Teach English in Jiuxian Zhen - Linfen Shi

I think it is appropriate to punish (discipline) younger children in an ESL classroom. In my 20 years’ experience teaching children under 7 years old, it is very important to manage and have complete control in class at this very age group.It only takes one student to affect the whole class flow and other students can be influence by him/her. Some children will mimic the misbehavior and it turn will make things worse. Other students will get easily distracted when they see a student running around, taking things from the class or yelling. Young children are easily distracted and many times can’t sit too long in their chairs. As such, we first look at punishing a young learner as a necessary tool. It has proven to be successful in my experience. Secondly, it’s important to look at rules, and thirdly prevention, because I think punishment should be the last resort. The most common use of punishing a student is by removing his earned stars on the board during class, or replacing it with a sad face, most of the time it works. Besides removing stars, another punishment is the “time out” or “sad chair” at the side of the class. On the floor I draw a sad face, and make a borderline for him not to get out. I tell students that this is the “sad chair” and you won’t be able to play any games or move until you either apologize or after the 5-10 minute of time out. One student I asked him to sit there, he was really upset and began to cry, but it worked. I only had to point at the chair when he was misbehaving. However this required help from the co-teacher to make sure he didn’t get up. The rest of the class take notice and they didn’t want to sit there. I also think making a student stand up works, but this doesn’t always work because many times the student can’t be still too long. After we do a simple self-introduction in a new class we immediately go over the rules or do a 20 minute lesson on good and bad behavior. I insist on my co-teacher to explain the rules in English and Chinese. We go over the basic requirements, no yelling, sit down and stand up please, and no hitting other students. The first few weeks I prefer that the co-teacher helps me to explain the misbehave in Chinese. I don’t agree that saying it in English is practical for young pre-kindergarten, during the first few months, because they don’t understand English very well. I usually wait a few months to review the rules in full English once the students are completely aware of them. Even though I speak Chinese, I pretend I don’t understand. I think prevention rather than the “cure”, is vital in putting in place systems of discipline which reward good focus, it raises students’ awareness of their own behavior and its impact on others, and undermine tendencies which may lead to poor discipline before they can take a firm hold. Punishment should be the last resort but young learners must learn there are consequences for bad behavior and I don’t allow him/her to “slide”. In doing so, I try my best to bring out the best in each student when they behave well. I will praise them in class. I don’t believe giving treats is the answer to motivate them for good behavior for each lesson. I do give stickers once in a blue moon for the best students. Children ought to learn that good behavior makes a good society and tell them they can make more friends by being kind, considerate, and helpful to the teacher and peers. You don’t need to give them a treat to affirm that. It has been very successful in all my classes. Moreover, the stars are enough to bring joy to the students, especially when they “show off” how many stars they got to their parents. They also love to hear their names aloud when I praise them for their good work and behavior. I enjoy working with kids!