Congratulations! You’ve made it to October. The back-to-school jitters are long behind you, and you and your students have settled into a comfortable classroom routine.
Or so you thought.
Sometimes, with routine comes restlessness. Your students know what to expect and what is expected of them. But that familiarity can lead to predictability. As your students find themselves craving something new, your carefully curated routines may start to unravel as classroom management issues set in.
But you don’t have to slog through the rest of the school year trying to overcome these struggles.
The onset of unrest in the classroom is the perfect time for renewal. This doesn’t mean a grand overhaul of your teaching methods or starting again from scratch. You know what works, and it is (mostly) working for you. Instead, use your students’ unease to introduce small changes that breathe novelty into your classroom and get your students back on track.
Here are three simple engagement-boosting strategies you can try—without having to rethink the way you teach.
- Introduce a new class opener. Once students get comfortable in your classroom, it can become paradoxically more difficult to get them settled and into a proper World Language frame of mind at the beginning of the hour. If you haven’t done so already, find an engaging, student-driven way to start your class every day. Look for something that will draw students in, give structure to your class, and set the tone for an inclusive and productive hour. Routines like Calendar Talk or Free Voluntary Reading help you open your class purposefully in the target language. Learn more about these strategies with Calendar Talk in the World Language Classroom and Pleasure Reading in the World Language Classroom.
- Make learning lighthearted. Up to now, your students have been taking in nonstop comprehensible input and acquiring tons of language. Now is the time to focus less on content alone and more on competition and communication activities that elevate your content and support further language learning. Try reviewing your content with games from Proficiency Through Play and cultivating meaningful conversations from “Who Are We?” interviews for Spanish, French, and German. Your students will instantly notice that your class feels more playful and personal.
- Do a class culture reset.. There’s still time to define the tone and trajectory of your class. If your classroom isn’t yet the joyful, productive learning space you envisioned, now is a great time to shape your classroom into what you want it to be. Get ideas for how to create a classroom culture that students actually want to be part of with Give Them What They Want.
As much as it may feel like October is past the point of no return in classroom routines and management, it’s never too late to try something new. If your students fall into periods of restlessness or disengagement, look at it as an opportunity to grow rather than an indictment of your ability as a teacher. Bring in that one strategy you’ve been wanting to try but were never able to commit to. Add a game or group activity to a lesson to make it feel fun and fresh again. Make a quick change to inspire a more inclusive and rewarding classroom culture. With the right mindset and resources, your ideal classroom is only a few small steps away.
