Eight practical principles for managing teens

Unruly, difficult, unbearable? What other characteristics have stuck to teenagers? The devil is not so black as it is painted. With the correct approach, you can manage youngsters easily. And in this case teaching teens will be really stimulating.

In this article, we have summarised our personal experience, some facts from developmental psychology and some ideas of Chris Roland, a teacher and a teacher trainer working mainly with teens.

Pose challenges

Young people who have a growth mindset tend to take risks and perform difficult tasks. Too predictable lessons can cause boredom and lack of motivation. So offer them some activities that are slightly beyond their level or those require some creative solutions. If they are motivated, they are easier to manage.

However, a fear of failure can prevent teens from coming out of their comfort zone. Be very delicate when you give feedback and avoid mocking.

Praise individually and not only as a whole class

It is vital for teens what peers think about them. Some individuals even misbehave to look cooler and attract attention. Praise them for their success or at least for the attempts to accomplish the task.

Be explicit

Chris Roland mentions that teachers should express themselves clearly. If they are annoyed, they need to say exactly what troubles them without accumulating frustration. For example, ‘I like you but I’ll like you more if you stop banging your chair’.

As you see, we don’t criticize a person, we criticize their behaviour. And at the same time showing love and respect.

If teens break rules, describe the behaviour as it is. Chris thinks it is so disarming if a teacher speaks explicitly without being irritated. If somebody giggle, say that it distracts you. If somebody replies sarcastically, Chris says ‘ What don’t you say hello to me normally?’

Sometimes youngsters don’t do something deliberately to annoy you. They don’t realize how you feel.

Prevent misbehaviour

As we know, better to prevent than cure. Treat teens like adults and let them shoulder responsibility for their actions by warning about the consequences.

Chris Roland suggests giving an instruction before some activities this way: ‘I want you to do this… and I don’t want you to do that .., that ..and that…If you do them, I will still love you but the consequences will be a..,b.. and c…

For example, you want your teens to write an opinion essay in the lesson. Say that you don’t want them to use their smartphones and to copy from their neighbour. If they do, the punishment will be an extra project or preparing a presentation for the next lesson. Outline the prospect rather than telling off students later.

Individualize

Teen learners share some common interests which you can use to personalize your lessons and create a rapport. Chris Ronald individualizes his lessons at the planning stage.

He has a wheel of fortune for every class he teaches: the photos of the students of one class on the board and a pointer. He pushes the wheel and chooses one student randomly. Chris prepares a lesson thinking about that particular student — it’s their day.

It sounds very original and you need to know your learners very well to do that.

Add a competitive element

Teens like going into a competition. Exploit this desire to keep them focused on the lesson. Use some simple elements of gamification like leaderboards or badges and some language games to stimulate healthy competition.

Give choice

Teenagers value freedom and they want to make their own choices. So give them alternatives in English lessons: to listen to an expert or to people in the street, which video extract to watch, to discuss the questions or to play a game. It doesn’t mean that you build choice everywhere.

I encouraged my learners to bring materials of their own: articles, songs, videos. They felt that they participated actively in the learning process and were excited about it.

Use pop culture in your tasks

When I worked with teens, I tried to involve popular pop and rock singers as well as actors in our usual tasks: made a gap filling exercise using a biography, recent celebrity news as reading or a grammar presentation, songs and video interviews as listening activities. Such tasks increase learners’ motivation. While communicating with your students, find out which celebrities are in trend for them. Otherwise, they will make fun of outdated stars.