Why are the students not responding?

[Anonymous]

I teach English 11 at a local school. Oftentimes the students will not participate for the do now and they refuse to work in groups. Sometimes I will ask the class w question, and no one answers.

[BCA6010]

The cause is that these kids have grown up with minimal social interaction, aren't participating in sports, probably don't have parents who are intimately involved in their development (or discipline), probably don't have siblings that they talk to, and their social skills are almost entirely focused on digital media. I bet that if pressured, a lot would start claiming victim status or some other kind of special accomodations too.

The problem is that your options are hamstrung by school policies. You need to motivate these kids to actively participate in class, and that generally means you need to influence them through a system of punishments and/or rewards for their behavior. I'm going to venture a guess that your students are not incentivized through competition or collaboration at all.

Some broad recommendations: confiscate or ban phones and other devices during class time if at all possible. Allow only handwritten notes for open-note testing. Introduce small group projects in addition to at least one or two longer term group projects that will require out of class collaboration. Do this as extra credit assignments if you have to, because at least back when I was a student, teachers had a lot more liberty with "extra credit" than the core curriculum. If you can offer a limited amount of extra credit on upcoming quizzes by correctly answering questions when called upon, do it.

[TheSpaceGnome]

That has nothing to do with it and you are failing to see the actual problem.

[Static_In_The_Attic]

As for every journey it starts with one small step & as an educator you are going to have to journey into the minds of your students. Some say communication is the key & although you have the key to communicate that key is useless if it doesn’t open anything. If you want to teach your students you have to reach your students.

As for you I think you’re going to have to take a journey back in time to when you were a student. How did you learn? How did your teachers teach? Was learning fun? How did your teachers reach you? How did your teacher get you to respond? How did your teachers get your class to work in groups? Do you remember that one teacher that you couldn’t wait to get to their class? Be that teacher but be that teacher in your own way.

The secret to being a great teacher is a secret that you will learn over time & although times are changing you are going to have to change with times as well.

As for your lesson plans although you follow them & some of them might be set by the district you are going to have to deviate a little bit & change your ways. As for you developing new approaches that can engage and excite your students & keep them focused is the way to go. Make your classroom a fun place to be & if you can do that your students will want to be there & you will want to be there too.

[dustybiker2]

This is the result of children being raised without repercussions, zero understanding of the word "no". It's common everywhere now.


I have a video of some 20something year old girl absolutely screaming at some tree trimmers because they were annoying her...

[SeriouslyNotSerious]

That's weird. I also see that students nowadays are becoming more disrespectful. Even though I thought, "maybe they're just shy?" it's still impossible that no one wants to participate. 😳

[normalice]

Parents who see more and more of their time taken by work end up pushing their kids in front of a screen all day to keep them out of trouble. This has made entire new generations deafmute to body language and even to so e extent spoken language. You can try to work against that or embrace it with use of screen-adjacent teaching aids like emoji stickers or something. Watch a few popular youTube videos and see how they present information. If you can find a pattern and mimic it a little I imagine you'll find teaching becomes much easier.

[onedarkcloud]

Spoiled brats their parents need kick in the balls to wake up the WOKE! Woke educated people are going to have a hard time finding gainful employment with the education they received no reading, writing and math. While our mortal enemies were teaching their students all of these things our kids were taught wokeness or how to be stupid without trying. Why learn how to make a living when THE GOVERNMENT will give it to you for free Our children are so screwed up, they cannot read or write cursive writing. THANK YOU, RANDY WEINGARTEN, for screwing up our kids in the name of woke education.

[Astarlessnightsky]

Its hard to tell, without watching you teach or further information.

Maybe your lessons are too easy or too hard.

Maybe the subject or topic doesn't interest the students.

Maybe you don't teach in way the students can follow, eg too quiet voice, repetitive (boring) methods

Maybe its the students, maybe engaging in lessons just isn't "cool".

Maybe the students got "more important" stuff to worry about.

[slatyb]

Group work is a horrible idea. Everyone hates it. Stop giving group assignments. Don't compare it to "the real world". In the real world (work) people have reasons to cooperate, and there are consequences if they do not.

Is this the US? I assume this is not AP English. So why should the students participate? They don't want to be there -- they are essentially imprisoned by the state until they finish high school.

[exitseven]

Teaching is more than just having a mastery of the subject matter. You need to have a rapport with the class and need to establish what the classroom culture will be. Remember, their grade depends on how well they perform in class. You are in control of that.

[DrPepper12]

Is the literature mandated? Maybe bored. I'm a teacher and I've experienced reluctance but not refusal. Maybe have a "family meeting" I've done that when the vibe is off and let them speak freely profanity and all and often times there was shit going on that I was completely in the dark about. It shows you care and respect them and they are more cooperative that way. message me if you want. I taught 9 & 10 ha history mostly but had some juniors some years too

[Madlc]

I remember when I was at school, I hated to do nows or participating.

I think it’s because I don’t like to work under pressure.

no one does.

I used to get great grades on exams and never cheated.

so, have the decency to not pressure people.

[Friendlybro79]

It's ok if a student doesn't like to do certain asks in the classroom. They still need to do it. Students need to have the decency to try because life is at its absolute easiest while in school. Clearly a teacher needs to be decent and foster a good culture in the classroom but when students act like they're don't need to participate then you should fail.

Go to your job and not answer your boss. Let's see how long you still have a job. I'm probably sounding harsh but I mean come on with this kind of behavior. If the teacher is cursing them out or making them feel unsafe that's different.

[TheSpaceGnome]

They are bored.

If you don't make learning fun by providing topics they are interested in, they won't care, and thus won't retain any of it.

They are just waiting for the bell to ring to go home.

[Hispanic-Cool-Guy]

It's not you. It's a result the parents at home just don't teach their kids how to behave so this is the result.

Entitled liitle pricks I can't stand for one second.

[deus_ex_sisyphus]

Answering a teacher's question would make them be seen as the nerd, teacher's pet, or know-it-all; none of those associations would be positively received by their peers.

[OddBeMe]

From what I remember that’s peak “Be as Invisible As Possible”. Thats why I think debate classes and public speaking classes should more demanded than algebra 4 classes.

[Benitomussoloni]

Students do not want to learn English because English is not a good language. The most honorable and highest language is Italian.

[handsomelad70]

Perhaps they don't feel engaged.(Bet it's the lads a lot more than the lasses.)

[elaphe]

You are trying to interact with them and they, unfortunately, have been raised on screens.

[DreamLife7]

How would we know? For you to ask us it shows you're the problem

[Abdulwahh]

Number dont tell them your age discipline some if you have to if they dont listen to you.

[HelpfulWoman]

you're not an engaging teacher

[Jkgordon]

Talk to the principal