Korean Job Discussion Forums

[xCustomx]

This semester I have to teach first grade middle school students from the textbook, and it's extremely dry. Luckily I only have to do this every other week the Let's Talk and Dialogue sections from the textbook.

I've written my own dialogue for students to rearrange and given them new vocabulary to work on. The focus during this book time should be on speaking though, so what kinds of activities do you middle school teachers usually use to spice up the book and get the kids to talk?

[thu_tinh]

my problem.
they don't talk!

[Dome Vans]

I told my co teachers that the text book had no structure, was badly laid out and had awful americanised dialogue. (not disrepecting americans here, but this text book was not written with them in mind) So I am allowed to teach whatever I want on the same topic. So if it's pollution then I can teach vocab, speaking, writing etc. As long as it runs alongside with what the topic of the chapter it's no prob.

There usually involves a fair bit of speaking, but the Ss also have a hard copy of what we learnt thru the lesson to take away with them.

[bosintang]

I teach based on the textbook. I make my own activities using the target grammar point and expressions, and then I quickly go through the activities in the textbook, usually in the last 5-10minutes of class.


The textbook causes me a lot of grief always thinking 'what do I do with this mess?', but I still think it's better than the students having no direction at all.

[xCustomx]

The thing is, I am supposed to teach from the book the first week and then make my own lesson based around the book the following week. This is a change from the first semester when I was able to teach whatever I wanted because I only saw the students every 2 weeks, whereas this semester I'll be teaching the first graders every week.

[Scouse Mouse]

[mrsquirrel]

I hate it. I hate the book with all I can.

I spend too much time having to decipher things. Work out what they are actually trying to achieve. Rewriting, stealing, copying worksheets to fit the lesson.

The hardest thing for me is the language. Some of it is just plain wrong/wierd/come out of nowhere.

For example

Page 123 Middle school English - Pets

Who's the favortie sports player? - What?
What's the most interesting subject? ??
What's the most popular spare time activity?

Do people say this? Where? I cannot think of any situation where I have been asked those questions.

I may well have been asked what the most intersting subject as school is? But not What's the most interesting subject?

I can't believe that Stephen P.van Vlack publicises the fact that he co-authored these.

[matthews_world]

I try to supplement lessons with teamwork using Jazz English scripts or esl-lab.com listening activities. I plan on only using 2 or 3 pages of the book per class, or 15 min. per class.

A good activity is to give each team an envelope with the scripts of a dialogue cut up into strips of lines and put them in order, or better yet, tape a single strip to the walls and have a student be a runner and dictate each line to their teammates.

The kicker is removing the last 2 lines. The students have to come up with the last two lines and present them to the class.
For a listening activity, use the same procedure, play the script, a la esl-lab.com, and replace one or two words in each line with blanks. The students listen to the audio and fill in the gaps.

[bosintang]

[Fishead soup]

[mrsquirrel]

If I was a fresh of the plane newbie. I came across these books and I knew they were wrong but I had never taught before it would be a nightmare.

It's bad enough knowing that it's wrong but at least having enough experience to try and create a lesson around the subject area including the key vocabs and points.

Sometimes the grammar aims are so deeply buried that I have to go over it several times to make sure it is what I initially thought.

What is the price difference between a Korean text book and a copy of Interchange or another such ESL text book?

[Scouse Mouse]

[bosintang]

[mrsquirrel]

I'm going to ask again since it hasn't been answered.

Any idea how much the Middle School books cost in comparison to a book like Interchange?

[bosintang]