6 Ways to Stop Students from Blurting Out in the Classroom

How do you stop students from blurting out in the classroom? Do you have some processes in place to curb blurting, but they’re just not working for you anymore? Here are some classroom management ideas to stop students from blurting out in class that you can add to your teaching repertoire.

When our younger students know answers or have something to share, sometimes it’s easier to shout out rather than raise their hands. It’s exciting to see them so enthusiastic about learning, but it’s difficult to manage a classroom when too many voices talk over others. For students that struggle with speaking out of turn, there are strategies you can use to help! Here are 6 ways to stop blurting out in the classroom.

TELL STUDENTS THAT BLURTING OUT IN THE CLASSROOM IS A PROBLEM

I often find that students don’t realize that they have a problem with blurting out or pay attention to their behavior, especially during whole group discussions. They just don’t realize that their behavior is creating problems in the classroom For some students, being all together in a whole group is exciting and they can’t keep the excitement contained. For others, it’s terrifying and they sit and observe without participating.

READ BOOKS ABOUT BLURTING OUT IN THE CLASSROOM

I find that books are a valuable tool to help students see and understand the world around them. A couple of books about blurting and talking in the classroom include My Mouth is a Volcano, What Were You Thinking, and It’s Hard to Be a Verb.

My Mouth is a Volcano focuses specifically on talking too much. The other two focus on impulse control and an inability to focus, which are likely issues that your blurters deal with regularly. Likewise, you might also consider books that help your shy students come out of their shell. All students could likely set some goals around how they interact within a large group.

CREATE AN ANCHOR CHART ABOUT BLURTING OUT IN THE CLASSROOM

A visual reminder will help students as you move forward through this process. When I focus on classroom management related to a specific issue, I like to first outline the problem that I’m having and discuss why it is a problem, then brainstorm solutions or the expected behavior.

I build the anchor chart with students and find it extremely helpful to make the expected behavior student-centered, not group centered. For instance, focus on what “I” as an individual student can do, not what “we” as a group can do.

HOW TO BUILD THE ANCHOR CHART

To develop the anchor chart, you can have students contribute their ideas orally. If you do this, pay attention to which students are blurting out and call them out on it. Older students will see the irony of blurting out while talking about blurting out. Younger students will start to recognize the problem.

If you choose to have students write their answers, sticky notes are a wonderful tool. Give students one minute to write as many ideas as possible for why it’s a problem. Pause and discuss they why. Then give a minute to write as many ideas as possible about solutions.

You can also break this up a bit and have an individual brainstorm for a minute, then a small group discussion where small groups choose three ideas to share with the whole group. Then a whole group discussion. This process is discussed below about adding structure to your whole group discussions.

REVISIT THE ANCHOR CHART TO CURB BLURTING OUT IN THE CLASSROOM

You can then use the anchor chart throughout the year or at specific times of the year when students are a little antsier. I find the first week back from long breaks to be an especially good time to refocus student behavior.

I also use the anchor chart with specific students who need a little more support. I photograph the anchor chart and print a small copy to tape to their desks. We revisit the mini-anchor chart to analyze behavior and set behavior goals. We do a lot of goal setting in our classroom and having a concrete list is a great starting point for students.

PROVIDE STRUCTURE FOR WHOLE-GROUP DISCUSSIONS

Consider adding more structure to your whole group discussions. There are several ways you can add structure to your classroom discussions, including breaking apart the discussions, providing wait time, and using cooperative learning strategies to engage all students (and re-engage some with a more appropriate outlet).

BREAK APART YOUR DISCUSSIONS TO HELP BLURTING OUT IN THE CLASSROOM

Above I mention doing an individual brainstorm, a small group discussion, then the whole group discussion while creating the anchor chart. By breaking apart the discussion, you give all students an opportunity to have a voice, including those who don’t feel comfortable talking in whole group settings. You also allow those who blurt out to have a voice early on within a small group. They may not feel the need to tell their idea during the whole group discussion.

WRITE IT DOWN

Encourage students to write down their answers before raising their hand (or blurting out). For younger students not proficient in writing, they can draw pictures of their answers before sharing out. This can be an effective strategy for the whole class to help students process and generate ideas. Whiteboards are also and sticky notes are great tools to utilize during this process. They provide a fun alternative to paper and pencil.

Before transitioning into a whole class discussion, you may want to try allowing the students to share with one other classmate. This gives them a chance to share aloud without blurting and allows them to practice appropriate volume as well. This strategy may also be used on an individual basis to help chronic blurters decide if their blurt is an answer they would like to share with the class by raising their hand and participating appropriately in the class discussion.

TELL STUDENTS THAT YOU WANT THEM TO THINK BEFORE YOU ASK THE QUESTION

Another way to provide structure and curb blurting out in the classroom is to tell students that you want them to think before you ask your question. If I have an important question that I want students to think about, I put my finger in my temple and another finger over my lips and tell students that this is a thinking question.

Before I call on anyone I allow students to think about their answer. I generally do this for a Think-Pair-Share structure, too. I tell students to think without talking, then turn to their neighbor to share, then raise their hand to share with the whole group.

COOPERATIVE LEARNING STRATEGIES

I’ve already mentioned a few cooperative learning strategies above, like Think-Pair-Share. Here are a few more that will add structure to your whole group discussions.

TALKING CHIPS

This is a small group discussion strategy that you can use during a whole-group time. At the beginning of a class period, provide each student with three stick notes (or other things to use as a counter). Be sure that you set the ground rules that these aren’t for playtime. Alternatively, only provide the talking chips to those students who need help regulating their behavior.

During the discussion, as students respond and give an answer, collect their talking chip. When they are out of talking chips, they can no longer contribute to the discussion. This does two things: it limits students who talk too much and it encourages students who are quiet to talk more.

For those who talk too much, it could also help them analyze and decide on which idea is the most important that they want to share. You may need to engage students in a whole group discussion about choosing the best idea with their talking chips.

TALKING STICK

This is a fun tool, especially if you find an engaging sought-after talking stick. I used a glitter wand in my classroom. Some teachers use microphones.

The idea is that only the student that has the talking stick can talk. If a student doesn’t have the talking stick they have to sit still and actively listen.

TEACH ACTIVE LISTENING SKILLS

Some kiddos just need a little more help and explicit teaching about how to listen. What does it look like to listen when someone is talking? What are your hands doing? What are your eyes doing? What is your body doing?

CREATE AN ANCHOR CHART TO USE THROUGHOUT THE YEAR

This is another great time to create an anchor chart that you can refer to throughout the year and with individual students as needed. Here is a sample of one we have built about what active listening looks like, sounds like, feels like.

MODEL AND PRACTICE ACTIVE LISTENING

Modeling activity listening is another great way to build muscle memory with this skill. The Daily 5 book has a great routine for building stamina with reading independence that can be transferred to teaching students any skill that requires modeling and building of stamina. The basic idea is to use students to model positive behavior and model the negative behavior. You can also create an anchor chart that illustrates both the desired behavior and distracting behavior.

PROVIDE POSITIVE PRAISE

While you show your students what it looks and sounds like to respond to a question or participate in a discussion, over-emphasize the behavior with positive praise. After asking an initial question, raise your own hand. Call on students that have their hands raised and use consistent positive behavior reinforcement.

“Thank you for raising your hand, Sally” seems simple but can be an effective way to encourage appropriate classroom behavior without drawing attention to off-task or blurting behaviors.

Most students love their teacher and seek their teachers’ praise. You can likely take care of most of the issue of blurting out in the classroom by just giving more praise. It’s a simple thing that can be so difficult sometimes.

KEEP A TALLY OR TRY A BLURT BOARD

For older students that always need to get the first and last word in class, have them keep a tally of how many times they can contribute answers in class. Use this strategy only with students that find it necessary to respond to almost every question, regardless of whether or not they have something relevant to say.

Telling students to comment just five times in a class period, for example, can help alleviate those random blurts and allow them to gauge the relevance of their contributions to class discussions.

Use a behavior chart in the form of a blurt board. For your big “blurters”, you can use a laminated board with the student’s (or students’) name(s). Each student will start with four monsters. When they blurt, they lose a monster. Students that have all their monsters remaining at the end of the day get a reward! Print out your free blurt board to use in your classroom!

ADDITIONAL CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT TOOLS

Here are some other tools that will help you with this tricky classroom management skill.

The first is an individual daily behavior chart. I use with students who need a little more accountability throughout the day and include blurting as one of the goals, if necessary.