Korean Job Discussion Forums

[greedy_bones]

I'm sure there's another topic like this buried somewhere here, but the search feature is anything but my friend.

Anyways, here's a list of a few of the worst books I've ever had to use.

Bricks listening, reading, writing etc.: The reading has an alright set up with a well thought out breakdown of the stories with vocab and comprehension. The biggest problem is that the definitions are wrong, the grammar is horrible, and some of the stories are insane. "I get Chubby in the tub with Mom and Steve....Oh no, my silly stupid sweetie....let's get in the tub together" The listening is also full of facts that are just wrong. "Is your family from California?" "No, they're from San Diego."

Spotlight on Literacy: This is pretty much a glorified picture dictionary posing as a textbook. Each page is one picture and one word. No exercises, only very basic vocabulary and elaborate activity suggestions requiring resources that are unavailable at most schools. I've mentioned this book before on a different thread, but teaching the color blue for an entire period is a little frustrating.

Speak your mind: Not a bad book for adult students, but horribly inappropriate for children. Topics include one night stands, hangover cures, and money management.

After School Writing Activities: This is a great writing book....for native speakers. When students are having trouble conjugating "to be", I don't think they really need to focus on using similes, metaphors, alliteration, assonance, onomatopoeia, and anthropomorphism.

What are the worst or most inappropriate books you've had to use?

[Big Mac]

The public school curriculum books are probably the worst ones I have ever used. They have so many grammatical errors and have some of the weirdest language I have ever seen.

Hip Hip Hooray is also pretty bad. I used that at a hogwan for two years and was pretty sick of it. It just doesn't have very much meat to it.

There are many other bad textbooks out there I guess.

Probably my favourite series to use was Reading Street, although sometimes I thought it had a little too much emphasis on American values, etc. Why do kids in Korea want to know about American presidents from 150 years ago?

[sobriquet]

Some of the new public school books for this year are not too bad.

One believe iit or not features a boy whose father is married to a Filipina and talks about her cooking.

Quite interesting to see that change.

And even more surprising, there are no drawings of big lipped, big hipped, black women in it. A step in the right direction.

[joshuahirtle27]

I must say I'm not a huge fan of the New Parade series.

[Rusty Shackleford]

Middle School English 1. All 75 variations.

[maingman]

Go For It. Student Book 1

[Faunaki]

SMOE made a conversation book for middle school. Now that's a joke!

[Dazed and Confused]

Let's Go 2 and Talk Time
Both are useless!

[Son Deureo!]

The Global Junior English series. Each "level" is a single Konglish dialogue, which I was somehow expected to "teach" (i.e. make the kids memorize) for a month. I was so happy when I finally managed to convince the boss to switch to Let's Go.

[Oreovictim]

Any of those Bricks Listening Books. I teach out of the red one with that stupid dog, Doo, on the cover.

A lot of the exercises deal with the students listening to a dialogue, then filling in some of the blanks to the paragraphs in their books. The talking is too fast; it's not repeated, and there will be simple words along with some complex ones. The other teachers feel the same way as I do.

The English Time series is okay, but I hate that the book doesn't list the CD tracks on each page. There's track listings in the CD booklet, but I have a burned copy of the CD. It's a hassle to photocopy the CD sleeve and keep it with you. Other than that, I have nothing wrong with English Time.

[greedy_bones]

Oh man. Bricks is frightening. Today I read a story called "Why dogs chase cats." Dog is married to Cat. Dog is the husband. He works all day, and Cat is lazy and says she's sick. She doesn't cook for Dog. Dog spies on her and finds out she's not sick. Dog "chases" cat.

Is it just me, or does this sound a little like beating your wife because she didn't cook dinner?

[sulperman]

I've thought for a long time about starting a Bricks listening hating thread. That beginner one with "my dog, Doo" sucks, but once you get up to Bricks 4 and 5 things spiral completely out of control. The speaking is ridiculously fast and the dictation setup is far too difficult. One hundred blanks in a row is an impossible task for somebody who was in Bricks 1 just a few months before.

Each level takes such a huge jump! What the hell are they thinking?!? Such a scam.

The mistakes are hilarious too. If I ever am in the subway and I hear that boy's voice from the tapes, I don't care how old he is, he's getting hurt.

I could go on for hours about Bricks, but I'll stop.

[ddeubel]

Touchstone..should be burned. How can a multinational make something so incompetent...

DD
http://eflclassroom.ning.com

[some waygug-in]

[NightSky]