Korean Job Discussion Forums

[schwa]

I'm in search of untypical lesson themes for the semester ahead with my public middle school girls. Open any text & the index reads hobbies, food, health, shopping, travel, etc which is all well & good & you try to put some new spin on these topics but you can see students thinking ho-hum this again.

So say you've got the freedom to build lessons around any subject whatsoever, something you can write on the board in a word or two & say "OK, today's topic is ...." Something fresh & pertinent to pique their curiosity.

Last year I got some good mileage out of units on stress, sleep, lying, dating, & moving house. I'm thinking ahead to lessons about fads, early childhood, friendship, complaints, the news ...

Other ideas to get kids talking? Lets share.

[notinKS]

I'm working on preparing a lesson on onomatopeia. Not the most educational lesson neccesarily, but one that I think the kids will enjoy and pay attention too (which means I will sneak other learning points in as well-mwahahahahahaha). Anyway, as part of I've downloaded an old episode of Batman and I'm working on making comics so that they can fill in their own sounds.

[Illysook]

www.breakingnewsenglish.com

Topics are always fresh and each one comes with a lesson plan. However, the vocabulary is often very advanced and you cannot just steal the lesson plans untouched. You will have to adjust things to the level of your students. You can have the funniest lesson plan ever on something like Malawi's proposed anti-farting law, but if the students don't understand the vocab, they will only stare at you.

[MacLean]

How about a lesson on animal rights? We are in an excellent position to raise awareness of animal neglect / abuse in this country. At some point in the year most of us will do a lesson on animals. Simply incorporate kindness to animals into the lesson, or do a completely new lesson on our social and responsibility to animals.

[schwa]

Yes, the students enjoy onomatopoeia, paralanguage, & learning a few slang terms, but those seem to me more like occasional 5-minute asides rather than something to frame a lesson around.

I know breakingnewsenglish but in my experience it has no place in a large mixed-level classroom. Too much text & the topics tend to be too narrow or too removed from young teens' ordinary concerns to generate much real conversation or enthusiasm.

Animal rights is a nice idea, thanks! Many of the kids are big on pets & I already promote kindness to animals, but I can envision getting a solid unit out of proper pet care, put yourself in the animal's place, the important work of shelters, etc.

Keep the suggestions coming.

[MacLean]

I have been making lesson plans during my desk-warming hours. One of the textbook lessons is on "should do" / "shouldn't do"). I have incorporated under "should not do" things like hitting dogs, neglecting dogs, tying your dog up on a two foot leash all day. Under "should do" I include walking the dog daily, diversifying its diet, washing its coat, cleaning its cage etc.

They'll never learn these lessons from Koreans. It's our responsibility to step in and and teach them that owning a dog is not the same thing as owning a chair. Too many Koreans think it is.

[busanliving]

I have a copy of the book teenworld which I think I downloaded off DDeubels site, or if not from scribd.com, it has some interesting activities in there, you will probably have to adjust some of the materials but you might find the ideas useful. If you can't find a copy pm me and I can email you a copy. Also there was a book called for and against which is quite simple and can be used to introduce disussions.

[Illysook]

One of the recent topics on Breaking News English was about a no farting law in Malawi and there's hardly anything funnier to a 10 year old, or really any Korean kid than a fart joke. Even if the text was terrible and completely wrong for your kids, you asked for topics. The site definitely comes up with good topics. It's up to us to know our students and how to connect with them. The topic is just the beginning.