Managing Large Classes
By: Ormon (Note: This article is intended for non-English major teachers teaching EFL in Thailand.)

Most Thai secondary school contains an average of 45-50 students. This can make it difficult for teachers to manage their classes efficiently without feeling overloaded with work. I like to share some activities/techniques and introduce practical ways to manage this kind of set up.

5 Important Points for Large Class Management

1. Know your students
- To enable teachers to have a personal relationship with their students which promotes a good classroom atmosphere favourable to learning
- To enable teachers to manage class activities more easily


2. Reduce the teacher’s workload
- To make it possible for teachers to manage a large class more efficiently
- To help teachers enjoy their work more

3. Create a positive learning attitude amongst students
- To encourage students to learn more efficiently

4. Get every student involved in all class activities
- To make the class more student-centered
- To minimize opportunities for students to do things other that English work

5. Develop students’ self-reliance
- To encourage students to take responsibility for their own learning


Characteristics of a good large class technique

Preparation is quick and easy.
It can be used with a wide range of content: materials, topics, language points
It challenges the students in some way (e.g. problem-solving, processing information)
It can be used in a variety of work arrangements; individually, pairs, groups, teacher-class (but not necessarily all of these).
It can be used at different levels: M3,M5 etc.

Techniques

N.B. Some of these techniques are not suitable for large classes. Can you identify the 2 best techniques and the 2 worst? Exercise your mind. Enjoy.

1. True/False listening
The teacher shows the learners a picture and then says some sentences. Each sentence has a number. For example, the teacher says:

“Number one: The man is wearing a read hat.”

If the sentence refers to the picture the learners write 1. If it does not refer to the picture the learners write x. Or the learners can write the sentences that refer to the picture but do not write those that don’t. When checking the exercise the teacher should repeat the sentences again several times while the learners check their own work.

2. Discover the story
One learner has a copy of a story. He tells the topic of the story to others in the group and they ask him questions to discover what the story is about. There are many variations of this technique. The passage can be a story written by the learner and the information given to the other learners, instead of being the topic, can be some important words of the story.

3. Ranking
The learners are given a list of terms and a criterion for ranking or choosing amongst the items. They must arrange the items according to the criterion or choose the top 3 and the bottom 1. Here is an example:
You are alone and lost in the jungle: put the following things in order of
importance for your survival.

a sleeping bag
a radio
a gun and ten bullets etc….

4. Making substitution tables
The learners make sentences from matching substitution tables. In a matching substitution table certain words or phrases in one part must be matched with the right words or phrases in another part. The learners must pay careful attention to the meaning in order to match the sentences correctly.

My house cover
bicycle broken engine
shirt has a new collar
car dirty wheel
book roof

e.g. If the learner chooses shirt then she must also choose new or dirty and collar.

5. Name it!
The teacher says some sentences that describe something such as an object, an action or feeling. For example:

“Most people have these. We like these. We can spend time with our friends during this time. We can travel to interesting places.” Etc. (The teacher’s word is holidays.)

After each sentence the students try to guess the teacher’s word. The teacher’s first sentences are general so it is not too easy for students to guess. Gradually, the sentences can become more specific and easier.

6. Student questions
Teacher tells students the title of the passage and discusses the topic a little. Students then write five questions about information they think will be in the passage. Students read the passage to see if they asked the right questions and then they answer them.

7. Predict the passage
Teacher reads the passage aloud to students. She reads a word, phrase or sentences and then asks the students to predict the next word. When they guess, she reads the next part of the passage and asks them to predict again and so on through the passage.

8. Guess the price
Teacher prepares pictures of things which one can buy in a department store. She writes the price on a piece of paper, folds it and sticks it to the bottom of the pictures so the students cannot see the price. Students, in groups, take turns to guess the price. You can provide patterns like, “ I think it’s …….”

9. What am I?
Teacher prepares word cards ( e.g. doctor, boxer, etc.) and pins a word card on each student’s back. Students walk around to find information by asking questions so that s/he knows who s/he is.

10. Matching pictures with stories

The teacher gives students a picture and a piece of paper. Students write any words they can think of about their picture. Teacher then puts the pictures on one side of the room and the words on the other side. Other students try to match the words with the pictures.

11. Lost and Found

Pairs of matching cards, one marked “lost” and the other “ found” are prepared. Each pair of cards has a picture of either an umbrella or a suitcase, of different colours and with different coloured handles. On the cards there is also a clock-face showing the time and a picture of a building. This information is different for each pair of cards.

Each students has a lost or found card. Students with lost cards walk around to find their partner by asking appropriate questions such as: Have you found a (red) (umbrella)? Does it have a (blue)handle? What time did you find it? Where did you find it? etc.

12. Guess The Word

Each learner in a pair has 10 or 15 cards. On each card is a chosen noun, and 3-4 other single words (‘clue’ words ) that can be used to suggest it. In turn, one learner reads out one ‘clue’ word, and the other learner has to try to guess the noun on the card. The learner reading the word can mime, point or make sounds to help his partner guess (but not use other words). For each noun, the learner notes down how many clue words his partner needs to guess it. At the end, the learner with the lowest total wins.

Sample cards

THE WORD IS: animal THE WORD IS: bell

CLUES: zoo, forest, pet, monkey CLUES: ring, door, electric, bus