Korean Job Discussion Forums

[IncognitoHFX]

Hi all,

I need some advice for teaching at my High School. So far, everything is going smoothly, most of the classes are easily controllable and I have recieved a positive response from my students. The first class is always easy because I could spend most of it introducing myself and the students are generally high with "new foreign teacher" syndrome, but I know it will wear off. That being said, I want them to like English class and I want to motivate them by making the lessons very interactive / fun.

Thus, I need some classroom ideas. The first lesson plan I drafted for this week worked relatively well, but it wasn't fun enough. I had them repeating aloud, and having pretend dialogues where one half of the class "was afraid of something" and the other half "gave advice". It worked well, but as I said, it wasn't fun. I want to make more of an activity about it.

I have between 40-50 students in a class, so I can't micromanage enough to have them broken up into small groups, nor do I want to do an activity that involves me cutting little piggies out of paper or purchasing bulk amounts of --whatever-- everyday. I want something that requires little physical prep because A) I'm not an "arts and crafts" person and B) my classes are huge.

Next week the textbook lesson revolves around learning skills that relate to learning how to do something (specifically: how to use the internet). I have a lot of freedom with this (in general), so I want to talk about skills and learning how to do something in a broad sense.

I was thinking of some kind of dialogue class where the students could talk to each other, but since their levels vary from moderately low (basic) to intermediate (Canadian Grade 5) I'd want something very structured and accessible.

I'm pegging my brain but I can't think of anything that meets the criteria, and internet searches only turn up things involving me cutting up "little piggies" all morning or some nonsense.

Does anyone have any ideas for what I can prepare for them? What kind of activity would work with a class of this size? What would be fun? As I said, the students are generally good and co-operative.

Thanks

[Cerriowen]

http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/viewtopic.php?t=124711

http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/viewtopic.php?t=124473

[icnelly]

[Fishead soup]

First decide on a topic. Or you could simply just follow what's happening in their Korean teachers textbook.

Once you have a topic you can prepare some kind of Power Point presentation. For example if you on the topic of teaching directions you can actually go into You tube and download a roleplay involving asking for directions theres tons of them. If your teaching What's you favorite you can show music video's from youtube to show them the different genres of music. From what I've heard some schools have youtube blocked. Mine doesn't so I use it whenever I can.

If you are teaching a lesson on vacations or holidays you can show a lot of PPT and make a presentation.

Competative games is also a good idea. I use these reinforce materials covered in class. However if you don't speak the students native tongue you might have difficulty explaining the rules. Do you have a co-teacher in your class.

Pop songs also work well.

[Easter Clark]

With a group this size you're pretty limited as to what you can do as far as physical activity goes. What kind of high school is it--academic or technical? This bit of information is vital to receive the best advice possible. However...

The best you can probably do as far as "making the class fun" is to plan to their interests. If you have a choice not to use the Korean English book ("High School English" ?) then I recommend buying something better and basing your lessons on that. PowerPoint (used in conjunction with YouTube) is God's gift to Korean High School classrooms--it's made a believer out of me!

Don't neglect to teach listening! My kids are interested in movies, TV shows, music, travel, sports, and talking about food. Give them lots of information gap activities and have them work in pairs, or put them into groups and give them dictations--one reads while two write--this way they can practice all four skills. Encourage that they ask for clarification in English as well "What did you say?" "How do you spell that?" "One more time, please." etc...

Keep in mind that once the *new* wears off, there will be a possibility that they will come to see your class as "time to goof off," so I'd recommend focusing more on *interesting* lessons and less on *fun* lessons.

Save the fun stuff (pop songs, videos, movies, etc) for after exams, when they won't be bothered to pay attention to anything.

I hope you have gone over discipline and class rules! You may have to make an example out of someone soon.

[IncognitoHFX]

[Fishead soup]

Most Korean teachers use laptop computers and TV monitors to project their PPT. If you plan on staying in this industry you might as well get used to it soon.

I don't know why you're not co-teaching. This might be something you might want to encourage in the future. I could be that the teachers at your school have chosen to ignore orders from the local office of Education. This is not good.

I want to emphasize what the others have said about discipline. It looks like no one has given you power to evaluate your students. This is not good. Students don't take classes seriously if they're not being evaluated.
It looks like you school is setting you up to fail. Perhaps they never wanted the extra hassle and paperworks of having a NET.

[Draz]

[IncognitoHFX]