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CORE Unit 1 Classroom Management

Section 2: Classroom Management - Monitoring & Feedback


Introduction
Monitoring & Feedback
In a communicative and student-centred language learning classroom the learning is usually based
around tasks. We use the term 'task' loosely here and it includes the following and many, many more:

a gap-fill exercise

a team game - race to the board and circle the item the teacher says

answering questions about an audio clip that comes with the course book

skimming through 5 short, authentic news articles that the teacher has collected and copied,
and deciding which one would be the most interesting to read in more detail

underlining all the -ed words in a text and answering questions about past simple

writing a short story

working as a group to design a poster

designing a survey and then standing up and interviewing all your classmates

chatting with a partner about your plans for the weekend

As such, a language teachers role is not so much explainer-lecturer as it is coordinator-facilitator.


Teachers need to be able to effectively set up a variety of tasks, to monitor and listen to the students
while they are doing each task and to provide appropriate feedback on the task, the learners success
with the task and their language use.
However, monitoring is not simply walking around and joining in on the odd conversation and feedback
isnt just telling the students which sentences they said incorrectly. So what do these essential aspects
of the teacher's role actually involve?

Monitoring
A. Which of the following should a teacher do while monitoring?
Read through the list, make a note of your answers and then compare
with the suggested answers on pages 4 and 5.
1.

Check that all the students understand the task and are doing it.

2.

Stop the class if more than 30% of the students dont understand, and clarify the instructions
again.

3.

Join in to make the final pair when there is an odd number of students.

4.

Join in some of the conversations if it is a speaking-based task.

5.

Help the weaker or slower students.

6.

Encourage learners to use English only.

7.

Encourage the students to speak more.

8.

Stop the class briefly to give them some ideas of your own.

9.

Sit or squat down when interacting with individuals/groups who are seated.

10. Sit back, stare out the window, and let them get on with it.

11. Correct language mistakes.


12. Make notes of some of their mistakes.
13. Make notes of some of their good language use.
14. Make notes of some of their ideas (related to the topic or task, not the language).
15. Diagnose their listening, speaking, reading and writing abilities as appropriate to the task.
16. See how far away they are from completing the task.
17. Make a note of which students have the correct answer for each question.
18. Do the task yourself so that you have the answers ready.
19. Mark any homework tasks that they handed in earlier in the lesson.
20. Prepare the next step of the lesson.

Suggested Answers
1&2
The first thing you should do after setting up a task is to quickly but quietly go around the room checking
that all the students understand the task and are doing it.
If a couple of students/groups dont understand you can help them individually, but if there are more than
this you will save time by going over it with the whole class again. Then, considering that they didnt
understand the instructions the first time, you will probably want to do a full demonstration of the task
yourself (either on the board if it is a written exercise or writing task, or with a student who did
understand if it is a spoken task; even a listening task can be done on the board by writing out the first
part of the task, listening to the first part of the audio, and doing it on the board).

3, 4 & 5
It is important that you do not join in any tasks. There is a lot that you need to do when monitoring, and if
you are participating you arent doing those other, more important, things. Of course, if a weaker or
slower student needs a bit of help, you should work with them briefly until they get back on track. Try not
to let this take too much time, though, as you have other students to consider as well.

6&7
It is good to encourage them to speak more and to use English, as long as this is done with a light touch,
politely, and un-intrusively: a very quick, You know how to say that in English with a smile and move on
to the next group, for example.

8
Do not interrupt them just to provide your own ideas. They need the practice and the focus, not you. If
you are providing the ideas then it just means they have less to do, and whether that means less
interaction or less cognitive effort, it results in less language development. If they genuinely arent
coming up with any suitable ideas, then make a note and think about how you can improve similar tasks
for future lessons. This does not mean sitting back and doing nothing, though. It means listening
attentively to each student/group, and taking notes if possible.

9 & 10
Try to maintain an equal physical position when interacting with individuals/groups. Sit down when the
learners are sitting down. In fact, it can help to do this even when you are not interacting with them
directly - it takes you out of that controller position. A good way to do this is to sit to one side of the

room and listen from there, getting up and wandering quietly around every now and again.

11 - 15
Perhaps the most important aspect of monitoring is diagnosing learners' use of English, in terms of
systems (vocab, grammar, pronunciation, discourse) and skills (reading writing, listening, speaking). You
need to pay attention to what language they use inaccurately, and when they could be using different
language (i.e. more subtlety or more variety), so you know how to help them improve (through
correction in this lesson and/or through re-clarification and practice in future lessons). Unless they are
doing a task that focuses specifically on accuracy, it is best not to correct the language there and then,
though - more on this when we talk about feedback. Note down some key errors and put them on the
board after the task. This way, they can focus all their attention on the task and the communication, and
are more likely to be successful.
It is important that you note good use of language, too. Often when they use language accurately or use
Vocabulary or structures that their classmates might not know yet, they dont actually know that theyve
done this. By highlighting good use of language, you are both encouraging them and reinforcing the fact
that those words/phrases/constructions are useful. You also want to make note of their ideas - the overall
aim of language iscommunication, so by commenting on their ideas you let them know that the task had
a valuable aim and that their communication was successful. Finally, people with good vocabulary and
grammar arent necessarily good at listening, speaking, etc. Make sure you diagnose which aspects of
the skills they need more practice or help with too.

16 & 17
Monitor to see how long students need to complete the task. If about 60% of the students have finished
or have nearly finished, you should stop the task. The longer the task continues, the more bored the
quick finishers will be, and the further behind the slow finishers will feel (i.e. a student who has only
completed 2 out of 7 questions can feel comforted in that the student sitting next to him/her only finished
5, but the same cant be said for someone who did 3 when their peers have finished completely). If they
are all a long way from finishing, then you need to issue an extension on the time-limit and start planning
how to adjust the rest of the lesson to allow for this.
While doing this, take note of which parts of the task the weaker students have completed appropriately.
That way you can call on them during feedback for those specific parts, ensuring they participate in
feedback without being put on the spot with an answer they dont have.

18 - 20
As previously stated, there is a lot that you need to do when monitoring. If you are doing the task
yourself, marking homework, or preparing for the next stage of the lesson then you are not doing the
other things you need to be doing. Homework should be marked during office hours, not class hours.
And you need to have the answers ready and each step of the lesson prepared before the lesson (i.e. do
it when you are doing your lesson planning).
Of course, if its something brief like wiping the board clean to get it ready for feedback, or having a quick
skim of the next step in your plan to refresh your memory, it is better to do it while they are working on a
task than while they are all watching and waiting for you - just make sure that most of your time is
dedicated to listening, watching and diagnosing the learners English.

In summary, when monitoring you:

Start by checking that students understand and are doing the task.

Dont get overly involved with any one individual/group.

Pay attention to:

Good use of language.

Areas where use of language could be improved.

Listening, speaking, reading and writing ability.

Ideas and successful communication.

Take notes for feedback and error correction.

Depending on the aims of the task you might do some on-the-spot error correction.

If necessary, encourage interaction and use of English.

See how much of the task each student has completed.

Decide when to stop the task.

Feedback
So, before the task the teacher sets it up. During the task the teacher monitors. What does the teacher
do after the task?
There are two overall reasons for giving feedback. One is to consolidate the task and check answers.
The other is to provide feedback on use of language and to correct errors, if appropriate. We will look at
consolidating tasks and checking answers before looking at feedback on language use, but first there is
one thing that nearly always needs to happen just before whole class feedback.
Check with your partner/neighbour/in pairs should be one of the most common expressions a teacher
uses. After any task that is done individually, students need the opportunity to check with a partner. If the
students listen to an audio clip and quietly answer a true-false task while listening, they need to check
with a partner. If they do a gap-fill exercise - check with a partner. After dictation - check with a partner. A
word-search - check with a partner. Etc.
This is beneficial in a number of ways:

Stronger students are able to help weaker students.

If two learners have succeeded at different parts of the task, by combining their answers/ideas
they end up with a more complete task.

Where they have contrasting ideas/answers the ensuing discussion leads to more in-depth
understanding for both parties.

They are more willing to share in whole class feedback, because they dont feel personally
responsible if it turns out they were wrong (i.e. the group/pair takes the heat off any one
individual).

It means feedback and consolidation is mostly done in a student-centred way (which equals
more active/involved learning and more opportunity to practise communicating).

It fosters an atmosphere of cooperation and shared success.

It gives the teacher more time to monitor and assess how they are doing.

When you are using a cassette player, it gives you a chance to rewind the cassette before
playing it again, without making the students wait.

Students usually want to check with someone first (and may do it even if you dont allow time
for this, resulting in them missing whole class feedback or whatever the next stage is that you have
planned).

Whole group feedback - dos and don'ts


1.

If feedback is to provide a feeling of completion only, it should be very brief and general. Most
of the time you should ask about three students to provide a quick summary of their task or
discussion. A simple, T:Which job did your group choose? S: We chose the doctor is enough.

2.

Checking answers should also be quick and snappy. Using the board with a simple 1 - c, 2 g, 3 - a approach is clear and efficient. There is no point dragging things out when it is just not
necessary.
A common argument for a slower approach is, I like my students to read each question and
answer out loud, in full, because they need practice saying whole sentences, but if you want to
give them this kind of practice there are much more effective ways to do it. Save time here by
making feedback quick and efficient, then use that time on another task - one that specifically
focuses on giving all the students practice saying whole sentences.

3.

If students dont have the answer, give it to them. Often the answer becomes obvious once
they have it, and this is enough. When they really dont understand its good to spend a little bit
of time helping them to understand, but if it takes more than a minute, or is too heavy in
teacher explanation, it is often best to make a note of it and prepare a better way to clarify the
problem in a later lesson.

4.

Monitoring helps you to make the feedback stage efficient. By the time you start the feedback
you should already have a good idea of which answers they have right and which they have
wrong or dont have. You can confirm which ones they have right quickly, saving time to focus a
little more on those they had trouble with.

5.

It is tempting to add explanations to students answers, even if they got the answers correct, but
what this does is use up time that could be better used elsewhere. Help them with the one or
two they didnt get, and move on... and if there were a lot that they didnt get, then make a note
and prepare more achievable tasks for next time.

6.

Dont repeat everything the students say. If you are not specifically focusing on providing an
accurate model of pronunciation, or some error correction, then repeating after a student has
little benefit and a lot of downsides. Consider the following:

It can sound patronising.

Students who are used to teachers rephrasing as part of error correction will often
assume they have made a mistake (and may result in them avoiding what was actually
good language, in future situations).

It reinforces the idea that only the teacher is right.

It removes the need to listen to each other.

If they are speaking too quietly or not clearly enough, getting them to
repeat themselves gives them a clear indication of this, and leads to clearer pronunciation
as a result.

When the feedback is on ideas/communication, some genuinely interested follow-up comments


are great (eg. Hmm... thats interesting; Oh, no, you didnt, did you?; Oh, I do that too. etc.),
and if simply checking answers then simply yes, good/not quite is a good approach.
7.

Make sure you nominate students during feedback. It is good to nominate a strong student
first, to break the silence, but make sure you follow this up by nominating some weaker or
quieter students too. If you are checking answers, then monitoring should have indicated which
answers the weaker students got, so nominate them for those particular questions.

8.

Feedback stages are not a good source of listening practice. Students very quickly lose
interest on what the one or two speakers are saying and their attention may drift off completely.
Quick and snappy is the key.

More ideas for feedback


We've looked at some basic rules of thumb for whole-group feedback. Here are some additional ideas
for more extended feedback/revision exercises.

2 + 4 Self-Correction
While monitoring the teacher notes down a number of good expressions/sentences that the students
produce, especially good use of language that has just been introduced, and a number of errors. As the
task is coming to an end, select (i) the 2 best examples of good language use and (ii) 4 errors that are
most representative of the most common mistakes. Write them up on the board.
When the task has finished, provide some brief consolidating feedback and comments on ideas and
communication first. Then draw attention to the 6 sentences on the board. Let the students know that 2
are good and 4 need to be corrected, then have them work in pairs for 2-5 minutes discussing which is
which and making corrections as necessary. Finally, check with the whole class, erasing the errors and
writing up the corrected versions as you go through them.

Peer Correction
If you have 3 or 4 large groups, while monitoring clearly note down some good and bad language use on
separate sheets of paper for each group. When the task is finished, give group As language use to
group B, group Bs to group C, and group Cs to group A, for example. Each group discusses the
expressions/sentences they have been given, deciding which are examples of good language and
making corrections to the others.
When they have finished, the sheets are passed back to the group that produced the language originally,
and they discuss any changes. Finally, the groups can ask the teacher questions about anything that
they are still unsure about.

Revision Board Game


Over the period of three or four lessons, make a collection of inaccurate language use. As preparation
for the next lesson, go through the many expressions/sentences noting which ones: a) are most
common; b) are most likely to cause misunderstanding or prevent communication; c) are related to
grammar or vocabulary points recently taught.

Choose 15 from amongst the expressions/sentences that fit those three categories, then build them into
a 20-30 space board game (spaces without expressions/sentences include blank spaces and a couple of
move forward/backward spaces). Take some dice to class, and students use pen-lids as tokens. When
they land on a space with an expression/sentence, they try to correct it. If the other students agree that
they were right, that student moves ahead one space - otherwise they stay where they landed.

Board work
The board (whiteboard or blackboard) is an extremely useful tool and can be used in many ways. What
different purposes can you think of? Make a list before comparing with our suggestions below.

Our suggestions:

pictures for context

pictures to illustrate concepts/meaning

charts/graphs/diagrams to clarify concepts

spelling of new words/phrases

grammar relating to new words/phrases

pronunciation of new words/phrases

grammatical structures

example sentences to illustrate grammar points

questions for students to answer

answers to questions or other exercises

demonstrations of tasks or exercises

error correction

examples to highlight good language use

There are many more, but these are probably the most common uses you will have for the board. In a
typical lesson, a combination of 4 or 5 of the above, with some being repeated many times, can mean the
teacher writes or draws on the board more than 10 times during a lesson. Obviously, that makes the ability
to use the board effectively extremely important.
A particularly useful approach is to get into the habit of using different sections of the board for different
things. This can depend on the lesson, but often it means having 3 main sections.

In a grammar lesson, you will often want to have the following:

A place where the grammatical structures can remain for the whole lesson.

A place where new words/phrases can remain for the whole lesson.

A place for everything else (pictures, answers to exercises, etc.), that is regularly wiped clean.

In the middle of a lesson, it might look something like this:

In a speaking lesson you might want to have:

A place where new words/phrases can remain for the whole lesson.

A place where useful expressions can be left for the duration of each speaking task.

A place for everything else that is regularly wiped clean.

In the middle of a lesson, it might look something like this:

Golden Rules of Board work.


1.

Ask the students to 'help' you with things you write on the board, in order to keep them involved.
Elicit things like the spelling and the pronunciation, or the answers to questions, from them.

2.

From time to time, call up a student and ask him/her to write on the board.

3.

Underline a stressed syllable or word, or put a small circle or square above the relevant vowel, to
help students with stress.

4.

It is important that you use capital letters naturally - at the beginning of sentences, proper names,
etc. Learners need to see how capital letters are used in English - everything else should be in
lower case.

5.

Write word classes in abbreviated form e.g. (n)[U] for an uncountable noun. Students need to
learn to recognise these abbreviations. Plus it's much quicker.

6.

Draw a line down the board, leaving a section (say 10-20% of the space) down one side for
vocabulary that comes up during the lesson.

7.

If something will take a long time to write, have it prepared on a transparency for an overhead
projector or on handouts - you'll be too busy to do it during the lesson.

8.

You should draw pictures even if you think that you are terrible at it. No-one expects you to be a
brilliant artist, and besides that, good drawing usually takes too long. Quick pictures are often the
very best way to explain something.

9.

It can be very helpful to plan what you are going to write up and where to put it in advance.

10. It is important to print clearly. If you want to give students practice reading 'tricky handwriting' then
it should be in a carefully prepared task, not in board work that is important for them to
understand.
11. Colour can make what you write on the board more memorable and clearer. For example, when
introducing a new word, use black to write the word itself, red to indicate the word class, and blue
to highlight the pronunciation.
12. You need to write quickly and efficiently. Get the information up on the board as fast as you can,
while remembering that it has to make sense and be legible.

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