Motivating Teenagers
There
are three attitudinal qualities that
a teacher, or in his words, a facilitator, should have to assist the learning
process.
·
Empathy (seeing things from the
students view point)
·
Authenticity (being yourself)
·
Acceptance (of students ideas and
opinions)
Empathy
Journals:
Ensure students have a
separate notebook for this. Keep notebooks with you.
Set aside class time 5-10mins
a week for students to write journals.
Begin by asking them to write
about themselves and their reasons for studying English.
Collect in their notebooks.
Reply individually to the students and ask 1 or two questions, which will be
the basis for the next class writing journal.
Don’t use it as direct error
correction. Don’t show it to the other students.
Channel their energies as
opposed to squashing them:
If students are keen to
discuss something, why stop them?
If they are laughing let them
share it with the whole group (in English) or let them continue but any
discussion in English.
Do they need a 2-5 minute
break to relax them?
Can you add a 5 minute
activity which doesn’t involve brain-work? i.e cutting, putting something
away?
Let the students try to solve
problems, ie missing homework, when to do homework, low test results etc.
Identify the negative leader
and keep them busy.
NB: Still make sure you
are the one in control. Teenagers need somebody
stronger than
they are.
Body Language:
Sit with the students when
explaining activites/grammar standing only to use the board or if distraction
was on the increase.
Questionnaires:
How do you students feel
about learning English? Design a questionnaire about students attitudes
towards English to provoke a discuss.
Materials:
Try to design and plan
materials according to your students real lives. For example;
Do you think students will
ever need to use English in the future? Remind them of the benefits by basing
a lesson around local job advertisements where English is required, or
exploiting opportunities around the world for travel / vacations.
Progress Markers:
Teenagers are drifting along
doing what they have to get by. Give them small goals to aim for and some
record of progress.
The 10 day trip:
A group of British teenagers
are coming to stay in the country. They have 10 days to find out about life
for a teenager in Ukraine. Plan the itinerary. A variation could be for the
students to plan the trip for you to understand their life here in Ukraine.
Authenticity:
Using photos, real people,
and real experiences appeals to teenagers as they are naturally curious and
inquisitive.
Think how you can
personalize, with grammar presentations or skills lessons throughout the
course, rather than just in the first intro lesson.
Acceptance:
Let the punishment fit the
crime:
Prepare a short description
on cards of all the possible punishments in a UK school. Eg writing lines,
detention, exclusion and ask students to add more from their country.
Give a list of wrong doings
and ask them to order each act according to how bad they think it is, e.g
speaking Russian, not completing homework.
Students discuss which type
of punishment might suit the crime! Which can be adopted into the lessons.
Speaking activities:
Spin the bottle is a good way
to encourage students to ask/answer questions. Especially if you join in
yourself. Sit the group in a circle to encourage maximum focus on activity.
Let students student’s design
the discussion questions, at least then they can’t say it is boring as they
thought them up.
Bring the course-book to
life:
Adapt the material or
supplement it with things that relate to teenagers life. Be interested
yourself in the material and their opinions. If you are not interested, how
can you expect the students to be.
Music:
Find out what students like
listening to with surveys or class votes and use this in class. (within
reason).
Have music on in the
background as a reward/motivater.
Project work:
Common projects include,
class magazines, group wall displays, designing a CD cover, reviews of the
graded readers, reviews of films.
Readers: -
crosswords/wordsearches, reviews, filmed scene from book, presentation of book,
biographies of characters/actors.
Music Project – make a CD
cover, invent the band and biographies of band members, an interview with the
band, record a song, write gig reviews, photo shoot of the band, design a
poster advertising the band.
To get the maximum benefit,
set it up properly, give enough time and decide on some sort of evaluation.
Maybe a report commenting on aspects of project.
After explaining the idea of
a project ask students to propose a scheme of work.
-
What they want to include
-
What form it will take
-
Who will be responsible for what
-
Timings for each part of the
project
-
Any material/resources they might
need.
Mobile phones:
Exploit text messaging.
Fast Texting:
Give a text which students
need to summarise and text it to you as quickly as you can. “Scrivener”
suggests giving out your phone number, though I personally would be reluctant
to do so, so perhaps a variation of this could be used with pen and paper.
Mini Sagas:
The standard text has a limit
of 160 characters (letters and spaces). Students have to write a complete
story with a beginning, middle and end within the limit. Others ideas could be
“letter of complaint, poem.
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