Korean Job Discussion Forums

[oneofthesarahs]

Sorry if this has been covered before, but the search function is not working for me.

My director just bought the Gogo Loves English series for one of my classes. She wants us to start with Level 3. She wants me to make a lesson plan, but I've never taught out of this series before. Does anyone else have experience with the books? How many days is adequate for a unit/chapter? I don't have enough room in my classroom to do many of the activities that involve movement, so it will have to be fairly bare bones.

Any other hints on how to effectively use the book?

[teachingld2004]

Throw it out. Seriously, sorry. I do not mean to be sarcastic.

I just started a new job, and the class uses Gogo. They are on Chapter 11 of book one. I have never seen a book this bad before.

I would advise you to just look at the book, and cover the lesson as fast as you can. (and shoot Gogo)

What ever the topic is, find other material. (or just pull it out of your head)

How many kids are in your class? That really matters. Put them in pairs, put them in groups of 3. Xerox the page and cut it up. Give each student a part. Arrange it like a play and have them read it to eachother that way.

I am sorry, but I never saw (thank God) any other book then number one.

What level are your kids? Honestly, that book does not help the kids. If you tell me what the lessons are about, I can help you with a leson plan, but as I said, I only have book one.

[Kimchieluver]

I hated the Gogo series. When I finally got some autonomy I used half of my time teaching Gogo and the other half doing phonics.

[peanut]

I've only been here for 3 weeks so I don't have much else to compare it to good or bad. One of my classes uses this book. The class is 40 mins and I usually do 2 pages a day and 1-2 wb pages a day. Some lessons you will need to reinforce more than others. For example we just did over, under, between etc and the kids needed a little more help with those. Also I am only on book 1 so I can't speak for book 3. PM me if you have any more questions.

[just because]

We use Gogo as supplement material(for 20 mins a class) at my school....

It is really good for younger kids as a sup for speaking and sentance structures but anything older than 10 western and it gets tiring quickly...

I do from a Monday(day 1) to friday(day 5)
Mon(1): The conversation, voca and dialogue listen and read..
Tue(2): Practice 1 and 2 plus the songs9which will drive you insane)
Wed(3): Activity 1 & 2 plus the Sounds and Words
Thu(4): review especially the target dialoge and vocab..
Fri: test(mainly dialogue and vocab)........

Make sure you get the workbook and writing book for homework as they will re-inforce what is learnt in class.

People that go on saying it is the worst book ever...what are you talking about???
-I have been teaching ESL for many years and have seen much worse books.
It is pretty stock standard stuff to be sure and to use it for a whole 50-60 minute class would be tough but I have seen and used MUCH worse books in the classroom.....

What makes it so bad...i find it makes good use of basic sentance structures and teaches kids useful vocab they can use.

Edit: For spelling mistake...

[jay-shi]

[lover.asian]

[teachingld2004]

When I get in to work, I will look at the book again. I think one of the reasons it annoys me so, is Gogo it self. Kids age 8 (at least my kids), do not like Gogo. I have trouble relating to that character. Kinda reminds me of Barney, and I do not want to spend any time on Barney. (who is fine for kids age 5 and under)

"Gogo" does not have enough language in it to be used for 40 minutes.

We are on chapter 11. The kids can not even answer uqestions about chapter 9. There is not enough language.

OK, let me fix my post a bit, and say "If you must use Gogo, please use other material along with it". "Let's Go" is a much better series.

[TheUrbanMyth]

If you have the Teacher's Book it provides a step by step lesson plan for each page as well as numberous extension activities that can be used if your class covers the material early.

I use Gogo 1 and 2 and while they are not the best books, I have seen far worse. Step by step and Little Campus are two memorable ones...

[just because]

GoGo 1 is super basic and can be tough to teach but i probably only use it for 15 minutes in class..
Books 3 till 6 are very good for learning good sentance structures which the kiddies have to know if they are to speak properly....

GoGo is annoying but the younger kids do like him and have fun teasing the stuffing out of him...

As i said in my first post though anybody older than western age of 10 and I wouldn't use this book and alos only as a sup of 20 mins max. If you are using it for the whole class it could be tough...

[oneofthesarahs]

Hmmm...thanks for the input, everyone.

The kids are around 7ish (Western age), and have a relatively large vocabulary, but are bad at sentence structure, so I think the books will work okay for me, for now at least.

My director wants me to use the books for the whole 50 minutes, but she really doesn't pay any attention to my classes unless parents are complaining, which they usually don't. I might sneak in my own supplemental material here and there.

[Old fat expat]

If you know what you are doing the series is quite good for younger learners. Some of the levels are better than others, level 2 has some good songs, so does level 4.

It is NOT a grammar book. It is not a text book. It is a doing book. I admit when I first looked at the book I thought WTF? But I figured out what the kids liked, and for some reason they really enjoyed the series when I taught it.

Make sure you have the resources that go with it. The cue cards and CDs (demand CDs-they are available-don't use tapes) and the teachers manual.

Apply the Seseme Street principle: change every 3-5 minutes. Sing a song, do some cards, do another song, review a previous lesson, choral work, etc etc change change change.

Look-up on the internet cue-card practice techniques. Do a search for Open Court Learning as well.

I had students having a great time. Remember-you are teaching children-do things that they like.

[B-Teacher]

I just wanted to say that I've used Gogo 3 and 4 books in my kindergarten classes (6 yrs Western age) and they absolutely love them. Especially the dialogs. I spend about 30min 3 times a week on the book and finish around a unit each week.

I can see where people may have trouble stretching the material over 50-60min or if the children are too old. Its great for little kids though...

[oneofthesarahs]

I had my first lesson with the Gogo book today, and the kids actually seemed to enjoy it. I think it was a nice change of pace for them because we were being forced to do the Backpack series, level 3, which was waaaaay too difficult for them.

The dialogues were pretty good, and my students got a kick out of imitating that damn bird, which will get annoying fast. I also like the worksheets at the end of each chapter; they seem like a good way to wrap things up.

So I'm optimistic for now.

[Pak Yu Man]

Gogo and a lesson plan? WTF? If you can't open that cra[ and teach from the book...you suck as a teacher. In fact you'd have to suck as much as the book