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tfunk
Joined: 12 Aug 2006
Location: Dublin, Ireland
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 Posted: Fri Dec 26, 2008 7:06 am Post subject: Standardised textbook for public schools? |
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Are there official textbooks for teaching in public schools or is it up to the individual school to decide?
If you are teaching in a public school then what textbook do you use? |
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crazy_arcade
Joined: 05 Nov 2006
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| Posted: Fri Dec 26, 2008 9:10 am Post subject: |
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Well, quite frankly, it kind of differs between elementary, middle, and high school........ 
In Elementary, there is standard national curriculum with standard books and cd-roms.
For middle and high, the gov't selects and approves a number of specifically written text books. The school can then select from the list of approved books to use as the main course book. We are using the hardest ones available for middle school....they're ridiculously easy and incredibly bad.
Teachers also bring in supplementary books...however, non-approved textbooks are not allowed to be used as core textbooks. For the foreign teacher, you can teach from anything really as your class will only make up -about somewhere between 10-20% of total English time for students |
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Yu_Bum_suk
Joined: 25 Dec 2004
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| Posted: Fri Dec 26, 2008 5:39 pm Post subject: |
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| Middle and high schools can choose between a variety of government approved textbook series. I believe that for the revised seventh curriculum (starting in 2009) for English there are 14 for MS and 17 for HS. |
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cruisemonkey
Joined: 04 Jul 2005
Location: Hopefully, the same place as my luggage.
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| Posted: Fri Dec 26, 2008 6:01 pm Post subject: |
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| Yu_Bum_suk wrote: |
| I believe that for the revised seventh curriculum (starting in 2009) for English there are 14 for MS and 17 for HS. |
Probably none of which could be used without spending the first 25 minutes of each class correcting the published mistakes. |
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tfunk
Joined: 12 Aug 2006
Location: Dublin, Ireland
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| Posted: Fri Dec 26, 2008 6:12 pm Post subject: |
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| Thanks for the info. Is there a website online where I can see the curriculum in English and/or can you list the titles of any books available that follow the curriculum? |
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tfunk
Joined: 12 Aug 2006
Location: Dublin, Ireland
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| Posted: Fri Dec 26, 2008 7:00 pm Post subject: |
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| cruisemonkey wrote: |
| Yu_Bum_suk wrote: |
| I believe that for the revised seventh curriculum (starting in 2009) for English there are 14 for MS and 17 for HS. |
Probably none of which could be used without spending the first 25 minutes of each class correcting the published mistakes. |
I just found the site of the organization responsible for curriculum development in Korea. According to the 'intruduction' you can get a massage from the president! |
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cruisemonkey
Joined: 04 Jul 2005
Location: Hopefully, the same place as my luggage.
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| Posted: Fri Dec 26, 2008 7:24 pm Post subject: |
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| tfunk wrote: |
| cruisemonkey wrote: |
| Yu_Bum_suk wrote: |
| I believe that for the revised seventh curriculum (starting in 2009) for English there are 14 for MS and 17 for HS. |
Probably none of which could be used without spending the first 25 minutes of each class correcting the published mistakes. |
I just found the site of the organization responsible for curriculum development in Korea. According to the 'intruduction' you can get a massage from the president! |
I much prefer S.E. asian massages. |
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reimund
Joined: 01 Oct 2007
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| Posted: Fri Dec 26, 2008 7:29 pm Post subject: |
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| Yu_Bum_suk wrote: |
| Middle and high schools can choose between a variety of government approved textbook series. I believe that for the revised seventh curriculum (starting in 2009) for English there are 14 for MS and 17 for HS. |
That's odd... the middle school I applied for, and got an offer with, told me they had no curriculum, and mentioned nothing about government approved textbooks. Does this mean it was a good idea that I declined the offer?
Because for me, there was no way I was going to make things up along the way, especially with only 6 months' (elementary school) teaching experience, but now that I'm desperate for a job, I'm kind of having second thoughts. |
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cruisemonkey
Joined: 04 Jul 2005
Location: Hopefully, the same place as my luggage.
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| Posted: Fri Dec 26, 2008 8:51 pm Post subject: |
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Not having a curriculum is a two-edged sword. One side can be used to cut a swath through the confusion of 'what to teach?', and the other will cut you after your yearly 'demo lesson' when the provincial school inspector asks "How does your lesson fit into the national curriculum?"
When I ask my co-teacher/handler for a copy of the national curriculum, I get this look -  . |
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ajuma
Joined: 18 Feb 2003
Location: Anywere but Seoul!!
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| Posted: Sat Dec 27, 2008 4:31 am Post subject: |
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| cruisemonkey wrote: |
| Yu_Bum_suk wrote: |
| I believe that for the revised seventh curriculum (starting in 2009) for English there are 14 for MS and 17 for HS. |
Probably none of which could be used without spending the first 25 minutes of each class correcting the published mistakes. |
So true...so true! |
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Seoul'n'Corea
Joined: 06 Nov 2008
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| Posted: Sat Dec 27, 2008 6:44 am Post subject: |
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| cruisemonkey wrote: |
Not having a curriculum is a two-edged sword. One side can be used to cut a swath through the confusion of 'what to teach?', and the other will cut you after your yearly 'demo lesson' when the provincial school inspector asks "How does your lesson fit into the national curriculum?"
When I ask my co-teacher/handler for a copy of the national curriculum, I get this look - . |
That's because you are asking for the wrong thing. You should be asking for a copy of the curriculum for the grade level. There is no such a thing as a national curriculum. That's why you get a blank look.
Next, there hasn't been any standardization in English here in Korea, I think it should be up to the school to choose the text book they want to use. The government needs to set what goals the students need for English at a particular grade level. Right now there is nothing to do with this. |
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Yu_Bum_suk
Joined: 25 Dec 2004
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| Posted: Sun Dec 28, 2008 5:18 pm Post subject: |
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| reimund wrote: |
| Yu_Bum_suk wrote: |
| Middle and high schools can choose between a variety of government approved textbook series. I believe that for the revised seventh curriculum (starting in 2009) for English there are 14 for MS and 17 for HS. |
That's odd... the middle school I applied for, and got an offer with, told me they had no curriculum, and mentioned nothing about government approved textbooks. Does this mean it was a good idea that I declined the offer?
Because for me, there was no way I was going to make things up along the way, especially with only 6 months' (elementary school) teaching experience, but now that I'm desperate for a job, I'm kind of having second thoughts. |
The middle school that gave you the offer was simply clueless, as per normal. Next year their grade one students will start using a new set of textbooks based on the revised seventh curriculum that come with an 'activities' book. Their grade 2s and 3s will still be using books approved by the unrevised seventh curriculum. That they told you none of this just goes to show how little they've thought about how an FT could supplement the existing curriculum. |
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Fishead soup
Joined: 24 Jun 2007
Location: Korea
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| Posted: Sun Dec 28, 2008 6:01 pm Post subject: |
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| Yu_Bum_suk wrote: |
| reimund wrote: |
| Yu_Bum_suk wrote: |
| Middle and high schools can choose between a variety of government approved textbook series. I believe that for the revised seventh curriculum (starting in 2009) for English there are 14 for MS and 17 for HS. |
That's odd... the middle school I applied for, and got an offer with, told me they had no curriculum, and mentioned nothing about government approved textbooks. Does this mean it was a good idea that I declined the offer?
Because for me, there was no way I was going to make things up along the way, especially with only 6 months' (elementary school) teaching experience, but now that I'm desperate for a job, I'm kind of having second thoughts. |
The middle school that gave you the offer was simply clueless, as per normal. Next year their grade one students will start using a new set of textbooks based on the revised seventh curriculum that come with an 'activities' book. Their grade 2s and 3s will still be using books approved by the unrevised seventh curriculum. That they told you none of this just goes to show how little they've thought about how an FT could supplement the existing curriculum. |
Have you seen these books? Are they any good? Or do they have these kinds of expressions in them?
How kind you are.
Drinking soda pop is bad for our bodies. |
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Yu_Bum_suk
Joined: 25 Dec 2004
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| Posted: Sun Dec 28, 2008 6:37 pm Post subject: |
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| Fishead soup wrote: |
| Yu_Bum_suk wrote: |
| reimund wrote: |
| Yu_Bum_suk wrote: |
| Middle and high schools can choose between a variety of government approved textbook series. I believe that for the revised seventh curriculum (starting in 2009) for English there are 14 for MS and 17 for HS. |
That's odd... the middle school I applied for, and got an offer with, told me they had no curriculum, and mentioned nothing about government approved textbooks. Does this mean it was a good idea that I declined the offer?
Because for me, there was no way I was going to make things up along the way, especially with only 6 months' (elementary school) teaching experience, but now that I'm desperate for a job, I'm kind of having second thoughts. |
The middle school that gave you the offer was simply clueless, as per normal. Next year their grade one students will start using a new set of textbooks based on the revised seventh curriculum that come with an 'activities' book. Their grade 2s and 3s will still be using books approved by the unrevised seventh curriculum. That they told you none of this just goes to show how little they've thought about how an FT could supplement the existing curriculum. |
Have you seen these books? Are they any good? Or do they have these kinds of expressions in them?
How kind you are.
Drinking soda pop is bad for our bodies. |
I have one of them sitting in front of me as I type this. It's hardly much of an improvement over the previous one we've used. All of the instructions on how to do things are in Korean, and it's obviously not designed for an FT to teach from, though it can be adapted. |
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crazy_arcade
Joined: 05 Nov 2006
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| Posted: Mon Dec 29, 2008 9:58 pm Post subject: |
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| reimund wrote: |
| Yu_Bum_suk wrote: |
| Middle and high schools can choose between a variety of government approved textbook series. I believe that for the revised seventh curriculum (starting in 2009) for English there are 14 for MS and 17 for HS. |
That's odd... the middle school I applied for, and got an offer with, told me they had no curriculum, and mentioned nothing about government approved textbooks. Does this mean it was a good idea that I declined the offer?
Because for me, there was no way I was going to make things up along the way, especially with only 6 months' (elementary school) teaching experience, but now that I'm desperate for a job, I'm kind of having second thoughts. |
I would never work for a school that has no expectations of what the FT is to teach.
When I arrived, I was handed the books for the classes and told which sections I was expected to teach. I was also told that I may supplement the book/activities/material as I saw fit, as long as testable textbook material was covered. I was then told that the first week they just expected an introduction/ice-breaking class (which I was prepared for).
A lot of teachers seem to think it's a good thing, I think it shows that they really couldn't care and are unprofessional. |
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