Tips for effective online classroom management

ɫèAV Languages
A young person in front of a laptop with headphones

Online language learning and teaching brings with it a lot of things to think about. The following tips are designed to help you plan your primary-level online classes effectively and manage students in a digital environment.

1. Keep energy levels high

The school environment is an active and incredibly social space. It¡¯s hard to replicate this online, potentially leading to boredom and frustration among your students. For this reason, you should take regular 'movement breaks' during the day to energize them. You can do the following quick sequence sitting or standing:

  • Stretch your arms above your head and reach for the sky.?
  • Count to ten.?
  • Drop your left arm to your side and bend to your left while stretching your right arm over your head.?
  • Count to fifteen.?
  • Come back to an upright position and stretch both arms above your head.?
  • Count to ten.?
  • Drop your right arm to your side and bend to your right while stretching your left arm over your head.?
  • Count to fifteen.?
  • Come back to an upright position and stretch both arms above your head.?
  • Count to ten.?
  • Lean forward until your fingertips touch the floor (only go as far as is comfortable for your body), then cross your arms and release your head so it hangs gently between your legs.?
  • Count to fifteen.?
  • Come back upright, shake your arms and legs, and get back to work!

This excellent energy booster allows your students to revise parts of the body, commands and even make the link with other subjects.

2. Encourage casual socialisation

Small talk and gossip are fundamental parts of the regular school day. It¡¯s essential to give students a few minutes to chat freely. It will help them feel relaxed and make your classes more comfortable.

Let your students do this in whatever language they want and don¡¯t get involved, just like at school. Alternatively, ask someone to share a YouTube video, song, Instagram, or TikTok post in a digital show and tell.

3. Encourage the use of functional language

After students have been chatting freely in their own language, take the opportunity to bring in functional language depending on the subject they were talking about in English. This will help get them ready for the lesson. Here are some ways to do this:

  • Singing - Play a song and get them to sing along.?
  • Role-play - When students talk about food, you could role-play in a restaurant or talk about likes and dislikes.?
  • Guessing games - Students must read the animals' descriptions and guess what they are. You can make up your own descriptions.

4. Consider task and student density

To optimize learning time, consider dividing your class into smaller groups and teaching each one individually for part of the timetabled class time. You may find that you get more done in 15 minutes with eight students than you would be able to get done in 60 minutes with 32 students.

At the same time, you will be able to focus more easily on individual needs (you¡¯ll be able to see all their video thumbnails on the same preview page). If it is not acceptable in your school to do this, divide the class so you¡¯re not trying to teach everyone the same thing simultaneously.

Having the whole class do a reading or writing activity is a lost opportunity to use this quiet time to give more focused support to smaller groups of learners, so think about setting a reading task for half the class, while you supervise a speaking activity with the other half, and then swap them over.

Alternatively, set a writing activity for 1/3 of the students, a reading for 1/3 and a speaking activity for the remaining 1/3, and rotate the groups during the class.

5. Manage your expectations

Don¡¯t expect to get the same amount of work done in an online class as in the classroom. Once you have waited for everyone to connect, get them to turn on their cameras, etc., you have less time to teach than you would usually have. Add this to the fact that it¡¯s much more complex and time-consuming to give focused support to individual learners in a way that doesn¡¯t interrupt everyone else.

So, don¡¯t plan the same task density in online classes as you would for face-to-face teaching. Explore flipping some of your activities, so your students arrive better prepared to get to work.

It¡¯s also much harder to engage students, measure their engagement and verify that they are staying on task online than in the physical classroom. In an online class, measuring engagement and reading reactions is harder. Always clearly explain the objectives and why you have decided on them. Regularly check to see if everyone understands and is able to work productively.

When you¡¯re all online, you can¡¯t use visual clues to quickly judge whether anyone is having difficulties, like you can in the classroom. Ask direct questions to specific students rather than asking if everyone understands, or is OK. During and at the end of class, check and reinforce the achieved objectives.

More blogs from ɫèAV

  • A parent and their child laying on the floor drawing together on a large peice of paper

    Raising bilingual kids: Sharing your family language at home

    By Charlotte Guest
    Reading time: 3 minutes

    A shared language is central to many families, and this can carry extra meaning when your children are growing up in a country that speaks a different language. It's not just about words; it's about culture, identity and connection. If you'd like to teach your kids the language that holds a special place in your heart, here are some tips to get you started.

  • A group of students stood around a teacher on a laptop

    The ethical challenges of AI in education

    By
    Reading time: 5 minutes

    AI is revolutionising every industry, and language learning is no exception. AI tools can provide students with unprecedented access to things like real-time feedback, instant translation and AI-generated texts, to name but a few.

    AI can be highly beneficial to language education by enhancing our students¡¯ process of learning, rather than simply being used by students to ¡®demonstrate¡¯ a product of learning. However, this is easier said than done, and given that AI is an innovative tool in the classroom, it is crucial that educators help students to maintain authenticity in their work and prevent AI-assisted ¡®cheating¡¯. With this in mind, striking a balance between AI integration and academic integrity is critical.

    How AI impacts language learning

    Generative AI tools such as ChatGPT and Gemini have made it easier than ever for students to refine and develop their writing. However, these tools also raise concerns about whether submitted texts are student-produced, and if so, to what extent. If students rely on text generation tools instead of their own skills, our understanding of our students¡¯ abilities may not reflect their true proficiency.

    Another issue is that if students continue to use AI for a skill they are capable of doing on their own, they¡¯re likely to eventually lose that skill or become significantly worse at it.

    These points create a significant ethical dilemma:

    • How does AI support learning, or does it (have the potential to) replace the learning process?
    • How can educators differentiate between genuine student ability and AI-assisted responses?

    AI-integration strategies

    There are many ways in which educators can integrate AI responsibly, while encouraging our learners to do so too.

    1.?Redesign tasks to make them more ¡®AI-resistant¡¯

    No task can be completely ¡®AI-resistant¡¯, but there are ways in which teachers can adapt coursebook tasks or take inspiration from activities in order to make them less susceptible to being completed using AI.

    For example:

    • Adapt writing tasks to be hyperlocal or context-specific. Generative AI is less likely to be able to generate texts that are context-bound. Focus on local issues and developments, as well as school or classroom-related topics. A great example is having students write a report on current facilities in their classroom and suggestions for improving the learning environment.
    • Focus on the process of writing rather than the final product. Have students use mind maps to make plans for their writing, have them highlight notes from this that they use in their text and then reflect on the steps they took once they¡¯ve written their piece.
    • Use multimodal learning. Begin a writing task with a class survey, debate or discussion, then have students write up their findings into a report, essay, article or other task type.
    • Design tasks with skill-building at the core. Have students use their critical thinking skills to analyse what AI produces, creatively adapt its output and problem solve by fact-checking AI-generated text.

    2.?Use AI so that students understand you know how to use it

    Depending on the policies in your institution, if you can use AI in the classroom with your students, they will see that you know about different AI tools and their output. A useful idea is to generate a text as a class, and have students critically analyse the AI-generated text. What do they think was done well? What could be improved? What would they have done differently?

    You can also discuss the ethical implications of AI in education (and other industries) with your students, to understand their view on it and better see in what situations they might see AI as a help or a hindrance.

    3.?Use the GSE Learning Objectives to build confidence in language abilities

    Sometimes, students might turn to AI if they don¡¯t know where to start with a task or lack confidence in their language abilities. With this in mind, it¡¯s important to help your students understand where their language abilities are and what they¡¯re working towards, with tangible evidence of learning. This is where the GSE Learning Objectives can help.

    The Global Scale of English (GSE) provides detailed, skill-specific objectives at every proficiency level, from 10 to 90. These can be used to break down complex skills into achievable steps, allowing students to see exactly what they need to do to improve their language abilities at a granular level.

    • Start by sharing the GSE Learning Objectives with students at the start of class to ensure they know what the expectations and language goals are for the lesson. At the end of the lesson, you can then have students reflect on their learning and find evidence of their achievement through their in-class work and what they¡¯ve produced or demonstrated.
    • Set short-term GSE Learning Objectives for the four key skills ¨C speaking, listening, reading and writing. That way, students will know what they¡¯re working towards and have a clear idea of their language progression.
  • A teacher stood by a long wooden desk where her students are sat smiling at her

    What¡¯s it like to teach English in France?

    By Steffanie Zazulak
    Reading time: 3 minutes

    Kirsty Murray taught English for a year at a coll¨¨ge (the French equivalent of a secondary school) in Villers-Cotter¨ºts: a town in the north of France known for being the birthplace of Alexandre Dumas. She taught mixed-ability groups of 11- to 16-year-olds, with classes ranging in size from 10 to 35 students. Here, she shares the five lessons she learned from the experience.