I am a high school English teacher, and am very good at getting the students to write and speak "publicly";

Question

however, when it comes to getting the students to read as a class, I can't get them to be quiet. Can you please help me with some suggestions. Thank you.

Answer 1

Hello.. Im a Freshman.. and my teacher seems to have the same problem.. but what she does is she gets a stopwatch and times us until we are quiet.. say we had 15 sec. after the bell.. then we stay 15 sec then we can go... we learned quick.. but if we get over a min then we serve it after school as a detention.. but yeah hop it helps

Answer 2

Maybe you should get a book that's educational, but something that the students like at the same time.

However, it seems the most effective way is to threaten them with tons and tons of homework. It always seems to work when the teacher does this to my class. Everyone's just "BLAH BLAH BLAH" to silence.

My french teacher yells really loud at the student/students who disrupt the class. But if you yell at the students, they'll probably think you're a lunatic and start to hate you. Yet, whenever we're doing work or reading in french, it's really quiet except for the voice reading. It seems to work. But I wouldn't really recommend this. Do this as a last resort.

You could also give the student/students who are quiet a higher grade - kind of like extra credit. But if they're quiet all of the time, you shouldn't really raise their grades. They should participate too. It worked when my math teacher used it... well most of the time.

If those don't work... get serious! Tell them (or show them) you mean business! But don't do it in a mean way. You want to make a good impression. Try to balance your class way by being strict yet nice. Hard-working. When I say hardworking, I mean work the class. My last year's English teacher was strict, nice, and hard working. She didn't give us a lot of homework. When she did though, she gave us essays on really hard subjects. But when she was like this, it seemed like she had control over the class. The students quieted once she said so. I know she means business, but she's still nice and doesn't take work too seriously.

Just try this. Sorry if it wasn't any help.

Answer 3

I like the response by "Hott Freshman". Keep the whole class afterward, not just the ones talking and the peers who aren't talking will pressure the student's who are talking to stop. I must say, it's so nice to read a question written by an English teacher. I've about had it with all the abbreviated words, poor spelling and poor grammar by so many who post questions. Some questions don't even make sense! My husband is a teacher and I'm a school psychologist. Where do you teach?

Answer 4

First answer the question - WHY do you want them to read and write "publicly"? [Aside: How do you write publicly?] Make the developmental and curriculum objectives clear to yourself and your students. Nobody likes to do "work" if they don't know why they're doing it. Once you've got the learning objectives clear, design the reading task around your goals. Maybe the students could work in small groups to read a play aloud. Maybe they can work together to write a poem and read it aloud. The big question is not how- it's WHY.

Answer 5

I'm a junior in high school. I'm in the English honors class... and ya know what? Kids hate these ridiculous books that we have to read. It's all psychological. No one is going to want to read them, especially most teenagers. Most people I know go on sparknotes.com because the books are so ridiculous. Don't make your students read "Lord of the Flies" because they will be bored out of their minds and will probably hate reading for the rest of their lives. In order for these kids to want to read, you need to show them that reading IS fun, and you need to show them to a GOOD book, not a confusing, boring, or old one... but something that can actually apply to them and maybe their interest for reading will be renewed.

So, basically, most kids hate reading because the only books they've ever known were boring ones and ones that smell like the library (OLD). I don't blame them.

Answer 6

Have each person read a paragraph out loud, and if someone's talking, ask the person to close his book and repeat what was just said. If he answers correctly, ask him then to analyse it. You could also suggest that if the students don't want to read that material in class, they can read it at home and read something else in class. That always shuts me up.

Answer 7

Must be that whatever you're having them read is sparking some debate or something...why not suggest that they respond to the reading after they read it as a class? call on one person and ask their ideas on what you just read, and then ask if anyone thought anything differently. as a student, i know that calling on one person is a good way to get the rest of us to quiet down b/c none of us want to be the one to be called on just because we were talking out loud/out of turn.

Answer 8

that's usually not a good idea consider that different students read at different levels. You are going to have some faulters.. instead have them read one at a time and randomly pick a student to continue the page. And if they can't, then you know they weren't paying attention and so does the rest of the class.

Don't make em feel stupid, cuz this process does that on it's own.. but it progress doesn't take place, then disciplinary action should.

Answer 9

How about consequences?

If you are not quite after the first warning you have to go sit in the corner. After the second offense you get a 1 grade letter decrease on your next project? After the 3rd offense your parents are called. After the 4th offense you get in school suspension.

Maybe kids wouldn't be such hoodlums if we set boundaries and then ENFORCED them.

Answer 10

Tell them if they choose to act like they are still in Kindergarten, then you will treat them as such.
Arrange their desks in a circle and have them read that way. Place one desk in the corner as a "time out" chair for the ones who refuse to listen.

Just a thought!

**I always disliked writing anything to an English teacher. (makes me nervous) Hope my grammar is close to acceptable?