6 Tips for Teaching a Large Group.
Teaching a large group is no longer an exception these days. Groups of 30 to 35 children or maybe even more are almost normal, and quite tough. I read a lot about this on social media, and get questions about how to solve this. If you are lucky, you have extra hands in the classroom, but this is also not self-evident. Therefore, below are some practical tips that may help you to make teaching that large group just that little bit easier.
Embrace it.
It is a fact, your group size is your group size, whether you like it or not, so you have to embrace it. It will be crazy. It can be chaotic. It will be busy. But your attitude will be an important determining factor in the kind of year you and your students have. Now I am not saying that you are not facing a big challenge, and you are allowed to grumble about it every now and then. But stay positive, because with the most positive attitude you can really go a long way.
Classroom layout.
With a large group, you have to think very carefully about how to divide the class. Sometimes you also have to experiment. Whichlayout works best for you and your children.
– With a very large group, you may be able to create groups of 8-9 tables instead of groups of 4. This saves a lot of floor space, which creates a little more room to move around.
– Find a space where children can retreat for a while. So many children together causes irritation. Let them work at your group table for a while, or find a spot on the floor if necessary. Maybe you can find a spot in the hallway where children can go to isolate themselves.
Let the children help you
You really don’t have to do everything yourself. By giving the children tasks and responsibilities, they can take a lot of work off your hands. They often enjoy doing it too.
Don’t check everything yourself!
If you have a very large group, it is almost impossible to check everything yourself. Teach the children to check themselves very quickly. This gives them responsibility, insight into their own learning process, and saves you a lot of work. Of course, you still check randomly, and you know which children you might need to check extra.
Try to “see” all your children
If you have a large group, it is very easy to overlook children. I have really had that happen to me sometimes. That you think at the end of the day: “Hey, have I “seen” a certain student today”.
Therefore, try to be at the door when the children come in in the morning. So that you can say hello to them or give them a certain task (for example, the class service can already get the notebooks, the computers can be started up, etc.). I also have the names of all the children on popsicle sticks in a cup. I regularly take one out and call the child to me, or I walk over to them while they are working independently.
Routines
In a large class, certain routines have to be formed. For example, I noticed that it is not convenient to have all the children hand in their notebooks at the same time. This resulted in a lot of pushing and pulling. It is better to have one person from the table group bring the notebooks of his table group. This saves a lot of children walking around. You can also stand in line per table group while eating fruit or while standing in the gym line. This prevents the entire group of children from wanting to go through one door at the same time.
Teaching a large group is tough, as I said, so I hope these tips will help you. Do you have any other tips? I would love to hear them.
This text is a google translate translation of a Dutch page