Reflection 4

Response to a question about English Teaching

"Hello! What can I do in my English classes if my adolescents students don't want to cooperative to achieve a true meaningful learning and teaching process? I am worried about their acttitude because they don't like anything. I like to work as a teacher butit´s necessary a positive participation. They are not only lazy but also agressive. This problem is only this year when the students realize that they can pass without effortsbecause of the government policies about education here in Colombia. Thank you very much"
by Doris Elsa Gama

I think that the problem here is not only because the students can pass without effort, I believe that the students are not motivated, and here is when teachers have to think and plan activities that can be interesting for the students. As teachers, we have to think that adolescents are in a difficult age, for that reason the idea is to know them very well in order to create activities that can be meaningful. Students need to know what the purpose of the classes are, why they are studying something; if they feel that the things that are learning are not useful in their daily lives they will not be able to learn them.
I can recommend you a book about ESL/EFL Teaching, Principles for Succes by Freeman and Freeman that can be useful for you, the chapters V from the book is realated to what I've been explaining to you.
I also found an interesting website that can help you with some tips for teaching.
Here is the link:
Tools for Teaching

Also you can watch a movie that is related to your own situation, the name of it is "Freedom Writers" and the teacher in this movie could motivate her students, this is an awesome film.