Job Discussion Forums

[7969]

i know the middle school students here have tons of it already. so i only gave a short group assigment to be completed for the following week. after checking in with the first two classes this week, i found out that only 3 groups out of 16 bothered to do it. i suppose this is normal for the foreign teacher?

[burnsie]

Yes, normal. Well anyway for me. Most of my students don't do homework. I also don't inforce it or ask them to hand it in.

They have time if you give them over the weekend to do but most are not committed.

[Chris_Crossley]

At my public primary school, homework is strictly enforced. Everybody must do it, and no student has any choice in the matter. All expat teachers are expected both to set homework every day and to mark written homework (almost) every single day. There are a few students who don't do it or make very poor and messy attempts, but they are usually the ones who are clueless about English and have writing like three-year-olds even though they may be ten years old.

[kev7161]

We have workbooks that go along with our textbooks. I try and do a page or two in class after a certain grammar lesson. Then we can read it outloud (good pronunciation practice). If I tell them to do it on their own time, I know that a few of the "smart" ones will do it, then their books will be passed around the room for the others to copy. Basically, the only other homework I give is a review worksheet before a test. If they do it (whether they do it on their own or copy it) completely, they get an extra 5 extra credit points on their test. I try to emphasize that doing this review sheet will really help them on their test. What I don't tell them is that the review is almost EXACTLY like their test. They'll start figuring it out eventually and realize doing it is to their advantage.

My class is supposed to be an oral class. When I ask questions for conversation starters or when we read dialogues and passages outloud or practice pronunciation on our vocabulary words, then I am testing them. Not really for a grade, but I still expect each and every one of them to participate. Sometimes that's hard to manage, but I keep chipping away at them!

[go_ABs]

I teach some little little kids, and do all I can to have them speaking in class. A few weeks into the first term the parents started to comment that I never gave them homework. Well, first of all, they are SO young. Second, few of the parents can speak English better than their kids, so wouldn't know if they were getting it right or horribly, horribly wrong.

So I now do give them homework, but try to make it as easy as possible. "Colour page 43 of your book," etc. The parents are pacified and I don't feel guilty that I'm taking away their childhood.

BUT: even though quite a few of the parents asked for homework for their kiddies, very few actually make them do it.

I have just one class of older students. I give them homework every week, which is also quite simple. I often see them scribbling something down just before the class begins. I reckon they've got enough to be going on with anyway. If they want to learn, they're old enough to know they have to work at it.

So anyway, 7969: I think it's pretty normal.

[Madmaxola]

It's normal because foreign teachers are cream puff wuss-balls.





Foreigner stands as back of what he believes is a "line" waiting..... politely...

millions of chinese rush pash him frantically pushing him and everyone out of the waY!!!

"Oh dear" thinks foreigners, "that's not very polite now, is it?"
considers saying something....

hmm.... no

continues standing.

[Roger]

I have learnt my lessons a long time ago! Chinese schools are governed by a set of inscrutable whimsical rules that no one understands. Homework is a thing to keep young minds off sinful thoughts, I suppose. It's a way to ensure they stay cloistered up in those dingy classrooms and pretend being busy.

My first job was teaching English Literature. It was a nightmare precisely because hardly anyone did homework. I asked them to read up a chapter or so for next class. Nobody did it, nobody had an inkling what it was all about, nobody understood tricky phrases, nobody got any ideas as to what certain allusions were about nor when the story was set.
I then subjected them to a bi-weekly test in which they could freely quote from those passages they were supposed to have prepared; they had to answer precise questions such as "do you think there was a British 'Communist Party' in the 1850s?" The point was that Elizabeth Gaskell referred to one of her characters as a "true communist" although the character in question was member in no party, and the whole story was about incipient labour unions. Unfortunately, the narrow mind of many of my students guided them to answering: "Yes, ... was member of the English Communist Party".

When about 20 students in a class of 60 flunked the test they complained to the FAO that my lessons were "too hard" on them.
I was called in to the Principal. When I outlined the laziness and intellectual deficiencies of her Chinese average future English teachers she curtly told me that in China "sometimes the cow leads the cowboy, and sometimes the cowboy leads the cows!"
Translation?
"Chariman Mao said this to the students of this country: if you don't like your teacher's choice of a textbook you are free to choose another one!"

[Madmaxola]

Until competition finally catches up with China


China's lazy ass attitude is a result of communism. It's breaking however, and congrats' you're on the forefront of breaking it.

[Chris_Crossley]

[kev7161]

ON THE OTHER HAND (this is in response to my previous post here):

I too have the frustrations of trying to get my kids to talk. Two things most every student can say is "I forgot" (in response to the question, "why didn't you do your homework?") and "class is over" (in response to when the music plays thus signalling end of period).

I get so fed up with chattering students sometimes. I rant and rave and plead and feign crying just to try and get these kids to SHUT UP so I can hear little Fei Fei squeek out a passage from the book. In addition, these kids will be shouting and yelling out in the commons area between classes while playing their Ping Pong and Badmitton, but you would think they are all suffering from laryngitis in class (I'm really over-exaggerating - - I actually have a few kids that do a great job in volume when asked to speak). Anyway, back to the chattering . . . Once I assign a written assignment or pass out a worksheet, you could hear a pin drop in class. Now they have something they can focus on. I'm sure many of you will agree that many students are far better in reading and writing English than they are in speaking. That's not supposed to be the idea of my "oral" class, but sometimes silence is golden!

[anthyp]

Thank God I no longer teach those abysmal "Oral English" courses.

I assign homework pretty regularly for my "Practical English" students. Usually an exercise from the book. It serves a dual purpose: as an informal attendence check, and as practice for the material we are going over in class.

I have had pretty good results so far. I mean most of them do it. I try to check it in class, as they are reading the texts or working on their exercises, but with some of my larger ones I can't get it back to them right away.

The thing is, they see me going over it in class, so most of them get the idea that I am keeping track of who is doing it. They try to pass them up as I am going over them, but I've made it clear that it's due when I say it is -- and that doesn't mean after class has begun. I don't expect to have any troubles later getting them to do the assignments.

The homework is mainly for them to practice what we went over in class, but it will also factor into their grade. I am supposed to base 30% of my final grades on attendance / class participation (hah!), so I'll just fold it into that.

And yes I am the kind of person who enjoys handing back their assignments with entertaining comments in them, such as "What the Hell is this?" or "Please don't copy your classmates' answers."

[senor boogie woogie]

Hola!

I am a teacher of spoken English, not grammar, writing or even pronunciation. Thus, I can't give homework. Good Chinese English language teachers know English well at an academic level. They are the ones that teach the mechanics of the language. But many of these Chinese teachers cannot speak English well, I know, I have talked to many of them. I had a boss that could read English well, but could not speak well.

My job is to converse with the students, teach new vocabularies and concepts, and have the students become familiar with it. I do what the Chinese teacher cannot do, expose the student to someone from an English speaking nation. I try to be a pleasant alternative to boring, overly structured, rote and homework system that this soceity exposes to these kids.

Lastly, it is funny how Chinese grade papers. In America, we give an (X) for a wrong answer, but leave the corrcet answers alone like so....

2+2=4

2+3=2 (X)

5+1=7 (X)

The Chinese put a check (or a tick) if the answer is correct. I have tried to tell them that this is unnecessary because when a test is graded there is really two outcomes, right or wrong. (X) means wrong. A lack of an (X) means correct. I guess that there must be a Yang for a Yin, and in both outcomes, a decision must be made.

Senor

[go_ABs]

In New Zealand right answers are marked with either a tick, or a 1 (assuming that the question was worth one mark). If nothing else, it makes it easier for a final tally, doesn't it? Counting the ticks is easier than counting the blank spaces. Anyway, my point is: ... I forget. Oh, wait: it's not just a Yin/Yang thing.

[latefordinner]

Apologies if this is disjointed; I'm replying to the thread rather than to one specific post or issue.

In a previous school I had a problem with homework that was copied. Several students turned in identical assignments. I graded the paper (say 9 out of 10 for a very good homework composition), and then divided that grade among the people with identical papers. If 4 people all had identical papers, they all got 2.25 out of 10... That was when they troubled to try and do it. I have had classes where the top HW mark was a 7 / 10, a handful of 2s 3s and 4s (copied papers), and mostly zeros for no effort at all. The students' problem? Laziness, of course. If they spent half as much time actually doing their work as they do complaining about it, there wouldn't be any work left to complain about.

In my current position I am an oral teacher, like SBW. I see the classes once a week, the CT teaches them 4 days a week. I'm not supposed to do any testing or give any HW, just "practice". (It doen't help that my classes are often cancelled at the last moment, for a sports meet or a field trip, or that admins don't show us any respect, BTAS) Guess what the students expect, both from me and for themselves? To their eternal surprise, I didn't come here to be anybody's cream puff. ICBW, but the problem begins with this ill-considered set of expectations. How do I deal with this, how do I challenge their sadly mistaken assumptions? So I issue HW, even if it is only oral work. I give a question or three at the end of each lesson which requires use of the target language from my lesson. If they can answer that question, they've mastered the lesson.

I'm also thinking about testing, although that is supposed to be outside my purview. I'm making something up right now, but I'm not sure how I will inflict this, er, um, manage the test in class. (I need 500 copies made for Tuesday, and I haven't finished draughting it yet) I may need the school's help, and I am loath to ask.

SBW:

[Chris_Crossley]