Korean Job Discussion Forums

[SallyB]

Hey there,

I was teaching in Korea and Taiwan for the past 3 years and am currently doing an MA in Publishing in Oxford. For my final thesis I am looking into developing a curriculum that can be used during English winter or summer camps in East Asia.

To help me see what the current curriculums contain and what they are missing I have devised a questionnaire. If you have a spare few minutes and have taught on an English summer/winter camp please complete my questionnaire by following the link below:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/LYGZCZ7

Your email address will not be used and you will not be required to tell any personal information at all.

Thank you so much for your time

Sally

[SallyB]

bump

[TheUrbanMyth]

[SallyB]

Thanks for your response.
From my ow experience with English camps I was assuming that there were no curricula in place. From my research it seems that within the state school system there are some district camp leaders who devise a curriculum for camps but on the whole teachers have to prep material themselves.

It is exactly for this reason that I am proposing the idea of a pick n mix activity-based curriculum. This would make it flexible (as the camps are all of a standard length or same number of teaching hours). I think it is unfair on both the often under-qualified teachers to be put in the position of building a lengthy, fun but structurally sound curriculum, and the students who have to/want to learn.

I have been in dialogue with SMOE who seem to beleive that it is a good time for teachers to express themselves, changing up the teaching approach. My feedback suggests that many teachers find it incredibly stressful preparing good quality lessons, but that they do very much enjoy teaching a more activity-based approach.

I am very keen to hear your response to my proposal.

[TheUrbanMyth]

[mmstyle]

SallyB, I think you should have included a general response at the end so people could mention in a few sentences what the main difficulties were, or what kind of materials they would most like to see. You seemed to assume that book based work is the most common, or expected. I actually try to focus on anything but (although I am required to come up with home work work sheets to "prove" that I am, I don't know, earning my keep).

[SallyB]

Hi TheUrbanMyth

Unfortunately I missed out an important word in the response that you quoted "This would make it flexible (as the camps are NOT all of a standard length or same number of teaching hours)."

The fact that they are different lengths is exactly why I am the endeavoring to create a flexible curriculum.

SMOE are the only district whose office has responded with helpful information. EPIK head office say they have no information and can not even give me contact details for the individual district offices. If you can help me with this I'd very much appreciate it.

MMstyle, thank you for your input. It is apparent that the majority of teachers are required to produce their own material and don't work solely with a book during camps.

I'd be very keen to hear from you about what the main difficulties were and what kind of materials you would most like to see. ([email protected]) It is a very valid point to include a general response text box.
thank you

[nomad-ish]

i answered this too, and i was brutally honest.

camp could be really useful for the students, but the way it's structured now (or rather, not structured) means each school is doing something entirely different. SMOE needs to provide support for their teachers during camp time; it seems like a free-for-all when camp time rolls around.

[WTP Trust]

Just curious if anyone has been asked by their coteacher for the curriculum/lesson plans so far in advance that the classes, students and grade levels haven't been determined yet.

What did I do? If you have any of the Let's Go series, they basically provided a bare minimal summarization in the front of the book which, with some doctoring up, can be used to provide the nagging coteachers with something just to shut them up since paper=productivity.

[Fishead soup]

You wing it. Find things that kill time. Word Finds are your best friend.
No one ever evaluates these things. You might have 3-4 students who can speak English well so you prepare for them.

[mmstyle]

[WTP Trust]

[schwa]

Um, we're going to impose a standardized camp curriculum. Lovely.

Might be a camp for early elementary kids, or highschoolers.
Might last 3 days or 3 weeks.
Classes might have 3 kids or dozens.
Might be streamed ability, might be mixed.
Might be rural kids, might be elite urban students.
Might be all boys, all girls, or coed.
etc etc etc.

So many variables (& including all East Asia no less), a mandated program would inevitably have to be bland & horribly constricting. Would it be overhauled once or twice a year to keep it reusable? Oh, & who are the geniuses that will create this one-size-fits-all program?

If its meant as just a teachers' optional resource, that wheel has already been invented over & over.

I see zero practical upside to this project.

SallyB writes: "I have been in dialogue with SMOE who seem to beleive that it is a good time for teachers to express themselves, changing up the teaching approach." Sounds reasonable to me, a vet of many various camps.

[TheUrbanMyth]

[SallyB]

@ schwa

I agree, there are a lot of variables making it very difficult to create a standardized curriculum for camps. A one size fits all curriculum would be, as you say, bland and horribly constricting which is not beneficial.
However many teachers are often not capable of making a curriculum which builds on students English abilities. They are often not capable either due to time constraints in planning or from lack of experience.

I also feel that although there are many excellent websites offering worksheets etc these are often cobbled together to create an entire lesson, with word searches as a little bonus at the end for the bright fast finishers.

Why shouldn't there be a website which contains full lessons plans (including work for fast finishers, teachers guides, audio & video). Each teacher can search by topic or by language focus, or level. Each activity will have a lesson time associated to it also, allowing the teacher to select a task that will fill the lesson without have time wasting fillers for the last 10 minutes.

What I would also like to include is a level test, something which seems to be lacking from my experience. It would be naive to think that just because there is a level test that the schools would implement it and divide classes by level, it would at least allow the teacher to know which of their students are stronger than others from the outset of the camp.

This would obviously cost money but, as many teachers currently buy a book to help them prepare the lessons I would assume that teachers wouldn't mind paying the price of one book to have the planning of their camp lessons sorted with material that they have chosen to suit the class they are teaching.