Korean Job Discussion Forums

[murr]

I am teaching at a High School, where we have been given a wack of won to spend on English text books/reference books for our English library. My co-teacher has asked me to recommend some good English books.

Any suggestions would be well appreciated - thanks...

[Johnwayne]

Came across this a while ago and was curious how it would work with high school age students:

http://www.thetwisteddoors.com/esl.htm#topics

Anyone have an experience with it? Seems different from a lot of English textbooks in terms of presentation of information and format.

[storysinger81]

Is this reference books for English teachers or general reading for students? It makes a difference in my recommendations.

[murr]

Ah yes, thanks, these are for the students use.

[Reise-ohne-Ende]

Well, it depends on their level, but a lot of young adult novels might be good-

-Roald Dahl books
-Babysitter's Club/Sweet Valley Twins
-Goosebumps
-Harry Potter
-various graphic novels and comic books
-Steven King
-Chronicles of Narnia

hmm...that's all I can think of for now. Just think about stuff you enjoyed as an upper elementary/middle school student, and that should get you on the right track!

[storysinger81]

Use the Newbery prize list as a start: http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/newberymedal/newberymedal.cfm

They give both medals and "honor" awards to excellent YA fiction. The other books by authors who recieve these prizes are also worth a look, for example Linda Sue Park won a medal for her historical fiction, set in 13 century Korea, but I think her novel about two Korean children living under the Japanese occupation, When My Name Was Keoko, would be more appealing to most of our students. My co-teacher taught Jerry Spinelli's Stargirl (he won for Maniac Magee awhile ago) to our first graders this year with great success.

Other good choices would be series books (girls LOVE them) like Harry Potter, Gossip Girl, and the Twilight nonsense. The idea is to get kids reading, not bore them to death. Try to stay ahead of the trends for books that haven't yet been translated to Korean.

Boys like nonfiction. Biographies and autobiographies of successful sports stars, businessmen, historical figures, and the like should do the trick. I liked Ben Carson's Gifted Hands (although it's a little religious). My boyfriend also likes reading movie scripts when he self-studies English, so purchasing a few popular movie scripts couldn't hurt.

I love: Anything by Lois Lowry or Louis Sachar.

If you have lower-level kids, I would suggest comic books. Lots of them have shockingly high levels of discourse, and engage readers in a new way. The movie Batman Begins, for example, was based on the graphic novel Dark Knight, which is quite interesting from a literary perspective.