Korean Job Discussion Forums

[rayray123]

I've just started teaching at a new public high school. I'm teaching 1st and 2nd grade classes. I've been told that I can do what I want during the 1st grade classes, so that's no problem, that's how it was at the other high school I taught at. But the 2nd grade teachers (or at least one of them) are really being specific about what they want of me for each 2nd grade lesson. They want me to make a worksheet with a dialog for each class, and they want the class to revolve around this worksheet and/or dialog.

This seems like classes will get really boring doing this every week. I'm also not sure how I can make this take up a full class period without doing the same thing every week. At my last school this is not how I did my classes, worksheets and dialogs were not a major part of my classes, let alone the whole class. So I'm looking for suggestions about how I can do what my co teachers want and still make my class fill a full 50 minute period.

[YTMND]

Making dialogues is a good idea. I will be doing that shortly with my high school classes. I have been showing movies, if allowed I can share a list of what I am showing, and next class I plan on handing out short worksheets for them to do in groups.

I don't think it is wise to give handouts to every student (in my case I have 40+ students per class). So, instead, I will be giving and collecting about 6 handouts. I haven't decided yet (I have until Tuesday next week) if I will make my own dialogues or use ones from movies. Since movies are long, I plan on getting movies that are harder to watch all the way through and just focus on certain scenes. Then, if students are interested, they are welcome to copy them to USB.

With an average 45 minute class, you will definitely run out of time. I have been doing 20-25 minute descriptions of movies with the classes, where certain words are missing. Only 1 class out of 36 felt it was too easy, about 5 other classes managed to finish earlier, but the rest either used up the 20-25 minutes or I had to skip through them.

One argument for showing a movie is that they can see multiple people act out a scene. If only you talk, it's a lot harder for the students to recognize different characters. Don't play it for the whole class, but at least give them some opportunity see something and then have them act it out after the worksheet stage is finished. I am sure you will not have enough time if you meet with them only once a week.

[soomin]

There are a bunch of great resources online~ I posted a bunch that I made here: http://eslprincess.wordpress.com/

I use fill-in-the-blanks speeches and multiple-choice worksheets. Then we go over why the answers are what they are and do speaking in class. You can also put them in pairs and have them ask and answer the questions with each other, and in front of the class. Fun activities like origami and word searches are good rewards for doing well/ time killers if there's extra time ^.^

Good luck!

[toadkillerdog]

Try Bogglesworld it has tons of great activities and lesson plans on almost any topic. Another good resource is ESLflow

[Dodge7]

a little known site Im sure, but CHOCK FULL of TONS of worksheets is islcollective.com You'll thank me.