A part-time secondary French teacher is struggling with a disruptive Year 7 modern foreign languages (MFL) class. Behaviour expert John Bayley offers advice in this classroom-management resource.
After years of teaching in France, this is Jane Wright's first year at Drayton School, an improving community comprehensive on the rural outskirts of Banbury, Oxfordshire.
The disruption is frustrating and concerning Jane that she can't teach the Key Stage 3 pupils who are interested in learning. John suggests she try to reduce disruption by displaying her vivacious personality and changing to an upbeat teaching style with a lot more praise.
He tells Jane the disruptive pupils want her attention and he encourages her to replace negative with positive attention. Jane tries this in a follow-up lesson and is surprised to find the pedagogical techniques engage the more difficult pupils in the class, allowing much more learning to take place.
