teaching junior high students

How do you do it? I’ve found that if a class has more than 10 junior high students then it becomes extremely difficult to teach a lesson. from the reading, grammar, to writing, all of it seems like pulling teeth.

I taught a class yesterday with about 15 junior high students and it was exhausting. They were all very quiet and staring blankly ahead. When its time to do book exercises they just looked at there book and reluctant to do any work.

I thought that they just needed to stand up and move so I had them play a round of Teacher Says. They seemed like they didn’t want a part of it.

So just curious how you teach a class like this. How much time do you spend on grammar points vs playing some kind of game. It’s a 2 hour class btw.

They are bit old for teacher says.

Games that involve any kind of personal humiliation, however slight, don’t go over well with that age group.

Keep instruction time short, concise and visual. Have them split off into groups to teach each other what you just taught. Give them clear achievable objectives. 1st group to finish all the objectives gets some sort of award or recognition. That age group enjoys competition.

Then shuffle the groups so the weajer groups get some of the stronger students. Rinse and repeat.

2 hours is insane for any age group.
You really need to divide up those 2 hours into 30 minute lessons.

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How much time do you spend chatting with them? You need to get to know each other. Break the ice. For each class that I teach, I spend a significant amount of time just chatting with the students.

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You can’t teach junior high school. They’re animals. A private junior high school* is the only teaching contract I’ve ever broken in my 11 years of teaching. I had classes that had up to 40-50 foul mouthed, emotional, smelly and disrespectful kids screaming curse words at each other, throwing basketballs across the class, farting loudly, flipping desks, flipping off teachers, throwing punches at each other and some that’d smell like cigarettes or even booze (we’re talking 14-15 year olds). They did everything they wanted and there was no controlling them, so eventually you give up trying to engage and just go through the motions of whatever book you’re assigned knowing full well no one is listening. Yes, there are a few good kids who want to learn, but the larger the class the more they’re overwhelmed by the majority that don’t give a shit. So the best I can say is try to engage with the few good kids you can find and don’t renew your contract when it ends.

I love teaching. But I will never teach junior high again, even if I was paid double my normal salary.

*- the junior high I taught was in South Korea, so I don’t know if the kids are better in Taiwan. But I doubt it.

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I’ve heard the same, from a Taiwanese local who is now a full professor of English Teaching. She called them “animals”. Now, it depends on your students, school and faculty support, and many other factors. If those stars don’t align, good luck with anything. I probably believe that love or personal care is a huge success factor.

  1. Gain their respect. Positively, this can include you getting to know them and their interests, showing your own “cool” talents, being human with them.

  2. Force their respect. Getting other teachers or directors involved. Letting them know that your feedback will make a difference and get to their parents.

  3. Gain their love. Use engaging, hands-on activities, DIY crafts and snacks, pop songs, cup dance songs, jazz chants, lots of games (like guessing games, charades), engaging content. Problem is, if their affective filter is already a problem, no activities will win their hearts. They are still too young to appreciate the value of English as an International Language. At the same time, too old to be easily swayed by treats and points

  4. Earn their respect. Know them as individuals, and adjust your courses to meet their interests while still teaching them content. This is a tricky balance and you have to acknowledge they are changing are adolescents. Try to be real, while maintaining the balance of power. It’s tough to be a friend and teacher both. Impossible. However, the more you know of them personally, the better you can interact.

All I can say is that the public 國一 students I met were adorable and very open to learning. Other contexts may differ!

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I’ve never had a problem teaching JHS students. I’m crap with the 7-12 year olds.

I’m not sure what advice to give. Lots of jokes and don’t try to teach too much. That probably doesn’t make sense to you right now, but you clearly care and I think you’ll get it after a while.

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It’s almost impossible to teach them anything. Hope this gives you some inspiration.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPO76Jlnz6c

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With language acquisition you can still be teaching when you aren’t teaching. But I don’t want to get too far up my own arse about this, so I’ll leave it there.

On a more practical level, a general knowledge quiz always goes down well. In teams and suited to their English level of course. Allow them to search the answers on their phones.

You’re right, of course. (My animals comment was a bit facetious, but probably still too much) Your advice is better and less cynical and defeatist than what I was dishing out, but I couldn’t resist. I can’t entirely blame the students though. The faculty didn’t care and their involvement in their lives or development was limited to how fast they could herd them into the classroom. I will say teaching 50 a class is challenging in any context. If you’re teaching a JH student one-on-one or with a small class with less than a dozen they’re a lot easier to engage with.

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That could be my problem also. I didn’t really char with them. Will try to do that next time.

Google TPRS.

2 hour classes shudders

Sounds like HESS.

I find that grade 6 students can also be lethargic and don’t give a damn about what you want to teach them. I have heard from a few people that they only want to teach elementary school students or high school students and stay as far away as possible from JHS students.

Is it just one class or every class? I have a friend who teaches 18 JHS classes a week lol. He does OK but also says he has students with visible tattoos etc.

Tattoos?! Wowza.

Second on the 6th graders, Once they become 6th graders, they seem to feel like they’re “too cool” to do the things they did just a year ago. Strange, but I’ve seen this transition more than enough.
I teach 5 to 6 JHS classes a week and I’ve been pretty lucky with the kids. They’re mostly manageable and cooperative. I try to make lesson plans that are relevant for their age. I incorporate K pop music and such to get them interested. Each school has different dynamics so it’s important to understand what can keep these kids on their toes.

Recently, I went to a workshop and the one speaker taught in a JHS. His advice was to structure lessons or discussions around their interests such as K pop, computer games, superhero movies etc

How much do JHS boys like K pop?

Boys frown but girls go nuts :joy:
I incorporate lots of visual aids to keep both genders interested. Recently I made a PPT where I taught simple descriptive adjectives and then they had to play “guess who” with Taiwanese celebrities. I try to keep the topics within Taiwan when I try to teach JHS so that they can somewhat relate.

Why would you expect every single suggestion to apply to every single student?

What are you talking about?

I’d make a stab in the dark that the answer will be TPRS.

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Nope, not TPRS.

You go to a workshop. The presenter gives some ideas about how to engage the kids. You then say “Oh, boys don’t like K-Pop” as though that invalidates the whole concept of talking about or using things kids are interested in.

Not all kids are interested in the same stuff (though sometimes in Taiwan it can seem like it, LOL - “sleeping”…). The point is to use a hook of some kind based on their interests, whatever they happen to be.