When working with high school students (14-18 years old), how do we promote their language development?

1. High school students want to appear grown up and sometimes hesitant to participate in whole-class activities, so explaining why you call on everyone as equally as possible to encourage participation is important. 2. High school students often want to hide the fact that they don't understand an idea, so they are often reluctant to ask questions. So the fact that no questions are asked doesn't necessarily mean that students understand what you're teaching. Questioning, particularly as a form of informal assessment, is important with these students. 3. Provide high school students ample opportunity to practice writing, regardless of your content area. This will help develop language and thinking skills, encourages deeper understanding, and prepares them for college or the working world, where writing ability is essential. 4. Despite extensive practice in texting, high school students still need instruction in formal conventions of grammar, spelling, and punctuation, and practice with writing is even more important that it has been in the past (Pence Turnbull & Justice, 2012). 5. High school students get better at writing by practicing, so the more practice you provide, the better writers they'll become.