No, not freely. Students should never be allowed to talk socially in class whenever they wish.
However, when narrowly defined, giving your students the option to talk with their friends for a minute or two during the school day is a smart idea.
Here’s why:
It improves your likability.
It’s important your students like you because it gives you more leverage and influence over their behavior choices. It also helps make your rules and consequences matter to them.
Allowing your students a few moments to catch up during the day is a simple little thing, but they’ll appreciate you for it immensely.
It improves focus.
60-90 seconds or so is all it takes to “clear the boards.” It purges their thoughts from being dominated by what they desperately want to tell their friends.
Once behind them, they’re better able to focus on the here and now. They’re better able to lock in on you and the challenges you place before them.
It combats boredom.
Sitting too long causes excitability and restlessness. Short breaks throughout the day relax the body, clear the mind, and promote better listening and production.
I allow students to get up and move around the room when they talk because it gets their blood moving and helps keep boredom at bay.
It improves behavior.
Because occasional breaks assuage excitability and cause your students to like and appreciate you—and therefore want to please you—they’re less prone to misbehavior.
It’s the Law of Reciprocity in action. Meaning, they’ll want to pay you back for your kindness and understanding.
It allows you to join in.
Chatting with students with no strings attached is a great way to build rapport and mutual trusting likability.
It’s also fun and gives you a chance to prove that you don’t hold any grudges. It communicates that you like and appreciate all students, even your most challenging.
Teach It
You can’t, however, simply allow your students to get up and wander the room. You can’t say one day out of the blue “Go ahead and talk with your friends.”
This will only cause more headaches, not less.
You must teach and model exactly what one minute (or more) of socializing looks like. Your students need to know exactly what is and isn’t okay—including appropriate topics of conversation.
They must be assured that if they stray outside the parameters you’ve set up, you’ll hold them accountable.
If you’re a high school or middle school teacher you may want to allow a minute or two midway through the period. The beginning of class as they enter the classroom also works.
Elementary teachers should plan for it a couple times of day, perhaps once in the morning and once in the afternoon.
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I’m 100 percent on board with this! Especially if your school has large instructional blocks. Plenty of extra time built in.
Seems like it might work…..I might try it. I’m a sub, and sometimes it’s hard enough as it is, especially when teachers leave a sub plan of two or three pages of detailed single-spaced instructions to be completed in the precious forty or fifty minutes of classroom time. My only concerns are that it might slip into two or three (or more) minutes—not counting additional time for the students to “decompress”—or that the principal happens to pop in (per Murphy’s Law) at that exact time and does a gotcha.
This is a technique from Kagan that works well. Play music to get them up and moving and tell them when the music stops they should thank their partner and sit down.
I’ve been doing this for the better part of a decade. I call them “mingle minutes.” (Modeling is key at the beginning of the school year.) It’s been an absolute game changer.
I love this! I do this everyday with my 7th grade Pre-Algebra students. When they come in to the classroom, they quietly complete Bell Work while I take attendance. Then we go over Bell Work and any tough homework problems from the previous evening. Before I start the lesson of the day, I give them 2 minutes (I set a timer) to turn in their Bell Work and homework to the basket. During this time they are allowed to chat with each other. They look forward to it, and the 2 minutes seems a perfect amount of time for them and for me, too, in prep for my lesson.
I have recently been thinking about how students are told to “be quiet” and “stop talking” all day at school. I think we do need to fit in *structured* times for them to chat. Thank you for the reminder.
This is a good idea. I would appreciate some specifics as to HOW to teach it. Also, what prompt do you give to get the socializing going?
Thanks
Second grade teacher here. I’ve noticed the kids are super chatty after lunch. This year I tried out an idea: social time for 5-10 minutes after lunch. They play with toys or crafting activity. I also have gonoodle playing. We review beforehand…no running, no yelling, etc. I also incorporate bathroom break for one boy and girl at a time during this time. It has proven to be a HUGE improvement on behavior!