Sangeeta’s January posting What’s All the Noise About struck me as something to which all teachers can relate. I found that as a beginning teacher, I was often “aware” of the amount of noise in my classroom however in teaching French, I always felt a certain legitimacy with student interaction. As Sangeeta also mentioned it’s a trait that also characterises different styles of teaching. I know that oftentimes, teachers are judged (even by their peers) as having a lack of classroom management or that their students are too wild to be doing anything productive.

However it seems to me that it all relates to the level of comfort of the teacher and the task at hand. As long as students are on-task, discussion and interaction demonstrate to me a high level of engagement. One also has to take into consideration that students need a release. In teaching exclusively rotary classes, I’ve found that students coming from strict environments where talking/discussion is discouraged in favour of silent work time are often the most challenging when they come to my class as they are frequently the ones who “chatter” incessantly.  Although a definite proponent of student talking, I would say that there are a couple of considerations:

  • students don’t have a licence to talk indiscriminately (ex. during your lesson)
  • the noise level doesn’t interfere with students being able to work productively
  • you are not disrupting another classroom
  • your students are on task and engaged
  • you feel confident and comfortable

I know that I’ve found it personally rewarding to see students engaged in a lively discussion over an assignment.  To me it demonstrates that (mercifully) they are involved and care about what you’re teaching them.

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