TOP 5 Practical Ideas For teaching teenagers Or How to re-activate your English lessons. Как активировать класс подростков на уроках английского языка: 5 супер практических идей и советов
консультация по английскому языку на тему

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By Olga Vladymyrova, Ukraine For British Consul Course CiSELT 2

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Teen classes should be fun and very rewarding for both the teacher and students in spite of all age differences and special characteristics. I believe that the activities that the teacher chooses in the classroom are a crucial factor in deciding if a teens class is successful or not. Therefore I would like to present my 5 favorite activities and tips for teenagers’ classes.

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All the described activities are learner-centered and highly motivating for that age could be adapted for any language level and any topic involve the whole class and suitable for mixed-ability class

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Try to start the class by getting students’ attention, getting them on your side, and getting them to want to do something in English! The best and the easiest way for that is to do an enjoyable “warm-up activity” that will review the vocabulary of the previous lesson, involve the whole class, and be student oriented!

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Ask the students to call out any 10 letters from the alphabet. Write the letters scattered on the board. Then ask the students in pairs to think of a word beginning with each letter on the board. The most obvious criteria is to revise words from a specific lexical set that you have taught recently, e.g. jobs , clothes , food , animals , etc. Alternatively, you could simply ask them for words they’ve noted down in lessons over the past two weeks. Another possibility would be to find the most interesting words they can from the Student Book unit that you’ve just finished. If the lexical set you want them to revise is particularly rich, you could ask the students to think of as many words for each letter as they can in say three minutes: make it into a contest to find the most words.

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Always try to create an interest in the subject. This will allow your students to pay attention to the activity longer and will motivate them to speak English right here and now (in the classroom at the lesson).

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Prepare a picture or a photo that you’d like to discuss with your students, it should be in big format (A4 is very good) and colored. Turn it face to you and say to the learners that now you are going to show them a photo for 3 seconds ONLY, ask them to remember as more facts as they can about the shown picture. Engage them more by saying: “Are you ready to watch it? Ok, 1,2,3”. Then turn the picture toward the students for 3 seconds and then again turn it back to you. Ask students: “What did you see on the photo? How many people? Were they young or old? Where were they? What is in front of them? What color is it?” etc. Let all your students give their opinions. In this activity even weaker students will feel confident as they can answer with a single word instead of a full sentence. If someone doesn’t participate in the discussion you can address a question directly to him by saying his name. After asking your questions turn the picture toward the students and let them describe it focusing on target language chosen for that lesson.

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Encourage students to notice the main points.

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This is an example of a post-reading activity to improve students’ comprehension. First, give the students a story to read. Then write questions on the board and tell your students that now they’re going to read the text again in more detail. The students will find the answers to the questions in the text. Remind them that it’s not a written exercise so they should not underline whole sentences or paragraphs but only key points – a few words, the relevant parts only. Although students are reading in more detail they are identifying the main parts of the texts.

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Encourage students to use their own words. Definitely it’s an effective way to help students to consolidate the vocabulary they already have and prevent them from repeating the sentences “parrot fashion”. This method can also prevent students from plagiarizing texts as their English improves.

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This activity could be adapted to any story-telling lesson. You can give the story as a home work or to read it in the lesson. Then tell your students that you are going to start a phrase from the story and they should finish it like it was written in the text. You decide if they can refer to the text or not. After you finish all the prepared sentences you ask your students to do this task again but complete the phrase with their own words that go with the beginning of the phrase you are saying. For example instead of: “Yesterday Sara went to supermarket and bought … a present for her sister” that was written in the story students will create another ending e.g: “ and bought … fruits and bread”. You can practice it more by asking students to write at home 2 or 3 of possible endings to each sentence.

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Try to relate the topic to the students’ live and personalize the questions. Students are most likely to talk freely if they relate the topic to their lives.

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In this activity t he whole class is contradicting the teacher that helps not only to practise the necessary skills but create more confident atmosphere inside the classroom as well. You may set up this activity the way you like: in circle, in row, sitting at the desks etc. The first stage is to tell the students things you did or didn’t do. If they believe you they say: “Yes, you did”, if they think you are ‘pulling their leg’ they say: “No, you didn’t”. For example: You say: “I found a 50 Euro note in the waste-paper basket over there.” (Students answer: “No, you didn’t!”) I came to school on a motor-bike this morning. (No, you didn’t!) I had cornflakes for breakfast. (Silence or Mm-hm, maybe you did) I talked to Barak Obama yesterday . (No, you didn’t). The second stage is when y ou tell the students things they did or didn’t do (by asking each student a question) and they answer “Yes, I did” or “No, I didn’t”. The third stage is when students ask each other and answer to their peers.

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I strongly believe that a short burst of motivating language-focusing activities (such the ones that I have described above) will make teaching this age more effective, fun and easy!