High School - Low level/technical students tips and lessons

[incognito84]

My high school and many other high schools in my area decided to divide up the students into smaller classes based on ability. While this is a great thing in the long term, it's all panic and disarray in the short term.

I originally had 16 classes of 45 students per week, and now I have 21 classes of 30 students every nine days (and the schedule changes each week).

Of the 21 classes, 5 classes were created especially for the lowest English performers in the school. They're great kids but I think none of them have been to a hagwon before, so their English is about the same as the elementary students I taught last year (in some cases, lower). Most of them only know some Konglish and while they all know the alphabet, many don't seem to be able to pronounce words properly.

The standard High School textbook is far too difficult for them as is most of the work I was planning to do with them. Just when I thought I was aiming low enough, it seems I have to aim lower.

I was wondering what resources I should use for them. I'm not opposed to buying a textbook or having my school purchase a textbook for me. As strange as this sounds, I'm looking forward to putting some special emphasis on these kids and using this as a way for me to get some more rudimentary experience in teaching methodology.

What is a good, low level textbook for them and/or where can I find some online resources that are geared specifically towards these kinds of high school students? I looked on this website and found that a lot of the material, like the material I'm developing, is directed at students who have a wealth of English knowledge but don't know how to put it together (most of the high school materials on this site exist to extract knowledge the kids already have and teach them how to use it, such as powerpoints, flash cards and so on). These low students don't even have the basic knowledge that the lowest students in the other classes have.

I'm trying to find resources for students who don't even really know the basics of English. I'd also like something with some consistency, similar to a textbook, that I could work on with them on a week by week basis. I'm trying to make sure that by the end of their time with me, they have more of a solid foundation in English.

Thanks for any help

[krb974]

Hey all,

I need help!  My High School students' English levels range from very low to medium.  I have very low participation in my classes, and I want to encourage discussion, get students to participate, and have them be a part of the classroom activities.  I am slowly learning the very specific teaching style that is used in Korea, and am trying to alter my teaching methods to suit the students learning styles.  Is it too much to ask for participation?  Or am I looking at this situation from a North American learning style.  I am very frustrated with some of my classes.  Many students in my classes are just not interested, too tired, or are just not that interested in learning English.  I don't want to have a constant battle on my hands, however, how do I get students to participate?  I want to make my lessons fun and exciting, but I have been told that I can combine my own lessons and lessons from the textbook (which is terribly exciting ) Any suggestions?

[Es280283]

I had a similar problem and I did lots of group work to try and fix this. This made them talk. I would also try and get them to answer the questions or get them to come to the front and do something if I needed a volunteer. Sometimes they warmed up to me when I was encouraging them.

Good luck

[kaymac]

candy or stickers work. for my boys classes i tend to go with candy, with girls stickers and eventual better prizes works, tho so does candy. i also like to try to turn things into games to get their inner competitiveness going. with some activities i make all the students stand up and they can't sit down until they've given an answer too. mostly i just use a candy. a lot of my kids aren't very interested in english so I tend to have to circulate a lot and hold their hand through activities.

[Donavasian]

I work with teenage boys that love to sit and relax in class. I actually force them to stand until they come up with a good response and only then are they allowed to sit down in my class.  Most will jump at the chance to speak in class so that they can sit down again. 

[shambles2.0]

If you are going over anything that requires, or could require, lots of responses I find one method particularly useful.  Have all of the students in one ROW stand up, a row being the line of desks from the front of the class to the back.  Ask a question, the first student to raise their hand gives gets to answer and sit down.  Ask the next question, a student answers and sits down, and so on.  Continue until one student is left standing.  That student's COLUMN (the line of desks going from side to side) must stand.  Ask a question, student sits, ask a question, student sits.  The ROW of the last student standing must stand, and continue this going from rows to columns until you have all of the responses you need.

I find this works well without telling the students ahead of time what will happen if they are the last one standing, they will figure it out on their own.  It provides a lot of incentive for the students to answer because the other students in their row/column won't want to stand up.

I also try to open the class with something easy and interesting that gets them thinking.  Show them 4 pictures and ask them which one is different, maybe give a reward for the best/most thoughtful/most gramatically correct answer.  Do a riddle together.  Watch a short video and talk about it.  Anything to get them involved from the beginning.

And finally, I try to make the lesson as relatable as possible.  Try to tie your lessons into Korean culture so that the students are more interested.  For example, I did a short lesson about flash mobs and showed them some really cool videos including many from Korea, most of which involved their favorite K-Pop songs.  I recently did a lesson about families and rather than using premade family trees, I created one with my actual family members.  The students were interested to see what my family looked like, and therefore were more interested in the lesson.

Anyway, I hope these tips help.  And keep on keeping on...

[lisadream]

Try to use multi-media as much as you can. Power points, or writing on the chalkboard, the main points will be very helpful to your students. Most high school students have quite high reading comprehension levels, but are very nervous about speaking english.
Funny videos relevant to your topic will help wake up sleepy kids.
Ask a co-teacher to translate a few keys words into Hangul and write these on the board with the english, kids will not only feel relieved to see something in their language, they'll be impressed you know some Korean!
Any lesson based on music has been hugely successful with my students.
Try to include a low level game or brainstorming activity that requires one-word answers to get them talking (scattegories and give me 5 are GREAT for this).
I always tell my HS girls, "Every time you speak English, you get better at it" and let them know its ok to make mistakes in my class.

Candies or stickers for participation (not only correct answers) will go a LONG way, especially if you keep track of who has gotten the most and recognize those students in some way in front of their peers.
Good luck!

[dwebsterlfc]

Is it boys or girls... or both? I've noticed that in my classes, the girls are a lot more switched on and interested, therefore their level is naturally higher than the boys.

With the boy's I'm in a similar situation so I decided to teach something in English that I know they want to learn. Most boys love sport so I've started teaching soccer to them to engage them and it seems to work. I'm covering parts of the body and types of movement e.g. jumping, running, kicking etc.

So far I've only touched on it to see if the kids are interested and they seem to be so I'm creating a power point. Once I've finished it I'll get it posted.

Dave

[moonhaus]

I had the same problem in my middle school, especially with the boys.  your kids probably know Waaaay more english than they will demonstrate to you.

This semester I am doing a reward system that involves money.  Each student has made a wallet out of paper (I do a different color for each grade)  They write their name in Korean, english and their English name (if they have one) on their wallet.  I pass the wallets out every class (which also helps me remember names) and when they do something good, or win a game, I give them paper dollars. Aat the end of the semester, I am going to have a market where they can buy things like candy, snacks and toys, etc. 

so far its worked really well, and even my difficult students have started to participate. You can just plan lots of speaking activities and give dollars for them. 

I hope this helps
Good luck!

[sungadio]

That sounds like a great idea! But i have WAY too many students. I teach 16 different classes. Any other ides? I'm creative but not that creative. Plus i don't want to be poor at the end of the year.

[lisadream]

That sounds like a great idea! But i have WAY too many students. I teach 16 different classes. Any other ides? I'm creative but not that creative. Plus i don't want to be poor at the end of the year.

Having an overwhelming amount of students can make any reward system seem daunting. The money reward system is a fantasic idea but sounds horrifying to a teacher with 16 classes of 30-40 students, haha! I totally understand. I'm in the same boat. I used a sticker system. In one class I hand the students a slip of paper and they had 5 minutes to make a "Name Tag" that had to have their name and student number on it (the number makes it impossible for kids to steal eachother's name tags) and any decorations they want to add. Collect the name tags and laminate them and return them to the kids in the next class. (Your school will have a lmainating machine and film, just ask your co-teacher to show you how to use it - in Korea, laminating is called "coating") THen during class I gave out stickers for participation, winning games, students who helped me in some way. If students forgot their name tags, too bad kid come to class prepared next time. It worked really well. I though they might find the stickers silly because they were in high school , but they really enjoyed it and would compare their name tags with eachother, brag about how many stickers they had etc. And its easy for you to see which kids have the best partcipation. It takes alittle bit of work to get them all coated, but once it's done it's a great way to reward good students. Get a big variety of stickers to keep them interested in different ones they can collect.

[mr sam teacher]

I'm at an all boys high school, and I have the same problem with some of tthe classes. I found that many of the students don't like to be singled out, so I make every student in the class stand up one at a time to answer a question, and I write all of the answers on the board (something like "tell me one thing that Korea is famous for.") That breaks the ice a little bit, and the students are much less hesitant to stand up afterwards. The only problem with it is that students will get very noisy while the others are answering. If a particular student won't be quiet, I'll make him stand up and answer extra questions.

When I started, all of my coteachers told me things like "class 101 is very well-behaved, but 107 is really naughty." I discovered that what this means is that 101 will sit in their chairs like vegetables and that 107 actually has energy. Give me a naughty class any day....

[juliehrrs]

I teach at a mixed high school and just like everyone else I had the same problems in the beginning. It will always change depending on the day, week or class but I have come up with a reward system that has literally transformed my lessons. I made a class point chart, at the end of each lesson I will assess the class and how they behaved. If they participated, listened and completed their handout then they get a stamp. When their class has four stamps in a row then they get to have a reward lesson, they can choose what they want to do-like watch a movie or play soccer. I have tried to keep the reward lessons centered around English still (during soccer game they will have to use English terms to remain on the field). My two worst groups of boys have responded so well to this system, I don't even recognise them anymore, they are trying so hard! And they will make sure that the class is quiet and listening, but their level of participation is amazing!

I also realised that mulit-media works wonders, it engages the students more. And since I have started using a little more hangul in my classes they are more involved. And I had to admit defeat in that I am not going to have every single person awake and paying attention in every class, everyday-its impossible! Instead teach to the ones who want to learn.

[zachmokpo]

I have the same problem at my boys high school. I have classes of 38 and 40 with low English. The computers in every class I also teach do not work. All I can do is chalkboard work and try handouts..which get little in results. Sometimes you just have to really lower your expectations of students here to get through the day.

[CaliGirl007]

Hi All-

The students at my High School seem to have very low comprehension and speaking skills but they are "supposedly" intermediate students. Has anyon else run into this problem? Should I go back and review the basics? In my experience (from my other more advanced school) it seems that by HS students are either interested and will try to talk in class or they have no interest and will just sleep all period. Any suggestions?? My co-teacher is little help to and even he has low comprehension and speaking skills. 

[yous31]

I have the same problem. My students either don't care, even show me that they are annoyed by having to listen to my English because they don't understand a thing. I clearly see my words are just going over their heads. I need something that will intrigue them, wake them up and make them to wanna talk in English. Any activities or ideas please?
By the way, I'm at Arts High school where students major in either music, arts or dance. hmm.

[Janitor]

Try making basic lessons with music. Find what music they like and work that into a lesson. Start small like working on singers and names. Then get into lyrics of feelings.

As for high school, they can be a tough bunch, stress the importance of English and give them some fun games to get them started. Find what they like and use that in each lesson.

[jdaigle05]

I think she is looking for specifics here. For instance, how do you stress the importance of English to a bunch of kids who don't speak English?
What are some fun activities she can try?

My classes are like this, too. It baffles me when I run across kids who are in the last year of middle school, and they still can't even read-- yesterday I ran across one who couldn't tell me any of the letters of the alphabet. What the heck has he been doing in his English classes all these years?

Any suggestions on dealing with a kid like that... when I have 39 other students in the classroom?

[krb974]

I've felt as though I'm in the same boat.  What I am realizing is that many of my HS students who act as though they have low comprehension/ability actually have a higher level than they portray.  I think what worked for me was to get a reference to what is happening in their world right now.  Over studied, under rested, impending Uni entrance exam, puberty, being in High School, Pressure Pressure Pressure!!!  I started to realize what was happening to them, and then my role become more clear as an ESL teacher.  I'm here to help make English fun.  I start my lessons by finding three pictures from Failblog that are pretty apparent of what is wrong with them.  It is a great way for the students, who usually are disinterested actually try to find out the problem.

Secondly, I suggest you find what the student put worth into.  Do they care about music?  Then start listening to the music they like.  Do they care about movies, tv shows, etc...  Get into their world, and start planting little English seeds.

Not saying that every lesson will be peaches and cream, but what I'm saying is make the lessons relevant to who you are teaching to.

Good luck!  Hang in there.  And soon you and your students will find a rhythm that works for both of you.

[kaymac]

It depends a bit on what you have in your classroom for making your lessons, but I would definitely suggest (if you can) incorporating powerpoints using video and music into your lessons. I am also at a high school and have levels all over the place. I try to make the lessons if not fun, than clearly useful. If they don't want to do it, have a reason they should use it. (i.e. today I did a very simple directions lesson, my higher level students finished quickly so I had them do an extra bonus question(for a candy) while I helped the lower level kids understand.) Given that they are overworked and get no mark in our classrooms, you're always going to run into some students that don't want to participate.
My best advice that's worked for me, it to include as much of the core points of the lesson as you can, on a powerpoint or overhead or something. My students listening is very low, you can see the Charlie Brown teacher voice effect with a lot of the kids even when I feel like I'm speaking at a very simple snail's pace. Most of my kids can read much better than they can listen, so being able to read what I'm saying helps a lot. That, and going one on one does too. My students cannot write very well either, so any time I have an activity that incorporates any writing (i.e. a movie activity where they need to tell me about a movie) I will have sentence stems so all they have to do is complete sentences. I teach solo so I try to keep it simple. For your music students English pop songs (shiver Bieber even) where they have to fill in the words is a great exercise to practice listening, reading etc. Good luck. <and for that student who is really really low level, try doing some seating changes and stick him next to a smart kid... that way between you helping him and his partner knowing what's going on, he'll get a better idea. if you're like me and only see the kid once a week that's probably the best you'll be able to do!>