Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Gwangjuboy]

I work in a public elementary school, and unfortunately kids of great ability are thrown in with kids of limited ability. In my 6th grade class this is especially a problem. The dichotomy between the best 5 kids, and the least able 5 kids is massive. The bottom 5 kids cannot read English, but the top 5 can link complex sentences together, and read very well. I know this is a common problem in public elementary schools, but how do you deal with it? I am currently meeting the bottom 5 students once a week in my office for 10/15 minutes just reviewing what they learnt previously. Even with this effort (my idea) I still feel it won't be anywhere near enough to bridge the gap. Suggestions?

[Grotto]

Dont worry about it.
You cant solve their problems with 10 minutes of extra time.

Some children have the: aptitude/ambition/ability/opportunity to learn English. Some children do not.

Kudos for trying but the reality is that they have slipped through the Korean school system which does little to ensure that their students actually learned anything in their time there.

It is the one thing that bothers me about the Canadian and Korean school systems. The passing people along regardless of their abililty because some psychologist decided that it is harmful to their psyches to be held back(thats the Canadian system)
The Korean system is that if a student is failed it is the fault of the school/teacher for not doing a good enough job, which causes loss of face for the family(failed child) and the school/MOE/teachers.

[JacktheCat]

Teach to the middle.

That's all you can do in a class of 30-40 students that you only see for less than an hour once a week.

[joe_doufu]

[Billy Pilgrim]

Whenever I have mixed levels - which is pretty much always - I tend to lean on pattern sentences with additional vocabulary that can be dropped into the sentence to help verbalize their thoughts in English.

Better students appreciate the new vocabulary - a word is a word, so you can choose anything, easy or difficult, and all students will have the same opportunity to learn and remember it - and the chance to finesse their spoken grammar, and the lower students have clear goals they can reach, things concrete to learn, and thus less likely to be left behind by better students in class.

[peppermint]

Teaching to the middle is the only way really, but if you're using the national curriculum, then you might be able to get a little more into things during the games.

once in a while, I prep two activities for a lesson- one for advanced kids, and one for the slower ones. That way the advanced kids aren't causing trouble while I explain stuff to the rest of the class.

[Gwangjuboy]

[teachingld2004]

This posting will not help matters, it will just state certain facts, sorry.

No matter where you teach, you will have classes with mixed levels.

Teaching in NY had made my head spin becasue there just simply was no middle ground. The "smarter" kids would get bored, while the "slower" ones would suffer. At times I would ahve the "smart" ones help the others, and that made them feel god, and they learned many things by helping. At other times they resented the fact that class was slow.

I used to at times pick a topic, and let the students write questions on what ever leverl they were at. It CAN help, for instance:

If I was teaching about the forest, the slower students might have asked "why do trees grow". The brighter student might have answered the question in a way the slower child cound get it. Perhaps. And the bright student may have said " where do the animals sleep".

It may be something you can try. Them you can build a lesson on the questions.

If u have no time to do something like that, you will just have toteach to the middle ground, and ask higher/and lower questions, and give information in ways all the children can understand.

If they can write on their own, that may be easy. You can correct at their levels

This is a hard question to answer, and if anyone has a good answer, please share it, as we all need to hear it.

Oh, byt he way please excuse me in advance if I make typo's or spelling errors. I am trying to give an answer, not trying to be raked over by the police.

[Gwangjuboy]

[jajdude]