Use Activities as Outlets

My patience has been tried over and over in my 9th grade classrooms, and I finally broke on Thursday and yelled at my class. While I do believe that a teacher retains the right to yell or scold his/her class, yelling should be a last resort management tool. After I had used my other management tools: proximity, individual conferencing, in and out of class, referrals, and a call to home, my patience was gone and the class was still not making progress. In the middle of reading "I Have a Dream" aloud in class the side conversations would not cease, even after prompting. I walked over to the student reading, tapped her on the shoulder, and asked her to stop for one second. "I HAVE A DREAM THAT WE CAN ALL LISTEN TO THE READING! This is extra chatter needs to stop immediately!" Silence engulfed the room and I looked over to gain approval from my co-op, only to see her jaw on the floor. The remainder of the class was spent listening to the speech and working silently on analyzing the speech. This tactic, although successful, is not a tactic I wish to use in the classroom in future situations. While brainstorming on how I could have avoided this I came up with a few solutions. A teacher must always have an extra activity or two in case a lesson fails or needs adjusted. If I had a different activity or re-focused the class on an individual reading and analysis earlier I may have avoided having to scream. Writing activities are most beneficial, because it is my experience that students get bored with reading quickly, but will write off and on for long periods of time in silence. I would hope that I could trust to put the students into group to work on a poster, drawing, debate, etc. However, if they cannot be trusted to listen to a student read aloud, then why should I trust them to get work done in large groups. I believe that activities can be the answer to dealing with loud, obnoxious classes, but I need to hone in on what specific activities would work best. Thoughts, comments, concerns, criticisms, questions are always welcome.