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Ask for help > My students have me upset
My students have me upset
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karenp
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My students have me upset
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hello everyone I hope you can help me. I dont have that much experience as a teacher and Im teaching adults. I am very upset because I gave them an activity where they were supposed to make a play and only one group did it and the others did not want to do anything. I did not know how to react so I took the cards away and gave them something else. What bothers me is that they want to talk and I give them this and dont want to do anything. I feel very upset and sad and I dont know what to do next. Please help ! |
21 Oct 2008
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A.M.S
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Hello Karen,
I read your post and I understand how upset you must feel. I�m working with adult students in Argentina. You should consider that adults are generally more reluctant to "roleplaying" and "pretend activities". Plus, although they want to speak they are shy and find it embarrassing to do so. Something that has worked for me was to choose a topic and give them a questionaire related to it. For example, if you want to talk about "discrimination" you give them questions on the topic. One of them reads a question and they all give their opinions or talk about personal experiences connected to the questions. You can try typing "speaking esl" in Google and it�ll show websites that already have questionaires done for Esl students. You can use them as they are or make changes according to your needs.
I hope this is helpful. :)
Feel confident and don�t let this make you sad. Sometimes it just happens that we think we�ve prepared a wonderful class and students just don�t seem to like it, or we haven�t prepared that much and they really enjoyed it.
Hugs from Argentina,
Anabela |
21 Oct 2008
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karenp
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thank you sooo much anabela I will do that next time ! thanks |
21 Oct 2008
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Vickiii
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Hi Karen,
Sometimes my classes flop as well. Sometimes one class will really respond - and the next class with the exact same material to the exact same age group - refuse to talk, contribute or anything.
I do as you did and change with the group and try to get something else going in the class. But oneday - i said to the class - look i just need you guys to contribute - I am happy to change what we are doing but i really need you guys to come onboard with the learning - i can�t make you do this - but I think it is a really good activity for you.
The teenagers told me they would like to start again and have a go at contributing on the topics i had bought up - then one of them said - Miss I just need more time to think before I talk. It made me realise i was rushing them to much, and expecting them to do things on my time instead of in their time.
I think sometimes it is of benefit to ask them if they need more time or if they would prefer a different activity. Alternatively maybe they need smaller steps because they can not get their head around the whole task in one go.
Hope this is helpful.
Hugs
Vickiii |
21 Oct 2008
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bazza
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Hey there Karen
I have taught a lot of adult in Korea and i have had the exact same problems.
It seems like they have a lot more inhibitions and are hard to make do anything creative and they have a fear of looking foolish.
What i have tended to do is to try and make the class as comfortable at the beginning of the semester by using tons of ice breakers so that they are all comfortable with eachother and i even had a few class dinners together.
We started of with very simple role plays where they dont have to move just stay in there seat. Give them a base roleplay then in pair (not large groups) have them come up with there own information for these roleplays. The role plays in the adult interchange books are very good for this kind of thing. After a while introduce some 3 person role plays and then take it from there.
Its all about building there confidence and when you have done this enough and they all feel secure then they may start taking on some plays and stuff in groups but be aware that there are some adults that just dont want to take on anything that might make them embarrassed.
Organising the groups is also key as some members and just motivators and might push the others to work.
At the moment in my adult class we are doing some simple current events with discussion and some group work i will move on to debates and trying to make the become more confident and study more independently.
Dont feel too bad as i can assure you they feel worse and the last thing they want to do is upset you. Maybe ask them to email there thoughts about class as i have also got some great ideas and comments that way and even suggestions for class.
Hope you have a better class next time and i know where you are coming from
All the best
barry |
21 Oct 2008
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karenp
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Thank you very much Vikii and Barry it is great to have you guys here whenever I feel depressed and desperate. I give them time on activities but it is extremely difficult for them to organize for an activity. Im still getting the hang of it and its even harder when you have start late in the semester and the school admits peple at any time during the year. Thank you very much I guess I will stick to dialogues and discussions in pairs or groups for now.
Thanksssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss=) |
21 Oct 2008
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Lidiana73
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Hi Karen,
I�m teaching in Italy at the moment and I can totally sympathise with you. I teach adults as well as younger people and find them many times un-coperative. Recently I planned and taught a lesson on tools which I though would be relevant to their work seeing that they were in the steel industry. I thought all had gone well until the director of my school called me to say that they hated the lesson and would cancel ALL courses unless I was replaced. I find that adults sometimes are harder to please than younger learners as they expect immediate results with their language not realising that it takes time.
I have had several flops as well and have taken them in my stride and tried to do better next time. But remember one thing Karen...adults are harder to please than children so sometimes you can never please them. They all want to talk like native speakers some without putting the effort in. It�s easy for them to say let�s talk but you can�t jsut go into a lesson without preparation of a topic. Try a list of questions next time to encourage conversation...it might work. Good luck |
21 Oct 2008
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viggia (F)
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Hi Chiocciola.
I also teach adults within a company.
I have noticed throught years of teaching that sometimes some ss are not motivated at all. They must learn EN for work but they are not interested in it. They attend the course just because their boss told them to.
In these "desperate" cases, no matter how hard you work, they will never be pleased. And the hard part of it, is that in the top management�s eyes it is always the teacher�s fault.
But apart from that, I have been having extraordinary adult ss that have made my job fun and that have brought positive inputs on it. And sometimes also thanks to some material that I have found in this fabulous site!
CIao
Viggia
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21 Oct 2008
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Zora
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Hi Karen,
I have to say that there isn�t much that I can say here that my fellow teachers haven�t already pointed out about dealing with adults - and I agree, adults can have no patience at times. They often expect a magic wand that can be waved and "poof" - they now speak English like somebody who has dedicated years to it... just attempt to ignore this since it�s only going to drive you bonkers.
I just wanted to add that I like to take reading exercises to class and have them read it out loud and then ask questions or have them ask ME questions about things in they read in the text since I find that we are always the ones asking and never answering. Also, this forces them to use structures that they rarely use but are often important...
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21 Oct 2008
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karenp
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I would like to thank you all for the replies. I am glad you guys understand the way I feel and is very true I agree with my italian friends , they want to talk right away and do not understand that it takes a long time to speak a language specially for them that are older and is harder to learn it. I will try questions between them and readings that�s all that is left to do, I am not going to sweat it anymore I think I am doing what I can and that�s it. I also think that I have given them too much freedom in the classroom and are losing respect as well. How to get it back? I dont know to tell you the truth but what I know is that I am not pleasing them anymore, I am the authority in the classroom even though I did not want them to see me that way but more as someone who is there to help them. However, I am going to have to change.
Thanks everybody for being always there |
21 Oct 2008
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Mietz
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Hi Karen,
I can�t add much more either, though I made the same experience about the freedom. In some classes I�ve taught students felt irritated and let down by the freedom I let them to chose subjects etc.
At university I was told that adults have to be treated as such. Well - often it appears they feel at school and they want to be treated like that. They don�t always want the choices. They want to be told and they don�t want to have to decide. Don�t feel bad about treating them the way ask for it.
If this class isn�t getting any better - do it for its paying the bills. There will be better days! If it still doesn�t get any better - get out of it. It�s not worth completely losing all your self confidence over that. I�ve had classes here, too, where I was just soooo glad when they were over (one I terminated after one and a half day). Still - most of the times my job is more than rewarding. Keep it up. The start is normally not that easy, but it gets better - thanks to eslprintables as well :-)
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21 Oct 2008
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