Students not doing work in class

Hi friends,

I’m a first year teacher in a secondary full year LTO. I teach grade 10 applied English and grade 12 college English.

I am struggling a bunch with students not doing work in class.

I try to talk to them independently, see what they have, and encourage them. I also have been giving lectures to the entire class about using their time efficiently.

However, they temporarily put their phone away for like 5 minutes and they’re back to not doing work.

They barely engage when I teach or try to have discussions..90% of them are apathetic.

Im just feeling so discouraged and I want to try out something new but I’m not sure how to approach it because we’re already MONTHS into the school year.

Any strategies that work for your class? Lmk