You walk into the classroom and notice the students are under some kind of spell. Are they under hypnosis? Has the teacher bribed them? Whatever is going on, it seems as though some kind of magic is taking place. The teacher calls out some random phrase and the students reply with some other predetermined chant. All effective teachers have some way to get the attention of the students that is positive and never demeaning. Highly effective and superior teachers use multiple was to get their attention and often do it in a fun and exciting way.
For those unfamiliar with the terminology, we call these ways of attaining the attention of the students "callbacks." When you call the students back from whatever task they are on you can do it in many ways. There is no secret to it. This is just a procedure you practice with your students and review it from time to time. As the year progresses, you can add new ones to the mix. This adds a little variety to your class & keeps the students from getting bored with the other callbacks.
Callbacks are often phrases broken into two parts. The teacher calls out a phrase and the students answer back with the rest of the phrase. These techniques are nothing new, but have been used for years. I can remember at camp, many of the counselors using different ones to get our attention. The one that stands out the most to me was "Hey, hey...Ho, ho!" The counselor would say the hey and the campers would say ho.
Phrasal callbacks are not the only ones you can use. Many of them can be an action, response type of callback. One often used has the teacher start the phrase "If you can hear my voice..." followed by some instruction that required student action. For instance the teacher might quietly say "If you can hear my voice clap once." Then the students would give one quick, crisp clap. Then the teacher would say it with a minor change like asking them to clap twice. Each time monitoring to see how many students are attentive. When the teacher feels she has the attention of all the students, she would begin the instruction for the next lesson, etc.
Some teachers use a noisemaker of some kind to call the students back to attention. A bell or chime, a goofy noise maker, rain stick or a slide whistle can all be used for this. The main thing is to practice and review what you desire the students to do every time you use the noisemaker. This is the vital part. You must be consistent or else it will be nothing but a novelty and not a tool.
Every teacher at every grade level can use callbacks of some kind with their students. What you have to do is find what works for you and fits your personality.
I am not much of a Pinterest person, but know the value it has for teachers. So I am building a board of Classroom Callbacks that you can view here. To give you some more ideas, checkout this video on Power Teaching.
For those unfamiliar with the terminology, we call these ways of attaining the attention of the students "callbacks." When you call the students back from whatever task they are on you can do it in many ways. There is no secret to it. This is just a procedure you practice with your students and review it from time to time. As the year progresses, you can add new ones to the mix. This adds a little variety to your class & keeps the students from getting bored with the other callbacks.
Callbacks are often phrases broken into two parts. The teacher calls out a phrase and the students answer back with the rest of the phrase. These techniques are nothing new, but have been used for years. I can remember at camp, many of the counselors using different ones to get our attention. The one that stands out the most to me was "Hey, hey...Ho, ho!" The counselor would say the hey and the campers would say ho.
Phrasal callbacks are not the only ones you can use. Many of them can be an action, response type of callback. One often used has the teacher start the phrase "If you can hear my voice..." followed by some instruction that required student action. For instance the teacher might quietly say "If you can hear my voice clap once." Then the students would give one quick, crisp clap. Then the teacher would say it with a minor change like asking them to clap twice. Each time monitoring to see how many students are attentive. When the teacher feels she has the attention of all the students, she would begin the instruction for the next lesson, etc.
Some teachers use a noisemaker of some kind to call the students back to attention. A bell or chime, a goofy noise maker, rain stick or a slide whistle can all be used for this. The main thing is to practice and review what you desire the students to do every time you use the noisemaker. This is the vital part. You must be consistent or else it will be nothing but a novelty and not a tool.
Every teacher at every grade level can use callbacks of some kind with their students. What you have to do is find what works for you and fits your personality.
I am not much of a Pinterest person, but know the value it has for teachers. So I am building a board of Classroom Callbacks that you can view here. To give you some more ideas, checkout this video on Power Teaching.
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