Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Ginormousaurus]

If all goes well, I'll be starting a new job in the near future. I have a few years of teaching experience but so far it's always been with children/teens and usually in classes ranging from 1 - 14 students.

My new job will have me teaching classes with 60+ students, all in their 20s and maybe early 30s. Because of the large number of students, I think it's safe to assume their abilities will vary greatly. There's no curriculum so it will be up to me to come up with a lesson plan every day.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Also, I'll have to do a short demo lesson in front of the class for my interview. Any suggestions for that would also be a great help.

Thanks in advance.

[aka Dave]

Lots and lots of group work. Are you teaching conversation? If so think of coversation topics that are appropriate for your students. Have them write (or take notes for extemporaneous speaking, depending upon their lvl) a group discussion for the class.

They work out the discussion (in English if possible), then act out the discussion in front of the entire class.

As they do their discussions you ask them questions expanding on what their thoughts were. Topics depend on lvl. Where they'll be in 10 years, role of women in Korean society, or simple weekend/vacation plans are sample topics. I tried having a press conference with Lee Myung Bak, that didn't work well, no one wanted to be Lee Myung Bak. A lot of it is trial and error.

One thing my students loved was a "jeopardy" style quiz show, which actually works the interogative if you're on that. I teach uni students by the way.

I've taught 50 kids (in American high school, a nightmare), I've never done 60, that's a spicy meatball that. Good luck.

[Netz]

Just to expand on Dave's idea a little, we did something similar in "immersion" courses.

Most of the students will be familiar with generic dialogues from standard ESL texts. Give them an "environment" such as Restaurant, Airport, Grocery Store, etc. , and in groups, have them generate vocabulary lists for those places (or you could just give them the lists pre-made, depending on how much time you have).

After the lists are made, have the teams write their own scripts using their vocab lists as a guide, and act them out in front of the other groups.

Make a competition out of it if possible, it seems to generate incentive in later activities from all class members. Letting them pick new teams every topic can really get them going, or make them cry lol.

[Ginormousaurus]

Thanks a lot guys! I figured group work would be the best as I can spend a few minutes explaining the activity and then turn them loose to create their own dialogs and whatnot, followed up by a few groups performing in front of the class.

Any more ideas will be appreciated.

[moosehead]

if you have access to a computer and overhead monitor or large tv screen in the classroom -

I taught a teachers' class once where I just pulled recent photos off the internet - news photos that is - and asked the class to describe them, tell me what they thought, etc.

I always saved the news story accompanying the photo for last and then we'd discuss it afterwards.

it helps critical thinking skills, visual literacy and opens up dialogue like you wouldn't believe. easy to find the photos also.

[ddeubel]

moosehead,

Well said. A lot of times we just have to give them the "barebones" and prompt and then let them use their English. Test the waters and get out into the zpd. Too often, there is too much hot air in the English classroom.

I often put up a presentation with a set time for each slide. List all the question words on the board. Teach the students by modeling a few slides, to ask / make questions about the picture. Then let them do it.

I've literally made hundreds of quality presentations for this purpose. Click Learn - Practice on EFL Classroom 2.0

Here's an example to review news events from 2007.

http://eflclassroom.com/ppt/2007inreview.swf

DD
http://eflclassroom.ning.com

[Ginormousaurus]

Again, thanks guys!

I think I've got my demo lesson just about finished and I'm happy with how it's looking. Hopefully I get the job and will have plenty of opportunity to use your suggestions.