6th Grade Chatty Chaos
I recently moved from third grade to sixth grade. Last year I prided myself on how much I grew in class management and could control my class majority of the time.
Now that I’m in sixth grade, I’ve set up systems, specific procedures, but the biggest thing is the non-stop talking. I cannot speak two words without the kids immediately erupting into conversations. The talking out of turn and refusing to follow our hand signals set, -RR, Trash, Tissue, Question. It’s ridiculous.
My honors level classes received the same expectations and procedures. They respond to the cues and follow through majority of the time. My on level classes are where I’m struggling, specifically the period right after lunch.
Expectations are very clear and yet they just choose not to do any of them. I ALWAYS greet them with a fist bump at the door and say good morning, they walk in and are expected to immediately put their backpack on the wall, and then find their desk and get started on their warm up. By the time I get to the last kid, I come fully in the classroom and maybe four kids are actively doing their warm up. This is not for lack of procedure setting, we’ve been doing this every day since the beginning of the year. Then when it’s finally time for me to teach, they talk over me the entire time. They get three strikes for talking over me or not responding to the attention cue (doorbell, countdown from 5, class class). As soon as we reach three strikes, we reset by lining up back outside the door and trying to come in again correctly. This doesn’t seem to help either.
I know it’s still early but I’m at a loss. We don’t have recess and the kids aren’t in sports so taking time away or messaging coach isn’t an option. Giving lunch detention would be fine but when it’s majority of the class I can’t pin point who to assign it to. There is also not enough time in our class periods to give free-time or personal time, which I know is a common strategy.
Any suggestions would be helpful. Criticism would not.