Troublesome English class

are there any experienced teachers out there?

I'm an ALT in a small town in Japan. I teach all grades in 4 elementary schools. One particular 6th grade class has about 30 students and is troublesome for me as they don't have any motivation. Also when I try to play a game with them they cheat, hide away necessary cards for the game, or make fun of my Japanese when I'm trying to explain the rules.
There's times when the HRT for this class isn't available for meetings about the next class, so I have to meet with the other 6th grade teacher alone rather than with both of them. But she doesn't always convey the information to him it seems. So even though two teachers are conducting the class, I'm left as the one in charge and explaining everything to the kids.
I have no idea how the HRT handles his class when I'm not there, so it might be a discipline problem.
I've heard from the other teachers that teach that same class, such as the math teacher and the ALT before me, that it is a hard class and they basically have no motivation.
Is there someone who knows how to get the class to be more respectful and more interested in studying? There are some good kids in there, but half of them seem like they don't care.

Sounds like same-ol-same-ol to me!

I have been an ALT over here for quite some time and you will always find classes like this. First of all the HRT should be teaching the class - NOT you. You are the "ASSISTANT" as your job title already says. If you want to do a little more work, sure, why not.

Quite a few of the Japanese teachers are more or less forced to teach the English lessons - some like it, some don't. Bu that should not be your problem!

Tell the students that if they do their best during the lesson there will also be games. NO learning (=pain) - NO fun (=gain). Split the students in groups of 3 or 4 when doing games, they are a little more "controllable" then.

Try to convince the teachers to give out awards, like little stickers that you (or they) can produce on the computer.

Also you should be strict (and / or pissed of) when necessary. Tell the students "Fun is over and this is no joke". Many Japanese students nowadays are spoiled by their parents, grandparents and so on, meaning, they are not taught manners or respect at home. It's a "laissez faire" (hope the spelling is correct) in those cases. However, students should know where the limits are and how far they can go.

If there is anything else I can help you with, please get with me: klausdorth(at)web.de.

An 18-years-veteran (???)

I'm only a graduate teacher and I have never taught in Japan but I thought I would offer some ideas anyway, just in case I can help.

You need to have clear rules and consequences for bad behaviour. The students need to understand these rules. For example if you say "if I have to remind you to stop talking and do your work again you will have to move" or something to that effect then the next time you see them talking and not working you can't say to them again "if I have to remind you again...", you have to follow through and actually move them. If you never follow through then students will know they can get away with it.

If you are only with them to teach for one session rather then all day everyday it will be more difficult to find consequences for their behaviour, perhaps moving students away from their friends, not letting them join in for games or something like that.

Rewards are also good, like the last poster suggested with the stickers. I don't know how your classroom is set up but my tables are in 4 clusters so I give tables table points and at the end of the week the table with the most points gets a prize, like computer time or something like that. You give points for anything, the first table to have their books out ready, to tidy their area, the best workers etc.

You should find out what they are interested in and try to incorporate their interests into the lessons if possible, this may help to engage them in the task.

I hope that gave you a few ideas anyway. You should really be able to speak to your colleagues and ask for some advice.

As to the 6th graders in your class, I can not help feeling sympathy with perplexities you are now facing. The pupils sound immature both as individuals and as a community.

But.... I also think it's very natural that kids in those ages (roughly 10 to 15) are liable to be rebellious; the more you try to regulate such naughty kids, the more they may become disobedient. If I were a pupil or a parent, I would never welcome a teacher whose supreme goal is to make pupils respectful toward teachers; reverence for teachers can not be felt only because they are teachers.

Frankly speaking, your job is not to discipline pupils to use English, but to let them know what English language is like and help them find motivation to keep learning it. Motivation does not come from nothing.

Learning a definitely different language may often accompany some difficulties. However, if you make pupils think of learning English as a pain, I believe it can not cause any motivation; on the contrary, it may destroy their gateway in mind even to other foreign languages.

I think you'd better be careful with prize and punishment. In a community of pupils who are not respecting and trusting each other, a teacher's praising or punishing a particular pupil may lead to bullying. I suppose a trouble-making pupil is not thoroughly bad at all points. If one who does not stop chatting in your class is a pupil well known among classmates as an athlete, it may be more effective as punishment to demand him/her to walk to the teachers' room and get back with your pen, than to scold at him/her.

//

I'll try to keep it in mind. My next step is to combine the two 組s together since the other 6th grade class loves English and has a lot of fun with it. I'm hoping that if the troublesome class sees that their counterparts are having fun, maybe they'll snap out of it and start enjoying English better. It's my last resort.

However, if their behavior has to do with the Homeroom Teacher and not me (since they only see me once a week), then what am I to do for those 45 minutes?

What they don't seem to realize is that when they graduate from elementary school, they'll go to middle school which has no fun and games during class, but they still need to learn English. So I want them to enjoy my class and enjoy my games before they graduate and hit the books seriously.

Today, because of swine flu scare, they won't put my two 6th grade classes together. Even now, they're making me wear a mask throughout the day and avidly cautioning me against catching a fever or a cold. Especially since I live alone they're especially careful to remind me... They also have cancelled classes for a week for one of the 3rd grade classes and plan to perhaps cancel the other class too tomorrow. Too bad since I was going to do Halloween activities with them this Thursday.

I haven't had the class yet, but it's coming up next. I hope it'll go well... I won't have this 6th grade class again until the 9th. But if anyone has any advice let me know.

I observed a few more things about this class just now.

Since I couldn't put the two classes together, I thought they might work better if the class worked in seperate groups. So I had them make their lunch tables and they thought together on famous things from diffent countries. If they could say one, they got a point. I gradually took away the cards with the country flag so the options got smaller and smaller. The group with the most points won. (but i forgot the stickers! and the teacher didn't have a stamp. I used stickers once before and they made a request for them again.)

The kids were into the game. Though there's always a few kids who'd rather not do anything. They really tried and I got a good response. So I'll try doing that more often.

Another thing I noticed is the way the HRT disciplines the kids. Some of the boys were talking and wouldn't stop, so he used that "manly, rough, rude" way of speaking in Japanese to them. Like 話しかけるな！ やめとけ！ Like a yakuza on J-Drama. But the boys don't listen to that... That kind of discipline doesn't work very well. So his method might be part of my problem...