Job Discussion Forums

Kurochan · Joined: 01 Mar 2003 Posts: 944 Location: China

Does anybody have any advice on how to prepare when you have a really vague assignment? I know next year I'll be teaching oral English and writing to graduate students, but I don't know exactly who the students are, what they'll be studying, what their needs will be, or what their English level is like? Any suggestions? The only thing I could think of is to conduct some sort of info and evaluation session in the first week of class, but maybe that will seem really unprofessional, because I wouldn't be giving the students any syllabus on the first day.

Roger · Joined: 19 Jan 2003 Posts: 9138

Kurochan,
you are an old hand and hardly need much advice, do you? I suppose you have some vague idea of the age and thus the level of your students. Class size?
May I suggest a visit to www.bogglesworld.com?
I would be on much better ground giving advice on your writing assignment.

randyj · Posted: Thu Jul 22, 2004 11:14 am Post subject:

Kurochan surely serves as a credit to us all by expecting to give a syllabus to the class, and on the first day! I confess that my teaching in China has never risen above the day-to-day subsistence level. I am inspired to do better. Without the possibility of diagnosing students' needs beforehand, in theory the school administration should at least be able to provide some information about the goals of the course, but I suspect any response would be vague at best.

Ace · Joined: 16 Apr 2004 Posts: 358

Last term I asked my second-year college students (preparing for CET 4) what they would like to do in their once a week WRITING classes with me...

"-learn some nice western pop songs"

"-have more discussions"

"-learn about 'foreign culture'" (Xmas probably)

"-listening practise"

I don't think one student in three classes mentioned writing...of course, when you have no opinion and nothing to say... they certainly weren't interested in my projected syllabus.

AsiaTraveller · Posted: Thu Jul 22, 2004 3:12 pm Post subject:

I think that Kurochan's plan to provide a syllabus on the first day of class is excellent. It's good training for graduate students.

Even if the syllabus is somewhat vague on the first day and still open to change and development, it will show that the instructor is organised, focussed, and goal-oriented. Hopefully, the grad students will be 'infected' with the same qualities.

And if you can give your students the sense that their continuing input will help shape the entire syllabus, you will have 'empowered' them. [Sorry for this American psycho-babble lexis!]

shenyanggerry · Joined: 02 Nov 2003 Posts: 619 Location: Canada

I've taught two semesters and don't yet have a syllabus. Until someone tells me what they want me to teach - and I've asked - I don't see how I can properly prepare one. I do tell them on day one approximately how I will give out grades.

Roger · Joined: 19 Jan 2003 Posts: 9138

The rewal question is: what will kurochan's boss want her to teach once the term begins.
In my experience, they don't know until the last minute. The boss might very well decide on the spur of a moment to assign you to do job A, but when the term begins, there aren't enough students in that class, so he will attribute different classes and different subjects to you.
Muddling through is their lifestyle.

Kurochan · Joined: 01 Mar 2003 Posts: 944 Location: China

I think I can make due for the oral class, since I prepared a lot of material I couldn't use for my journal-reading class last semester. Mysteriously, the university made my class open to freshman non-English majors, who basically couldn read English. While I had to do a lot of regrouping at the last minute, that does mean I have a big archive of unused stuff I can offer to the grad students for reading and discussion. I also have a few good books like The Culture of Fear, The Geography of Nowhere, and Trust Us ... We're Experts. It would be great if I could incorporate those into the course in some way.