High School - Low level/technical students tips and lessons

[massey.breanne]

Good to know, I have now recovered and the downloads are a magical thing lol..it's been a long week--so excited for the long weekend

Thanks for showing me some of your lessons, it has helped me a bit. I'm thinking about doing the TEFL course online since I have so much time desk-warming. It can only help a journalism grad

[maririn87]

I used this lesson for my open class. Should yield some helpful ideas. My PowerPoint is filled with pictures of my hometown; you may choose to alter this to reflect your own personal background.

Each pair (two students) will receive 1 copy of the 'Directions--Level C' document and one copy of 'DirectionsMap' (This item should be printed with a front and back side, or rather, both 'Left' maps will go on the same page, one on the front and one on the back, and both 'Right' maps will go on another page.

Students will use the maps to find locations asking their partner via the provided dialogue. For dialogue one, they will ask the first three missing locations; for dialogue two, they will inquire about the last three.

This lesson worked well for me. If you have a more rowdy, energetic class, you may consider adding an activity later in the lesson.

Cheers!

[jcp2731]

Technical school seems so difficult.  I was just assigned one and I am really worried about the students behaving poorly, acting out/being rude, or not caring about English.  Any suggestions?

[jasond623]

I found that using movies or TV shows was a great way to gauge their interest.
Choosing movies or shows that are simple, slower, and don't use extremes in language work really well.
First you would watch the movie/show and find a section between 5 to 10 minutes long that meets the above criteria. Get that section into your classroom anyway that best works for you. Then you need to type up the script and remove words; easy to hear words for low levels and up to whole phrases for high level.
Then play the movie WITHOUT showing it to them, only the sound. The must listen and fill in the blanks. Next, play the movie and again, no picture. Then correct and make sure they all have the correct answers. Finally, you show the video to them to allow them to see what they heard. You can make it more or less difficult and also split up scenes. It works to catch attention and interest. They will want to see what is happening. Be careful to not use it too much, or they might get complacent and wait for the video.
After the video is shown, put them into groups and have them make an ending to the movie/show. Have the groups each act out their ending and hopefully, they will start to use more English.

[Kate89]

Reading through this page and all these comments has helped me so much. I have been put in a technical school and I have a huge range of abilities. Thanks for all the guidelines and now that I have read this I feel alot more confident with what I need to do to accomodate all the students.

[robbb3490]

I have found from my first two lessons that students get a bit more involved in speaking when it is up to them to choose which students will speak.

e.g. I asked them all to write a few sentences about the person they were sat next to. Then I gave one person a ball, told them they had to tell the class what they knew about their partner, then when they had finished they could pass the ball on to someone else in the class.

[azureskye]

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!

This is an AWESOME idea! I like the way you think!!!

[rguitarg]

Yah, I agree with those who've said that multi-media is the way to go to get the attention of and motivate unenthusiastic high school students.  Making the class engaging and interesting for them is the best. 

[hockeyfan_inkorea]

Tons of good advice on this site and in this thread. I'm teaching technical HS students at two different schools and finding good information about lesson planning for more mature (in age) students with lower levels is proving quite difficult.

[korr]

I'm on my second year at my school and my kids already know multimedia is a special treat in my class, so I don't know if this would work for new people, but I actually made an evaluation test for the first class. I gave them about ten minutes to do it and graded it after class. There was a lot of groaning when I handed it out, but when I told them that by the end of the year they would be able to answer all the questions, they got a lot more enthusiastic. I think it's because I gave them something concrete to work towards. If I can swing it, I'm going to give the same test at the end of the year and give prizes for highest scores and most improved scores.

I attached the test I gave. Most of my students scored between 10 to 50 percent, which gives you an idea of the level they're at.

[MarcelleEls]

Hi Guys,

I'm feeling a bit out of depth here. I'm teaching at a technical high school. It's mixed. I appreciate the tips everyone is giving. The control thing is a problem for me. Many of my boy students either make funny comments or they just sleep... or stare at me. I'm finding it hard to get through to students who don't want to learn english. And on the other hand, I have to teach an internship class different things than the others. I'm struggling.... but still trying.

[flasyb]

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!

This is an AWESOME idea! I like the way you think!!!

I've played games with fake paper dollars before in my rural high school. The weak/shy/disabled kids never hang onto all their dollars for long - at least not in the bad classes, which, let's not forget, are the ones who likely need the encouragement the most. I found it just encouraged bullying and theft. However, if it's working in your middle school, keep it up. I'd also keep an eye open for the bad apples though.

Having a physical wallet sounds like a great. Dolling out the cash so visually would encourage a lot of students, I'm sure. If theft becomes problem though, you could always do a similar thing but with a wall chart and no actual dollars.

[Lorhren]

I shambles ideas. I'm afraid I have had similiar experience. I don't think the girls would like this too much. I find that even in many instances their language proficiency is remarkable, they'd rather not say anything when anyone's watching. So what do I do get them into it?

[bakerchick]

I work at a very low level high school and I find it really hard to keep them focussed, especially when there are almost 40 students...it's like, I feel like I have to be the one talking at the front to keep their attention, but I want to talk as little as possible to get them speaking. But when I give them group work, they just end up chatting in Korean.

What are good activities for big classes of low level students???

[hockeyfan_inkorea]

I work at a very low level high school and I find it really hard to keep them focussed, especially when there are almost 40 students...it's like, I feel like I have to be the one talking at the front to keep their attention, but I want to talk as little as possible to get them speaking. But when I give them group work, they just end up chatting in Korean.

What are good activities for big classes of low level students???

I'm dealing with the same thing at one of my schools. If I give them an activity to do about 1/3 will take that as a cue to have a nap.

I'm really having trouble coming up with good ideas for motivating my students to participate. I also have the hardest time coming up with lesson plans that don't insult the students' age and maturity but that they can actually accomplish. The level of my high school students is closer to elementary school than anything.

Any suggestions from the more tenured waygooks out there would be much appreciated.

[li_09]

I'm dealing with the same thing at one of my schools. If I give them an activity to do about 1/3 will take that as a cue to have a nap.

I'm really having trouble coming up with good ideas for motivating my students to participate.  The level of my high school students is closer to elementary school than anything.

I know exactly how you feel. when i first started at my high school the advice i got from my co-teacher was 'teach them as if you were teaching kindergarten students'. at first i had a very difficult time planning lessons for them but it seems to be going okay now. i get ALL of my ideas from this site. i use multi media a lot during class as well, i will not survive without it.

[mchang100587]

Thanks for the tip!! This is the problem that I have! I hope this works

[Home.Slice]

Thanks for the tips!

[leaponover]

I'm in a Tech and Mech school too and am trying to build up my 5 posts.  I have experienced a lot of what most people on here have.  I have to tell you that a lot of my classes "turned the corner" once I found a reward system.  I just have coated name tags and I give them stickers for answering questions in English.  It made a lot of them wake right up.  Yes, there is still some sticker theft and some students actually answer questions and give their stickers away, but it's helped a lot!  They are mostly boys so I definitely had to find boy stickers and because it's high school some really aren't into them.  It's mostly the competition I tried to encourage and most have gotten into it.  I have a couple students who claim to be "sticker killers".    Anyway, if you are struggling I would seriously consider a reward system...

[jean_de_plume]

Thought I'd share this lesson that has worked quite well for me. Bear in mind this was produced for a Technical High school where the students are very low level.

I cut out all the picture cards and laminated them to use across multiple lessons and also laminated the song clip activity worksheets and wiped at the end of each lesson.

I added the wordsearch to the back of the worksheet as an extension activity for the more able students who finished quickly. The students were more keen on the wordsearch so I had to keep insisting that they did the worksheet first.

For the brainstorm activity I wandered amongst the groups and collated the activities they drew and wrote them on the board. I then drilled the class with all of their activities.

For the matching game I put up coloured cards next to the smart board with the English language for each activity so the students had to match the images to the English words. I also tried to drill everything as we went through the lesson.

I used Prezi for the presentation which can be found here: http://prezi.com/e3t4bx5l70p8/jeju-island-what-do-you-want-to-do/

Hope someone can find it of use.