How do you start class?
How will you start class each day (or each class period?) What is your plan on how to transition students from the hallway and engage them in your class?
Let’s dive deeper into these questions…
Having a plan for how you will start your class period every day is the first critical component to successfully establishing your classroom as a place where learning is central and where you as the teacher are in charge. The norms that you establish in the first 2 minutes of class will set the tone for how your class period with students goes and the control that you have over your classroom. I refer to the techniques you use to start a class period your “transition techniques”.
If you’re a classroom elementary teacher, you likely have the same group of students all day, but you’ll still need to transition them into your classroom multiple times in a day. In the morning, after recess, after lunch, or after music class or art class or P.E. class, you’ll need techniques in place to help students shift their attention and emotions from their previous environments into engaging in your content. You’ll have to transition them within your classroom from subject to subject.
If you teach a content class in a secondary setting or if you teach a “special” elementary subject like music, art, P.E., or foreign language, you will be transitioning different groups of students into your same classroom 5 to 7 times a day likely. Each of these groups will be at a different time of day and may require different strategies to engage them in your classroom.
I personally teach high school mathematics, and I have students that enter my morning classes half asleep and students who are bouncing off the walls in the afternoon. In each class, I’ve got some students who are coming into my classroom distracted by the drama that they just heard in the hallway or bathroom before class, some students who are laughing or crying because of what they just saw on social media, and some students (the minority 😉) who are eager to learn.
There are many effective ways to transition students into your classroom, and the below list is not at all a comprehensive list. But here are five “transition techniques” I’ve either used or seen done by other teachers.
1. Have a Bell-Ringer or a “Warm-Up” students can do in a notebook. Post on your board an activity or question to answer that students can self-guide or work with a group they are seated with to complete immediately upon getting settled within the room. Set up a procedure where students know they should be doing this at the start of each class. When I use this technique, I often play music to help kids relax and start to think about my content area, Math. Instead of loudly commanding my class to chant something like in my first example, I instead can quietly move around my room and re-direct the students that are still talking or have their heads down to start working on the “warm-up” problem. In my Math classes, I like to give a problem that is a review from what we learned maybe the day before or that sets them up to understand the new concept I am planning on teaching that day. If you teach English, Foreign Language, or History, maybe this is a time where students could journal something. There’s lots of directions you can go with this transition technique. The key here is students have something to do right away that you can direct them to. I’ve found directing students towards meaningful academic thought is much easier than trying to pull them away from their phones or side conversations. An added side benefit to this transition technique is that it allows you often a few minutes to get yourself organized for the coming lesson if you haven’t had time yet to do so.
2. Have stations set up in various locations in your classroom where students can physically move to and start working on a task. While technique #1 is often a calming transition for students, I will often shift to this technique for when I need students to wake up. In my math classroom, this technique has a similar approach to the “warm-up” exercise I described above in that I am giving either a review problem or an introductory exercise to my coming lesson for students to try. However, instead of having students work with a pencil at their desk quietly, now I have students stand up at different dry erase board stations and write with markers all over my room walls talking with fellow classmates in groups to try to solve problems. (Shout out to Wipebook Flipcharts for an inexpensive way to increase board space in your classroom and my colleague Daniel who showed me this system!) I have found that some students who are reluctant to write on notebook paper might really enjoy standing and writing on a dry erase posterboard. I have found that while students may get off task while at these stations with their classmates, they do start talking about Math and are much more prepared to work when they get back to their desks. Maybe you want stations with manipulatives for students to tinker with, science experiments to try, or even reading or writing prompts at different stations to engage in. The key here is to get your students moving and talking and tap into the bodily-kinesthetic intelligence that they have.
3. Have a “Would You Rather” question on the board when students come in. This isn’t an academic technique, but it has been a great tool to transition kids into my classroom and get students talking with me instead of with each other. I’ll have the “Would You Rather” question posted in a familiar location in my class and then after I give students a minute or so to think about their answer, I’ll call on some students to give me their answers with their rationale for why they’d rather have situation A than situation B. With rambunctious students or students who like to be class clowns, this transition technique gives them a platform to be silly in a situation where they are still answering a question the teacher asked. It can create a cool culture within your classroom and cause students to look forward to your class or a specific time of their school day.
4. Have notetaker, worksheet, activity, etc sitting on desk, and immediately at the bell start your lesson. You must be prepared for this one and often need a lunch period or planning period before students enter to have your classroom set up enough to immediately “Go” with your students and start teaching within 5 seconds or so. If you set the expectation that no matter what transition technique you are using, learning starts when the bell rings, students will be able to occasionally follow you with this kind of approach. I don’t recommend that every day you jolt into your lesson as the theme of this article is use techniques that allow your students to gradually transition into your class engagement, but at times it’s a good mix up of the routine that helps students focus quicker. I personally sprinkle this in to give urgency to a specific lesson when I think my students are starting to get bored, lazy, or complacent with my other transition techniques.
5. Make a creed or a funny saying that requires students to respond to you and that gets your attention. I know an elementary teacher who calls out our state university’s fight song and the students reply with the other half. I often will just put a fist in the air, and my students respond “YO!” and then know to be quiet and listen. Establishing a creed or saying with your students at the beginning of the year will help you grab their attention at the start of a lesson, throughout a lesson when they’ve gotten off task, or even at the end of recess if you need to quickly get all students’ attention and give them directions. Be creative and be yourself in forming your specific saying, but the key is to have a signal that your students know means it’s time to listen. I have seen far too many times where teachers just keep trying to talk over their students having side conversations, and this DOES NOT WORK! The students will always outnumber and outvoice you.
You may find that one transition technique of starting class works well for you at one time of the day and at another time of the day, you need another technique. While at the beginning of the year, repetition of the same technique with your students will be beneficial and simplify your planning, you will likely want to change it up throughout the year as any one transition technique will likely grow stale with your students after so much time. Teaching is an art not a science, and over time you’ll learn what works best for you and is best for your students.
The key here is be prepared to fill the first few minutes of each class period one way or another with the activities that YOU WANT your students engaging in. If you don’t get students working on your agenda at the beginning of class, they will fill that time with their agenda which will be hard to transition them from in the future. Having a plan for the first few minutes of class also communicates to your students that you are prepared and that your class time is precious to you. Students are quite perceptive. If they don’t think you care about your class time, why would they care?