5 C’s for Teaching Older Children in the Classroom

Posted on by Sarah Tew

I have taught students aged 11-18 in public schools in France and Spain and students aged 8+ at English immersion summer camps in the United States. The recommendations that follow are based on my experience teaching older children in classroom settings. Young learners present unique challenges and unique joys in teaching. These 5 C’s will help you make the most out of your classroom experience and keep the kids coming back for more.

1. Confidence

Confidence applies to both teachers and students alike. In order to earn and maintain respect, teachers must exude confidence in themselves, in their material, and in their classroom. At the same time, students need to build confidence in themselves as language learners and as individuals. This confidence gives them the security to take risks and try new things, both of which are essential in the English classroom.

A confident teacher

Younger children expect the teacher to be an authority figure. Generally, the younger the students are, the more respect they automatically give their teacher as an adult and authority figure. Confidence in yourself and your material feels familiar and reassuring to them, and they more readily accept a classroom hierarchy with you at the top. 

As children age, they cast a more critical eye on their teachers and respect them less simply because that supposed authority begins to wane in their view. Add to this a developing personal identity and hyper-awareness of the social hierarchy within their peer group and you are sure to have tweens and teens pushing classroom boundaries. 

Adolescents are quick to notice hypocrisy in adults and have a strong sense of justice. 

As their teacher, you need to be consistent with your expectations of everyone, including yourself. In bilingual programs, older teens will generally have reached a high level of English and will expect you to know the ins and outs of complex grammar and vocabulary. If you can not deliver on this expectation, they may lose trust in and respect for you as a teacher. Review difficult material beforehand, take some time to predict the questions you will receive and explanations your students may want, and enter the class with your head held high and a readiness to guide them through the material as an expert.

Confident students

A confident classroom is an effective classroom. The teacher should build students’ confidence through praise and strategic setups for success. Confident learners are more likely to take linguistic risks and develop their language abilities. You can improve student confidence by creating an open, positive, and judgement-free classroom atmosphere. Plan lessons and final tasks that stretch your students into growth without being overwhelming or too difficult. 

Struggling students need positive reinforcement and opportunities to succeed in front of their peer groups. If you have students you believe will struggle with your material, make sure you engage them early in the class by asking them questions they can definitely answer correctly. 

A classic method is to ask Instruction-Checking Questions (ICQ’s), such as “How many people are in each group?” You could also ask review questions about material they have already mastered, such as “What’s the weather like today?” Even a simple “How are you?”, when asked sincerely and energetically, can make the student feel that they can successfully communicate in English. Do this early and often with struggling learners.

2. Clarity

You want your students to focus on the material you are teaching, not decode the instructions. An effective teacher needs to work with the language level and attention span of the learners to get the most out of every second of class time. Learning happens when students are engaged in the task and producing language. Your goal as a teacher is to set up the task as quickly and clearly as possible to leave maximum time for the students to actually complete the activity. Your instructions should be clear, concise, and simple to understand. 

ICQ’s are always a good idea to make sure everyone is on the same page and that they will be able to start and complete the task without further clarification. Luckily, for teachers, young learners will give you clear and immediate feedback on your instructions. If ineffective, a million tiny hands will shoot up simultaneously with questions, or they simply will not start the task and will just continue waiting for you to explain, or they will each ask you what they should be doing over the course of the entire lesson while you are attempting to monitor them. 

3. Competition

Most kids love competition. A competitive element makes use of children’s developing social skills and appeals to their personal identity. Kids want to win less for you and more to be the winner in their peer groups. This can encourage kids who are less personally motivated to learn English to actively participate in class and engage with the English language. 

Games can also give students chances to excel in ways not completely dependent on their English level. When they misspell a word, for example, they can make up for it by speed racing to the board or showing off their drawing skills in a game of Pictionary. These opportunities can help create a more exciting, less academically uptight atmosphere in the classroom and break up the monotony of the school day. Do not forget that, unlike adult students, young learners sit in classrooms learning all day! 

That being said, competition in the classroom does not come without risk. The last thing you want is a team challenge in which a few star students carry the group or a game that could make one person responsible for the team’s failure. The key to avoiding these pitfalls and using competition effectively is in task design. Make sure that your games have a purpose and that you take into account the specific circumstances and dynamics of your students. 

You should also be careful not to overuse competition since it can condition children to become overly competitive with their peers and less willing to work together, which is highly detrimental to language learning — not to mention the fact that some students just are not naturally competitive and too much competition too frequently can isolate them. Plus, the novelty and excitement of competition is lost by overdoing it. With competition, a little goes a long way. Used effectively, it can be a great tool to engage students and lighten the classroom atmosphere, but do watch out for unintended consequences.

4. Collaboration

Pairwork and groupwork are essential in the English classroom. At the end of the day, collaboration is the root motivation for why students are learning English in the first place. They will always use their language skills to communicate with other people, so why not start practicing now? 

The key is to be strategic with your groupings. Avoid pairs that switch to their native language or share their work unevenly. Generally, I try to avoid grouping very strong students with very weak students. Oftentimes the stronger student winds up moving too quickly or getting bored while the weaker student gets lost and feels inadequate. The exception to this rule is if the students are close friends who stay on task and work well together. 

This exception highlights the dangerous and magical power of classroom friendships. Friends already understand each other, feel comfortable with each other, and really truly want to engage with each other. The two joining forces allow each of them to engage with the material in a new way, either by teaching it or by getting a fresh explanation from an entirely different perspective. On the flip side, working with friends can be distracting and can possibly exacerbate existing behavioral issues in class.

Pay close attention to friend groups and social dynamics in class and plan your groups accordingly. Many times, students who seem to ignore you as the teacher are more receptive to the same material when presented by a peer. Group tasks with a final presentation element are also a great way for students to share their work and practice giving and receiving feedback. 

5. Compassion

Compassion is an essential trait for teachers of any age group, but it is particularly important for young learners, since while learning English in your classroom they are also learning social skills like kindness, patience, helpfulness, empathy, and compassion. Teach compassion by example to make not only your classroom a little kinder, but the children in it as well. 

Get to know your students as people, not just as English language learners or as kids. Take the information you learn and use it to build a learning environment that is open, judgement free, and fun. Be willing to meet your students halfway and give them choices whenever possible. Let them choose the exam date, the type of final project, or even their pairwork partner whenever you can.

Compassion can also help students overcome fear of failure and test anxiety, both major obstacles for language learners, especially for those immersed in an academic environment. It takes a lot of work and time, but a positive attitude from the teacher, praise rather than punishment, and decreased emphasis on marks can do wonders for these anxieties and help kids be their best in all areas, not just the English classroom.

And there you have it–my 5 C’s for teaching older children the classroom. Confidence, clarity, competition, collaboration, and compassion are critical to making your English classroom fun, friendly, and productive. There is always more to learn, so add your own tips (whether they begin with the letter C or not) in the comments below!

Suggested Readings: 

1 thought on “5 C’s for Teaching Older Children in the Classroom”

  1. Pingback: How Do Kids and Adults Learn a New Language? - The English Blog

Comments are closed.

%d bloggers like this: