I'd also say - there are ways to be married to material and
there are other ways to be married to material. Why wouldn't
students act up if they've already had the material?? You'd
need to put them to sleep to get them to put up with a class
they've already had.
You can mix it up a bit - no student is going to running and
say Ms. Madison said something in class today that wasn't
scripted for her! And - the curriculum sounds a bit suspect
to me anyway.
Tell the rowdy ones outright that you know they've had it
before - someone should say that to them and acknowledge that
what we've already heard before feels boring. We need to
validate their feelings without validating their behavior.

Yes, punishing the whole class will lose you the whole class -
they'll all turn on you. Use some things that support the
objectives of the material without sticking to the material
every single minute of every single class.

Post back if you want ideas.
>
> I am a new high school English teacher, and I am failing
> miserably with one of my classes. I have a group of
> students for two periods in row. There are only 25 of them
> since they are lower level. However, they are my worst
> behaved class. Out of the 25, maybe half of them are on
> always on task and paying attention. The other half is
> constantly talking out of turn, interrupting lecture, up
> out of their seats and making rude comments to others.
> There is one student who is particularly worse. He is not a
> bad kid, but he can not sit still or stay quiet. I have
> called home, and I have sent him out twice for bad
> behavior. However, he is not the only one. I can not get
> anything done in that class and the other students learning
> is suffering. I just do not know what to do when it is so
> many of them. I don't want to punish the whole class,
> because I have some really cooperative, hard working
> students. I have also committed the cardinal sin of
> threatening and not following through. ANy advice would be
> greatly appreciated.
>
> Thank you, Madison

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