Teaching Strategies – Lowering Your Voice

by Educator Partner

When several children are speaking at once, it can be tempting for teachers to raise their voices in order to be heard. In this video, preschool teacher Yotisse Williams describes an alternative strategy he uses to improve children’s listening skills and focus their attention on what he is trying to communicate.

This video is part of a series of Teaching Strategies videos – see more at www.easternct.edu/cece/teaching-strategies.

Read Transcript

Yotisse Williams: “I think there’s a tendency for the loudness because you feel like you’re doing something. You know, if it’s loud, I can hear it, so therefore I’m really doing something. But, what I’ve learned is that lowering your voice is very effective. Even like, when you’re trying to gather them for group, you can use it at that time as a dismissing device. Because sometimes, if you say their name, they’re not listening to you anyway. But now if you’re doing it like this (silently mouths name), it’s like, “What are you saying?” And it kind of focuses the attention a little bit more.” Yotisse: “Even though that is such a fascinating idea. We’re going to have microphones to use. Xavier is really watching. (Silently mouths)” Yotisse Williams: “So I think it’s an effective strategy for the simple fact, it’s underused by a lot of teachers. But I actually challenge teachers to try and use it more.

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