Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Helenzhou]

Today my new boss talked to me about my new schedule.
Basically the students can only take my class once a week.
There won't be any books or lesson plans.
He said" You just play games with them"---He means everyday,all the class, no matter that level they are.
I have never done any classes like that.
Is it good news or bad news for me?

[tzechuk]

Could be good - or bad.

With low level classes, learning through play will be a great way of introducing the language- much like introducing your mother tongue to your child, you just do it through normal conversation and play.

With higher level kids, you really need to be more structured. It'll mean a lot more work for you if your boss isn't providing a textbook, cos it'll mean you making your own materials....

[Helenzhou]

The problem is he might put students from different levles into one class.

[Dome Vans]

This week has been quite interesting for me. I did a CELTA and this is my first jaunt into teaching and decided that my kids are going to learn something in a structured manner.

I teach at 2 elementary and 2 middle schools out in the middle of nowhere.

I decided for my extra class (level 1 and 2) I would give them a project to design their own theme park. Drawing etc. Then they can write a newspaper article about what you can there. You can... There is..... We have the scariest/highest/wettest/most delicious rides/food etc. Then they have to write the rules for it. And then I put them on the board all the students to look at and see what the others did. This worked really well and the students were into it from the off. And the lesson was 1 and half hours.

And with elementary I wanted for this week and next week to do Halloween. I had a nice structured lesson, short film showing halloween, (The nightmare before christmas) and then brainstorming and then introducing vocab. Then bingo for the vocab with pics. Then moving onto a 'downer' with a crossword. The students said they loved the lesson. But this presents me with a dichotomy.

I can't do lessons like this every week. Halloween is more about info. Much like christmas. There's not much grammar to learn from it, it's more vocab and the more info you give about it turns into 'blah blah'. It's a fun subject to learn but then it should be back to business after.

I understand what the OP is saying. The kids enjoy the games, but for a teacher it can be a killer. You want to be able to teach them something that they'll find useful but also makes you feel as you're doing something useful.

I'm learning all the time and my students love my lessons but as I find as a teacher you should always evaluate, adapt and improve how you teach to maximise your potential but also maximum benefit for the students.

I'm sure ddeubel would be able to add some more insightful info on this.

[jajdude]

Good news, if you have many good games they can relate to. Kids get bored of games almost as quickly as anything else, except computer games. Some like card games too. Just keep looking for info and ideas. Keep trying new things. When you hear a few "jamie upsos" (not fun), have something else ....

Also depends on size and ability of class, of course.

[Masta_Don]

Demand that your school buy Boggle and Scrabble.

[jajdude]

Monopoly could be good too.

Another thing might be to sing some songs; usually younger kids, especially girls, like singing (in my experience)

[CentralCali]

[Atavistic]

http://esl-kids.com/

You can print out lots of games, tailor vocabulary sets, etc. You might be able to use this with a class of different levels--all kids playing the same game, different vocab.

[nomad-ish]

[ddeubel]

[jlb]

At my old hagwon, we had game day on Fridays. It got a bit tedious after a while, let's just say that and I would have been happier doing the book I think. You only have so many creative ideas, and then doing them over and over again with like 10 classes gets pretty old. Plus Korean kids are annoyingly competitive and some classes almost always ended in tears or fighting. Very uncool.

[ESL Milk "Everyday]

The kids won't get tired of them if you find say ten games and play a new one every week over the course of ten weeks.

There are actually a lot of games that are really easy to do... boggle sheets can be made up and photocopied in about ten minutes, and there are tonnes of games that can be played with just a white board and a marker... and there's always the classics like Simon Says-- look at summer camp websites for non-English games and activities.

[babtangee]

ddeubel is right. If you're going to play games you should be adapting them so students are using full sentences during play. Eg.:

Go Fish

"David, do you have a king?"

"Yes, I do. Here you are."

"Thank you. Sally, do you have an ace?"

"No, I don't."

"It's David's turn now."

"It's my turn. Sally, do you have a nine?"

UNO

"I'm using a red seven."

"He used a red seven. I'm using a red eight."

"She used a red eight. I'm using a blue eight."

Monopoly (terrible game to play, btw)

"I rolled a three. I'm moving three spaces."

"It's Jack's turn."

"It's my turn. I rolled an eleven. I'm moving eleven spaces."

You would require them to use less sentences if they are lower levels or they are unfamiliar with the language being used, but still you should be eliciting full sentences if you actually intend to teach.

[Juregen]

What i do is i have about 20 pictures, on the same subject.

I create a fixed conversation around it.

Then they have to find the same one asking questions to other students, and going thru the motions.

They learn new Vocab and grammar at the same time. If you want to put stress on vocab you create simple grammatical sentences, if you want to construct more elaborate grammatical sentences, you keep the vocab to what they already know.