Surprisingly the most popular page by far this month on Genki English is the Junior High & High School games page.
I guess quite a few teachers are starting over there.
Gumby has actually done a brilliant spreadsheet linking her Junior High School textbook lessons with Genki English lessons. With the curriculum these days we’ve pretty much got a lot of it covered.
And by far my biggest tip is to do the Phonics course in the first few weeks of Junior High instead of the “alphabet” lessons. It’s the single biggest thing you can do for your junior high students’ pronunciation and reading. Of course if you have your own school then you’d take your time with the Phonics, but if it’s a choice between that or textbook alphabet stuff in high school then feel free to rush through as quickly as you can!
High School & Adults too….
And of course Genki English works great in university & high school too, after all the Harvard Research was on kids transitioning to high school.
The regular curriculum works best for beginners, false beginners (those who have studied but can’t actually use what they have studied!) or non-confident speakers.
The key is to start at the beginning (telling them it’s a “review”) and whizzing through the lessons they find easy, and very soon you’ll find their true level where they’ll begin to slow down to the regular speed.
Ninja Tip: Try the trick here if the adults say they want more “serious” stuff! 🙂
Hip Hop Genki English
Or if they are already at a high level then check out the Hip Hop Songs
… and my own Success Secrets of Learning a Language – all the tips and tricks I use myself!
Hi Richard, it´s so good to hear from you. It´s wonderful to see the new stuff you have just launched.
I´d like to know if I´m a candidate to obtain the new ideas and the Hip Hop Songs, or if I just have to click the right button. I confess I haven´t gone through this stuff yet. It sounds very good to me, but it´ll be greater for my Junior High and High School students. Will you let me know what´s next? Kind regards, Patricia
Hi Patricia,
Just click on the links above! 🙂
Yeah, definitely do the Genki Phonics instead of textbook alphabet section. I did this with a pre-Primary class which really uses the Scholastic Phonics K book…but I said, hey, why not teach the alphabet AND how to read…not just basic Aa…but able to read and spell, too! In the 21 week course where it was scheduled to get through A – Z, I was able to do the Genki Phonics and get all the way through Book 5 (ng).
Are you going to make / update / include junior high / high school type songs in the Teacher’s Set? That would be amazing. I don’t teach any junior high or high school but some of the grammar/topics you seem to hit on with those level songs come up in textbooks for younger grade-school students.
Fantastic about the phonics Martin – very nice!
Last time we had a look we had a (surprisingly) lot of the junior high material covered, I’ll see if we can put up a list. And I’m always looking to fill the few remaining “holes” – the only hindrance is that the stuff that is left is mainly really weird English that I don’t really want to put in GE! 🙂
And then for the more complex stuff I’m always up for doing more of the Hip Hop style songs, I just need lots and lots of example sentences for each grammar point. ( Like at least 20 for each point.) That lets me get a feel for the rhythm, melodies etc. that eventually become the songs and then lessons.
Hi Richard,
after my course presentation last week, apart from having almost 4 groups filled, thanks to your fabulous tips…( getting all the parents and kids to join in) one of the people there was from a junior high school. She would like me to put together a programme for the kids asap. I’m quite excited and hope my tender will be accepted. You mentioned above Gumby has done a spreadsheet linking her Junior High School textbook lessons with Genki English lessons. Is this spreadsheet available, it may help me in getting this done. I need to include the grammar and vocabulary with the lessons.. not too sure what to include… any ideas on this one? Thanks for your help!
Well done! Gumby’s spreadsheet is more for Japanese Junior High Schools, but send me an email with your gmail address (It’s on Google Docs so you need a google address) and I’ll send it to you!
Hello Richard,
I am so grateful that I came across your site. Most teaching sites, relate to classroom teaching only.
I have a Junior Primary Classroom Teacher Training background but after having my twins, I needed to return to teaching only part time. My principal at the time only allowed part time as a Specialist Teacher. I can speak some German – learnt it at school, was an exchange student – therefore I qualified! I am now a full blown Language Teacher, teaching German and Some Spanish from Years Kindergarten through to Year 10! Do I feel stretched? YES! Your site is such a valuable support to me. I specifically struggle to engage the Junior High age group. From Kindergarten to Year 7 I am allocated 1x 45 minute lesson a week. I have 17 classes in this age. Year 8 has 2 x 45 mins and year 9/10 have x3 45 mins. I know I don’t pitch my lessons too young sometimes. I am open to ideas for inspiration . Please continue to share your insight! Kind regards, Heather