Korean Job Discussion Forums

[iiicalypso]

I am starting my night classes next week, and unfortunately my brain has gone on vacation, and I could use some help coming up with lesson plan ideas. ANYTHING is welcome... so long as it doesn't involve a TEPS book (I vetoed that idea straightaway).

Here are the parameters:

1. High school grade 1 (presumably "high level," according to the teacher in charge, although high level here equals "recognizes own name and usually responds).

2. 90 minutes after school, once a week, for ten weeks.

3. I have 2 sections with 53 and 46 students, crammed into a room with 42 seats (i.e., not much space for interactive lessons)

4. I have never worked with these students before, and I have no idea of their levels (although I can guess-- see #1).

5. My school's directions to me regarding objectives: "Teach English".

So, if anybody has ideas, good, bad or other, for a long period, oversized high school class, please let me know.

Thanks!

[Yu_Bum_suk]

Plan a lot of different activities. The first one I'd plan would be the middle one to happen at the 45-minute mark: a five-minute break. I'd also plan more serious activities for the first half and lighter ones and / or group work for the second half.

Also, find out what textbook they're using for their regular English classes and try to plan the topics / vocab / grammar of your lesson to coincide with that to a certain extent.

[poet13]

[Fishead soup]

Korean students are lost without a textbook shoved in their face. You can get them to read aloud dialogues from a textbook. But ask them basic wh questions and you'll get lots of confused, lost, looks on their faces. Use what they are familiar with, Side by Side is the best selling EFL textbook in Korea. It's also one that has a very familiar format that almost everyone understands. Start with Substitution drills from Side by Side. Something like Directions or Shopping. Then slowly work your way into a dialogue. I would try either Interchange by Jack Richards or Tell me More by Andrew Finch. You can end with a quick game to review the material learned.

[Robot_Teacher]

I'm not experienced HS teacher, but these are my ideas.

What about debate, questions, and discussions? Present a controversial topic and elicit opinoins with any responses you can get. See what they know and cay say about topics for speaking practice. Then have a hand out sheet already prepared with a list of relavent questions to your debated topic.

You could even do things like show a video and elicit opinions and then ask them questions to discuss what the class just viewed. I would guess it doesn't have to always be controversial, but could be about current situations in the world out of a newspaper or off a website like MSN.

I think HS would quite interesting to teach. I think one huge problem is getting them to come out of their clam shell and speak up. I know when I was a teen, I was so shy and concious of what other people would think of me or how they'd judge me. Just tell em' it stays between you and them to gain their trust.

Also have a mid class break, because some of them smoke or will need to use the restroom or just talk chat with classmates or check the status of their phone. Give you a break too. I noticed so many young guys smoking when I'm in bus and train stations and in the cities.

[poet13]

53 and 46 = 99. 99 in a room for 42.

First I would ask for decent facilities. Either that or take the class outside.

Unless they are the most motivated high school students in Korea, there is no way to do any kind of group work and not lose control completely.

With that many students, I would suggest a lecture format with volunteer response sections built in.

Suggestion
-Prepare a handout with some questions on it. Maybe three sets of ten questions. Provide only about 30-40. Make them share and talk about it.
-Watch a movie clip .... ten minutes.....
-ask and answer the questions in section one. Don't make them all one word answers. Ask, "what are all the characters names.?" "what is the setting of this movie?: etc. (if the level is really low, then having the questions up front will help them know what to listen or look for in the movie clip.)
This takes maybe 15 more minutes.

That's 25. Take a 5 minute break.

Do the next clip....and so on.

[poet13]

Robot-teacher. I think the problem with a debate format is that there are too many students, and only a very few would participate. Out of 99, maybe 5 or 6. The rest would either sleep, or be disruptive.

[Fishead soup]

[D.D.]

Have two 45 minutes classes. 90 minutes is too long.

[Draz]

[iiicalypso]

Thanks everybody for the input.

Believe me, many of the "logical" suggestions (smaller classes, shorter periods, appropriate room size) have been tossed up, but as usual I lost those fights. My school is an orgy of dysfunctional relationships, and there is a near-coup level of anger towards the principal. My school's reputation is in free fall, and the principal's response to everything is "more, more" rather than "better, better".

But I agreed to take the classes, and I knew what I was getting into. The truth is, nobody really cares what I do, so long as they can brag about having the native speaker after school classes. The upside is, I can do whatever I want without any fear of failure. That is why I need some ideas for specific lessons.

Unfortunately, books are out of the question. I do like Side by Side, although I have only ever used it one on one, or in small groups. I have prepared all my own material for the past three years, since textbook selection in my school comes down to "either use the typo-ridden TEPS book with 75% Korean, or do your own things". I don't fear the large class (my regular classes are 39 to 46, and my co-teacher has gone AWOL), but trying to corral them for 90 minutes seems torturous.

I generally fall back on one of two models-- the "prepare a response to something and read off the sheet" approach, or the "work with three or four classmates, figure out who is the best speaker, and make him talk" approach. I have no AV in the room, I believe, which counts out video and audio, and the room is lecture hall designed, so working in pairs or groups is difficult.

I suspect that next week I am going to go with the old standby of having them interview each other and then have them give 30 second interviews. The good news is, this will probably take the full time. The bad news is, it is boring as hell and only just barely qualifies as English at all.

Some ideas I have been considering:

1. a "design a new community" lesson, in which I will provide them with a blank island, a population of 50,000 people, and ask them what ten buildings they would choose to have. I figure if they work in groups of four or five, someone should be able to give a semi-coherent explanation.

2. a create your own superhero lesson, in which they choose three powers (nothing overarching, like "TOTAL STRENGTH"-- more like skills. Then I thought it would be fun to pair them off, have a battle, and let the students choose who would win, based on the skills.

3. a favorite I have used before, and as a bonus, a good way to tweek the principal- what would you like to change about the school. I have them come up with ideas, then vote on the best one. Then, everybody writes a letter, I choose the best letter, give a prize, type it up, have the class sign it, and give it to the principal. The sour look I got last term was reward enough.

As you can see, I try to be creative with my ideas, but I would really love to hear some more thoughts on these, or else ideas that we can share.

I did love the suggestions, but unfortunately many of them just wouldn't fly. I would love to sync up with the other English classes, except that they don't do any real English at all-- test prep, pointless vocab memorization, and the like. After all the bashing of the system that I do, I would hate to become a hypocrite and hop aboard.

As for the debate and discussion format, again... way, way beyond their capability. In my school there are roughly fifteen students out of about 1800 that can carry on a conversation. Even coaxing sentences out of them requires bribes and threats. In my dreams, perhaps, but not in my school.

So thanks everyone, and I would love to hear more!

[Xuanzang]

I think your classes would be too big for a roleplay or celebrity interview kind of exercise. They would enjoy impersonating their favourite Big Bang or Wondergirls idols.

[gregoriomills]

Hey, thanks for the lesson ideas, iiicalypso . Sounds like you have a good attitude about it, at least. I have 35-40 in a class and can't imagine having even 5 more.