Similar situation here; it sucks. If you have cooperative co-teachers, you can try for a little more, but if they're the type who don't show up or think sleeping students shouldn't be disturbed, some of your classes are going to be exercises in futility.

There's also a possibility that you need to slow your speaking speed down even more than you currently are. Duplicate what you say on screen. Keep sentences to 3-6 words long. For a few of my classes this was the main problem.

Things that have gone over reasonably well for me:
 - Expanded greetings. If they know "hello" get them to "how are you" and some answers.
 - Large numbers. They probably vaguely know 1-9, so have a game or something that forces them to use them, then introduce thousand/million/billion. If they catch on quickly, make it a speed thing.
 - Shopping/prices. Whatever the main content, it's easy to include activities that even the lowest level students can do (Price is Right type games or something like that).
 - Hangman. You won't teach them a thing except maybe vocabulary, but they might like it because it's within their ability. I used it to finish off a lesson and several of my coteachers told me to do all-Hangman classes.
 - Word searches fall into the same category: probably useless, but both students and teachers liked them.

That's all I've got. I'll be reading for more ideas.

I teach at an all girls technical high school where the levels are quite low, and I teach 4 classes there weekly.  I've found that once you calm down a bit (and learn to not really expect anything) then the learning can begin.

I'm lucky in that I have a cooperative co-teacher who helps with translations and that the girls think I'm handsome.  Most of them pay attention to whatever I do regardless, so that was an easy battle to win.  Generally, I just make simple lessons about things I think might interest them.  Keep things very simple.

Other than that, I'm not sure what to tell you.  It's hard to get used to, and honestly, they probably won't learn a ton.  I know that for my girls, a lot of them aren't interested in learning English at all, but they are interested in Western culture, so I'll make lessons that hold their interest, even if they're more learning cultural things instead of strictly the English language.

Do elementary school english with them..

I’m at a technical high school (80% boys), it is a challenge some days. Once you find what works you will be better. Each school is different and it is hard to say what works for me will work for you. I never treat them like babies, or younger children! I try my best to respect them and they respect me. Have hope in them, that some other teachers don’t for students at this level.

I’ve never been given a book from my school. Nor have I been given much direction, beyond ‘make it fun’. So all I do is games- trick the students into using English! They are in HS, they have had years of exposure to English, they do know something! I’ve found most of these students have always been left behind and given up on. As far as I’m concerned my class is to let they use their English. Show them they actually know something!

To start off the new school year, I have to figure out what level the new students are at. This week I’m doing very basic games- I have a bag of letters, draw a letter and list as many words as you can that start with ‘D’. They get points per word, 1/2 points if it is spelled wrong- I try to encourage them to try, if I can see what they are trying to say, I accept it. This allows me to see what kind of words they know and what limitations I might be able to work with.

I try to have games and activities they would be interested in- kpop, western music, sports, American culture, movies… I also think of what the basics are, if they were to travel, what are the must haves to survive (numbers, food, sometimes even ABC reviews). I also bring in Korean facts, history, famous people… but in English. If you really wanted, you can try letting them teach you Korean.

It does become a challenge to have game after game. I try to mix it up between ppt, whiteboard, cards and other types of games. I keep a list of what works best in each class, and how to adapt the games.

I sometimes avoid having slides with too many words, too much to follow. Make things very short and basic. I try to use lots of pictures, the funnier/ stranger the better. It is funny what they will come up with to say sometimes! I also use my own photos- from around school, Korea, my other travels and sometimes my family- these I use as conversation starters, or sometimes cultural exchanges.

Make it a competition. They normally respond well to that. My classes get loud and sometimes hard to control, but they are having fun and using English. And yes, I’m one of those teachers that always has candy. Sometimes I’m super stingy with it, bad behavior= no candy for any teams. Sometimes I fool them and give candy to the team with the lowest score- but kept playing, didn’t give up. Some days it just rains candy, depending on that activity. And YES, high school students still will do about anything for some sugar.

I hope some of my things will work for you. Good luck and try to have some fun with it!

I would recommend the Finch/ Park textbook. It's free. And there are some easy conversation activities in it.

http://waygook.org/index.php/topic,3596.msg18240.html#msg18240

I'm in a very similar situation. Been here 7 months and it was really daunting finding out that I had no curriculum, no book and was just kinda sent in to teach 90% boys that were MEGA low level. On top of that I was told that I wasn't allowed teach reading, grammar or listening, only conversation! It took a lot of trial and error to find out exactly what works.

I discovered that the more simple and fun you keep the class the better it will run. I choose very general and practical topics that the students might actually use. For example, this week I'm doing a travel lesson and showing the students vocab like hotel, hostel, airport, passport etc. Other lessons were things like jobs, music, food, animals. Really general things. Try to figure out what they would actually want to learn in English. Or if there's something important you think they should learn, disguise it in a topic they are interested in.

Don't be afraid to use the elementary and middle school lessons on here for inspiration. I find that if you blend very basic words that they will definitely know with new terms they won't know it gives them a bit of confidence to try to describe what you want them to say. If the terms are a bit too heavy, they might get bored of not knowing any and fall asleep. Last week I did a lesson on clothes and actually borrowed a friends elementary school lesson for it! Use the structure of the lesson and basic materials and just build on it from there. For example, they'll most likely they'll know suit and tie, but they might not know tuxedo and bow tie you know?

On top of that keep the grammar super simple. Maybe only one practical phrase per lesson, otherwise it might be overwhelming.

Tie it all together with simple games. Ones that have worked well for me are your standard bomb games, gimme 5, hotseat, pictionary etc. My students are particularly hard to control so group work (board games etc) sort of goes out the window any time I've tried it. However, I find that any sort of team competition gets them excited.

One last thing. Candy for game winners in the first few weeks scores points. I usually bring some to classes once every three or four weeks.

PM me if you'd like any of my lessons or any more help, for some reason I always have trouble uploading them on here.

I had a super low high school last year and the year before (it was taken away this year when they cut all the HS teachers and I did a jig in happiness and the new MS the replaced it with has been a joy so far).  I ended up doing a lot of projects.  Things that had visible results.  Like there is an extreme sports ppt on here somewhere that I used and I had the classes come up with their own.  Projects usually involve a lot of class time (easily 2-3 classes) and heavy use of dictionaries.  For these it would be instruction for the first class and like 5 minutes of getting them started, one whole period of creating their project and then another likely for presentation.  Always let them practice their presentations before, make it a requirement that everyone speaks at least once, sometimes letting them create a script that they can use will give them a bit more confidence - I looked at it as them having written the script themselves so they were using their English.  All the projects would be displayed afterwards in my classroom. 

They also did things like designing their own country and then having to create a travel poster for it.  A sort of Survivor-like lesson/choose your own adventure sort of thing.  Phobias and superstitions went over well.  I had them all pull something out of a bag once (things like toilet paper rolls or spoons or paperclips, just random things I had around my apartment) and they had to use those things to invent a game for the class to try. 

Also bizarrely - the hands down winner for lesson of the year both years running was a quick lesson on syllables I threw together the first year when I was told I was going to teach G1 like 10 minutes before I had to actually do it.  They wrote these goofy haikus at the end and everyone was laughing.   

Lots of gifs and videos in ppts to keep them entertained and review games before midterms and finals every semester (the One Piece template for bomb games on here was a massive hit - reused it several times and the kids were excited for it every time). 

Also lessons on music - not just kpop but different sorts of genres or instruments or teachings songs seemed to help.  I had co-ed classes so I wasn't going to be doing like Taylor Swift or anything, but we did "If I had a million dollars" and "Friday, I'm in Love" which the kids seemed to like well enough.

Best of luck.

Talk to your co-teachers. Show them lesson plans in advance so that they know how to help you when you need it. Run through the activities with them before class to make sure they understand. Ask their opinions/advice on the lessons. Make sure that they understand that they are welcome to jump in any time for comprehension checks, attention grabbing etc.

Above, you've seen many good ideas for activities. Choosing good activities is a big part of the battle but an often-neglected facet of this problem is that a good co-teacher will be able to put those kids in line and hold their attention with or without you, and with just about any activity.

Hey,

Does anyone have advice or lesson plans for very low-level high schoolers.

I have been given two first grade vocational classes. As far as I can tell, they are only as advanced as "Hello"... They didn't respond or speak to me at all, and I had blank stares at everything I said, no matter how many pictures I drew / oscar-worthy performances I gave.

I don't even know where to start... I looked at elementary and middle school lesson plans, but these are too childish, and I feel like the students won't get involved if I treat them like babies..

Please help??

First off you need to understand that basically nothing will work with these kids.   Those kids are there because they were failures in middle school and didn't want to study.  They mostly got shitty grades and did a piss poor job on their exit examinations in their 3rd year of middle school so the government threw them in a vocational school.  Understanding this will help you realize that expectations of you as a teacher should be rock bottom.  By comparison, most Korean teachers at vocational schools can't even get through to these kids.  To illustrate this, they will routinely hand out the answers to midterms in advance and yet the averages on their tests will STILL be abyssmally low (50% or lower).  So, if I were you I wouldn't stress about it.

The only thing you could try that might even give you a glimer of hope is survival English themed lessons focusing on key vocabulary and phrases with Korean translations.  The Korean will be necessary so they won't be able to say they can't understand.  Do this and couple it with fun activities if you can find any.  Nevertheless, I wouldn't be too optimistic about getting anything done at a vocational high school even with these efforts.   

Frankly, I'm surprised you're even employed at one since those positions were recently all gutted in just about every province.  You should probably look into moving on after this contract is over.

I'm in the same boat and I, too, am taking comfort knowing it's not just me. I don't have a single class that's under 40 students, or any females. I'm completely burnt out, and as I peruse this and other sites for inspiration and ideas on new and inventive ways and things to teach, I feel defeated before I even begin, knowing that it will most likely tank. I've been at my mechanical high school for 6 months, and I don't feel like I've actually, legitimately "taught" these boys anything this whole time, despite my best efforts.  Thanks to everyone who posted above for all the advice and empathy! Gotta keep "fighting!"