I have been using wb teaching all year. I absolutely admit that I have slacked off. I see myself raising my voice too much. My pm class, no problems, their great. My am class is bigger and is much more social. There are 27 kids and they never stop talking. The smilies are marginally working. Center time the last couple of weeks has been awful. I can not focus on my guided reading because no matter how many times we discuss expected behaviors it is so. It is so loud. They can not get the concept of a whisper. It is so late in the year, but we can not continue this way for the next six weeks. Help! Any suggestions. I'll add another issue, it is not necessarily as if it is a couple students who are talking it is a large percentage of the class.

It sounds like you're just using the Scoreboard. Go immediately to the Practice Cards (see the free download on this site.) Practice Cards will allow you to address individual behavior.

As to volume, try the volume-o-meter shown in Chris Rekstad's video on this site of the Crazy Professor Reading Game. Draw a vertical line on the board and mark it off in segments. In descending order, the segments are labeled Very Loud, Loud, Normal, Quiet, Whisper, Silent. Then, as you raise your hand up and down, your students say "yada, yada, yada" at the various sound levels. Finally, bring them down to Whisper. This is often very effective for lowering overall volume. Then, if one or two kids are obviously too noisey, give them a white practice card, #4, Make smart choices.

I agree with Chris, the practice card system will help with individual behaviors. I also work with small group behaviors by having students working towards having the privilege of a "special center". For example, groups that can maintain whisper voices OR can manage their own people (for example, a student forgets, but the rest of the group says (in a whisper voice: "Please whisper"), then they get to have the privilege of going to the special center that day. Right now we have our "Environmental Print" (aka: Kitchen Play center) as our special center. And yes, they do have to whisper talk in that center:) . If you can't have dramatic play centers (as some school districts are no longer allowing this), find something fun/ educational and hype it up so that they want to go there. Also, change it up frequently to keep it exciting! I work the card practice system within that system. Students who cannot help their friends maintain whisper voices AND the student who did not whisper get a picture practice card. Then at recess, they practice whisper voices. They either say "I can whisper in a whisper voice" over and over again for 2 minutes, or they say "I can help my friends whisper" over and over for 2 minutes. Remember, this is not a punishment--this is just "extra practice time." Students have the choice to practice following the rules correctly during class time, or during their recess if they need extra practice time. IF the students lost the special center privilege, they get the word "no" written next to their group. They have to work to get that "no" erased at their next center time, if they want to get that privilege back. Also--just a note--the way my rotations work, the special center is only once every two days so if they lose it, they may lose it for more than one day. But if you rotate all the way through daily, then they should only lose it one day.
Hope this helps, but as you recognized---consistency is going to be the key. It's never to late to be consistent:)!

Andrea,
Love the "I can whisper in a whisper voice."
Trying it tomorrow when we need extra practice at recess for loud voices inside.
Awesome!

Christina