Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Derrek]

This year, I have noticed that our 3rd grade students are so worried about the university entrance test and whether their class grades will be high enough to help them early-entrance to their preferred school, they have become somewhat millitant about the contents of mid-terms and finals. If tests are too hard they complain, and some students are very rude to the teacher (I haven't personally seen this "rudeness" and cannot say exactly what this means).

Of course, complaints come from the parents, as well. The parental complaints carry a lot of weight, since this is a private school, and teachers can be easily fired or not re-hired next year. Last year, several students (followed by a mob of parents) complained about a certain test in one class, and it was a huge issue. This year, one of my Korean co-workers gave a test that was considered "too difficult" by students, and he became hated by the students, and started receiving rude text messages his phone, like "181818181818" which means shee-pahl, shee-pahl.....

This same teacher, who is in his first year of teaching, was very distraught over the angry student reponses. After this student reaction, he appeared to me, sweating and desperate, wanting me to double-check some possible errors in the test which students complained about. I felt for the guy. He was really shocked, and told me he had even left early the day he gave the test, because students were "verbally abusive" toward him during lunch.

By the way, I should clarify that "verbally abusive" most likely meant that the students were visibly angry, and probably openly questioned the teacher's ability at English -- not that they were swearing, etc... The simple fact is that we have a few students who have a much higher English ability than our Korean instructors, and both sides know it. The Korean teachers are VERY embarrased by this, and tend take direct questioning by these students VERY personally.


Now to my world...

I am creating this semester's final for my co-taught reading class, per my co-teacher's request. She created the mid-term a few months ago, and it was not well-received by the students. I believe it caused her some grief with our administration as well. I have no problems with her request to create the test, as it's technically "my turn," so I gladly agreed to do it this time around.

The teacher asked for a brief run-down of what the test will be like, so she could inform the students. Here is what I said:

I plan to have 4 areas to the test, plus one very difficult "extra credit" question:

1. Multiple choice questions (choose A, B, C, or D -- 10 questions). Some of these questions will require the student to choose "the best of three," and others will allow for only one correct choice.

2. Fill in the blanks of the paragraph -- choose words from the list (5 questions).

3. Short sentence written response (like I showed you yesterday -- 10 questions).

4. True/False (5 questions)

5. Extra Credit question: A story which requires understanding and thought. The answer must be in a complete sentence for full credit (up to 2 Points).


My co-teacher informed one of my classes about my plans for the test today (Saturday -- I don't work). Upon hearing this, the news spread quickly. I began receiving text messages/mail from some students. The feelings expressed were, in my mind, somewhat serious yet hilarious (my phone number was given out because I help with the school newspaper, and they edit at night -- it got passed around. )

Here is a sample message:
"Hey, you are making the reading test?? everybody thought it would be so difficult because u are working on it and we taken many tests kind of that. stressful. u know yesterday we took 100 literature test. today, students were so rude to the literature teacher. so i am worried about that what if they blame u after the test?"

I sort of made a joking response to the above message, and said something like, "Hey, don't worry -- I won't make it THAT hard."

Student's response to that, "am serious! u don't know how they were so rude. the teacher was so angry. didn't teach our class today. she cried when she got out of our room."

Honestly, this all made me smile. I wasn't planning to make the test difficult. The students are extremely worried about the short-answer essay portion of the test. I explained to my co-teacher that the answers would only need to be one sentence in length, and we could give 1/2 point if the answer is correct, but the sentence is not.

Here is what my co-teacher wrote me in an e-mail after she informed the class. The subject of the mail was, "It's urgent. They were shocked to death.":


"I think they are not used to writing sentence in
English. And they insist they are 3rd grade now.
So we cannot but help changing our plan.
I like first, so you can make questions following 1.
1. Multiple choice questions (choose A, B, C, or D --
10 points). Some of these questions will require the
student to choose "the best of three," and others will
allow for only one correct choice.
But you will give them many examples to choose, when
you'll make question 2. Fill in the blanks of the
paragraph (5 points).
And question 3 and 5 maybe kill our students,
because they are groan under a heavy burden of you
know, coming enterance-exam. So I'm very sorry, but
you don't need to make questions 3,5.
I'll make questions related to number 4 True/False (5
points) . But I'm very worry about future of education
of Korea.
They are eager to pass the exam, and then go abroad to
learn English. Even though we are trying to give a
good opportunity(my original purpose is not good, you
know...^^) , they refuse it.
I'm sorry again, but I should make final exam question
difficultly.But not very hard. Because they are 3rd
graders. After read this, answer me quickly.
bye. "




After all of this, I will adjust the test to make it "easier" for them. Gosh forbid, I should make the test even remotely challenging, for fear of disrupting the Korea's university entrance system!

If you will notice, my co-teacher, whom I very much enjoy working with, mentioned , " ... I'm very worry about future of education
of Korea. They are eager to pass the exam, and then go abroad to
learn English. Even though we are trying to give a
good opportunity".


I'm not angry. I'm not upset in any way. I am, however, sad that there is so much worry and weight placed on University entrance that it hinders education itself. Education in the classroom is being pushed to the lowest common denominator, simply so that every student will have, what they consider to be, an "equal" chance at entering a coveted university.

[matthewwoodford]

[denverdeath]

I'm not trying to be too spiteful or anything, but I would make a little change/surprise of my own to the exam if I were you. Maybe make the multiple-choice options from A to Z. Also, make sure that you administer at least four versions of the test to try to limit the little lazy-ass schemers' "cunning". Or, you can just let it go, and probably have a nicer year where your working. I had a bit of a similar experience the other day. One of the Korean teachers for a summer camp was trying to convince the rest of us that the book we had chosen was too easy for the eighth and ninth graders(2&3?). Maybe it would be if you were holding their hands and giving them all the Korean. That doesn't mean that they're able to show the same ability and understanding in English. I'm sure that when we start using said books that all the kids won't know what the hell is going on. The attitude was kind of, "Oh, these students are so much smarter than you think they are and you're not a real teacher." Oh well. I honestly thought that the teachers themselves would have trouble with the material. Again, oh well.

[Derrek]

[denverdeath]

I taught writing for the past two years to uni students. A lot of them had trouble, too. I'd recommend going for the paragraph first. They don't know what the hell unity is, they don't know s-v agreement, and they don't know what a topic sentence is. Most times, they'll need a strong paragraph and speaking ability if they stay here and have to take the LATT to get into the civil service. We could also talk about jobs and how any kind of experience may help them land that bigger job in the future or maybe help them to become better social beings. But, apparently, most of the richer kids' folks see that as so low-class. They'd rather have them falling asleep in libraries("studying") rather than working. Too much pride will f^*k them big-time and have them moping around YBM or Pagoda, trying to improve their TOEIC score, for years...

[denverdeath]

p.s. If it's so easy, why aren't they getting it? Tell them that all those red circles actually mean that there's a problem. A lot of them.

[Derrek]

Did exactly as you suggested about forming paragraphs.

Another really bad thing was that the class only met once per week for 1 1/2 hours. And it was probably cancelled every 3rd time we met due to tests.

Not a lot of good could come out of it, which I have made abundantly clear, but at least my school pays me for the time.

[plattwaz]

[denverdeath]

Sorry, this was supposed to be in reply to Derrek's last message.

Well, sounds like you tried some anyway. Maybe my TOEIC class will be cancelled, too? That'd be sweet. Started with around 32 students. They complained that the material was too easy, so I changed material. Most of them got piss-poor grades on the first test I gave based on the new material. The class is now down to about 15 on a good day. They are pretty good, but not nearly as good as they think. It's amazing the excuses they come up with for not attending my class. "The teacher at the other hakwon will be angry." "My teacher here will be angry." "I have to go to the dentist/doctor/vet/whatever." Even the Korean teacher says that it's getting too hot and they have been studying really hard for their finals. That's fine. They are only kids and they go to school for too long. If nothing else, I can give them a bit of a feeling of what freedom feels like in my classes and to also not worry about getting smacked behind the legs repeatedly with a stick.

[denverdeath]

And this one for plattwaz. Guess I should be using the "quote" button more often?

Je m'excuse. Pardonez-moi. Je m'appelle "Idiot", et toi? Ca va bien?

[Pyongshin Sangja]

[hari seldon]

[Derrek]

[Teufelswacht]

Derrek: Maybe your co-teacher has a point. Be careful!

[Derrek]

That's crazy... how are they going to prove that?

It's the ultimate funny revenge, though!