Zapman provided a selection of ideas followed by etc.
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One of my worst students is 12 years old and this worked with him a few months ago. At first he was really terrible. . misbehaving, total attitude, you name it…
Now I tie in lessons using references to the Golden State Warriors and his eyes light up.
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Another possibility is gender identity. Might be a bit heavy at Taiwanese JHS level, but it goes down a bomb with 18 year olds IME. It even gets the students who think it’s nonsense interested. It’s one of those lessons where I learn something.
Be careful about possible complaints, though.
Just spread some Lurrrve and caring around. Peace… out.
He picked out the K-pop and was saying boys aren’t interested in that. Well, maybe, but it doesn’t make the basic idea unusable. Find something they are interested in, like the Golden State Warriors. Or whatever. Just hope it’s not something that you personally hate. LOL
Personalizing themes to suit a student’s interest isn’t exactly a revolutionary concept. Most of us learn this pretty quickly. In a diverse classroom it can be a challenge to connect with everyone though. A ‘Golden State Warriors’ activity will work with a few of the sporty boys, but won’t connect with those who have no interest in basketball. That’s why personalized themes should be open and broad in scope, like favorite foods, favorite weekend activities, favorite place to go in your city/hometown, what will your life be like in 10 years, fashion, technology, etc. And if you do focus on stuff like music or sports, don’t make it too narrow like just K-Pop or just GS Warriors.
I was really tempted to extend my lessons toward that direction, but I was quite apprehensive about the aftermath, not so much from the kids but from those traditional families.
I felt like maybe it isn’t worth the hassle, so I decided to pull the plug. Like you’ve said here, it went really well with adults.
I thought he asked if JHS boys like K-pop. We must have read it differently.
Of course it’s impossible to find something that everyone is interested in. At the start of each semester I give out a questionnaire about which topics people are into. With 40-60 students in each class it’s a bit of a struggle to achieve a consensus. I think that it’s probably more effective with teenagers that the teacher makes whatever the topic is entertaining, rather than focusing on the topic itself being entertaining. The number of entertaining topics is limited and by lesson 34 it’s unlikely to be a stonker.
I’ve got a new debate class starting this semester. I really want to try some challenging issues, but as you say one has to tread carefully. I’ll probably have about a dozen Chinese students which would lend itself to a discussion on cross-strait relations. But that would almost certainly be the end of my career. It’s probably why they always get stuff like global warming.
“Stonker” — learned a new word! 
Is it British?
Oh yes. Stonking is also good - it’s like awesome.
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We all have different reading abilities 