Korean Job Discussion Forums

[seoulunitarian]

Do any Epikers or Gepikers have any recommendations for ways to make an open class memorable? Thanks.

[peppermint]

Havent' taught one yet, but I've seen a couple- student centered learning seems to be what gets good reviews- that and extremely well behaved kids.

[crazylemongirl]

I've done an open class and been to numerous ones for middle schoolers.

These things are a complete three ring circus. Most places will reherse their students to death before the time comes.

Stuff you have to have

nice slides or power point presentation
some sort of flashy activity

bonus points for
singing

[Ekuboko]

I had mine recently and here are a couple of tips after receiving the greatest praise from the big supervisor guy

- Show a good model of what you (hopefully) your co-teacher think Team Teaching is. I've seen lessons where the co-T stands behind the desk and operates the computer, with the NET running around doing all the work. I didn't want that, so insisted that we share the walking around the room monitoring students and also sharing talk time.

- Instead of stating the aims in detail at the beginning of the lesson (I mean, the exact phrases they will learn), have the students 'discover' the target language by themselves. In my lesson, we had a video of my co-teacher and I making a 'date'. The students were later given a transcript of the conversation, and we asked them to highlight the ways someone invited/suggested something and accepted or rejected the invitation.

- Definitely DO do student-centred activities, something that involves them using the lesson's target language (of course) - e.g. an interview/survey or an appointment-making activity, where the students have to get up and mingle, and make an effort to use the language independently.
During this activity, encourage some students to speak to the observers as well -- the girls in my class who successfully made a 'date' with (surprise surprise) the NETs were really pleased with themselves.

- Make your students the stars, not the teachers.

The last two weeks leading up to the day were absolute hell (staying late every day and yes, practicing to death - luckily with different classes; the senior staff demanding we change this and that) but in the end we got there. Good luck!

[tomato]

Here's the closest I've come to an open classroom:

If the students refrain from hangukmalling well enough and long enough, I let them divide in half with each half playing a different go fish game.

PS Misunderstood the question.
Sorry!

[schwa]

To make it memorable, defy the norms!

Your observers will have seen the usual crap over & over. Safe, rehearsed set-pieces where no student makes an error. Elaborate technology that never quite works right & bores the kids. Gimmicky materials that obviously took hours of cutting, coloring, & laminating or are otherwise totally impractical for day-to-day teaching. Little opportunity for the kids to speak. Low-level kids ignored. Small group activities during which most of the kids chat in Korean & the audience is bored. Finally, a much-practiced song to show the kids having fun.

I've been to many of these events (middle-school level) & I've come away with approximately zero fresh teaching ideas.

Be different. I'm angling to give a demo class next semester & I've got my principal & co-teacher onside to let me do it my way.

A regular class of average achievers. I'll rehearse the lesson a couple times with other classes to fine-tune it a bit but it will be fresh to this class. We will open with the same everyday small-talk we always do -- a question of the day, random students called on to stand & engage in a bit of conversation, then a chance for more capable students to volunteer.

I want to show off what my kids can normally do. I have no idea yet what my main activity will be but typically my lessons are a brief explication of the theme followed by 5 minutes of small-group work where they put some ideas together over a simple worksheet. The rest of the lesson will be eliciting what they've come up with in some kind of group competition. My kids really get into this format -- noisy productive fun.

I'm not worried about my students being shy. In open classes I've watched before, the kids were the least self-conscious people in the room.

I'll aim to show how laughter, mistakes, & spontaneity are basic to learning (& teaching). Materials prep -- a simple photocopied handout or maybe just a blank A4 per group. Technology -- chalkboard & voice!

I think native speakers have a responsibility to show an approach different from the routine bells & whistles of Korean demo classes.