Whole-Class Methods

Whole-Class Methods for Starting a New Activity

When a teacher is ready to start a lesson, the whole class must be signaled to pay attention. A whistle, bell, chimes, or a simple handclap may suffice. Some teachers may use a more creative method, such as writing START on the board and erasing one letter from the word every few seconds until all students are attending.

[Page 878]Another whole-class method to get the attention of the whole class is the Class-Yes method. The teacher signals for the attention of the whole class by saying, “Class.” Students respond in unison with, “Yes”; however, they must do so with the same tone, tenor, and loudness as the teacher. So, if the teacher uses a gravelly and loud voice, then the students must respond with a “Yes” in the same gravely, loud voice. Students are thus required to be responsive and to think when they respond. Furthermore, this method gets learning started in a humorous way that invites cooperation.

Hands and Eyes is a start method to ensure that students’ hands are not bothering others, and that students are processing the instructions visually. Using this method, the teacher says hands and eyes, and students respond by folding their hands together while looking toward the teacher for start directions.

The Mirror method can help with the start of an activity if there are directions being given involving steps. So, if a teacher is giving directions with steps, students might mirror the teacher by counting the steps with their fingers and by pantomiming with their hand movements what is to be done.

In addition to having some method to alert students that it is time to start an activity, effective teachers also communicate that they will be watching all areas of the class—by stationing themselves in more than just the front of the classroom so that each student will have equal opportunity for close contact with the teacher, and so that unmotivated students won’t escape into the corners of the classroom to engage in side conversations or off-task behavior in general.

Whole-Class Methods for Stopping an Activity

Timeliness and getting work done on time should be criteria to help students develop good work habits and understand what it means to complete an assignment on time. For older children and adolescents, samples of excellent, good, fair, and poor work from past years can be shared anonymously with the whole class so that students know when their work has met a mastery criterion set by the teacher and so they can use this knowledge to help them determine when to stop working.

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