Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Corporal]

...except for one student, what do you do?

You can't send her home. She has a good attitude, wants to learn, etc. but her level just isn't that high.

So what do you do for 40 minutes? Any good time-killing yet productive activities?

[shevek]

Have her write about something she thinks is crazy or dirty. There are lots of things to say about those topics in limited English. Maybe get her to incorporate crazy animals who is died when they have something sad happen to them. Than correct her grammar and tell her a joke about something she wrote and make her write some more.

[canuckistan]

A super-duper, totally easy short story, along with with two dictionaries.
You wade through it together. She makes a new vocabulary list. Then you read the whole story to her first, and then you read it again slowly, with her repeating a few words at a time after you....
I've learned a lot of Korean that way!

[schwa]

Go outside. Go for a walk around the neighborhood together naming or chatting about things you see, visit a supermarket, eat icecreams in a playground. A special opportunity to bond as well as get english out of the classroom for once, where theres so much more going on to talk about. Low level shouldnt matter -- relax, use konglish & body language, & communicate.

[Corporal]

I've done this--taking it outside, I mean--but I just can't get comfortable doing it. It feels too artificial. I'm not her friend, I'm her teacher, and it feels like it just makes it too blatantly obvious when we both have to strive for small talk. And I say again, her level really isn't that high.

[ulsanchris]

What happens you take the one student out and some other students arrive while you are gone?

[Zyzyfer]

I usually have a private stash of cartoons downloaded on a computer, and either show them a cartoon or two, or give them an impromptu lesson on using the net in English. It's quite time-consuming.

[weatherman]

Play scrabble, or teach or how to play chess. If you have a deck of cards, card games are fun. At the end of the game see if he/she can explain any of rules back to you in English.

[Saxiif]

I definately second the scrabble playing suggestion, if the kid's english level is high enough. Played with one kid who was the only one to show up the day before chusok and he actually put up a decent fight (this is the kid who I found out knows what superlative means the day I played balderdash with his class).

[bucheon bum]

[Corporal]

Thanks for the ideas, guys.

[syclick]

That depends...

Is the class half empty, or is the class half full?