it depends what aspect of English studies you are trying to help your students develop.

Fortunately, reading comprehension can be learned in many ways. I mean, we are talking about the ability to “read” a text, any text, and analyze it. So start small- do you have access to a TV and VCR? Can you watch movies, TV shows, commercials in your classroom? How supportive is your principal? Start small- record a TV show that you feel comfortable sharing with your students, one that doesn’t talk down to them but be sure that whatever themes may come up you are comfortable discussing. Students usually respond well to getting to watch anything in class, and with a 30 minute program you don’t have to worry about attention wandering or sleepy heads on desks. Be prepared with discussion questions (if you think your students aren’t paying attention- give them a study guide with brief questions to answer while watching), but also be flexible enough to let the students lead the class- if the program excites a certain thread of conversation, allow the students to explore while maintaining control.

Then get the students to write about what they saw or what they discussed. if they hated the program, that’s fine. The only requirement is that they support their statements (I taught in an at-risk program, so i developed a pretty thick skin. As long as they were putting pen to page and writing a reasoned response, it was an achievement).

Another option: newspapers are cheap! You can use them for reading comprehension, grammar, and writing tasks. You can even create a classroom paper, in which national stories, local (school stories), and human interest stories are featured. Get students to review their favorite CDs by analyzing features of newspaper reviews. Review movies, rewrite news stories from a ‘youth’ perspective.

For a lot of at-risk students they haven’t had a lot of interaction with formal texts, the place to start is with texts that are they are already familiar with and comfortable talking about. If they learn to feel confident analyzing texts they see in everyday life, you can move on to more academic texts. Maybe don’t start them off with Othello, start them with the movie “O” (watch it first and make sure it is appropriate in your classroom). After watching the movie, have them read a SHORT passage from the play that corresponds with a scene from the movie.

I have used most of these in the classroom, there are always students who respond well, and students who don’t respond no matter what you do. But I have gotten good results from these methods.

Good luck!

Check with the principal and other teachers there should be books around the school somewhere or a budget for ordering some. Also often the school board has a lot of books hidden away and teaching materials. There is a curriculum after all and often someone at the board just waiting to be asked for their help in this area. I once even contacted another school board in a province for help and they sent me free boxes of books both the teachers and students and lesson plan materials they were thrilled. They said no one had ever asked. It is surprising what is at the board office, Also there are special grade school level reading materials available for inner city high school students that look their age level and take their interests into concideration. Contact the librarians also for loaners. Have students write their own stories of what they are interested in and correct these and have them rewrite them and then have them read each others stories. There are also stories, books and grammar lessons on your internet, that you can download.

Don’t listen to “Retired”. He/she is an example of someone who should just take their meds and stay locked up somewhere. “Retired” loves to moan and groan about the wages of teachers – they make a VERY decent salary. He/she doesn’t think teachers should be kind to students who are shy and lack self-esteem. Thank God in heaven this person is retired.

Oh the solid previous days! i will think of of a pair of pranks that each and each physique people could play,we use to have paintings type with a good style of cabinets and jars of paint besides,what we’d do could be to open the cabinet and unscrew the real of the paint and tip it and lean the open jar in direction of the cabinet and whilst somebody could open up the door the paint could fall and spill throughout,what a multitude,now that i think of of it,wow that became recommend,we additionally use to have a good style of abode windows and colors with cords interior the class room and in the previous the instructor could enter the room could we pull down the colors and tie each and all of the cords jointly in numerous knots.i will keep in mind the instructor exceptionally much having a conniption,it drove her to tears,she ended up sitting down on the floor and breaking down,I felt relatively undesirable after that had exceeded off.This instructor ended up having a frightened injury down and all of us felt undesirable.Now that became in junior extreme and as quickly as we moved on as much as extreme college we’ve been lots greater nicely behaved.

I’m sorry aren’t teachers today supposed to walk on water?

Next thing we know you’ll be asking for a decent salary.

I can’t answer your question, I’m truly sorry!