Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Reise-ohne-Ende]

Hey guys. I've been teaching in a PS for about a month and a half now. Although classroom management is difficult, I've been steadily improving on that front. The biggest problem I'm having is content.

I have no textbook, no curriculum, no guidance. I have copies of the textbooks the other English teachers are using, but not only are they horrible (as always) but there really doesn't seem to be any target vocabulary or grammar. It just skips from one thing to another. It seem impossible to plan a lesson that would complement these books.

Up until this point I've just been teaching things I'm interested in: pop songs (fill-in-the-blank listening, discussing lyrics), pronunciation, parts of speech (using Schoolhouse Rock), etc.

The problem is, there's no real direction to any of these lessons...they're so stand-alone that they feel kind of irrelevant. And I'm running out of ideas. I've scoured the web for lesson plans but they're all either incredibly boring or impractical with 35+ students. I went to a bookstore trying to find a textbook or *something* I could use to plan lessons but couldn't find anything that fit.

Is there anyone else in this situation?? Does anyone have any suggestions?

Btw, I'm teaching middle school, and I'm trying to focus mainly on listening & speaking skills (that's the only real guidance I've gotten re: my purpose).

[chellovek]

Yeah I'm with the same difficulties at this school. Although in addition to no curriculum, they still can't decide which classes I'm teaching, so some/most days I end up doing little/nothing all day.

My dispersed work pattern has delayed the day I run out of ideas, but it's a-coming.

[Fishead soup]

Use the Audio Lingual approach to teach the really large multi level classes. I've read some really great articles by Dr. Andrew Finch on making materials that compliment the textbook. I take the long reading sections and make peer dictation activities with them. I basically paste them to the blackboards and have students come to the front read, remember and tell the sentences to their team mates and try to copy the material on another page. I only do this with the high level students. It's gets pretty noisy. This activity really baffles the co-teachers.

I also make Jigsaw speaking activities. I basically break the long reading sections in half and make an information gap. I also only do this with the high level groups. One student has a paper with student A written on it. The other students has a paper with students be written on it. Students must read the missing information. If I catch them copying I tear up their paper and make them start again.

I also gets lots of material from EFL Classroom 2.0 ning. They have great Powerpoint games like Baam, Fling the Teacher and What's the Wordle, another good one is a text messaging game. where the students try to dicipher text messages. The Side By Side Powerpoints are great for Substitution drilling and choral repetition.

Bogglesworld has some great stuff too.

[jiberish]

Find common expressions. That use useful grammer. Then make lessons accordingly. I find the kids can never study grammar enough.

Then I would have them writting lots of sentences using that rule.

For example
x5 I have _________
x5 I have _________ with some adjectives added
x5 I have _________ with adjectives and then where (Eg I have big pencils in my home)

and just keep expanding in different ways from the basic sentences.

[TheUrbanMyth]

I teach middle school and I use the Side by Side textbooks (Books 1-4). They also have a teacher's manual for each book that gives a very detailed lesson plan for each page of the textbook.

I prefer to make my own lesson plans and use the manual as a jumping off point, but these might be helpful to you.

And your P.S. should have received money you can buy textbooks with. Ask them where it is. (Probably pocketed by the principal by now).

[creeper1]

Just get the kids to talk in a natural way. Use textbooks, your own ideas and most of all efl classroom's website.

The site is here. http://eflclassroom.ning.com/

It should keep you from running out of ideas. Good luck

See it as a good thing to be able to run with whatever you like. It allows for creativity.

[Welsh Canadian]

http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/document/curricul/curricul.html

There might be some ideas to plan a unit.

[crisdean]

got to love the "teach whatever you like" approach, it's almost like they are setting you up to fail. I make lessons then I get the lines, "The kids aren't interested in what you teach" or "only (a) few students find class fun." Well big surprise, middle school students aren't interested in something, is there anything they're interested in, a side from starcraft and poking eachother in the bunghole?

[Fishead soup]

I teach Situational dialogues. I make practical lessons using real life English needed to do essential daily tasks. For example

Class One- May I see your Passport- English for Passing through Customs.
Class Two- Do you have a Room- English for Checking into a Hotel.
Class Three- Where does It Hurt- English for Visiting a Doctor.

I include lots of things that are not covered in their textbooks like
Check In Time Round Trip.

There's lots of good material for this on Bogglesworld.

[valium kilmer]

Hi - I've read this board a few times but haven't really posted here.

To the original poster - do you work for TaLK by any chance?

[mmstyle]