Korean Job Discussion Forums

[winterfall]

Hey, I'm looking for some advice. My students are way too low to make their own content and aren't confident enough to speak on their own. So I give them interactive dialogues to do in pairs. Like if we're doing numbers, 1 kid reads a bunch of math problems and the other listens, writes it out and solves the equation. And when it works out, it works out well.

But the majority are just really lazy and refuse to do it. Most of em just sit around quietly reading the problems. Or they're start messing around by reading really fast so their partner can't keep up.

I've been dishing out punishments left and right to keep in line and on task. But I'm getting really tired of that.

Any suggestions on motivating them to speak more? I've also tried other interactive games and they're only do them if me or the KET is breathing down their necks.

[Ralphie]

http://www.eatyourkimchi.com/esl_resources/index_files/tag-games.php

has great games for the older kids. Battleship is one of my favourites. It takes time to explain how to play the game the first time, but after that, the kids will generally get into it.

[Fishead soup]

Audio- Lingual Approach- Choral Repetition. Substitution drilling
Peer Dictation, Jigsaw readings. Chinese Whispers.

EFL Classroom 2.0 ning Baam, Fling the Teacher, What's the Wordle,

Karafun ( Karioke wish words on the screen)

[winterfall]

Thanks, Ralphie, your site is really good.

Fisheadsoup, sorry no powerpoint/projectors. Only choral repetition seems to work. Everything else flopped. They're too low for Chinese Whispers, every sentence boils down to a word.

[jiberish]

Candy....

I had classes full of bad students who didn't try and fell behind fast. For that class I just implemented a point system. You give me a sentence using the days grammer rule. I give you one point. Kids with the most points get candy. Most points, big candy, average participation, small candy. I think their shoulder muscles must have grown because they are all always sitting there with their arms up wanting to give me answers.

I just do this because I hate dialouge. Scripted conversation created a generation of "I'm fine thank you, and you?" kids...

[Reise-ohne-Ende]

Points are a great reward system. I make all my students sit in groups of about 4 students, and I write the group numbers on the board. When students are good (answer a question, do something I ask the first time), they get a point. When they are bad (talking while I'm talking, refusing to participate), I erase a point.

Part of my students' English grade is a stamp sheet they get. When their stamp sheet is full, they get some kind of boost to their grade (I don't know exactly how it works). Anyway, at the end of each class, the group with the most points gets 3 stamps, the 2nd place group gets 2 stamps, and the 3rd place group gets 1. This works amazingly well, but you can try other rewards too - stickers, candy, erasers, etc. Sometimes in the rush of class changes, I don't get a chance to hand out rewards - and the students don't care; they're excited just to win!

The other thing is, if a student refuses to participate in my class (talking off-topic, being rude to me, etc.) I just make them put their heads on their desk. You can't send students to the principal here really, which sucks, but putting your head down is actually really punishment enough. At first they're excited 'cause they think they can sleep or whatever, but usually they're really sick of it after like 5 minutes and want to get up but I won't let them unless they've been really good.

My basic policy is: If you don't want to be in my class, then I don't want you here. If you do as I ask, and participate, you'll have fun *and* get rewarded. Works pretty well.

[winterfall]

I tried a point system for awhile with monopoly money. 100 pts and use it to "buy" candy, ice cream and supplies from me. It ended up causing more problems than it was worth. Eventually the kids refused to do anything unless they got a point that and I had some stacks of points start mysteriously disappearing.

Had to keep adjusting my prizes for inflation and that turned off a lot of the honest kids. Figured the safer thing was just to get rid of it all together.

Doesn't work for speaking but for worksheets, drawing happy faces is more than enough. With the detail on the happy face matching how much work they put in.

[Fishead soup]

Do you have a Korean co-teacher? If you are in a Public school through GEPIK EPIK or SMOE, you are supposed to have a Korean co-teacher to assist with discipline and or planning activities. Also the Korean co-teacher has a pretty good idea what is on the Exam. If you can include your co-teacher in assisting you with classroom management issues and pointing you in the right direction so you can make the lessons more relevant to the Exam. This should bring more students over to your side.
Ask to see sample copies of old exams and use them for games in your class.