Talkers in the Classroom
I am an instructor at a private college and often have large classes of 30 or more students. I struggle with talkers a lot in my classroom and want some ideas on how to handle this. I have tried a few things but am open for suggestions.
Mitessa,
Was your approach successful in getting them to reduce their talking and become more a part of the learning community?
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Yes, I have had this issue with a couple of students. I have had private meetings to explain the importance of the class staying on task, and how I will give a specific time for questions, stories, concerns, or emotional outburst.
If they want to talk then let them.
put it together as a discussion session and give them a time period for that discussion. become the moderator, ask questions, point out topics to get the ball rolling and let them take it from there.
once discussion time has ended however there should be no more talking as it will be a disruption to the next part of class.
give them what they want but be the boss of it.
I greatly appreciate your example. This may be a solution to some occasional situations I encounter with some students.
Barbara,
Good advice. Thanks for sharing this management tool with us.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
I too have had this problem, I found that separating them from their comfort zone helps a lot too. they have to readjust to a new partner and sometimes that's all it takes
Kathy,
Thank you for sharing these strategies for handling "talkers". They are in every class or it seems like it so we need to have all the strategies we can get to make sure we manage their talking.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Ricky,
This is a simple but very effective way to manage behavior without disrupting the class. Also the offending student is corrected and the class keeps going so he or she can save face but stop the talking.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
I also have a "talker". She has a story for every topic we discuss. I have started creating small groups to control the dominate talkers and this has worked. I also moved the desks into a u shape so I am able to be center attention.
I have had this issue also. One thing I have tried is stop my presentation, move closer to the person and start listening to what they are talking about. When they notice me and stop talking, I ask them if they would like to make this a group discussion. They say no, then I ask if they are done and if we may continue with the subject at hand. This seems to work for me, they don't like to bring it out to the whole class.
Chris,
This is how a learning leader should keep control of the class. It is easy as you know for a student to take over and before long the class has been derailed for that session.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
My classes, presently, have fewer students than in the past. However, that still doesn't stop a couple of "talkers" in the class. I handle it in this manner: I let the student go ahead and comment on the topic at hand, give their generalized opinion and then politely say, "let's get back to the lecture" or "that's a great segway to our next topic". I, always, thank the student for their input. Then, at times, also relate their comment(s) to our topic.
Donna,
Message sent. Message received by this student. You took control of the class situation right from the beginning so that her behavior did not derail the class. This is so important if you are going to be the learning leader for the class.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
In one situation when a student was talking to her neighbor, after several looks from me to let her know I was watching, I stopped, announced to the class we had an unexpected speaker today and ask her to come up front and share with the entire class what she felt like was more important. Needless to say, she got quite.
Maria,
One way is to put them into learning groups and have them discuss a topic or solve a problem. Then one person from the group reports out on the discussion. This controls the excessive talkers. Another way is to have a private conversation with the talkers and explain that you need them to quiet down so others can talk. In some cases I don't have a discussion I have the students write their questions down on 3X5 cards and hand them in and I answer the questions. This also controls the talkers. Lastly if the talkers do not start becoming a part of the class and sharing discussion time I have removed them from the class because I will not let them disrupt the learning of others. Hope one of the suggestions will help you in managing this situation.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
