18 Classroom Management Suggestions for a Difficult Class (Part 3)

Firm structure and thoughtful classroom practices can help you meet the needs of challenging students.

In Part 1 and Part 2 of this blog post, I shared eight ideas for structuring your classroom rules and consequences to provided maximum behavioral support for needy students. That underlying structure is foundational to maintaining a safe and orderly classroom.

But, there’s more. Today I’d like to share some classroom practices that can help you manage the most challenging students.

18 things to try when your class is awful (#9-11)

Suggestion #9  Prioritize relationships

Make an intentional effort to see each of your students as individuals. This goes for the overtly defiant kids but also for the silent withdrawn students who are surely ‘hiding out’ in this raucous class. Be friendly, cheerful, and funny. 

Here are some activities that have helped me:

• Stand at the door and give each student a fist bump on the way into class (Thanks to Michael Linsen’s blog for this idea!)

• Invite the first 3 students to class to join you in a ‘welcome tunnel’ - clap and high-five their classmates into the classroom. 

• Casually mention “I like your…” (bracelet, green backpack, State University hoodie…). Ask a question about the item.

• Ask students about themselves. Remember what they said, and follow-up. (“How did your game go this weekend?” “How’s your dog”? “Did you see the latest (YouTuber) video?”)

• Can you do me a favor?  I need help with… (classroom task, help me find graphics for a slideshow, give me advice on which celebrity example to choose for a lesson for younger students, help me repair something or complete a logistical task…)

• Smile. Always. 

Fist bumps can help you connect with your students.

Most kids will open up with this kind of prompting. That doesn’t always translate to better behavior… but it doesn’t hurt. 

Suggestion #10  Add some physical movement to your classroom

OK, I know this is counter-intuitive. If the kids are impossible to manage at their desks, what’s going to happen when they get up and move around?  

Physical activities like Disassembled Answer Keys can help with classroom management.

Surprisingly, though, sometimes adding movement actually helps unmanageable kids focus more on learning. There’s so much research supporting the academic benefits of movement (you can read about it here) but kids spend 90% of their day stuck in chairs. This is exhausting and it’s not really developmentally appropriate. I would argue that students who are less compliant in academic settings probably need more movement in their lives, not less.

So how does that look? Again - structure. You need to teach, explain, demonstrate, and model exactly what the movement will look like. I like to think of ‘white listing” behaviors- telling students exactly what they are allowed to do as they move around the room instead of trying to imagine all the things they aren’t allowed to do.

Here are two quick, easy activities to add some movement. I’ve used both of these successfully with difficult classes.

• Gallery walks: Instead of giving kids a worksheet, take the exact same content and blow it up so there’s one question per page. Print and hang up the pages around the classroom.  Kids must walk around and complete the questions while standing.  

• Disassembled Answer Keys: Have students clear their desks of everything except a completed worksheet and a writing utensil.  Assign one or two questions from the completed assignment to each student (it’s OK if there’s duplicates). Kids must write the answer to their assigned questions on their desk with a whiteboard marker or on a post-it note. Once everyone’s done, students walk around and check their own paper against the answers written on the desks. If there’s a discrepancy, they must determine whether their own answer or the one on the desk is correct. 

Try it! You might be surprised how bringing some movement into your lesson actually improves student behavior. And click here for several more ideas on how to get your kids out of their seats for educational purposes.

Suggestion #11: Move to a guided independent study format.

“ If a handful of high-flyers are destroying the learning environment for everyone despite your best efforts, I believe it’s right to prioritize the learning of the students in your class who are willing to benefit from what you have to offer.”

Even in the very worst classes, there are always many students who are willing to cooperate with you and to learn. In awful classes, these kids spend a lot of time waiting. Waiting while their classmates cause endless disruption, waiting while you put out fires.

It’s not fair and it’s not equitable. These students deserve a decent education. They deserve a teacher who isn’t burnt out and at the end of her rope. They deserve to be prioritized.

And so, while it’s not the first thing I try, at some point I chose to let go of the kids who intentionally refuse to learn and focus on the kids who want what I have to offer. 

It’s quite simple: I move my class to an independent study-esque format.  It’s not truly an independent study, because I still provide a lot of guidance and structure. So, at the beginning of class, I give kids a checklist of work I’d like them to do. I provide all the print and digital resources students need, and I give them time to work.  

Then, I circulate.

The students who want to learn get to work. I am there to help and coach them. I can pull them into small groups if needed, work with individuals, or help them pair up to complete partner activities. I help individual kids pace themselves, prioritize their work, and finish things. (a lot of kids - even cooperative kids - need help with this) 

For the students who are chronically disruptive, I instruct them to open their laptop and get busy. They do. Not usually on French, but they open their laptops and appear to work.

I know they have 11 tabs open. I know they’re playing video games. I just don’t really worry about it too much. I still circulate past them and instruct them to close their tabs and work on their assignments. If at any point they want my help or guidance, I cheerfully provide it. They are welcome to rejoin classroom learning at any point.

At the end of class, if they haven’t submitted any work, I may contact their parents. “Dear parent or guardian of Johnny,” I politely write. “I am concerned because your child has not turned in today’s assignments. Please find the list of missing work attached.”  Then I document it. 

In the mean time, I give my best teaching effort to the 60, 70, or 80% of students in my room who are willing to work with me.

In a blended-online classroom format, most students will at least appear to be working.

Now, I don’t write this lightly. This approach could be abused. It’s wrong as a teacher to flippantly ignore off task behavior during class, or to abandon students to teach themselves. 

But, if you’ve tried everything else and a handful of high-flyers are destroying the learning environment for everyone despite your best efforts, I believe it’s right to prioritize the learning of the students in your class who are willing to benefit from what you have to offer.

What do you think? Have you tried any of these techniques in your most challenging classes? Share in the comments! And, importantly, a key component in managing a challenging class is maintaining your own positive attitude and perspective. We’ll discuss suggestions to do so in Part 4 of this blog series.