Activities and Presentations (I need advice)

[muadib]

I just got through another particularly difficult class. The students were clearly bored, (though the class before them did fine) they were goofing off, some were blatantly disruptive. After class I had a talk with my co-teacher and she said that the students felt I was making them write and speak too much compared to their earlier teacher, who did more activities, games and presentation/projects.

As I am completely new to this job and am really trying to find my footing, what kind of project could I have them do that doesn't involve a lot of speaking or writing? I don't understand.

I don't want my kids to be bored, obviously some attention seekers will always be disruptive, but I need some ideas that will help these kids be interested in what is going on in class. Of course I don't want them to feel bored or overworked. I feel like I am only teaching to the top twenty percent of my classes now, I know I need to slow it down, but how do I do it and keep things interesting? I want them to have a little fun in my class and my co-teacher has directly asked me to make things fun and light for them due to the boring work that she has to put them through....
Musical chairs only works so long.
Sorry, very frustrated and in need of assistance.

Thanks!

[merle]

Just wondering, what level do you teach?

[incognito84]

Activities and fun lessons are always appreciated, but I wouldn't tolerate this kind of behaviour regardless of how "bored" they are. They are in school to learn, not to play. If you let them get away with this nonsense then eventually the only time they'll be happy is if you're watching them a movie and throwing expensive candy at them the whole time while dancing like a monkey in the corner.

While you're new and your classes could use some livening up--I'm assuming--don't let them drift off in your class. Its unreasonable. I can assure you, all their other classes are much more boring than yours is!

Oh yeah, and what level?

[muadib]

Middle school, co-ed

BTW I don't "let" them drift off. They start that BS as soon as I turn my back or shift my gaze twenty degrees. Believe me I do what I can, but some of these kids are incorrigible. I don't think it has too much to do with being new, I feel like I am retraining them to be in a classroom and act like it. as far as I can tell their English class has always been their bs class. I'm not a hard ass, but I'm no push over either. I need something besides the threat of discipline or the promise of candy to keep their attention.

[sonya]

I have done a couple of projects with my Middle Schoolers.

One was on cooking...I used the handout on cooking vocab from mes-english and made a ppt of how to make ramyeon...I'll post it later.  We do it as a class on the board first. 

Afterwards they get in groups and make posters...there are examples on the ppt.

They then must present in groups at the end.

Another one I've done is Project Runway along the same lines as the cooking one.  I'll post it too.

Sonya

[muadib]

update: this class respondes well to nothing. Not candy, not games, not the promise of a movie. They are completely apathetic about learning english.

If I say worksheet they say Ugggghhhhh, If I say game they say uugghgghghg, If I say candy they say nooooo, If I do anything at all they just go UUUUughghghghghg. If I ask one specifically to answer a question they pretend to be invisible. What the hell? none of my other classes does this. how can I possibly motivate them to do anything?

[nancy]

I don't know if you have any space in your classroom but I have used the bulletin boards, locked cabinets and whiteboards to display the students work. Now I have kids coming in early to class and checking the boards to see if their work made to the board entitled " the best of the best". Some is visual such as collages but some articles are writing assignments. Somehow they don't mind reading other students work as much as mine. I also get more mileage out of my stickers when all the kids can see them. If some don't make it they try harder next time and many will rewrite their work so it is neater in hopes of making it to the board! I can't believe this small thing has made a big improvement in my classroom!! Good luck!!

[dporter]

Some classes are just like this. Don't worry too much about it.

Ask your co-teacher if the school divides each grade into levels. My school breaks down each grade into 4 classes (levels.)

I'm guessing this particular class is the lowest level class of that grade. If so, their English ability is probably next to nothing.

You can try activities that are below their ability. Nothing breeds success like success.

With my low level middle-school kids I spend about 10 minutes at the start of class explaining the activity then I have them work in pairs on the activity.

Last week I printed off some animal cards from ESL Printables. They had various animals with the stats for each. Stuff like age, speed, height, weight, etc.

I gave each pair of students 2 sets of these cards. I had them play match with the cards.

The trick was if the cards they flipped didn't match - they had to make a comparative statement. So if they flipped over the owl and the wolf they might say - The owl is older than the wolf.

Now at the start of the class I gave them all the possible sentence structures to use and I kept this projected on the screen during class:

A is older than B
A is younger than B

A is faster than B
A is slower than B

A is taller than B
A is shorter than B

etc.

So I prefaced the activity, gave them model sentences, then let them play. Some of them played the game perfectly. Others just played the game by flipping cards and not speaking. You win some and you lose some.

[mtnbk13]

I am a new teacher and I have been fighting this same battle for the past three months.  The past two weeks I have had great success and I go home happy every day.  It comes down to a simple principle.  Positive reinforcement v negative punishment. 

If a behavior is good (and you want it to continue) you should reinforce it with the addition (positive) of something (candy, praise, etc.). 

The tough part is that if a behavior is bad (and you want it to stop) you must punish it with the subtraction (negative) of something (freedom, break time, comfort).

The point where many teachers (and parents, etc) go wrong is to use positive punishment.  That is the addition of something as a means of discouraging behavior (i.e. spanking).  This is, as we have all noticed, ineffective.  Equally ineffective is negative reinforcement, taking something away as a means of encouraging behavior (if you're good we will have no homework).  This is a well established psychological principle called operant conditioning.  Google it if you want more details on the neurological explanation for why it works.

So, what am I doing and how does it work?  I got some little magnets and made a square representing each table on the board.  If students do something good they get a magnet (point).  If they do something bad they lose a magnet (point).  It is relatively meaningless, but I make a big deal about it when I take a point away and the students chide each other for their bad behavior.  If they have no points and they misbehave, I give them a minus point.  Here is the kicker.  If they have minus points at the end of class they must stay after and erase the minus points by answering questions.  I keep the whole table even if only one kid is misbehaving, this ensures that they will keep each other in check and makes less work for you.  I also give a small candy to each kid on the team with the most points (I also make a big deal about this). 

You can hit a student all day and they will be less and less interested in speaking English.  Take away their freedom and tell them they can have it back as soon as they answer a question (hopefully reflecting what you taught in the lesson) and they will climb over each other to answer you.  Let them answer one at a time, and only let one student out at a time.  They will get more and more interested as their numbers dwindle.

Furthermore, after you keep a certain group once, they understand that they can choose between speaking English during class or speaking it on their break.  Worst case scenario they just shut up, which isn't bad either.

This does mean that you also lose your break, but it is better than losing your mind.

Now you have taken two groups of students and gotten the attention of both of them.  The trouble makers are afraid to be kept after class to study and the smart kids are fighting each other to earn candy.  It is working wonders in my classes and I recommend you try it.

[muadib]

I'm a psych major, I get the reinforcement bit, but with this class the rules simply don't apply, as I mentioned. There is no positive reinforcement if they don't care about games/ candy/ etc.

Today they did it again. Over and Over it's "bring your worksheet to class" and only half do. They just seem to fight me on everything. I tried to teach below their level and they just became exacerbated and said "so easy", the irony being that I was teaching them how to use "It is" in a sentence with the verb "to be". Come on! "It is so easy"
Really, I'm pulling teeth at every turn here. Of course this makes it so that I am in a foul mood which certainly doesn't help anyone. I'm trying to breath and let it go, but that doesn't seem to be doing the trick, perhaps it has saved me from literally getting a tension headache though... Now my co-teacher decides to step in, but that's not really effective as she is there so rarely that when she does come to class it totally throws me off my game, which it shouldn't, but it does.

Sorry for the ranting. I'm just gonna plug through for a couple of weeks, I need to develope some kind of consistent approach or they will never know what I expect of them.

I like the "posting their work" idea. It would work great, but only one student consistently finishes her work. Maybe I'll just post hers until the little hellions figure it out.

[sheila]

Another thing to think about... How are you coming into the class? Are you motivated to teach them or are you acting like it's the bain of your existance to be near them.  As a psych major, you should know about intrinsic and extrinsic motivation (if not, look it up especially in relation to education).  You don't have to be giving them candy.  The way you react to being around your students is always noticed by them, even if it's something little.  Try to keep a positive attitude about working with this class.  Students want to learn if a teacher wants to teach them.  If not, you'll pull each other down together.  It took me a little while to figure this out at my first position, but once I realized what was up, things totally changed for the better. If you're interested, here's some ed. psych stuff that you may be interested in reading.  I know it's a lot but some of it's really good and makes you reflect on your own teaching style.  Best of luck!

[dporter]

Ok. I confess. I was a psych major too. My area of emphasis was social psychology (specifically altruism) but I did a good deal of work in motivation and behavior.

One thing we need to remember before applying operant conditioning principles to the classroom is that a great majority of the work in that field has been done on animals. A pigeon in Skinner's box is vastly different than a 15 year old in your classroom. A pigeon always wants the food. Pavlov's dog always wants the meat powder. Your student could give a rats behind about a piece of candy.

Also, if you're going to port OC to the classroom you might as well bring the schedule of reinforcement with it. The best schedule of reinforcement is the variable ratio schedule because the students won't know when they will be rewarded for being good - so they must be good all the time. Of course, this portrays the teacher as inconsistent (yesterday I was good and got candy - today no candy. Why?
)

And the wheel goes round and round.

The single best way to get students to behave and learn is to help them realize they will benefit from the material. You can 'trick' kids into learning by playing games and such but over time that model fails. There are only so many rabbits in the hat.

The problem is how do you help a 15 year old see there might be some benefit in learning English. I know that when I was 15 I could care less about learning German. Which is probably why I got a D in the class.

If participation in a English class taught by a native teacher was voluntary we might have more success. Then only kids with some interest would attend the class. But we don't have that luxury. Attendance is mandatory.

So what to do?

I say that if kids want to sleep let them. If a kid misbehaves he goes into the hallway kneeling with his hands on his head but in the line of sight of the teacher.

Then teach to the balance of the class.

[muadib]

dporter, Thanks for the advice, I agree and will use this approach when applicable.

[lisadream]

Hey Maudib,

I'm teaching in a highschool, but I've definitely felt your pain!!! It's true, there are some students who will just never be interested in your classes. Not much you can do there except make sure they are not disrupting the class so that the good kids can still get something out of it.

The classroom set up we work with is also not conducive to language learning, so you've got that fighting against you as well. How do you make sure that  30-40 students are practicing speakingand listening, let alone saying things correctly in a 50 minute class???(I work in the online program in Jeollanamdo as well and wow, what a world of difference working with 5 students and a co-teacher vs 40 students on my own). My Advice if you want it:
- Stay positive, and focus more on the praise. I almost never lose my temper so when it does happen, it really surprises the students. Use your positive nature to that advantage. If you're always hollerin' they don't care.
- Give attention to the kids who are trying, if the class is doing a worksheet walk around the class and read some of their work, encourage and comment on the work of the kids who are on task. TALK to them. (I've found some of them are starved for attention and as soon as they realize they can have face time with me if they are working on their worksheet, they knuckle down.)
- I also use a bulletin board to post the best work I've seen and it works really wellasd encouragement and bragging rights.
-switch it up: mix up lessons that encorporate videos, music and games so that you're hitting all the learning styles you can and the kids are wondering "I wonder what we'll be doing this week?".
- use culturally relevant stuff. My most successful classes have been when I take a piece of Korean Culture and talk about it in English with them (The Korean Flag lesson on this site is a really good example, I also did a comparison lesson with Chuseok and Thanksgiving that was really successful) Expalin to the students that if they know how to talk about Korean things in English they can share their culture with foreigners. Plus, when they already know it in Korean, the lower students can back-translate what your teaching and understand more. Plus, plus, you'll learn alot and the students will be really impressed that you have taken the time to learn about ehir culture.
- DON'T beat yourself up. Remember that this is just one class and the rest are good, which means you are doing a good job. We can't have success with 100% of our students but we can have huge successes with many of them  when we narrow our focus just a little bit.  I'm sure you know there are some korean folks who don't think the country should be learning English and don't think the government should be spending money to pay foreigners to teach it to their kids. You may have a few kids who are the children of these folks.
Keep your head up - Don't forget you've got way more students who are learning from you and enjoying your clases than not!