In the intricacies of a classroom experience, I saw:
Opening:
My mentor does not change the volume of her voice. She alters the tone of her voice. For the opening of the lesson, she uses different conversational tones to engage the students in what she is saying and invite them into her classroom.
During:
She also does not speak until the class is quiet and ready. She does not talk over students. If necessary, she says,”I will wait.” This quickly quiets the students. They do not want to be the one to be speaking when the rest of the class is quiet.
Closing:
My mentor closed the class by reminding them of upcoming due dates and assignments.
Transitions:
My mentor uses all of these strategies, although I cannot say that I saw them all used in one lesson.
- Give the students a time limit. Let them know how long they will have to complete the activity. Give them less time to complete the task than they think they need.
- Give the students a warning before transitioning to a new activity.
- Ask the students for input on how long an activity should take to complete.
Take-away:
I would like to use the phrase, “In a moment,” to grab my students’ attention. My mentor will say this and then wait until she has the attention of the students before completing her thought.