Motivating the teenage learner

1. Motivating the teenage learner A two-way street Anna Whitcher

2. Faces of the teenage learner

3. What do they have to say?

4. What do they respond to?

5. What are their interests?

6. Who do they talk to?

7. How do they communicate?

8. The norm: operating on multiple channels

9. What works in their world?

10. Going from the classroom …

11. …to building a two-way street How do we create flow?

12. Find an equal playing field • Discover what’s unique about your class • Take an inventory of the class’s interests • Find parallels with your material • Create dialogue based on their interests and support it with your material

13. What they bring to the game • A variety of communication methods • Effective ways to send and receive messages • Efficient language chunks • An ability to communicate meaningful content • Multiple channels

14. What you bring • Your knowledge of the target language • Your experience as a facilitator • An openness to new ways of communicating • An instigator of dialogue • An ability to listen • An effective communicator inside and outside the classroom • Possibly a multiple channel user already

15. Naming the content • What do you have already in your classroom? • How do the interests of your students fit with the material you have? • Narrow it down • Pull ideas from your chosen areas (based on student input) and expand them • Ask students to become involved in the content-building process

16. Finding the material • Don’t limit yourself to one medium • Choose the best way for you to present an idea and be flexible • Don’t rely on technology – use it for a specific purpose, not just for the sake of it • View your students as a resource, not only for ideas but for actual materials

17. Students as a resource • Identify the different types of characters • Group them according to their interests • Find crossover areas • Capitalize on what they have to offer

18. Actors, models, musicians

19. Collectors, inventors, sports fans

20. Using their own visuals “This is my favourite photo because I remember feeling really happy and free.” Elena, 14

21. “This is my best friend and me in my bedroom. We are cross-eyed and I love it because in this photo we are doing stupid things, like we always do when we’re together, so this photo expresses perfectly how we are.” Irene, 15

22. Have them bring in their works of art…

23. their passions and collections …

24. their opinions and emotions …

25. Creating the conversation • By bringing in their ideas, interests and even their own work, you are validating who they are. • You are letting them start the conversation which you then build with them. • They feel motivated to speak about topics and issues that concern them directly. • You are helping them connect the dots between their interests and the new language.

26. Building materials with students • Once students have their item (s), start with something simple • Make the task something all can achieve at some level • What works for one student might not work for another • Make them aware of their audience

27. Short writing samples

28. Photo diaries and videos

29. Class photo albums • Have students bring in the vocabulary items for your current topic • Take photos or have them take photos of each other • Upload them and have pairs identify and describe the photos

30. Written interviews When did you start making jewellery? I love all kinds of art – photography, sewing and knitting. When I was little, I made dresses out of plastic bags. And I built things from trash. By the time I was eight, I started to make sculptures and jewellery. Why do you enjoy working with metal? And where do you get your ideas from? I like metal because you can do different things with it. I like making all kinds of shapes and I love trying new ideas. Other artists inspire me too.

31. Using online tools to create materials • Online tools are another good way to build student-generated text in your own classroom and many are free • These can be done in class if computers are available or at home • Be selective with the tools and experiment with several before you try them out with your class • Be aware of privacy issues and select the education option if a site has one

32. Glogster • www.glogster.com • Choose a topic • Give students several writing prompts • Have them write bits of text • Have them select photos, videos and other graphics to illustrate their ideas

33. Storybird • www.storybird.com • Students select a title and story content • Choose a variety of art and styles • Build their story content on the visuals • Publish their own stories together or individually

34. Enter a name Choose a carrier Enter a conversation Create your screenshot Students can create conversations together or separately Good functional writing practice www.ifaketext.com via Nik Peachey @NikPeachey ifaketext

35. Grockit • www.grockit.com • You and your students sign in as users • Select a video from YouTube • Video will appear with question fields • You can indicate your questions at any point

36. Integrating CLIL • Connections with CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) and content teaching • A lot of what your students suggest might bring in topics that are new to you • Consider the unusual and/or more controversial topics suggested by your students • Use a variety of ways to convey the content, both from student-generated materials and outside sources (e.g. videos)

37. A two-way street

38. Creating a continuous flow • Keep the dialogue open at all times • Have them bring their own experiences to the topics • Go further and have them supply their own visuals to create their own materials • When possible, use the same communication channels you all use in your own lives • Use online tools to help build student-generated materials

39. Contact Anna Whitcher anna_whitcher Brookemead ELT London & San Francisco info@brookemead-elt.co.uk www.brookemead.com