My highly disobedient, uneducated first grade classes.

**GuruT** · 08-08-12, 14:19

With the new school year came a whole new problem. My two first grade classes. These are kids from our KG and a bunch from other schools. I teach English speaking and listening. Even my 1st grade classes last year were bad, but not quite this bad.

They don't listen, only 3 or 4 out of almost 20 in each class have a decent grasp on English. Even the ones that have the grasp don't listen and/or understand the words "be quite please." They listen slightly more to Indonesian commands, but even the local teachers who are with them a bulk of the time get stressed out, and that is a teacher with plenty more experience than me.

I tried to administer reading tests today, one at a time, and I couldn't get them quiet while I called them to my desk one at a time. I know it's not the best solution, but the first couple times that I hit my tipping point, I had them put everything in their desks and sit perfectly quiet for the remainder of class. I know rewarding is better than punishing, but I don't even know how to approach these kids since the gap is so far from the ones who know things to the ones that know nothing.

If anyone has encountered something like this and has some proven techniques or advice to help me out...I'd be greatly appreciative and let you know the results of such techniques.

Thanks in advance!

**annchen** · 08-08-12, 14:37

- To make them be quiet I usually use the "raise your hand" game. If you raise your hand it means they have to be quiet and everyone who sees your raised hand has to raise theirs too (and of course be quiet). This usually works because the noisy ones will see their friends being quiet and raising their hand so there is enough peer-pressure to make them shut up (at least for a couple of minutes...)

- Change their seats and make the noisy ones sit in the front. Or put the chairs further apart.

- Use your voice: Start speaking very softly so they will have to concentrate and be quiet to understand you (this might not work if it's already too crowded).

**travellingchez** · 08-08-12, 14:43

Stickers/ sticker charts work well with this age group.

I used to find bringing them to the carpet worked to help focus them. Just child had their own sitting spot and a talk partner to work with. This stopped arguments over who sat where.

**Aussie Mozzie** · 25-09-12, 14:59

Make sure you give the other students something to do that they can work either independently or in groups on while you test each child. Otherwise you're just asking for trouble with kids so young.

**dazzer** · 25-09-12, 15:05

If you teach speaking and listening skills why are you giving reading tests? Also i am constantly amazed when i see teachers here in my own course given young kids one on one tests leaving the other students alone... I have never quite worked out the reasoning behind this? Would it not be more sensible to conduct a reading,speaking or listening test as a class so you are still able to supervise the whole class? Reading and listening are 2 skills which work very well together. Thus while one child is reading the others have to listen so you can ask follow up questions to ensure listening is being done correctly..

**ScooterIndo** · 01-10-12, 22:31

get a cane and beat shit out of just one of the kids and youll be surprised how quick the rest will fall into line.

**Mister Bule** · 06-11-12, 19:42

Originally Posted by ScooterIndo

get a cane and beat shit out of just one of the kids and youll be surprised how quick the rest will fall into line.

I read through this thread several days ago, and didn't post any comment (although I should have done so). It got back into my head yesterday and I took a little time to find it, since I had forgotten in which thread I had seen the statement quoted above, and I only looked for it so I could reply to this...

I'll give the poster the benefit of the doubt (whether he wants it or not) and assume that he (or she) was attempting to be funny or ironic (?), possibly drunk, whatever... in other words, not suggesting this seriously.

Regardless of any of the above, the quoted statement is reprehensible and despicable to me as a teacher and
just as an adult human being.

Why did it come back to mind? I teach about 850 kids in my school, from E1 through E5. Of those about 200 are in the first grade. Yesterday one of them came to my CCA class and I noticed something I hadn't when I taught his homeroom class earlier the same day, because in the CCA he was sitting right in front of me. He had "black and blue" bruises under and around each of his eyes. When I asked him what happened, he looked confused (scared?) and mumbled vaguely and incoherently. When I asked if somebody hit him, he said no. I later consulted with his homeroom teacher who said that yes, she had noticed his eyes, yes, she had asked him about it, and had gotten the same kind of reply as I did. I asked her to try to talk to him again and find out what the real deal was / is and she agreed to do so. She speculated that the bruising could just be a result of an extended crying fit. I also agreed that he might have run into a table or something hard with his face while playing at home. Tomorrrow I will talk to the VP for Student Affairs about it, because I really want to know what happened to this kid, and I'm hoping there wasn't any abuse from an adult involved.

Nevertheless it cannot be ignored or shrugged off when we as teachers see evidence of injury with a suspicious aspect such as this one. Bad things are done to kids by adults, including their own parents and other relatives and family friends, and sometimes by teachers too. I believe from discussions at school meetings - which I couldn't follow completely since most of the information and discussion was in Bahasa Indonesia - that the government here is making an effort to take child welfare issues seriously and to crack down on any kind of abuse in schools as well as at home. I really hope they are anyway.

Firstgraders can be real brats sometimes and a few of them can even be nasty or abusive themselves, whether to their classmates or even their teachers. That doesn't give us the right to beat them with canes, nor does it justify this supposed "solution" to the problem of their behavior or management in the classroom. That is my opinion and I wish to express it in the strongest terms.

As to the OP's complaint about his / her students being "uneducated" and having not much of a "grasp of English", while I agree that first grade students who come to school already educated would be much easier to teach (since they wouldn't really require teaching), it seems that as a "teacher" of "English", educating them and helping them to acquire the grasp would kind of be part of your job, however difficult it might be - am I wrong?

**ScooterIndo** · 07-11-12, 01:06

Originally Posted by Mister Bule

I'll give the poster the benefit of the doubt (whether he wants it or not) and assume that he (or she) was attempting to be funny or ironic (?), possibly drunk, whatever... in other words, not suggesting this seriously. Regardless of any of the above, the quoted statement is reprehensible and despicable to me as a teacher and just as an adult human being.

Oh please get over yourself - yes i was using humour to make a valid point - so sorry it upset your delicate sensibilities but why do you have to assume i was drunk because my viewpoint is different from yours ?? So sorry that you find my point of view despicable to you as an adult human, what makes you think yours is so right ?? How many kids do you actually have again ?? Kids should be disiplined physically when necessary, not with excessive force or violence, but just enough to let them know there will be consequences to their actions should they choose to disobey you. All this mambi pambi liberal bullshit about dont hit kids, where did this train of thought arrive from ?? So you expect me to believe we have been bringing children up wrongly for the last 500 years or so ?? At the risk of sounding like an old fart, i was disiplined both at school and at home and it never did me any harm, i disipline my kids in the same manner and as a result i have 2 great well behaved loving intelligent boys that continue to make me proud. When i see the way some of their classmates behave at school with a total lack of respect towards the teachers and their classmates - i know a good slap wouldnt go amiss.

My sister is a school teacher in the UK (SE London) and has been assaulted on numerous occassions over the last 15 years by these little bastards that have been brought up in a school system that doesnt allow for physical disipline, as a result they act with impunity knowing there is absolutely no consequences to their actions either from the school system the police or the law courts. As a result these kids run riot without any respect for anyone or anything. As a result of her experience my sister would be more inclined to share my point of view than yours. As a kid i went to an all boys school in South London, it was 1979 when i joined and as an ex grammar school a lot of the "old school" (excuse the pun) disiplinary measures where still adhered to, including caning. I was caned across the arse when i was 12 years old, and i tell you it hurt like f**k i learned a very valuable lesson that day. The lesson i actually learnt was there were actually real consequences to my (stupid) actions and i didnt want it to happen again. For the rest of the time i was at that school (left in 86) i didnt put a foot wrong and wasnt caned again. (Note: the inner london education authority actually banned caning of school kids in 1981/2)

To this day i can still remember the sting of that cane on the top of my thighs/buttocks, so i certainly "learnt my lesson" I am not saying it should be applicable for all ages or indeed all kids - not all kids need that degree of deterent at school but i feel a deterent is needed and in some cases enforced. Opinions are like arse holes mr Bule we all have one, this is my opinion and i also wish to express it in the strongest terms. Now that i have had a chance to clarify it i am sure we can agree to disagree.

**MadCat** · 07-11-12, 01:18

I'm with ScooterIndo on this one - or at least the concept. Kids these days basically do what they want because society at large has gone on an "ehrmahgehrd think of teh childrens!" spree. Personally, I was raised with a lot of freedom to make my own choices, but I was also disciplined when the need arose. And that could range from having to apologise, to having to stay in my room for a while, to getting a spanking. Finding out early on that actions have consequences is a good thing - these days actions have no consequences, and as such most of the kids hitting puberty are spoilt helpless brats.