a few tricks to end excessive talking, the bad news is that you wont find anything clever or earth-shattering. The good news is that the solution is pretty simple, and it requires no behavior charts, tokens, or Jolly Ranchers.

Step 1: Define expectations in explicit detail.

The fix, Linsin says, is to define, in detail, exactly what you want during independent work time and when youre teaching a directed lesson.

If you believe youve already done this, and it hasnt worked, the issue is probably lack of detail in your explanation. Linsin says you need to go far deeper than what most teachers probably do.

So you may bring a desk or a table up in front of your classroom, sit down, and pretend to be a student. You may have other students acting as models also. Show students how you expect them to behave while youre giving instruction, and then how you expect them to behave when theyre doing independent work.

Its also important to include what not to do, he adds. So youll model those exact behaviors that youre seeing, those exact talking behaviors, whether its side-talking or standing up and whispering to someone, or whatever your classroom looks like. Even if its chaotic, whatever that chaos looks like exactly, you want the students to be able to see themselves in your modeling and what isnt okay.

Step 2: Have students practice.

Once youve modeled the desired behavior, have students practice it, just like youd have them practice any skill youre teaching.

Linsin gives an example of what this might look like. Youd start by saying, Im going to give you 60 seconds, and I want you to show me what good listening looks like, and no talking. So lets pretend Im standing and giving you a lesson. I want to know what that looks like. And then youll stand and maybe youll cross your arms and put your hand under your chin, and youll watch them.

Keep this instruction light, he says. Keep it fun. Youll stare at them and youll walk around the room, and youll watch one of them, and youll nod your head and say, Mmhmm, okay, that looks good. Mmhmm. Chin up a little higher!Its okay to have fun with it. None of this is a punishment. Its just good teaching. Whether youre teaching how to find a topic sentence or how you want your students to line up before recess, its all teaching. So its okay to have fun with it. Its okay for them to laugh at some of the things you say or to see themselves in the behaviors, which they love, by the way, especially if you exaggerate it and have some fun with it.

The Sign Strategy:Students are often put in an awkward position when a classmate tries to talk to them during these quiet times. They want to follow your guidelines, but they also dont want to be rude to a classmate. Agree on some kind of physical sign they can give each other at these times. It can be a scissors or peace sign or whatevers culturally acceptable wherever you teach. And all they do is just hold the sign up, and the sign means, Im really sorry, but I have to listen to the lesson, or Im really sorry, but I have to do my work. And you can tell them that if they give the sign and that student who sees the sign turns and gets back to work, you will not enforce a consequence, because theyre showing responsible behavior.

Step 3: Teach the consequences.

Walk them through the exact steps that would happen if they turn and talk to a neighbor, for example, Linsin says. The exact steps a misbehaving student would take from your initial warning to contacting parents or whatever your consequences look like.

In order to do this, you have to know what your consequences are. Spend some time making sure youre clear on that. If you need help, read our post on creating a classroom management plan.

Step 4: Do it for real.

Once students have been taught your expectations and have practiced exactly what they look like, its time to apply it in a real lesson. Have a directed lesson ready, Linsin advises, to have them prove to you they can do it in practice.

If youve taught the expectations in detail, students should do a good job, but if they dont, you need to enforce your consequences exactly as you described. You almost hope during that first wonderful lesson, that one student maybe turns, and so the class can see that youre holding them accountable.

If enforcing your consequences is difficult for youand for many teachers, it will beread Linsins post on why teachers struggle to consistently enforce consequences.

Step 5: Continue to define expectations in small chunks.

This last step is crucial. From this point forward, keep telling students what is expected of them before every switch in classroom activity. When you are about to do group work, let students know that talking within the group is okay. If you then switch to independent work, remind them that absolute quiet will be expected. Briefly describe what that will look like, even spelling out what not to do if that fits the activity.

Taking time to do this might seem unnecessary, but being clear ahead of time will prevent problems.Anytime you can give a reminder before misbehavior, Linsin says, its a good thing. Anytime you give a reminder after you see misbehavior, its a bad thing. You should be holding students accountable, but be preemptive whenever you can.

Learn More from Michael Linsin

The Happy Teacher Habits

[Links to this book are Amazon Affiliate links, which means I get a small commission on purchases you make through my links at no additional cost to you.]