Korean Job Discussion Forums

[inkorea]

Can anyone help me out here?

I have been teaching at an elementary grammar school for the last few months. I have tried lots of games, chants and activities with my students. Some of the games and activities work very well, others: so-so. I have added various activities and games since teaching here and I carefully planned and practised them.

The probelm is that grades 5 and 6 don't seem to be interested in anything, let alone learning the English language. I have tried many different things and nothing seems to work. I think that the students are exceptionally bright and I have adjusted my classes accordingly. I have been careful on how I deliver my classes. I can tell a joke very effectively.

I have taken a TEFL course and I have my degree from a Canadiian university. I tried to look for a grad school so I can learn more about teaching TEFL but, no luck, I missed the deadline to apply for the spring semester.

I would like some ideas to motivate my grade 5 and grade 6 students.
What do you think is wrong? Anyone know any English based games for a group of 40 students at a grade 6 and grade 7 level? Yes, I said grades 6 and 7 because the school is a grammar school. Any idea would be appreciated.

:r oll:

[Magog]

Candy, stickers and a drum stick or similar threatening object could come in handy. Ps Dont worry about the banging you'll soon get calluses.

[mokpochica]

For almost any Korean kid competition is a big motivator. Sometimes they get so excited about winning they don't even need a reward. Sometimes a small reward is needed (like stickers, school 'money' to buy rewards with later, or a small piece of candy). Does your school have some kind of reward system in place?

And let the kids help plan. What are they interested in? Pop music? Pop culture? You can have them read advertisements from teeny bopper magazines or listen to pop songs in English. You can even have them read about Korean pop starts in English (find info on the internet or in the English cafe section of the Korea Times).

[william beckerson]

For that age I used bribes.

"If you want to get snacks on your break, I'll give you 50 won for every good sentence you write"

Then again, my last school had a crowd of beggars.

[some waygug-in]

Bribes and competition. The secrets to my success! But I stay away from the candy. Those kids will run you broke in no time if you let them. At our school, we started using photocopied American dollar bills as payment for work done or as prizes for winning a game. It has replaced both candy and stickers, and the best part about it is,"it's free"! You just have to make enough copies every morning to keep you going through the day.
Games:
Try a game called "Typhoon". You can read about it on the idea cookbook. It's pretty simple, basically a quiz game.
You draw a grid on the board, leave it empty. Then you have a secret card with different point values assigned for each square. The class is divided into teams. When it's their turn, they choose a square and then you tell them how much that square is worth. To get the points they must answer a quiz question correctly. If they get it right, they get the points, if not, the other team gets a shot. If nobody gets it, you put an X over that square. You have to make questions that are suitable for the level of your class, but you can use anything you want. Like,"How many legs do 3 chickens and a spider have?" or Spelling or whatever you like.

The part that makes this game fun is that hidden somewhere in the grid are some "typhoon" squares. If a team chooses one of these squares, they lose all their points. (usually to great cheers from the other team)

The thing with games is that any game gets old after a while, so don't use it too much.
I hope this helps.
Cheers

[Scott in HK]

I think you need to find something that they are interested in and then create a way to put English into the mix. You also need to add some sort of long term goal with the students. There has to be a reason for all of your lessons. If students feel they are doing a bunch of unrelated activities they will soon get bored.

I have done a large music project with my students. The culminating activity to be exhibition of their projects. If you use English singers as the basis, then you can begin a writing campaign to get free stuff, use the lyrics for activities, create commercials to sell the music, hold a video concet (play videos on TV) or a lip sync concet...and have the students create tickets and programs and invite other students to come to their concert, make posters to show why they love their favourite singers, have a debate on who is the best...the range of activities is huge....and it can all involved English.

But students usually find it interesting because the topic relates to them...and they see a purpose in it all...which gives their own work purpose. At the end, they have accomplished something..my students concert was a great success...and some got autographed pictures of Bryan Adams. (god knows why they wanted them) and most had joined the fan clubs of their favourite singers...

[inkorea]

To all who replied:

Thank you for your helpful ideas. I will try them on the grade 5's and 6's.
This might buy me more time at the school while I try to get into a masters TEFL or TESOL program.

Does anyone know of any onsite schools here in Korea besides Sookmyung Womens University in Chumpa Dong? Also, if ther are any more ideas that havent already been said, I would appreciate them. Thank alot in advance for your help!

In Korea