7 Easy Tips to Manage a Talkative Class + Freebie

Whether you’re a brand-new teacher or a seasoned pro, every teacher needs a toolbox full of tips to manage a talkative class.

Your students walk in with the boisterous chatter that children have. You quieten them. They make their way to their desks, and the talk is building, while they continue to discuss their favourite topic with their friends.

You ‘SHHHH’ them again.

This tiring behaviour of chattiness continues throughout the day. It wastes good teaching time, and it’s disruptive. By the end of the day, you’re exhausted from all the redirections.

…In transition time.

…In group activity time.

You try strategy after strategy to quieten the din of this talkative class.

I’m sure you’ve all had classes like this. I know I have!

It can be so overwhelming and tiring for any teacher to be able to manage the incessant talk.

But, what I’ve realised is, a quiet, self-disciplined class does not just happen.

What is needed is for you to become a very good classroom manager and to learn to explicitly TEACH your students how to self-manage their chatter.

What you probably don’t realize is that if you don’t get a handle on this type of behaviour early, it can be just one nail in the coffin towards burnout for you, from all the stress it can cause.

Help manage a talkative class by getting your FREE Voice Levels Chart here from the Teachers’ Resource Library:

How Do You Get Your Class to Stop Talking?

If you’re new to teaching, to answer this question quickly: You have to teach students not to talk…preferably at the beginning of the year. Additionally, you have to help talkative students to understand quickly that talking out of turn or at inappropriate times is not acceptable.

Teachers Need to Explicitly Teach Their Expectations to Manage a Talkative Class

Managing chatty classes requires good classroom management strategies and setting clear expectations right away. And it’s going to take reminders. Probably more than you’d like. It’s a continual process of students learning about classroom talk – as is everything else we teach students.

It seems like there are certain classroom teachers who are experts at managing a chatty classroom, and others who…need more help with impulsive kids who like to talk. And, depending on the grade level you’re teaching at, your challenges could vary. It’s very different teaching young children versus middle school or high school students.

Let’s dive into the ways we can create more positive behavior habits when it comes to talking in the classroom.

Ideas to Manage a Talkative Class

If you’re trying to start lessons on time and keep private conversations to a minimum, there’s good news. Here are some easy strategies that can make a huge difference in the ease of your days in the classroom.

1. Managing student discussions

There are many instances in which group work or talk times can help engage students. By having structured talk time through group projects, students can gain more perspective and develop a more thorough understanding of the material.

In the primary setting, for example, this can be done in a whole-class reading lesson. For example, allow your students to discuss what they’re learning about with their partner. Let them share their answers or opinions about the text they are reading.

Example Lesson sequence:

At the beginning: Students share with their buddy what their story prediction is.
Throughout the lesson: Students share with their partners about their responses to teacher-led questions
At the end of the lesson: Students share with their learning partner what they learnt, or if their predictions matched the story ending.

Be very clear and explicit about what this learning talk looks like. It’s helpful to set time limits with a timer, so the children know the deadlines for their talk.

A great benefit of this type of interaction is that it allows all students to have a voice and feel heard. This gives opportunities for quieter students to share insight that they may not feel comfortable sharing in a full class discussion.

Carefully managing student discussions

To do this, you’ll need to be very clear on your expectations and explicitly teach what this will look like in the classroom. Make sure to include specific objectives and outcomes that they must present or turn in at the end of the activity. This helps students understand what is required of them in the lesson.

Lee Canter explains very clearly how to teach student talk in his book, Assertive Discipline. (Refer to my post where I review this awesome positive classroom management tool. It’s a must for all teachers to read. He says that the ‘foundation of any lesson is the behaviours you want your students to learn,’ to ensure the success of the activity.

GRAB THE FREE VOICE LEVELS CHART TO HELP YOU EXPLICITLY TEACH YOUR EXPECTATIONS AND MANAGE A TALKATIVE CLASS:

2. Teaching partner talk to manage a talkative class

It is important to clearly teach the steps of what you expect students to do so they can successfully work with a partner when needed:

For example, explain and model the following behaviours, including how they should speak, when working with a partner:

Sit facing their partner
Speak in a quiet 30-centimetre voice
Work on the assigned activity
Model the kinds of language you would expect to hear

It can be useful to use a visual aid to help teach the expectations of voice levels. Have a mini lesson on what a 30- centimetre voice is, what it looks like, and what it sounds like. You will then be able to refer to this chart session by session until it’s learnt.

3. Tips for small group talk to manage noise levels

Just as in partner work, students need to be taught the expectations of working in small groups. This includes how they should talk and behave with the 3 -6 students in the group.

Give students clear instructions on what group-work looks and sounds like. These are a few things you would tell your students:

Work on the assignment
Stay seated
Talk only about the assignment and in quiet voices

To help with group management, I also use a chart that clearly outlines the group-work expectations. Then, I model these behaviours with what I’m looking for and the conversations I expect to hear when I observe students working together.

It does take some time, but with effort and consistency, your students will be clear on what you are looking for with student talk. Don’t give up on it! Particularly if it’s your first year of teaching, getting comfortable with this sort of instruction will serve you for years to come.

The book I referred to, by Lee Canter, Assertive Discipline: Positive Behaviour Management, was instrumental in helping me to successfully get on top of the student talk in my classes over the years. It also helped me manage ‘that’ talkative class. I would thoroughly recommend this resource to help you if you’re at your wits’ end.

4. Voice level chart to manage a talkative class

An additional tool I use in my classroom to help calm the chattiness is a voice-levels chart. This type of chart is able to clearly rate student voices/noise levels with a number. I find it is a best practice to refer to regularly. It allows you to explicitly outline the volume of student voices in various situations.

Teach these voice levels for all learning occasions in the classroom, and as I said, refer to them often.

Voice Levels include:

Level 0 – Silence. No talking at all. Quiet work time, tests, and quizzes
Level 1 – Minimal Talking – partner and independent work time
Level 2 – Quiet Talk – Partners – only loud enough to be heard by your partner
Level 3 – Quiet Talk – small groups – the rest of the class cannot hear you
Level 4 – Full Voice – whole group lessons – loud enough to be heard across the room

This levelled approach assists students in understanding the appropriate volume of talk they should be using in a variety of different situations. Plus, if the chattiness flares up, you can quickly bring your student’s attention to this and easily downgrade the noise.

Get your FREE Voice Levels Poster here from the Teacher Resource Library:

5. Simple attention getters to save your voice

A fun and interactive way to mitigate the level of noise in the classroom is engaging attention-getters. Stand at the front of the class and have a phrase that you say to get the students’ attention, with a response that you’ve taught that the whole class repeats back to you. These require some whole group instruction ahead of time, but are an amazing routine to quickly take back control of the classroom. Check out this blog post for some fun attention-getting phrases you can use!

6. Individual and group rewards for managing the noise level

One of my favorite and most effective classroom management strategies for chatty classes is engaging in a classroom rewards system. This provides a great opportunity for positive reinforcement. Rewards work best when classroom rules are shared clearly and often, so make sure that, in addition to a behavior chart, you have printed rules on expectations for both individual students and whole class rules. This visual reminder can be referred to throughout the school year. Make time at the end of the week to point out and reward great behavior by individual students and the whole class.

7. Incorporate accommodations for students who need them

If certain students are still having a hard time, they may need specific accommodations. Here are a few things that could be beneficial:

Privacy folders: Removing some of the visual stimulation that can lead to talking may be helpful
Flexible seating: This is gaining popularity as a solution for students to independently decide what they need, and as long as they’re not being disruptive and getting their work done, can be a huge benefit to the classroom environment.
Extra recess or free time: If you have the opportunity in the schedule to include some unstructured time for students to chat, it may help let off some of the steam that can be built up throughout the day.
Fidget items: These can be a benefit or a distraction, however, they’ve often been shown to help reduce distractions and may help students better focus on lessons, as opposed to getting bored and talking to their neighbor.

Sometimes, a small change in the classroom environment can make a big difference to an otherwise talkative child. There are plenty of opportunities to meet needs without disrupting the whole class.

Additional Strategies to Minimize Classroom Chatter

There are some more creative ways that you, as a teacher, can help students reduce partner talk. Here are some small shifts you can make in the classroom. It’s a good idea to use a combination of these different ways to reduce chatter to cover lots of personality types.

Arrange desks in rows – A talkative class will be much more focused and engaged in their learning if desks are arranged in rows. Kids don’t need any encouragement to talk, so if your seating chart includes small table groups, they will. Rows facing the front of the classroom help minimise unwanted talk.
Table Points/Rewards – This is a clever tip to help encourage students to cut out the chatter. Award points to groups that are focused and quiet. This creates competition between students and is useful, especially if there are rewards involved.
Make lessons engaging & fun – Enjoyable Lessons will keep students engaged and focused for longer. This is not new, but can sometimes be forgotten.
Movement breaks – Including movement breaks and taking brain breaks in sessions and throughout the day can help minimise talk and keep students engaged. Who amongst us can sit for hours and hours on end without a break?
Incorporate Mindfulness Breaks – Mindfulness breaks are a great way to help the entire class decompress. Students spend the majority of the day thinking about lessons, social pressures, and home stress. Giving them positive ways to associate quiet time with other benefits will help them give their full attention when it’s time to get back to lessons.

These small shifts can save a lot of time that would otherwise be lost to student talks. lness printable).

In finishing – Tips to manage a talkative class

I hope these 7 management tips give you a variety of ideas of how you can quiet and manage a talkative class, if and when you might need it.

As a reminder:

Don’t forget to explicitly teach your expectations
Teach and model all aspects of what student-talk should look like in your room
Allow many opportunities for your students to talk throughout the learning process
Use a Voice-Levels Chart to manage the classroom noise
Manage student discussions
Teach students how to talk with each other – in both partner work and small group activities

Get this under control and working well, and it’s one less thing that will give you stress, and then you can focus on the many other important things in the life of a teacher.

Good luck!

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7 Easy Tips to Manage a Talkative Class + Freebie

Help manage a talkative class by getting your FREE Voice Levels Chart here from the Teachers’ Resource Library:

How Do You Get Your Class to Stop Talking?

Teachers Need to Explicitly Teach Their Expectations to Manage a Talkative Class