Have you ever counted how many times a day you are asked to go to the bathroom, get a drink of water, sharpen my pencil or I have a question? How many times do you verbally tell students to shut up? Stop being burned out and wasting valuable teaching time. Teach your students to use nonverbal cues as part of your classroom management plan.
Classroom management has many components. One of the easiest to use is nonverbal cues. In order for nonverbal cues to work as part of classroom management, expectations as to what is expected of students must be set up and explained and modeled. At the beginning of the school year, teach your students a system of nonverbal cues and how to use them. This will eliminate many behavior problems. The use of non-verbal signals is one of the basic strategies to use. By using non-verbal cues you can:
o Eliminate unnecessary classroom noise and interruption to your daily lessons
or stop interrupt during test taking
or have a classroom of students who are more focused and get more work done
or save your voice and complete more lesson plans
Where do I find nonverbal cues to teach and use in class? Maybe he’s using some nonverbal cues but doesn’t realize he’s doing it.
o Ask last year’s teacher if they used any with the class.
or ask veteran teachers
or behavior coach at your school
or research on the internet
I have used five standard nonverbal cues for many years. These are the ones I use.
o Permission to go to the bathroom raise your hand and cross your fingers
o Needs a drink of water, raises hand and shows three middle fingers
o The pencil needs to be sharpened. They hold your pencil up, remember to have pencils in a container already sharpened for them to trade. No physical sharpening
o Have a simple question by raising their hand
o To get their attention, I say five out loud, raise my hand, and silently start counting on my fingers. The students, in turn, do the same, so I know when I have their full attention.
The following example is a nonverbal cue to stay on task. I draw on the board a tic tac toe symbol with an additional line running horizontally. There are three horizontal lines, every time they are noisy, talk or do not work, they lose a third of the line they cross. When all the lines that go horizontally disappear, they will have lost the activity of the day. I don’t have to remind you that all I do is delete that section of the line. I use it for all kinds of behavior that I want to change or that I want them to be aware of. It is sometimes worn for lunch recess, free dress day, or attending special classes.
There are many different types of non-verbal cues that you can use. You have to choose those that work for you and be consistent when you use them. Consistency is the key.
