Korean Job Discussion Forums

monsi333 · Joined: 08 Nov 2009

A bit of an SOS here!

I am charged with writing a curriculum (i think from the info I'm given anyway) for 1st and 2nd year university students in the next few weeks.

Its my 1st university job and I'm a bit lost as to what to set these students.

I'm also likely (depending again on the loose information i have been given) to be choosing text books for the courses.

The students are apparently at a low level.

Can anyone give me a starting point, show me an example or any give me anything at all that might be of some use?

jpotter78 · Joined: 29 Oct 2009 Location: Seoul, South Korea

I know this is just negative energy and will be of no help, but I have to say it anyway. If you have to ask where to start, you shouldn't be doing it. I feel bad for whatever university you are working for.

the_beaver · Joined: 15 Jan 2003

http://www.ehow.com/how_2050474_write-syllabus.html

http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/teachtip.htm

http://74.125.153.132/search?q=cache:C6gxNvEK2xwJ:www.oberlin.edu/stuorg/exco/instructors/syllabus_tips.doc+how+to+write+a+syllabus&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&client=firefox-a

Chet Wautlands · Joined: 11 Oct 2008

different · Joined: 22 May 2003

I bet there are lots of teachers out there who'd relish the chance to have as much freedom as you seem to have, but are stuck using some crap textbook and syllabus chosen by their departments. Work hard and do a good job on your curriculum. Please don't make the university want to make a set curriculum! There aren't many jobs out there that give so much freedom. That's sad and frustrating to me.

If you're having trouble with this, I agree that maybe you're not quite ready to have so much freedom. Put thought into how you want to teach, and maybe go to a bookstore and read more about EFL teaching. The layout of your syllabus is of secondary importance.

ddeubel · Joined: 20 Jul 2005

Tell them you don't need to create one. It will be "negotiated". This is the proper way, given your "newness". If they are confused, cite them a plethora of articles supporting negotiated syllabi.

DD
http://eflclassroom.com

withnail · Joined: 13 Oct 2008 Location: Seoul, South Korea.

Ddeubl wrote:

gay in korea · Joined: 13 Jan 2010

Assuming you don't have any more info than you posted, you're in some trouble. Is there a focus/topic/aim for the classes in question?

You will also need to know how much leeway you have or if there are a set/mandatory marking break down. Your university may have a mandatory attendance mark. They may or may not require exams.

Advice/suggestions:

1. choose a textbook for each level.
2. look through the textbook(s) and see what chapters you can/should skip.
3. develop the broadest and most open outline as possible. These are new texts if you are the one choosing them. If you and other profs are all seeing/using them for the first time you will need leeway to modify your plan. My suggestion is spend about 10 mins on each chapter in each book and play out a lesson in your mind. Some textbooks have WAY too much listening, see what you can skip from that.
4. Once you know the textbooks well enough, you should think of assignments--written and speaking--- for the class to do. Organize how that will fit in to the course. What this means is what weeks those will be assigned, how much prep time is needed etc.

Once you've done that stuff you have your syllabus and curriculum set.

I would also advise to put in bolded letters some line such as the following: assigned chapters and assignments may be modified as needed.

That way you give yourself even more leeway.

As for mark break down, again, make sure you're aware of any pre-set department guidelines. There might be an attendance policy; maybe if they miss 5 classes they get an F. So the attendance policy needs to be on the syllabus and made known.

Mark break down that might work:

5%- attendance (one class, one point, they miss 5 and they're done)
Mid-term- 15-20%
Final 30-40%
written HW- 10%
Oral presentation-20%
participation- 5%
quiz 5%

Once you figure out how you're doing it you allot the values accordingly. One trick I do is give an oral mid-term. Two weeks later they get a pop-quiz with the same or very similar questions, but it's written in class. Let's you know who actually 'knows' and understands and who simply crashed memorized.

I tend to shy away from participation marks, simply because it's very arbitrary and easy to have complaints against you. Just call on students every class and/or use rock/paper/scissors to choose who reads, speaks etc. Everyone will get to participate that way.

If you're choosing textbooks you're not really writing a curriculum, you're writing a syllabus.

djsmnc · Joined: 20 Jan 2003 Location: Dave's ESL Cafe

Shoot, just to get a uni job I had to prepare a sample curriculum.

PatrickGHBusan · Posted: Fri Feb 05, 2010 7:27 am Post subject:

Ok....

OP if you ask this, you should not have the position you have BUT since you do have the position and have been asked to produce curriculum (normal request for a university teacher by the way)......

1- Contact other experienced (and yes qualified) university teachers you may know and ask them for help.

2- Read some books on curriculum design. Do you research in pedagogy if you have time.

3- If you are unable to compelte this task...tell your supervisor before its too late, maybe they can find someone else to design this.

4- Once this is done: get your butt in gear and enroll in one of the numerous online programs out there that is focused on pedagogy, instructional design and so on....

Questions for you:

Did the job ad specify curriculum design (it should not have to...it comes with the territory but you never know)?

Did you tell your employers you could do this sort of thing when they interviewed you or hinted at it on your resume?

Thiuda · Posted: Fri Feb 05, 2010 9:04 am Post subject:

Are you sure they're asking you to write the curriculum? Could it be that they're just asking you to upload your syllabus onto the university intranet? Right about now is when their asking for syllabi to be made available to students. Make sure you're using the right terminology, 'cause one is a lot of work and the other is pretty easy.

PatrickGHBusan · Posted: Fri Feb 05, 2010 10:09 am Post subject:

Excellent point thiuda.

brier · Joined: 14 Dec 2009

air76 · Joined: 13 Nov 2007

What is with all the posters giving the OP grief for landing a good job? There are plenty of clowns out there teaching at university who wouldn't even take the time to go online and ask for help if they were asked to choose the book for their course. There are a lot of schools that don't give the professors any autonomy when it comes to teaching their courses, so it is more than possible that a teacher could have several years of experience and have never had to actually choose a book or write a syllabus.

It cracks me up how so many ESL TEACHERS (TEACHERS) get a job at a university and now somehow want to be called PROFESSOR and think that they are so far removed from the public school or hagwon they worked at just a couple years prior. The majority of universities here don't pay wages that would allow them to only hire proper professors. Everyone has to start somewhere. And no, getting an online Master's in TESOL or Applied Linguistics doesn't automatically make you a 'professor' either.

The bottom line is that at least 80% of all university courses taught by foreigners are essentially just standard adult conversation classes that happen to have 20 students per class and sometimes have a grade attached to them. The idea is to get the kids to start using the English that they book-studied over the past 10 years and not necessarily to set up a curriculum aimed to "teach" them English per se. Being a good ESL professor in Korea is about motivating your students to want to speak English and setting up a classroom environment where they are given the opportunity to speak and practice and where they WANT to speak and practice. Being a good professor has just as much to do with personality as it does qualifications. Remember, we're not lecturing the class on some specific area of knowledge that we possess...we're mostly providing a chance for the students to interact with a foreigner and to practice English with each other.

From my experience...the syllabus in Korea is really just a rough guideline...the kids never look at it past the first week of class and you can really change whatever you like on the syllabus and nobody will notice. It isn't like at home where the actual due dates and dates of tests and quizzes are clearly marked on the syllabus for the students to plan. I make my syllabus more detailed than the school requires, but when I first started at my uni the syllabus was given to me for all of my classes for the first semester and it literally was as basic as this:

Week 1 - Unit 1
Week 2 - Unit 2
Week 3 - Unit 3
.
.
.
Week 8 - Midterm

and so on.

For a lower level class I'd recommend the Touchstone series...the lowest level at our school starts with Touchstone 2. Interchange is also good.

So get off your high horses all of you who gave the OP a hard time simply for getting hired at a job he wanted. 95% of all university professors in Korea are ESL teachers who got a job at a university after 2-3 years of experience...and 80% of those ESL teachers were never teachers to begin with, but mostly people who wanted to travel, have an overseas experience, couldn't find a job in their field at home, and so on.

air76 · Joined: 13 Nov 2007