Although her subject is English, I believe the methods in teaching are transferable to any subject and her thoughts on what she believes works for teenage students will benefit me in my line of inquiry.
Please click on the link below to read the blog titled Tips for Teaching Teens (by Michelle Worgan):
http://www.teachingvillage.org/2010/06/29/tips-for-teaching-teens-by-michelle-worgan/
I thought this blog carried on nicely from the article I used for my second piece of literature titled 'The adolescent brain - Learning strategies and teaching tips.'
Michelle Worgan first writes about the reasons why teenagers can be difficult to teach due to the physical and emotional changes they are going through, etc, (which I now know a lot more about after reading the second piece of literature), and then she goes on to look at the aspects of the teacher-student relationship to see what makes a class successful.
Worgan makes some good points about first impressions and setting the record straight from the start that you mean business.
The section after that is of particular interest to me as it coincides nicely with one of my questions on how to combine the methods of motivation and discipline within a classroom.
Worgan writes:
Good Cop Vs Bad Cop
I consider myself to be quite strict with teenage exam prep groups, and contrary to popular belief, research has shown that firm but fair teachers are preferred by this age group. Although you may be tempted to treat a group of sixteen year olds as adults, the fact is that emotionally they are not. Even though they may look like adults and demand to be treated like one, they don’t usually have the emotional balance and reason that an adult usually has. This means that if you do talk to them as if they were your friends or peers, they will often use this as an excuse not to study or do as you ask. At the end of the day, most teenagers don’t have the maturity to choose progress over fun and games, and you will find it much more difficult to get them to put in the required effort.
However, this doesn’t mean that you have to bear the stick constantly – give them a carrot when they have been working hard! The idea is you are seen to be in control of the class – something that teenagers consider a quality of a good teacher. Rewards such as games and other fun activities can be a great incentive to get the work done. Do make sure though, that you do give them the rewards you promise, otherwise they will just think that there is no point in doing the work.
Like Worgan, I also consider myself to be quite a strict teacher, particularly when it comes to teaching teenagers. I try to remember how I felt as a teenager and what sort of teachers I preferred and it was always the firm but fair teachers (like research has shown), so when I am teaching teenage students my aim is always to be firm but fair.
This can be difficult to maintain though and I find that when students are moaning and their work is sloppy then this can make me more stressed, especially if we are working towards an exam or show and this stress can diminish some of the control I have over the class.
I totally agree with what Worgan says about needing to be seen to be in control as teenagers see this as a good quality. I think the reason this is seen as a good quality is because, as Worgan has written, they may look and seem like adults but they are not, and they may not know it but they need that adult figure to look up to. If a teacher is showing control over the class, always being firm but fair, then this is somebody that teenagers can respect, listen to and learn from.
In the last two sections Worgan has wrote about motivation and humour.
Motivation
One of the questions constantly posed by teachers of teenagers is “How can I motivate them? They aren’t interested in anything!” If you ask a group of teenagers what topics they would like to cover in class, they will come up with very few. Even if you do bring in some materials you have found about their interests, you will inevitably find that they show the same amount of enthusiasm as if they were the typical course book unit about the environment. The problem, I find is not the actual topic of the lesson, but the type of activities involved. Most course book pre-reading tasks for example, do not make you want to read! Trying to get a learner to read through a gapped text before attempting to fill in the gaps is a nightmare, usually because the text is about something not at all interesting and the student has no incentive to read. Imagine you have a text about someone who survived a shark bite. Instead of just asking your students to read, tell them the story from the survivor’s point of view from the beginning, but stopping before the end. Now ask what happened next, encouraging all kinds of funny or even gory answers, and then get them reading! The main thing is, unless you want to spend hours before every lesson trying to find interesting teenage material and planning lessons, to find fun ways to exploit the materials they already have in their course books.
Humour
One of the reasons why I have enjoyed teaching this particular group of teens is that we have had some brilliant moments of laughter. Sometimes I have been the instigator and sometimes they have. Although I have made the students work really hard and cover as much as possible every lesson, a good laugh now and again can motivate teenagers to want to come to class. I started this by making up stories, usually to introduce some grammar point, that they actually believed (like having sprained my ankle – lots of limping around the classroom), and then got a bit of a reputation as a fibber! However, this gave me and the students an opportunity to relax. When they saw that I was prepared to joke with them, they were much happier about working. They would themselves decide to work hard so that later they could have a bit of a laugh. I had the odd trick played on me (in a nice way) that had me crying with laughter.
I agree entirely with Worgan on these points. A teacher needs to be firm to be able to get work out of students, but they also need to show that they have a humourous side, to prove they can have a laugh and have fun as this allows the students to relax and enjoy the lesson, so therefore they are motivated. Good Cop Vs Bad Cop strategy.
I think this a very intelligent piece of writing with great teaching tips. I believe it is just the starting point of what I will learn as my inquiry progresses and hopefully by the end I will be able to say I have discovered how to combine the methods for inspiring and motivating students while keeping order and discipline to achieve successful results.
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