Blog 5 – Classroom Management Strategies in the 8th Grade Art Room

At the opening of the lesson for the 8th grade art class, the teacher started quickly and got right to the point on the topic for the hour:  What is Pop Art? This strategy helped to manage the class by getting their attention to think about the question.  During the lesson activity, the teacher interjected additional instructional pointers, which aside from any knowledge the pointer gave, the students were cued into attention toward the subject and the class flow was kept moving into a positive direction.  At lesson closure, the teacher cued the students into cleanup about 5 minutes before the the 10 minute clean up time, at which time she directed them to put their finished pieces to dry on the counter.  She called out students to line up by birthday month, which made it rather fun.

Three transitions I observed include 1) the lecture into to the lesson activity, 2) during a lesson into clean-up, and 3) regrouping for dismissal. Starting with 1) The lecture to activity transition was done by tying the process they would be using directly into the lesson discussion with a short demonstration all done sequentially. There was little to no disruption–the students got right to work on their pieces they had previously started.  It seemed, since they had previously started these pieces, the students were already primed and excited to get right to work, which minimized any distractive behavior.  Everyone had a piece to work on, and the two students who did not, got right to work building their “letter blocks.’  This transition went rather smoothly.  The next transition 2) was clean-up, which went a little bumpy, with some students far behind and others far ahead.  Of course, with paper scraps flying around the tables and floor, clean-up was busy with lots of movement.  The teacher gave a 10 minute time frame for cleanup.  The teacher seemed understanding with the need for the students who were behind to finish since it was a very important thing that had to be done that hour–she gave time for them to finish without getting impatient, as she becomes at times.  This transition was handled with a spirit of camaraderie.  The final transition 3) re-grouping students for dismissal was handled by calling all students to stand at their tables and to look around for any paper scraps nearby–quietly put them in the trash along with putting away any  astray miscellaneous things, and to push the chairs under the tables.  She then called students by their birth month to line up.  This changed the tone for the next situation–to quiet down, exit, and walk back to their homeroom.

Out of these strategies I observed that I would like to include into my classroom, would be to quickly introduce the topic with a hook/good question and discussion–to quickly get their attention without disruptions and interruptions and to keep the flow moving from the lecture to the demo, and onto the activity.