The teacher I observed with started a lesson about vocabulary from the play that the students were going to be reading. He assigned one word per student, and told them they could use their phones to look up definitions and parts of speech, or they could use the dictionaries that he keeps in the classroom. During the lesson, he allowed them to talk to each other about how to put the definition in more understandable terms. He gave them about 10 minutes to do this, and then he called attention back to the front of the classroom. The students presented their word to the class, and everyone wrote it down, as these would be the terms they need to know for the play they are reading. He let about seven people present their word, because he knew if he went through all 29 terms the students (10th graders) would lose interest quickly.
A few transitions I noticed were when he used the pregnant pause to get the students to stop talking, when he announced they were going to the computer lab, and when he put time limits on things and called the class back to order when the time was up. These transitions worked very well, and the teacher I observed with made them part of the routine from the beginning of the semester so the students knew what to expect, and how class was going to run. He didn’t take any guff from anyone who didn’t follow the transition, he would just use the pregnant pause until their classmates told them to be quiet.
I really liked now the teacher used the pregnant pause when he wanted the students to listen. He made it part of the classroom routine from day one, and it worked very well. I would apply this in my classroom the same way. I would make it a routine thing from the beginning of the year, and let the students know my expectations.