Korean Job Discussion Forums

[elliemk]

I've been told I'll be teaching TOEFL to middle school students at my new job. I would really appreciate any suggestions for games, activities, etc. that will work to help them learn better. Middle school students are my least favorite (I love elementary students), but I want to do a great job at my new job. So please, if you can give me advice, I would really appreciate it. PM or email me if you prefer. My email address is elliemk at mindspring dot com.
Thanks in advance for all your ideas!

[GaryCooper]

elliemk,

Check out the TOEFL forum on Dave's. Look for the large number of links there under the name "toeflsmeagle." The link is called "TOEFL iBT Links 101" and I highly recommend it.

Middle-school students are cooler than you realize. I used to loathe them, but now they're my favorite. I think if you get to know them and learn how important these tests are to them -- some will be trying to get into better high schools, for example -- then you have a more goal-directed, purposeful student on your hands. They can be very rewarding to teach.

Make sure you are teaching the TOEFL iBT, not any earlier version of the test. Drill them on speaking, writing, reading, and listening. Recycle ideas from one mode to another -- you can use some writing topics for speaking, for example.

Get them familiar with the 185 TOEFL essay topics. It's available in many places. Check out the links that "toeflsmeagle" posted. There are some good ones there.

Korean students expect TOEFL iBT classes to look traditional. They want things as close to the testing environment that you can create. Almost the entire class will be with them sitting down. That's perfectly fine. Don't waste their time with songs, stories, or nonproductive silliness. They need skills such as essay writing, the ability to summarize and paraphrase, a base vocabulary, understanding of text structures (narrative, scientific, concept-->details, etc.), and other serious academic skills.

Have them do things like summarizing of readings after they have done them. Have them store vocabulary in a notebook from the readings after they have done the readings. Ask expansion questions about the readings.

On listening, teach note-taking skills, especially broader than just writing down every detail they hear. If they write down everything, they won't get what the listening was about.

I could go on forever about this. Feel free to PM me questions whenever you have the chance.

[elliemk]

Thanks, Gary. I appreciate your help. Ellie