Korean Job Discussion Forums

MA_TESOL · Joined: 11 Nov 2007 Location: Seoul

i will be teaching classes of University students; 30-55 a class. I am use to class sizes of 12 or less. How do you work with large groups, especially when it comes to assessment and grades

Hyeon Een · Joined: 24 Jun 2005

yingwenlaoshi · Joined: 12 Feb 2007 Location: ... location, location!

Cerriowen · Joined: 03 Jun 2006 Location: Pocheon

I had to do this... well it was 25 people, not 35... but the principle holds...

Get a topic, then a list of relevant vocab they may not know. Spend 5 minutes and explain the new vocab words.

Break them in to smaller groups (max 6 people).

Make ONLY a few copies of your topic or article, to make them share. If you don't, then they just end up looking at their own papers and not talking.

Have them discuss the topic or problem or situation... what ever... amongst themselves. You can float around the classroom and listen in, answer questions etc.

Join the class together again, and spend 5-10 minutes at the end of class talking about the different things they mentioned in their small groups.

For ASSESSMENT... Each group gets it's own topic... then have them present their decision to the class. Each person has to talk for a minute or two and present part. The group gets a grade. It's more motivation to work, because if soemone is lazy, they'll mess it up for everyone.

Another idea is to do the same "group" thing, except during the group discussion pull each one asside individually and ask them questions to assess their level.

Easter Clark · Joined: 18 Nov 2007 Location: Hiding from Yie Eun-woong

MA TESOL--

When I was teaching uni students in the US, I had a similar problem: How to assess the spoken English of students in a semi-large class (I had a maximum class size of 18 ). Still I had them look at a series of communicative tasks, for example, discussing their opinions on current movies or asking about one another's' family. I told them I would assign them ONE task from the list, but they would not know until test day.

I designed a rubric, allocating points for fluency, accuracy, asking for opinions from group members, offering an opinion, staying on topic / bringing the group on topic, etc. I assigned students to groups of 4, then told them to choose a leader, whose job it was to keep the group on task.

I then had each group sign up for a block of 10 minutes. They came in and sat at a table with a tape recorder in the middle. I had them say their group number, names, and task number before beginning (which is necessary later on when you go to grade).

They could stop anytime they felt they had successfully performed the task, but they had a time limit. Of course later on you have to listen to the tape to determine their grade, but if you have them write their name / class number / etc on the score sheet and give it to you on test day, your paperwork is minimized.

I did this for several classes, twice a year and I heartily recommend this over individual interviews, or even taking marks while they are performing the task. I was also quite surprised by some of the language that came up, as I made myself practically invisible during the process.