I’ve always loved using visuals to support all children, such as visual timetables, vocabulary mats, check-ins, for writing etc., but to be honest I always thought the whole voice-o-meter/noise-o-meter resource was a bit of a gimmick after trying it with my first class a few years ago. Turns out I was wrong! I’ve been using this in my class the past few months and it’s worked really well. I do think it needs to be modelled daily, so children actually know what is expected of them, and not solely dictated by the teacher.
Asking children what environment they want to work in works quite well in my class, and they generally like to have quiet time for reading and writing, partner or group talk for maths etc. Don’t get me wrong, there are days when it doesn’t work perfectly, but used consistently it does help.
