Ideas for engaging teenagers

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Ideas for engaging teenagers (and older students!)  Involve sts in the choices of topics, tasks, ways of working, partners etc.  Encourage pair and groupwork and ‘real’ meaningful communication  Sts rewrite questions or tasks to make them more interesting, personal, relevant or motivating to them personally  Sts generate their own tasks  specific tasks, not just “discuss this”, but for example resequencing, prioritising, ranking, consensus type activities  using bodily movement/kinaesthetics  adding a ‘fun’ element like throwing a ball for question and answers to make boring activities work better  re-arrange groups (constantly) VARIETY IS THE SPICE OF LIFE!  don’t interrupt, or overcorrect, focus on fluency  Consider moodle or engaging w learners in an interactive written format (email? Facebook class page?)  give positive feedback and reinforcement  give sts a telephone or microphone (a pen will do) for speaking  forego handouts and perhaps email, book use, internet resources and learning platforms will help. Consider; why are we using this copy? Is it really needed? Can sts take notes and use a mind map or similar visual presentation technique?  Get sts to be actively involved with presentations etc.  Give sts sentence heads/stems to complete  use pictures, video clips, songs (get them to select and present)  display work/answers on walls to get sts moving  give sts clear warning, rehearsal time and note making time before speaking and experiment with sts speaking to peers in small group presentation mode not to the entire class, or have sts record themselves at home!  get sts to take turns “curating” the knowledge from the class that day; do it once as an example and ask them to take on this role in turns. They can use poster paper, powerpoint, prezi, voicethread or other internet tools


 use “open learning” techniques, work stations with differentiated tasks and end products which could be included in an e- (or paper) portfolio (see documents on memory stick for more ideas)  At the beginning of term assign students a playing card (kings, queens, jacks, aces, clubs, spades, hearts, diamonds) that relates to their language level, behaviour, roles in groups, communication/personality or whichever category you choose. This is a way of creating groups containing all the elements you want, for example, all the shy, less confident students may sometimes get to work together, or a mixed group or ? You can decide on categories for each class beforehand, and say “OK, all the kings, the aces (or whichever) together”. Or “groups of four with two diamonds and two clubs”.


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