5 Novel Ways to Get Attention from Noisy Students

Here’s how to turn a simple deck of cards into a very effective classroom management tool.

Get a regular playing card for each student in your class and write each child's name on a different card. Shuffle them up and get ready to wave goodbye to unresponsive students. From now on, whenever your students come to class they are going to be like putty in your hands – at least for the first few minutes. Why? Because you’re going to assign a forfeit to the unlucky soul whose card you pick at random from your deck.

Kids love to see their peers suffer so this is a real winner. Don’t worry though, I’m not suggesting you give them a painful or embarrassing penalty; just a challenging one.

As an example, I drink wheatgrass juice whenever I want to annoy my partner, Sally. Despite its many health-giving properties, it has the most disgusting, pungent smell (and taste) and turns our kitchen into a hazardous area for several hours. A small shot glass of this dark green, slime-like liquid is enough to send most students scurrying for cover so the threat of ‘tasting’ it offers the perfect penalty. Indeed, any task which is slightly unpleasant yet entertaining should get the desired response – a classroom full of cheerful, wide-eyed, hopeful young people, all enthusiastically waiting to see what happens next. All you need to do whenever you want silence is to reach for the pack of cards. I’m not kidding when I say this works beautifully.

Now, I’m not suggesting you turn your lessons into an amusement park – so before I get accused of putting entertainment ahead of learning please remember these ideas are to be used sparingly! Unless they work for you as well as they do for me. ;-)

Method #3: Fun Routine

The beauty of this routine is that students get to make as much noise as they want. It’s a bit of fun and I’ve always found fun to be one of the best ways of getting a negative group on side in the shortest possible time. Explain to students that whenever you sing out certain words, they must respond as a group.

Example 1:

Teacher calls out: “Daaa da da da… “ (2 second pause) “Daaaa da da da…"

Students respond: “Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!”

Example 2:

Teacher calls out: “Day-Oh, Daaaaaaaaaayyy-Oh!”

Students respond: "Daylight comes and I wanna go home!"

Method #4: Use The Ringleaders

Many of the most challenging and difficult to manage pupils in school tend to be those with leadership potential – the ringleaders. You can use this to your advantage and get them on your side by giving them responsibility for getting other students quiet at the start of the lesson. Ask them quietly before the lesson begins and out of earshot of other students: “Ryan I’m going to  need you this lesson. The other kids look up to you so I’m counting on you to help me get their attention.” 

Giving jobs to your students like this is a very positive strategy but always make sure you give them clear instructions as to exactly what their job entails. It would be counterproductive for you to award a responsibility (such as getting the class quiet) to a student only to have to then challenge them for doing something wrong (such as punching anyone who talks out of turn). 

Method #5: The Unexpected

Done correctly, this idea never fails. All you have to do is present the class with something they’re not expecting and then hold back on the explanation. Kids are naturally very inquisitive creatures and will be desperate to know why you’ve arranged the classroom differently, switched on coloured lights, set up some weird equipment, arranged some party food on the main table, or walked in backwards with your underwear on your head. This puts the power ball very much back in your court... “I’ll explain everything as soon as you’ve all stopped talking.”

I hope you liked those. I have another blog post with more ideas like this here: 
23-Classroom-Management-Strategies-To-Quiet-Noisy-Students

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