Korean Job Discussion Forums

[cubanlord]

[languistic]

[naturegirl321]

OP, where did you find this job advert?

[Goon-Yang]

[Mr. Pink]

Those who are qualified to teach writing should also be good at marking. I am a certified English teacher. Hours of grading outside of class hours come with the territory. I really don't think it is hard to prepare lessons on how to write, or to teach the process of writing. However, that is what my background is in.

For the hours that job posts and the salary, it is actually a pretty good gig IMO. If they mean 30-40mil won a year, well that isn't so good. However, $30-$40,000 US with 20 weeks vacation included is alright.

My next gig in Korea is looking to be an an international school, and for the pay versus amount of hours required, the KAIST job looks better in that regard.

[cubanlord]

[naturegirl321]

Where was the job advert? I didn't see it here on Dave's

[Goon-Yang]

[The Cosmic Hum]

[ddeubel]

[languistic]

[naturegirl321]

[languistic]

It's no revelation perhaps, but the best way to grade writing is to create a grading scheme - different in a sense from a rubric - that places some of the corrective burden back on the student.

Simply correcting their work on the paper is of little educational value. A scheme will allow you to correct the work in a timely fashion, allow the student a chance to reflect on the work and the errors within and do so in a manner that is easy (and perhaps even fun) to reference.

The scheme is a set of established symbols that illustrate different types of errors. It could be a squiggly line to indicate a tense problem, an SV to indicate a subject/verb agreement issue or a small degree-like circle to indicate a missing or wrong article.

It sounds silly, but the effort that such a scheme saves is tremendous. It means that you don't have to re-write anything for the student, something that we feel inclined to do when we grade writing. It gives the student a clear map of what to do to correct errors and it doesn't rely on language to function. That is to say, it is a visual system; it uses symbols, not words to highlight problematic areas. For students, even accurately interpreting written feedback on a writing assignment can be a burden; so much so that they may not bother with it and just hope for the best with the next assignment. A symbol-based system is easy to manage from a language point of view and may actually be interesting for them to index their errors. It also creates an easy look-up, and is illustrative of any pattern problems in a students' work.

You may think this sounds too simple to work, but Occams razor says that it may well be so. Try it: sit down and establish a visual correcting system. You will need a wide range of easy-to-draw, easy-to-see symbols to represent error types. Obtain some writing samples if you can; this will help you establish your scheme. Ensure the students are given a copy of the scheme and go through it with them. Depending on your time budget, you may offer some re-write submissions for bonus points or even a paired project; have students exchange returned work and fix the errors. Peer grading can also be fun, but that is a separate topic.

Try it. It speeds up grading and as I said, asks students to get involved in the correction process. Many won't bother, but for those who do, it can be a somewhat self-directed learning experience. Initially it will feel clumsy; you will be referencing your own scheme to grade. However, given a bit of time, you will be flying along.

[Mr. Pink]

What I do with my students and their major writing assignments is have them get 3 peers to edit it for them. They have to fill out specific paper work as a peer editor and hand that in with their essay. I usually make the essay worth 25% of their mark with 5% being the process of revision and peer editing. I have found this to cut down on my being boggled down with convention errors, so that I can comment and advise my students on how to use stronger sentences, better transitions or other content based suggestions.

Simple writing assignments I can tear through easily, so I don't have the students go back and fix simple errors on those. I probably should, but I am not teaching only writing in such classes. In a pure writing class, I definitely would.

[naturegirl321]