Job Discussion Forums

[flingwing]

Can someone please point me to one or more websites with interesting literature lessons for Indonesian students, grades 8-12? These lessons might be just good, simple stories or more complete lesson plans & materials.

I�ve never taught literature to INA students but I know that the reading assignments need to be fairly simple, interesting to teens and, if possible, Indonesian-centric or, at least, culturally neutral.

I�ve checked Dave�s EFL resource pages and Googled for materials but all I find are mostly too advanced and not very �with it� or �hip� to appeal to these INA readers. I will continue to Google for materials myself but, who knows, someone here has located good literature teaching materials?

Thanks for any ideas.

[jhemmila]

Good luck, Indonesian kids (in my experience) hate reading. Try www.tes.co.uk

[flingwing]

Thanks a lot. I took a look and with a cursory check did download one item for possible use.

We all know Indonesians don't like reading. Their language is terrific for speaking but doesn't lend itself for reading or writing. I had an Acehnese businessman once tell me he'd rather read documents in English because Indonesian ones go around and around and it's easy to lose the thread of what is happening.

But most EFL reading materials I find are either too stuffy or about uninteresting topics. Like I said, this is my first attempt at teaching anyone other than (young) professionals, so I'm trying to find the right bait to make these high school SS enjoy their reading. For now, simple is better. I can "turn the screw" to more difficult reading later after I have them interested in reading.

My only guide right now is what I might have wanted to read when I was their age(s). The school's own, current "literature" materials are so advanced for these EFL learners that it's just stupid. Most of the stories wouldn't be easily read by native-speaking English teens.

Thanks for the URL.

[PelemPelem]

Hi, I used Paul Jennings short stories (usually 2 -3 pages) to encourage a group of higher intermediate level adult students to read. I'd ask the class to read one page for homework, but the next day they would all put up their hands to say they had read the whole story. My daughter suggested it because she loved his stories when she was in primary school and early high school. Paul Jennings also has his own website. http://www.pauljennings.com.au/

"Behind the News" is an Australian news site for children aged 13-16. It's used a lot for ESL in Australian classes. You may have to sift through the archives to find non-Australian news stories. You'll also find transcripts (great for analysing ellipsis and pronouns in the discourse), and lesson plans based on the the news reports.
http://www.abc.net.au/btn/

[travelNteach]

i dont know the reading level of your students or you specific vocabulary and grammar goals, but u can download articles from entertainment/teen sites or even twitter. the vocabulary and writing styles on these sites is fairly simple. u could go to e!!tainment, gossip sites, almost anything. if you get one with controversary, this would naturally lead to a debate activity. u could probably also find some corresponding materials on utube to give u a listening aspect to your lesson.

i think if u are looking for complete, ready made lesson plans u might have trouble. but if u are willing to do a lot of sifting and create your own materials and lesson plans, you should have a limitless supply of things.

on a side note, the culture here is different. instead of assusing that they are interested in the same things u were as a child, why dont u spend a lesson brainstorming what topics they are interested in. u could do thematic lesson planning similar to IB in which u choose a different topic each month (depending on how often u see them). if u really wanted to make the class student centered, u could have different groups do presentions or mini lesson plans. of course u would have to teach them the format for making lesson plans and provide a lot of support during the process.

good luck