Classroom Management in an Elementary School Spanish Classroom

I am a certified general education elementary school teacher in addition to being certified to teach Spanish. I started my teaching career teaching 2nd grade. Any teacher, and especially and general education inclusion teacher, will tell you the importance of the first six weeks of school. If you haven't read the book by the same title, it should definitely be at the top of your to do list before you start off any school year. As a world language teacher, I see the entire school (over 450 students) twice in a given week for only 30 minutes. Systems and procedures in my classroom have to be tight so that all students can be successful in my classroom.  In this post I am going to share some of the systems and procedures in my classroom.

Incentive System
In my classroom students are assigned to one of five teams (each based on a color in Spanish.) Students compete to earn points for their team throughout class. At the end of class, I then write down the points in a binder. The goal is for all teams to make it to 100 points for a classroom celebration. The team with the most points then gets an additional incentive (usually a certificate.) I usually try to time my celebrations to be at the end of every quarter, or right before a vacation. I give out points fairly generously at the beginning of the year to encourage the gaining of the points. I give them out much less frequently as the year goes on. I want students to know that they do not earn a point for doing the right thing or saying a correct answer all the time. They should be working hard ALL the time, and SOMETIMES they can earn a point. I only use a point system from grades 1-4.

I record points during class on small dry erase boards. I used colored tape to create a border for each board.

How Incentive System Corresponds to Classroom Set Up
I am incredibly lucky to have a huge classroom just for Spanish. I know many world language teachers are not as lucky and have to teach off a cart. When you do not have your own space it is important to make sure you define the space you work in for your classroom with your students. Make sure they understand what can and cannot be used when you are with them. For those of you who are as lucky as I am, you have the luxury of setting up a space that is conducive to your class' needs.

These are the two biggest components of my classroom: the carpet for mini lesson and corresponding colored tables for independent practice and group work.

As mentioned above, I split up students into five different teams that correspond to different colors. I found this great carpet that had the five colors in a circle. Students sit on their team colors on the carpet and when it is time for independent practice they sit at a corresponding table. On the carpet students end up sitting next to people from different teams.

At the tables students sit on special stools I made that also have numbers written on them. These numbers help me with classroom management depending on the activity. For instance, I can have students do a pair and share and say "1s match with 3s and 2s match with 4s and 5s." I could also have students start a game depending on which seat they are on.  If you decide to use this technique, please be sure to randomize which numbers you decide to go first, or students may fight over which seat number they get assigned to.

Routines
Students need consistency more than anything else in elementary school. That can be hard to achieve in a classroom that is all in a different language. I try to maintain a routine that stays the same throughout the year; I just vary the activities within the general routine. For instance my students walk in on pink tape directly to the carpet every time they come into my classroom. I have a whole post dedicated to line up procedures here.

 
Other routines you should think about in your classroom are:
-Cleaning up table work
-What to do if you have already finished your work
-How to ask for water/bathroom/pencil
-Transitioning from mini lesson (carpet) to independent practice (tables)

Visual Schedule
The last thing I want to mention is probably one of the first things you should introduce with your students. Everyday I start my lesson by greeting students and telling them what we are going to do today. I give them infinitive verbs and pictures to go with each verb to give them an idea of what we will do in class today. For instance, "Hoy vamos a hablar, cantar, y leer." They repeat each verb with a motion as I say them. I have a post about teaching verbs here.