Large classes can present the teacher with a number of problems from trying to involve all students equally to classroom control.
In this article, you will learn a number of suggestions and solutions that you can use in your large classes to solve such problems and create successful classes.
Dynamics of Large Classes
Few teachers would choose large classes over smaller ones, as it makes a difficult job even more challenging.
However, most teachers, at some time in their careers, will find themselves dealing with classes of 30 to 100 students.
These large classes are often more dynamic and dramatic. A large number of students equal a greater variety of ideas.
Experienced teachers can use this to their advantage and organize humorous, involving classes.
Suggestions for Teaching Large Classes
Using the following five suggestions can make teaching large classes a great deal easier and more enjoyable.
1. Use worksheets
Rather than going through activities with the whole class, hand out worksheets. This way, each student will participate and gain some benefit.
2. Use pair/group work
Experienced teachers will use a lot of this to maximize student involvement.
3. Ensure clarity
Clear instructions are vital with large groups. Try to ensure that your voice is audible and your board work is visible to the whole class.
4. Use choral repetition
Again, this will help get all pupils involved.
5. Appoint group leaders
Use them to make classroom management easier. Group leaders can be used to hand out copies, collect work, keep control of the group, etc.
Solutions to Create Successful Large Classes
There are five main solutions that you can use when teaching large classes. They are as follows:
1. Use routines, roles and rules
Routines
Routines mean for example how you introduce the lessons to the learners, how you take the register and how you give homework at the end. It’s a good idea to do these consistently in each lesson.
Roles
Each week you can assign specific roles to different learners, including collecting and handing out books, monitoring group work, cleaning and even preparing the board before the lesson.
Rules
Establish clear, fair rules for what learners can and cannot do and be consistent with all learners when implementing these rules. Also establish clear, appropriate sanctions for how you will deal with learners who break the rules.
2. Use collaborative learning strategies
Pairwork and groupwork
Getting learners to do activities together in groups or pairs helps them to learn and frees up the teacher to provide individual assistance. Well-trained groups can also learn to control their own behaviour.
Peer assessment
When learners provide feedback to each other on their work, or when they mark exercises in each other’s notebooks makes assessment faster and helps the pupils to understand the assessment process.
3. Ask for support from the community, school and pupils in the class
Assistance
With very large classes you should get help managing the learning from members of the local community, pupils or teachers.
Cooperation
If you can get the support of the majority of learners, it becomes much easier to cooperate together to control any disruptions.
4. Support learner independence
Homework
Learners can also learn to do homework together with classmates or neighbours and check answers independently of the teacher.
Study skills
Provide training to pupils on how to plan and manage their own study time, how to take notes and organize notebooks and also on things like preparing for exams and remembering vocabulary. These all help learners in large classes to become more independent.
Self-access learning
This includes showing learners how to use the school library, find the books they need, and use the books without damaging them in the infant standard. In Junior and senior standards, this can also include training them to research and make presentations to their classmates.
5. Employ teaching skills
Planning and organization
This makes all teaching more effective but is especially important when groups are large. For example, think carefully about how you will give instructions or organize groups for an important activity.
Prioritizing activities
Choose carefully which activities to do in class and which to give for homework. This can free up more time in the lesson for things that the learners can’t do on their own.
Creating interest and engagement
If we make lesson activities and presentations interesting, learners can enjoy the lessons and learn more.
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