Mrs. Sepulvedare had problems with some students talking and misbehaving during class discussions in her 8th grade class. To address this, the document recommends: 1) Changing student seating arrangements so that friends aren't sitting together and seats are assigned based on behavior and academic performance. 2) Reconsidering teaching methods to more fully engage distracted students by calling on them and having them participate. 3) Giving leadership tasks like choosing topics or finding materials to make those students feel invested in learning.

1. Classroom Management Case Study n°6:
“Mrs. Sepulvedarepeatedlyhadproblemswhenleadingaclassdiscussionwithhereighth
graders. No matter how involved in the topic the students were, there were usually
several students sitting in the back who would talk, shout out silly answers, and play with
objects they had brought from home.”
First of all, I would change seats. Students can’t be sitting right next to their friends.
As a teacher, I would have my students’ seats established from the second or third class of
the term (I can’t do it the first one because I haven’t observed them yet so I still don’t know
them). The seats would be given according to their personalities and academic output in
the subject, so that they could probably be more interested in improving their grades by
paying more attention to the teacher’s explanations and his/her attempts to catch students’
motivation.
Secondly, I think it would be very important to reconsider the way I’m teaching the
topic, because it could be my problem that the children don’t pay attention. It would be
also important to include those children who use to cause problems in the class, making
them participate, inviting them to give their opinions or to read a paragraph sometimes.
Maybe they want to feel that the teacher cares about them and really wants them to learn.
Another alternative could be to give them tasks, like for example to let them choose one
topic to be included in the English Corner next week, and to assign them the responsibility
of bringing material about it next class or week. They would choose between 3 or 4 topics
given by the teacher, so they would feel that they are deciding about something important
and they wouldn’t notice that their options are actually limited and controlled by the
teacher.