What is a big class? Big class is a
condition where in a classroom we as teachers will find more than 20 or 25
students inside. For many teachers – I may be one of them, someday- being faced
with big classes, I might be tempted to give up, thinking that there is no
chance of getting so many students to learn. The problem is, however that I
assume that learning occurs in proportion to class size. The smaller the class,
the more students learn.
However, research shows that class size does not
automatically correlate with student learning. Students in large classes can
learn just as well as those in small ones. What counts is not the size of the
class, but the quality of the teaching. As a teachers, they will find a
condition where they had been trying unsuccessfully for five minutes to get
everyone’s attention. Everyone, however, was too busy chatting in their
discussion groups—the activity that should have ended five minutes ago.
Students were getting up and leaving and returning at will, to go to the
restroom or make phone calls. Too busy, however, until someone sneezed loudly,
which drew uproarious laughter, for some reason. Wild? Yes, a little like a zoo, in fact. By this problem, a good teacher have to find the way out how to managing
a big classes, because teaching large classes is a challenge, but it can also
offer many opportunities for teachers to improve teachers teaching and to make
it more enjoyable and rewarding for teachers and their students. In a large
class setting, teachers have the opportunity to improve their organizational
and managerial skills as teachers work to creatively organize their classroom
into a comfortable, welcoming learning environment and to manage the many
students within it. There are many way out to handle this kind, I will try to
explain one by one.
Traffic
control, In the large class, simple “traffic control” is an issue the first
days - ways of getting students in the class, into their seats, and out at the
end with minimum disruption, after that teachers have to
apply norms and procedures, what would a class be like if all 40 or 50
students’ cell phones went off simultaneously? If teachers want to find out, don’t
establish any norms or procedures with their large class! Otherwise, after the
simple traffic management rules have been set up, teachers will want to
establish some class norms, if everyone in class already deal with it teachers
can move on to the next way out like thinking about small group. Small group, use of small groups can really
be helpful in a big class. In a big class not put into groups but rather
utilizing whole-group instruction, the teaching becomes largely
teacher-fronted, with the teacher doing most of the talking, sometimes calling
on a student to answer a question. It is interesting, isn’t it? What’s the next?
As teachers, isn’t only about teaching but more know about their student, know the students, In this process of going
from group to group, the teacher is also able to learn more about her students
and their language ability because they are actually using language - they are
not just a sea of faces, beside of that mix and match, knowing students’
individual strengths, weaknesses, their level within their class (there are
always more advanced and less advanced learners in any given class) and their
native languages presents interesting grouping opportunities for the teachers,
if teachers is well done with it, will not difficult to keep them busy, most classroom problems happen, teachers is convinced,
due to not enough to do - and this true for adults as well as children. Managing
a large class is definitely a challenge but one well worth it because of the
energy that can be produced in a classroom full of students excited about
learning.
We as
teachers have to remember, however, that there is no “best way” to teach large classes, we must develop the
approach that works best for us based on our teaching style, the
characteristics of our students, and the goals and objectives of our lessons
and curriculum. The next is make a large class feel small.
Many teachers try to make a large class small by treating it as such. They move
towards a student who has asked a question, which reduces physical and social
distance, and they help class assistants distribute materials. Remember:
students may not mind being in a large class as much as we do. Students once
described a teacher who made a large class seem much smaller because of his
personal approach.
In large classes, it is very important
to create a sense of community, one that shows our interest in and accessibility
to students and which encourages our students to learn about us and participate
in the learning process. The goal is to get us and our students to better
understand each other. Below are some suggestions to create a positive
psycho-social environment in our classroom community or improve upon the one in
which us and our students are already learning; know our students – match names
with faces, make a seating chart, use introduction I mean that we as teacher
have a few students to introduce themself, actively take attendance and the
last is memorize all of them.
Finally I
learn so much about how to handle big classes, and in my opinion as a good
teacher no matter how large our class the most important to think is make a
large class feel small, after that make sure teacher comes into the class with
well preparing and many creative idea, because for many of teachers faced with
large classes. We might be tempted to give up, thinking that there is no chance
of getting so many students to learn. The problem is, however that we assume
that learning occurs in proportion to class size. So, for managing large class
will improve our teaching skill, don’t worry to handle it.
References:
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