Korean Job Discussion Forums

[ccikulin]

I agreed to do a saturday english course at my middle school for the next ten weeks because I found out that it is going to be for the lower level students. I really want to help these kids catch up a little bit. I want to work with them on reading and listening comprehension and also help them improve their vocabulary a little bit so they can learn to say some useful things. I think if they can find English a little bit useful, they might become more motivated. I haven't begun planning the course yet and I would love to hear some suggestions from anybody who has done a course like this before. It's going to be 3 hours/day every Saturday for 10 weeks. These are middle school kids and a lot of them have trouble talking with me even using simple sentences. Any suggestions?

[Smee]

Nothing too specific here, but when I did a summer camp for lower learners on the first day I gave them this sheet:

http://iteslj.org/t/tmm/ss/021.htm

Korean translation here: http://iteslj.org/t/tmm/ss/021-korean.htm

And I based the 20-odd hours around the tasks on the sheet. The students were only able to do the first 9, but if they were a little higher level, or if I had more time, I would have done all 20. Just a general trajectory for the course. Each day I picked two or three and found activities---information gaps, stories, articles, board games----that taught to that particular thing.

Oh, and they really liked playing "Go fish," which reinforced "Do you have . . . ?" questions.

[ccikulin]

Thanks Smee, That looks like a good idea. Whenever I plan a course I always have to most trouble deciding what content I'm going to teach. Once I get that figured out, I am usually pretty good and getting the material across and having fun with the class. This will help a lot.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

Just bear in mind that nothing much serious happens at school on Saturdays and so the kids aren't going to be in a very serious learning mode. Unlike some summer 'camps', however, you should be sure of consistant attendance. I'd strong recommend you plan something that's just completely fun for the third block like a movie or some board games, and keep anything more focused for the first two blocks. You might want to use the first block to go over remedial conversational grammar and vocab, the second to work on a group skit, and then the third for something laid-back.

[D.D.]

What a waste of energy and a waste of a relaxing Saturday morning. One law that people should learn is to invest energy into what is working.

In other words it would be better to get the best kids into your Saturday morning class.

Sorry to be negative but our time is limited and we should leave it for students that can benefit from us. They would have awesome English programs if they invested more into the good students and encouraged the poor ones to run to catch up to them.