Korean Job Discussion Forums

Chuvok · Joined: 25 Jan 2009 Location: Russia

Any ideas about a good novel for an upper-intermediate group???

The group is 5 students, 3 females, 2 males. All are 19-26 years old.

We've decided to have a bit of a book club each week, in that we'll all read one chapter of a book, then talk about it for a few minutes at the start of each lesson.

It's hard to come by many good English novels in this part of Russia, let alone being able to find 6 identical copies. So, I'm going to download an eBook and print out chapters for my students.

I've been trying to think of a good book for them, but I'm lost of ideas. I tried out 'Ender's Game' with an advanced group last year, but it was too much for them, and we stopped after 2 chapters. So, I'm guessing it would have to be something a bit less complicated.

Ideally there should be short chapters, and perhaps aimed more toward a female audience.

Suggestions would be great!

Thanks!

Very Happy

mcb1180 · Joined: 16 Feb 2009 Location: North Carolina

I'd like to recommend the Twilight Series by Stephanie Meyer's. It's a good book for discussion and something that I've found people from most age groups have liked, from coworkers in their 40's & 50's, to my best friends and one of their 10 year old daughters Girl Scout troop, and two of my lil sisters guy friends (19 & 20). Plus you can even watch the movies to add another element to your discussions.

arizona · Joined: 05 Dec 2008

How about The Outsiders? I teach ESL in a high school and I just finish reading it with my High Int. kids. Even though it is a neighborhood gang boys' story, my girls were very interested. Also, all kinds of discussion questions are at the end of the book and edhelpers.com has many options for you to teach,too. You can watch the movie after reading the book!!!( it is very different from the book, though)

linky123 · Joined: 12 Feb 2009

The Outsider is a nice book but it has a lot of slangs. Try The Old Man and the Sea.

gazz · Joined: 13 Oct 2008

Lolita? I know Jeff's Ciggs likes it anyway!

Yu_Bum_suk · Joined: 25 Dec 2004

I'd suggest When My Name Was Keoko by Linda-Sue Park.

dean_burrito · Joined: 12 Jun 2007

I know many of you will think this is simply a kids book but the Little Prince always works well.

sobriquet · Joined: 16 Feb 2007 Location: Nakatomi Plaza

The adventures of Tom Sawyer

Cerriowen · Joined: 03 Jun 2006 Location: Pocheon

Only problem w/ Tom Sawyer is that it's got a lot of misspelling and made-up slang.

"When my name was Kyoko" (Linda Park)
"A single Shard" (Linda Park)
"The Giver" (Cant' remember)

It's better to choose something that will be kind of easy for them, rather than something above their level. You might want to go to BandiLuni or Kyobo Book and look at the Newberry Award novels (books for young teens... remember they don't have a lot of time to do your homework! You could suggest a couple of other books for super eager students).

NQP · Joined: 16 Jan 2003

I have found that Charlotte's Web is a good book for all ages.

ddeubel · Joined: 20 Jul 2005

Why not try an audio book? Take a look under resources on EFL Classrroom 2.0 and find some. Also under Study - Stories. Or try the other areas with downloadable resources - use the Resources tab.

I've used this book - "Love that Dog". Don't have a hard copy but I put it all together in a nice ebook, ppt. http://eflclassroom.com/stories/lovethatdog.swf About a boy who doesn't like writing or poetry.

DD
http://eflclassroom.ning.com

richardlang · Joined: 21 Jan 2007 Location: Gangnam

What about Where The Red Fern Grows?

Chuvok · Joined: 25 Jan 2009 Location: Russia

OH MY GOODNESS.....

I tried out the first chapter of 'The Grapes of Wrath' with the above-mentioned group this evening.....

I THOUGHT they would enjoy the imagery and utter genius of Steinbeck.

BIG MISTAKE! They acted like they didn't understand a word of it, and were depressed as hell by the end of the reading (so I guess they did understand a fair bit).

The first chapter is only 2 type written computer pages long (12 point font), so it only took about 10 minutes to read. And then I played an audio book recording. After it was all over, my normally talkative group were all sitting there with miserable looks on their faces like they had just been told they failed an exam and were told they would never be allowed to procreate....

QbertP · Joined: 02 Feb 2007 Location: Seoul

Might be a bit advanced but I had a blast teaching kite runner and thousand splendid suns to my co-teachers last year. they really make for some interesting and relatively nonthreatening(since your talking about another culture) cultural discussions. As a plus you can find premade disscussion questions on the peguin website.(I think it was peguin...)