Korean Job Discussion Forums

[strangebrew]

I have to order books for a class of 5th and 6th grade elementary students. The class is public school, but the students are considered advanced.

I came across this series and wondered if the content would be appropriate for them. It seems geared towards adult beginners, but has great reviews on Amazon.com.

However, the first couple chapters of book one look too easy (could always skip them). Whereas book 2 might be too difficult.

Those of you familiar with this series: How difficult do you consider the later chapters of book one and would book two be totally over the heads of kids this age?

[farrepatt]

My kids (5th and 6th graders) would struggle with the Side by Side. They could do parts of it, but some of the sentences are too long for them. If they're advanced enough and it's a small enough class you might be able to get away with it, but I suspect you'd have to be selective on which parts to do. I wouldn't think you could do the whole book.

Of course with that said, I've heard elementary school kids in Seoul have better English so maybe your kids will be able to do it.

[sugarloaf82]

I work at a rural high school and we use the Side by Side serious as one of our books with all our classes. We use SbS 1 for grade 1, SbS 2 for grade 2 and SbS3 for grade 3. We have SbS 4 as well, but haven't used it yet. I would definitely recommend these books, the students seem to enjoy them and when you combine the exercises in the text book with the worksheets in the workbook they definitely are able to grasp the material.

I know you said you're teaching grades 5 and 6, but I feel that most of my students are at a fairly low level in comparison to other high schools, so I'm sure SbS 1 would work fine for you.

The only thing is that the books and exercises get fairly monotonous if you use them several classes in a row, so mix it up a little bit with other material from time to time.

[I-am-me]

I think they might be a little too hard for middle school students. Go to the bookstore and buy one copy. Do a test run and see how it works. Let us know how it goes.

[cruisemonkey]

I like 'Side by Side' (3rd Ed.), and use it as the 'core text' for my middle school students:
Book 1 - for grade one;
Book 2 - for grade two.

I supplement it with my own lessons to interject a little variey/review/reinforcement... and just plain fun!

I don't think it's appropriate for elementary - they'll 'tune out' after about chapter 5 of Book 1.

[ddeubel]

You can send students for speaking practice at any of my Side by Side inspired Voicethreads.

Intermediate
http://voicethread.com/share/34182/
Low
http://voicethread.com/share/9458/

Get all the Side by Side books in ppt and all the pics for vocab at EFL Classroom 2.0
Here's an example - http://eflclassroom.com/flash/side1.swf
Find in Resources under Instructional ppts.

When I used Side by Side years ago, I'd photocopy and cut up the pictures from the page we were working on. Students would walk around the class practicing the main dialogue with one picture in the palm of their hand. They'd then switch with their partner after they were finished and find another person and practice that new dialogue information/item. Worked like a charm and gets students practicing language as it is really spoken - on the feet, eye to eye....

DD
http://eflclassroom.com

[chachee99]

I used Side by Side books before. I taught them for elementary students Side by Side 1 for grades 4 and Side by Side 2 for grade 6. Acutally I found them to very good books for conversational classes. Their dialogues are more realistic than the other books I have used. However, the content is really hard for some students to grasp immediately. I found that you really need to have a good lesson plan with lots of activities if you want to be effective with these books. Also, I found that it is best if you don't use these books as cram material. Go through them slowly so the students can understand them completely. Teach them for their concept not as memorization material.