The answer to the question is:

• Eyelines
• Circulating
• Praising Focus

Let’s see what that looks like in practice.

If you can see low-level disruption, then you can deal with it.

Learners tend to develop an excellent understanding of when they can be seen by the teacher and when they can’t.

If they are tempted by off-task behaviour and know that the teacher can’t see them, then the costs of doing that behaviour are diminished.

Imagine we have two learners.

They both want to talk to the person sat next to them about what they saw on television last night.

The first learner is in your eye-line whereas the second learner isn’t.

The risks of being caught talking about something irrelevant are high for the first learner and low for the second.

Hence, the second is more likely to take a chance.

Thinking about your eye-line always helps you to stay on top of low-level disruption.

Learners are discouraged simply by virtue of knowing you can see them.

In addition, you can swiftly challenge anything that develops because you are able to see it as it begins.

A good tip is to remain at the front of the room until you are confident learners are engaged in their work.

Another option is to position yourself when circulating so that you can still see all or most of the class.

Also, you might like to think about where the best place is to stand during different activities so you can see what is happening and intervene where necessary.

Some teachers like to stand at the back of the room while learners are working.

This provides a different perspective, allowing you to survey the big picture even though learners can’t see you.

When it comes to circulating, remember that you can use this to discourage learners from low-level disruption simply by walking near them.

You might then have a quiet word, or you might not need to.

In many cases, simply making your presence felt is enough.

Another benefit of circulating is that it allows you to observe the class from different angles.

Changing your eye-line in this way gives you access to different information regarding behaviour.

For example, you might realise upon circulating that, while stood at the front of the room, you have been failing to pay attention to a group of learners on the far left of your field of vision.

On circulating you see that this has led to some bad habits forming.

Armed with this information, you can intervene as appropriate.

Finally, it is worth noting that learners will soon work out whether you are the kind of teacher who makes a point of looking out for low-level disruption.

If you do this regularly from the start of the year, most of your learners who find themselves tempted to chat, go off-topic, and all the rest of it, will begin to feel that it is not worth giving in to their desires because of the conscientious approach you bring to patrolling the classroom!

The third of our simple strategies is praising focus.

One of the processes we want our learners to repeatedly engage in is the application of focus to the task in hand.

Through focus, learners can maximise their progress by targeting their efforts to the work we have set them.

Our minds tend to be more effective when they are concentrated on a single task, rather than split between multiple points of interest.

Low-level disruption is the antithesis of focus.

It indicates that learners are unfocussed, and it is for this reason, primarily, that we want to remove it from our classrooms.

You can positively reinforce the idea of focussing by praising the behaviour of learners and groups (as well as the whole class when appropriate) who consistently apply themselves to the learning you have planned.

This highlights positive behaviour connected to focus and draws a contrast with its opposite.

The light shone on the negative effects of low-level disruption are all the brighter as a result.