Korean Job Discussion Forums

[tenchu77491]

I teach elementary and all but three of my classes are incredibly low level. Today I took the liberty of scrapping the textbook (English Time) which I actually like to a certain degree, but it is too simple for these kids and they tear through it. I decided to teach them how to write.. considering their English level is 'decent'. They can ask questions and say decent sentences.

I attempted to teach them what a paragraph was (not an easy battle). I think I broke through using examples and pictures I drew on the board. It wasn't very easy to explain what an 'indent' is. I also got them to understand that each paragraph should be 3-4 sentences or more.

My assignment was to write a journal about their weekend. I wanted them to write 3 paragraphs with 3-4 sentences each (I told them I wanted 10 sentences total at least). Along with this I also thought them (or refreshed them?) a few sentences such as, "On Friday I ______" and a few other leading sentences to help them out. All in all the class got it (I think) and I will see on Monday just how well they got it.

Now my worries are about the other 2 classes... they are a bit lower level than my top class, so I was wondering-- should I hold off on teaching them paragraphs and writing? If not, is there any good way to teach writing and paragraphs? I have a feeling the struggle with paragraphs, indents and everything will be much harder with these two other classes.

My goal is to get them writing and using grammar and words they know, and to keep everything fresh for them.. also I can have them read their journals or writing pieces which will help a bit with their speaking.

TOP class - 5 students
Upper class - 7 students
So-so class - 8 students

I believe my other classes are too low to even begin writing... or reading for that matter.

Any advice? Ideas? Suggestions? Any writing exercise ideas besides journals?

[losing_touch]

Oh, now you have gone and done it. You have opened up a can of worms with this one! I have done the same thing, and it hasn't been good. I thought I would jump right into the concept of a paragraph. I had to backtrack a little bit. I dropped down to the sentence level. Well, that didn't turn out so well. I had to drop down a little further and get them up to speed on simple parts of speech. It took me a long time! I change classes every two months, so I never got to continue with my project. They had forgotten everything when I returned as their teacher 4 months later. I gave up!

[cubanlord]

[tenchu77491]

Sounds great!

My "top" class consists of 5 students that have not been abroad to my knowledge at least. They range from 9 to 10 years old. I would say their English is not great but not bad either. They certainly make mistakes but I think they are good enough to be writing which they have not learned yet! So the "top" class was kind of the test run. I am more afraid of the upper level and the so-so class. That is why I came looking for advice and suggestions because I am sure there are more effective ways to teach writing than the way I tried.

I am glad to hear your students improved. It would be frustrating if they didn't! I am sure the lower level students of mine would not improve much because their will to learn English is not as strong as the older kids. The "top" class and the upper levels have more serious kids. They actually ask questions and wonder 'why' something is incorrect when I mark it incorrect. Which is great thing-- because it really shows they are at least trying to improve. I hope they take well to writing like your kids.

It will help a lot to see the method you used.

Thanks

[winterfall]

I did something like this in the sample lesson plan I made for SMOE. Still waiting for the interview so I'm not sure if I got the job. But, after I submitted it I realized it may be too hard. It's hard to know for sure what you take for granted as a native speaker.

Have you though about assigning a 'How to...' project in the format of a short paragraph? It'll give them good practice on creating content and structuring.

Make the 'How to...' on something they enjoy. Something like I don't know.... 'When you play starcraft how do you beat x with y?, describe step by step how to do it. So rather than making everyone write the same generic paragraph. Let them be able to choose the topic. It might put everyone on the same playing field.

[cubanlord]

Good Morning!

Okay, here is the file.

Just go to www.ralphsesljunction.com

Then, go to ESL and EFL Lesson Plans

Then, under "others" click on the Writing table of contents.

That's what I did with my two classes and it worked. If you have questions about it, ask me and I will help you to the best of my ability.

I think you said, before, that you only had the students for two months. The way I structured my curriculum, I needed at least 3 months to get them to the essay. Ironically enough, my non-returnees were learning faster than my returnees. I think the latter were being lazy. Anyways, let me know.

Right now, we are working on writing prompts, but that isn't in the table of contents, yet.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

The problem is that Koreans simply have a different conception of writing. ^^
They don't think in terms of topical themes.

So it's not natural for them to organise writing thematically into paragraphs with topic senteces.

They also hardly ever practice writing in Korean.

Why would they be able to come up with a paragraph in English when they can't even do it in Korean...

[tenchu77491]

Thanks~ I will give this a shot on Monday with my other high end class

[tenchu77491]

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[tenchu77491]

Without a doubt. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't try

[blackjack]

[blackjack]

[tenchu77491]

^It has given me some ideas about steps to take in order to teach them about writing. I also got some ideas for exercises from it.

==

I think when I did it before I tried to teach too much at once and I should really break it down more logical like the syllabus/lesson plan on the site. I will plan it out more in detail and prepare it.

==

The time I did it was a bit 'in the moment' and I wasn't prepared at all and I still managed to teach it decently but the class was a fairly high level.

I plan to hand out:

a sheet of writing terms and translations to Korean

an example of a paragraph

an example of a paragraph with the writing terms highlighted/circled (such as indent etc.)

I will teach how to write a paragraph and then when they get that down, step things up to multiple paragraphs and terms such as introduction, body, conclusion etc.

[cubanlord]