Teaching Teens

One of the biggest challenges with teaching teenagers can be getting them to talk. If you teach this age gorup, please help the rest of us out and start a list of what your learners are interested in. What music are they listening to? Who are their idols? What are the most popular sports? What topics get them motivated to speak in class, etc. This would be great information to have for anyone preparing extra material to use in class.

Here's a great article by Gary Anderson which offers advice on teaching teenagers.

http://www.cambridge.org/elt/englishinmind/teacher_resources/teaching_teenagers.htm

Teaching Materials and Resources

What do you put in your bag of tricks?

Here are a few things I would take to camp.

• dice (for all kinds of games)
  
• post it notes (can be used to create a million and one low-prep communicative activities)
  
• an egg timer (this is amazing for keeping students on task)
  
• my pen-drive (with all my favourite lesson ideas and worksheet saved on it!)
• blu-tak
  
• a ball
  
• MP3 player and mini-speakers (or even just the speakers and get the Ss to provide the music)
  
• stickers (for the younger ones)
  
• pencil case with stationery essentials (like my green pen for correcting work)
  
• photos from where I live of different people and places
• digital camera (to get my students on the camp blog!)
  

If anyone has any other ideas or tips, please post them here!

Classroom Management

Here's two great articles on the subject: http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/methodology/start_primary.shtml
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/methodology/teen_angst.shtml

It would be great if those of you who have experience working with children could leave their top classroom management tips here for the less experienced teachers.

Testing Oral Proficiency

On the first day of camp all the students do a written test to give us an initial idea of their general level. One of your most important tasks during your first lesson will be to establish the oral proficiency of all of the students in your class in order to make sure that they are placed properly. Easier said than done! While we can recognise the importance of doing this initial evaluation, testing is a highly difficult area of teaching and an issue which is under constant debate. What are your views on the subject? I've found an interesting article from the British Council which you might like to read:

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/methodology/test.shtml.

On a more practical level, here is another article offering some useful advice on how to test (check out 'stage 4'). http://www.britishcouncil.org/languageassistant-primary-tips-evaluating-progress.htm .

Here are a few additional ideas which I have gathered from my own teaching experience as well as my colleagues at work.

• Create a relaxed atmosphere by starting with some easy questions about who they are and where they live etc. You should aim to make it feel more like a friendly conversation as opposed to a 'test'.
• Use your curriculum as your guide. It contains all the points you will cover during the course and your aim is to establish how competent the student is in these areas. Think about what kind of questions you could ask that would draw out the grammar/lexis you are trying to evaluate.
• Images are a great way to initiate conversation and particularly effective with young learners. Try to use ones which are relevant to the lives and interests of your learners. ( I have a large stock of images for these types of activities from my days as an oral examiner for the Cambridge YL examinations - I'll bring these along to the camp again this year)
• Model the activity for them first so they are clear about what is expected of them.
• Why not personalise the activity and use it as an opportunity to build rapport with the learners. You could bring in some photos of you and your friends/family/city.
• Do not correct them or stop to teach! Let the conversation flow and help them out if they get stuck.
• Try to focus on what they CAN do as well as what they can't.
• Keep it brief and make sure you have planned something which will keep the others busy while you are testing.

On the camp this year we have some highly experienced teachers coming from abroad. I'd love to hear their opinions on testing and suggestions for how it could be done effectively.

I hope this serves to get the ideas flowing. If you have any questions or contributions please add them to this post.

Useful Websites

The internet has become a powerful tool and resource for teachers. What sites do you use?

http://www.onestopenglish.com/
Free materials to download plus lesson ideas, games and competitions and professional support.

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/
As well as accessing the tips and ideas pages, don't forget to check out the section of methodology which provides lots of articles on the latest thinking in EFL teaching and learning.

http://www.englishraven.com/
A variety of materials and guides to help and encourage you to inject more professionalism and organization into your teaching practices. Get tips and templates to help you with general session planning, daily lesson planning, basic syllabus design, positive reinforcement and informal assessment measures, and making formalized EFL/ESL listening tests.

http://www.mes-english.com/
Contains free ESL / EFL resources for teachers of young learners. Free flashcards, handouts to match, free phonics cards, free ESL games, an international project exchange library and activities all ready for printing.

http://bogglesworldesl.com/
Contains printable lesson plans and worksheets for TESOL, TEFL and ESL teachers who teach elementary and middle school English, ESL and EFL to kids.

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/
Lesson plans, worksheets, teaching tips, articles as well as information about professional development, training, conferences and qualifications.