Korean Job Discussion Forums

[jambonsambo]

Hi I was wondering if more experienced teachers could help me out .

My classes are an hour long each . I find this long since where I come from university lectures are forty minutes long and secondary school classes half an hour long .

I teach three types of age groups ;

very young beginners age 9 - 11 sometimes with very little reading ability

older elementary school kids 11-13

and early middle school kids 13-15


anyway ; I often find my main lesson plan running out of steam and I find myself boring the kids . The academys syllabus is a piece of shit . My director isnt keen on games . I meet them half way by doing half book half my lesson . I am often finding myself looking at the clock with ten minutes to go and I really dont have anything to keep the class going with . Please give me some tips as to how I can fill up those dreaded last minutes .

any help much appreciated?

did you notice my lasck of proper punctuation and bad phrasing well who cares its only an internet post .

[Yu_Bum_suk]

Try doing pop songs as listening excercises (fill-in-the-blands) and puzzles from discovery.com's puzzlemaker. There's nothing wrong with spending ten to fifteen minutes of a 60-minute lesson on such things. With lessons that long you really need many kinds of activities, as it's a very long time for kids htat age to keep their attention focused on any one thing.

[spliff]

Go back and review the days lesson...that should be interesting and exciting for the students to have a chance to show off what they learned that lesson.

[oneofthesarahs]

Try some simple "follow the instruction" activities. Make it a contest if you must, and they will be quiet so they can make sure to hear all of the instructions so they can win. What they win is not really important. A sticker, a piece of candy, whatever. They don't care, so long as they win.

Here's an example of what I did with a class last week:
Our target language was "Whose _____ is this?, This is his/hers/ours, etc." So I just printed off a worksheet with a bunch of clipart on it, and then read a story something along the lines of "Tony and Jenny decide to clean their house. Jenny picked up her doll and her soccer ball...." The students color Jenny's items one color, Tony's another, blah blah. Throw in a couple of tricky ones like "Tony picks up a wallet. 'Whose is this?' he asks. 'It's mine,' says Jenny." You get the picture. Easy and fun. And they like anything that involves crayons.

[ddeubel]

Get a library of pictures to get them eliciting responses. Or use powerpoint if possible.

Personalize, personalize , personalize. The most powerful P. It is what should be done at the beginning of the lesson and especially the end. Talk of their real lives, their favs, their beliefs, their homes, their neighbourhood, themselves. Doesn't matter if they don't "get it" all, they'll be activated as you share your own life and talk of others in the class....

Also get them to produce classroom materials. Tests, quizzes, bingo, word searches should all be student generated. It is a step overlooked by teachers but one that is vital in the language acquisition process....using language and not just having it printed before you.....ownership.

So much else but I got to hit the hay. Hope this sets off some ideas for you. Good luck. The first step of all great teaching is to ask what you can do better....

DD

[Atavistic]

The director doesn't want games? Find a way to make these NOT look like games.

Play 20 questions. It'll take a least a week before they quit playing like this:

Is it a horse?
Is it a cow?
Is it a cat?

Then they'll start playing like this (show them how):

Does it have four legs?
Does it live in the water?
Is it a turtle?

20 questions is good if they're able to ask questions and have a fairly wide speaking vocabulary. If, however, their listening vocabulary is better than their speaking vocabulary, do it backwards.

You: I'm thinking of something in this room.
Student: Is it a pencil?
You: No. It's bigger than a pencil box.
Student: Is it a lamp?

And so on.

You can also line up students and play the another version. "The person I'm thinking of is wearing pink shoes." All of the people in line without pink shoes have to sit down. Even older kids secretly like this game because they hope you're thinking of them.

Hangman, but that's done to death.

Do you have a word wall of sight words (the 220--I think there's 220--Dolce (sp?) sight words) up in the room? If not, can you put one up? You can find lists online and print them out in groups. Color code them, put up the first set and quiz the students. When more than half the class knows the words, put up a second set and so on. Keep a sticker chart to keep progress of who knows what. Those damn sight words make up most of the written and spoken language and usually aren't phonetic.

Can you slip any math in there, at least if it's in English? If so, I've got a place value game. It's a little hard to explain though, so I won't bother unless you tell me to. If you want to know how to play it, say so.

If you need a break from NOISE, you can play silent math. Use fingers from both hands to make the numbers 0 through 10. Your index fingers crossed into a T-shape means "plus." You index finger horizontal means "minus." Hands crossed over the chest means "multiply." Hold one index finger horizontal and hold the thumb and forefinger of the other hand over/under it to make "divide." Forefinger and thumb of one hand hels horizontal means "equal."

Then you SILENTLY do math. Hold up 3 fingers "plus" 2 fingers "times" 2 "equals." Have the students turn away from you and then all turn at the same time to show their answers. My fifth grade students in the States LOVED THIS GAME. You could say the numbers and operations in English, too. This is a good activity (see, not game, activity) for the kinesethic (sp?) learners.

If you can teach them simple speaking card games (Go Fish, Old Maid) pick up some packs of cards at the 1000 won shop.

Another option (probably only once a week) to improve their listening comprehension is to tell them stories about yourself, your family, your childhood. After a while, they may start to ask questions, and that's OK too.

[Jizzo T. Clown]

ddeubel--

Good post. I agree with having the students generate their own activities. I've had students in groups make quizzes--and answer keys-- over the day's lesson and give it to other groups. Invariably some groups will ask me about the test they've gotten. The rule is, if they have a question, they must ask the quiz writers and they must do it in English.

Give the students a time limit (depends on the number of questions), at the end of which they give their quiz back to the authors, who then grade them using their answer key. I've given 5 bonus points for an "A" 3 for a "B" and 1 for a "C." I suppose you could use other forms of motivation though.

It's vital that they have answer keys to go with their quizzes because if they don't they'll ask impossibly hard or irrelevant questions!

[wylies99]

The director hates games-for now. In a few weeks he'll yell at you for not making classes fun. A few weeks after that he'll yell because no one is learning- there's too much fun. It's an endless BS cycle, and YOU are always wrong.

[bobbybigfoot]