This comment from James Hosler – channeling Greg Stout – today really needs to have a spotlight on it, since we are not just trying these days to teach language but to stop all rudeness from kids as our primary focus:
…today in class there were three students sitting together and trying to have lots of side comments and silly noises and all that. I stopped mid-sentence for the first offense. Then one minute later they caused another distraction. I decided at that moment that these are high school students and were lucky to have gotten the first warning. With total calm and a gentle smile I ask two of them to move seats.
One said, “But I didn’t do anything,” because he wasn’t the one talking THAT time. I just said, “I know, not that time,” and still had him move.
After a few seconds of shifting we were settled and I explained calmly that I won’t be stopping every few seconds. The rest of class went wonderfully. I made sure to include in our L2 discussion one of the students I had moved so that everyone in the room would know there were no hard feelings….