Classroom Atmosphere

Does your classroom atmosphere need a dose of caffeine? Here are a few easy ways to give it a jolt.

Change seating layout:

If at all possible, have students sit in something resembling a semi-circle. It is much harder for students to goof around if they are all in the front row. It is much easier for students to hear each other if they can see each other. You will find your students look much smarter and more alert when they are all facing you, unobstructed.

Change seating order:

By now most of your students have a favorite place to sit. I don't find anything intrinsically wrong with this, however, students who always sit together do group work with the same people all the time. It also wakes me up to see students sitting in different chairs from time to time. Here's a creative and pedagogically useful way to get students to move and change partners:

Use a mingling/information gap activity as a warm-up. Distribute the names of countries (in French) to half the students, the names of capitals to the other half. All students stand up and search for their matching country or city. Students sit down next to their partner. Students keep their new seats for the whole hour.

Of course you don't have to use cities and countries. You can use: vocabulary words and their definitions (in French); famous people and their partners; actual objects (covered up so that only the "owner" can see) and corresponding descriptions; professions and demands of each profession (schedule, skills needed); events and dates;  etc., etc., etc. Choose something your students have worked on or something that interests them.

Informal feedback:

Get some input from your students. Set aside 5 minutes at the end of class. Ask students to take out a piece of paper and jot down

1. what they would like to do more of (in or out of class)
2. what they would like to do less of, and
3. what  helps them most to learn.

Be sure to summarize the results and report them to the students within a day or two. This information will help you to plan classes and to know where your students are coming from. In my experience, students have really appreciated being asked. This communication can do wonders for a class that just doesn't "gel." Do it in English so that you don't have a huge linguistic advantage. Do not frame this as an evaluation of the course or of your teaching, but rather as a discussion.

Schedule a TAP (Teaching Analysis Poll):

A consultant from the Teaching Resource Center will lead a mid-semester evaluation discussion. See the TRC web page for details.

Observe a class:

See how someone else teaches. Sit in another TA's class, or watch a friend from another department teach a language other than French.
 

Cheryl Krueger
University of Virginia