Managing large classes

“How can I manage my class? It’s huge!”

Some of you have told us that you have over 40 students in your classes. The highest student number is currently Naomi with 86 in one class – can anyone beat that? Here are some strategies that you can use to tackle some of the main issues with managing large classes.

Taking attendance.

• Have students sign in at the door.

• Students are assigned numbered seats and sign a seating chart when it is passed around.

• Teacher assistant (TA) marks absences on seating chart.

Getting to know the students and learning their names.

• Take photos of groups of students in their class

• Ask students to supply you with a copy of their ID pictures

• Create a seating chart to enable rapid taking of attendance and identification of students

• Before class, learn the names of people sitting along the aisles and call on them during the class

• Ask students to wear nametags so that can call on them by name or ask
 the students to hang a sheet of paper with their names in large letters in front of them and you can wander around the room learning names

• Pass out invitations to 10 students to join you for coffee after class to get acquainted.

• Consider lecturing or leading discussion from different points of the classroom to give students the feeling of being in the midst of the action rather than simply being an observer. Moving into the aisles and around the room makes the class seem smaller and encourages student involvement.

• If your classroom is large, consider using a microphone on a regular basis.

Managing handouts.

• Minimise the amount of copying you need to do by choosing paper-free activities. Tasks can be written on the board, projected or instructions given verbally.

• If you need to give out papers then divide them up and hand out to the first person in each row to take one and pass on. Or invite student helpers to assist you with giving out papers. You can also collect papers or homework in the same way.

• You may not be allowed to make many photocopies for your classes. Make class sets of favourite activities that you can use again and again. Copy them on to card and collect at the end.

• Divide students into groups and get them to do different practice activities using a set of roleplay cards, questions etc. Then when they have finished they swap materials with the next group

Managing pairwork and groupwork. 

• Students can work in pairs or groups with the people around them (that includes those people in front and behind them). They don’t need to be able to move around the room to form new pairs or groups, they can just turn around.

• Nominate a group leader (‘chairperson’) to collect answers or feedback from his/her group.

• As you won’t be able to give much individual feedback, keep tasks quite ‘closed’. Do lots of drilling of new language and controlled practice.
  For example, students can practise a dialogue that is written on the board or given in their books.

• Avoid ‘open’ tasks (i.e. tasks that have many possible answers that you cannot possibly deal with in a large class). Keep tasks restricted so that the answers and student responses are limited.

• Have students work with the same group of students for a few lessons so that they know who is in their group (which saves you time when setting up activities). Make this competitive by allowing groups to score or lose points each lesson. At the end of a fixed period award group prizes and then re-establish new groups.

• Find another space that your class can use for energetic whole group activities. Find a lobby or spare classroom in the building that your students can spread out into when they are preparing a project or performance. Take students outside if there is no indoor space available. Check with your schools first that this is permitted.

Getting the students' attention

• Establish a signal that you want your class to stop what they are doing and listen. This should be done from the first day, so that students become accustomed to it right away. Be careful not to use gestures or sounds that would offend anyone. Simply raising your hand and when someone sees you they must raise their hand too until everyone catches on works well even in a large class.

• Set a time-limit for activities and set the alarm on your phone to go off when the activity ends. Turn up the volume. You can also use music to signal the start and end of activities – either music on to start and music off to finish or vice versa.

Giving the students feedback and personal attention.

• Always have a small notebook and pen with you. Take notes while you are monitoring pair or group learning. Review common errors as a whole group after an activity is complete.

• Invite different students to sit in the front two rows each lesson.

• Move around the room when monitoring. Be aware of which students you have particularly listened to in previous lessons.

• Call on students by name to answer questions or participate in a conversation / roleplay with you. Don’t let the more confident students dominate.

• Arrive a few minutes early or stay a few minutes late and engage in 1-1 conversation with students as they arrive and leave the room.

• Set the rest of the class a reading or writing task and then have students come to the front in pairs or small groups to do a speaking task that you can listen to carefully.

• Have post-it notes with you in the classroom. As you monitor if you hear something that needs correction write it on the post-it note and stick it on the student’s desk / book.

• You can do the same when you hear very good language used. You can use stickers or make ‘Great English’ cards. When you hear a student use some good language or make a huge effort to communicate in English you can give them one of these. With the cards students write their names on the back and then put them into the ‘Great English’ box. At the end of the week or a few lessons you can pull out one name (or more) and award a prize.

Marking homework.

• Design quizzes and tests in a way so that you can reduce the amount of marking. Use peer evaluations when possible. If students submit journals, just read them and leave a short comment and/or suggestion, rather than fixing every grammar mistake.
 Set exercises that have a correct answer (i.e. not ‘open’ tasks) and then write the answers on the board at the start of class and either have learners swap books to mark or depending on the age of the learners they can mark their own.

• Set ‘open’ tasks to only a proportion of the class at one time (i.e. 20 students write a journal one week , the next 20 the following week etc).