A sign of busy and engaged kids or a sign of poor management?
I feel conflicted...
When I witness my students chatting away during their morning work or getting excited during lessons and calling out, I feel like they are engaged and feel comfortable being themselves in my classroom.
I like that.
Yet, I also feel like sometimes there is this expectation for "quiet working" that makes me feel like any time my kiddos are being a bit chatty that my classroom might appear chaotic or not "calm" and "well behaved" enough.
I visited a classroom last year and the kids were SO quiet...I got kind of jealous thinking how come I don't have that level of control in my room.
On the other hand...don't I want my kids to use language in the room, make friends, and talk to their peers? I don't want them to be mute and afraid to communicate.
I feel like there are so many times during the day when I am asking students to turn their voices off that it seems like there are just not as many times when they can talk freely or express themselves on a whim. We have been trying very hard to work on inside voices and whisper voices because I want to encourage them to talk, yet at the same time, I don't like when the noise level gets too high. I don't want silence, but I do want quiet enough for kids to be able to think and do their best work.
What do you think? Are we asking kids to be too quiet too often setting an unreasonable expectation or do you have a super quiet classroom that's serene like a yoga room?
As a school we have been focusing a lot on active engagement which means the kiddos should be talking, using language, practicing vocabulary, and not just being quiet. Yet, of course there are those times when you do truly want silence and that can be hard to come by.
Where's the balance?
4 comments:
I have a stoplight in my room- red means no talking at all, yellow means whisper voices and green means inside voices. I do red during writing workshop (used to allow talking so they could give and get writing ideas but honestly they end up talking about something else most of the time haha and yellow during reading, green the rest of the day: math, snack, lunch, science, choice time etc Also, during reading if we are learning a letter or doing some kind of activity like that it's on green- it's really only if I am meeting with groups. I find my kids are great about being quiet until 1 person starts talking, half the time in my room it's an adult- once it's not silent anymore than they forget they are supposed to be silent. They can handle a little whispering but I swear some adults just stroll in and start talking in a normal voice haha. Anyway, I think for the most part talking is fine but there are always those kids who work better in silence :)
I teach older kids than you, but I often wonder about talking as well. I let my kids talk during writing time- a lot of them use that time for peer conferencing so it is essential, but encourage whispering voices or will send a pair or two into the hall of everyone else needs quiet.
I also do a three strikes for volume. If it gets so noisy during independent work that I need to stop and correct three times we go to silent work.
I also let my kids use headphones to tune out background noises.
I struggle with this too...because while there are times that it needs to be QUIET (ie a test), there are other times that I just don't care if the kids are talking as long as they are quiet and are working. As teachers we are (usually) collaborative and working together and that is how we get better. I want to instill that in my kiddos! Cooperative learning is so important in my mind...but it's also a super hard balance to find. I have found that 4th/5th graders kind of understand the need for quiet during tests and such but the younger kids don't really always get why it is important, even when it is explained.
Not to just join the choir, but noise is a sticky wicket. There just doesn't seem to be a sense of volume with my class. I hate to be the "sit quiet" teacher, but they can go from silent to screaming so quickly.
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