Standard 4: Create and maintain supportive and safe learning environments
Focus area 4.1: Support student participation
Identify strategies to support inclusive student participation and engagement in classroom activities.
Focus area 4.2: Manage classroom activities
Demonstrate the capacity to organise classroom activities and provide clear directions.
Focus area 4.3: Manage challenging behaviour
Demonstrate knowledge of practical approaches to manage challenging behaviour.
A Year Five class that I was teaching in Ipswich would return from lunchtime energised by the events of the break. I found that launching into a lesson immediately after a lunch break to cause a disengaged, distracted class. My mentor teacher suggested a brief, ten-to-fifteen-minute whole-class calming activity after each lunch-break (4.2). Considering the school’s emphasis on improving literacy, we implemented a teacher-lead reading time after lunch break (4.3). The purpose of this was three-fold: to help students improve their listening skills in line with the National Curriculum’s requirements for Year Five literacy (ACARA, n.d.), to inspire a love of stories and books, and to help students sit quietly and prepare for learning in a manner not dissimilar to that of mindfulness (4.3) (Creswell, 2017). There were three students in the class who spoke English as a Second Language (ESL). To support these students in participating in the class activity (Cho et al, 2020), I offered them copies of the book so they had the visual clues and support as they read along with the text, rather than just listen to the story (4.1) (Premier & Parr, 2019).
Most of the class listened attentively and calmly during the teacher-lead reading. However, two students consistently made poor behaviour choices. One of these students would choose to read her own book, disengaging herself from the rest of the class. Another student would draw during the reading and distract other students by distributing his artwork and engaging his peers in conversation. I needed to work out a way to bring the two distracted students back to attention without stopping my reading of the novel and thus ruining the meditative flow for the rest of the class (4.3).
I decided I need to assert my authority over the entire space of the classroom and increase my visual awareness of each classroom situation so both students knew that I could see their behaviour (Wolff et al., 2016). Rather than standing up at the front of the class, I began to wander throughout the classroom as I read, looking up from my book and scanning all the students with my eyes (4.2). I used non-verbal communication tactics to reprimand the student for her disengagement (4.2). The student put her book away, and then did not get it out again during whole class reading for the remainder of my practicum (4.3).
With regards to the student that chose to draw, he reduced the frequency of his behaviour once I started walking around the classroom during teacher-lead reading. One time I kept reading but very pointedly gave him a disappointed look for a full two seconds (4.3). The student’s behaviour choices improved after that. From this experience, I reaffirmed my belief that walking around a learning space was an effective means of not only monitoring student learning, but also managing student behaviour and supporting the flow of classroom activities (Wolff et al., 2016) (4.2, 4.3). I will be working to expand my repertoire of classroom monitoring techniques in the future as I move from a Graduate teacher to a Proficient teacher (4.3) (AITSL, 2011).
References for Standard Four
Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA]. (n.d.). Personal and Social Capability learning continuum. ACARA https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/media/1078/general-capabilities-personal-and-social-capability-learning-continuum.pdf
Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership [AITSL]. (2011). Australian Professional Standards for Teachers. AITSL.
Cho, S., Lee, H.J. & Herner-Patnode, L. (2020). Factors influencing pre-service teachers’ self-efficacy in addressing cultural and linguistic needs of diverse learners. The Teacher Educator, (55)4, 411-429. https://doi.org/10.1080/08878730.2020.1805835
Creswell, J.D. (2017). Mindfulness interventions. Annual Review of Psychology, 68, 491-516. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-042716-051139
Premier, J., & Parr, G. (2019). Towards an EAL community of practice: A case study of a multicultural primary school in Melbourne, Australia. Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, 42(1), 58-68.
Wolff, C.E., Halszka, J., van den Bogert, N., & Boshuizen, H.P.A. (2016). Teacher vision: expert and novice teachers’ perception of problematic classroom management scenes. Instructional Science, 44, 243-265. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11251-016-9367-z
