MathsClass

Quiet vs quiet

Saturday, 16 June 2007 | 1 Comment

I had a chance the other day, rare, to reflect on what was happening in my classroom during class time.  I noted one of the inconsistencies in my language.

The words you use and how you use them is obviously a fundamental part of classroom management.  Being inconsistent leads to the students not understanding, or worse you being unfair because of them not understanding or the student justifying their behaviour, knowing your expectation, but using the loophole you’ve left open.

One of the words that I realised I am inconsistent with is “quiet”.  There are two “quiets” that I expect in the classroom.  The first is quiet, as in silence, when I am talking or other students are responding to questions.  The second “quiet” means a low noise level whilst working on the activity or task for the lesson.

Now that I’ve recognised the inconsistency… I’ve tried to be more specific.  Using the word “quiet” for those no talking, silent times.  For working noise, I’ll try something like “whispering while working”.

Do you have some language inconsistencies you’ve recognised or fixed?

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