Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Koveras]

Sometimes my competitive games fail because the losing team just gives up, or worse, gets frustrated and acts out. Especially in the younger grades (I'm at an elementrary school), but even with the oldest. It's a shame because in these cases I usually wind up cancelling the game and making them take a note as punishment: and what started as fun becomes a cycle of punishment and anger. What better ways are there to deal with this? I've tried designing fair teams but it takes too much time: certain students just won't be split up; girls won't group with boys and vice versa; certain outcasts no one wants, and so on. What should I do? Should I stop playing competitive games altogether?

[Yu_Bum_suk]

With some classes I've started out a game by giving each student a little piece of paper with a number on it (1-6, 1-7, or 1-8 depending on the size of the class). Then I have the students arrange themselves into 6, 7, or 8 groups of four. Having everyone move wastes a minute or two but if I'm doing something that's meant to take up a large part of the lesson it can be worth it if the students would otherwise be sitting in clusters of stronger and weaker students. This reduces teh odds of one group running away with it or one group that has no clue and thus gives up.

For prizes it's fun to have a championship show-down at the end. The best group plays second best for first prize. The winner of that plays the third for second. The winner of that plays the fourth group for third place. Then everyone has a shot at fourth. That way every group has a chance of winning at least something.

[Fishead soup]

Just don't play games.

[The Gipkik]

It's hard to generalize about games because many have their own built in parameters of what you can and can't get away with. I like to ocassionally cheat to help out a weak team. I might use negative points for the team for students who speak Korean or move around during a game. I might give one particularly strong and vocal student 50% of the point allotment in order to get other members of the team to participate. This is for really enthusiastic students whose English is clearly better than the rest.

I think it's perfectly reasonable, but if the ocassional class doesn't comply, I give strong students a limit for the number of times they can answer for the team. I count down from ten and if no one else gives an answer, I move on to the next team. I also teach strong students how to help their teams cheat, by encouraging them to give another student the answer. Yes, it is coming from the stronger student, but I've at least got another student on the team speaking English. This tends to create a domino effect after a while and more and more students who usually depend on one or more students to answer all the questions will start talking.

I might use dice to help weaker teams catch up. One of my favorite cheating tools to enable weaker teams to get additional points is the point bag. I put in various shaped cardboard numbers in the bag. For example, all circles are 10 points, all stars are 20 points, all triangles are -5, etc. This way I can cheat by feeling the shape of the number in order to help or hinder a team. Sometimes the students catch on so you have to be even more subtle with the shapes, such as indentations near or far from a corner, etc. This barely scratches the surface of stuff I do as I find unique ways to do stuff according to the game being played.

[oldfatfarang]

Don't be discouraged. You need to know that Korean students don't know what second place is. Their team either wins - or they just lose interest. As soon as another team streaks ahead - they'll stop paying attention, stop participating - and just start talking in Korean.

Cheating (or 'cunning' as it's called in Korea) is also prevalent in Korean classrooms. Students will do anything to win - and aren't interested in the 'learning process' that the game offers. They just want to win. I find that I can only use a game format once - and then Korean students spend all their energy in cheating - the more times you use the game - the more innovative ways they discover to cheat-to-win.

It's Korean culture. I once told a co-teacher that we were wasting our time using these games because "all the students are cheating." She said, "Yes, they're very smart students."

Now, I just play games around test season and in the summer heat. I can't be bothered being the Cheating Police anymore.

[Ramen]

I've seen students fighting (literally punching), crying, and cursing (Korean & English) over stupid classroom games.

You may say Koreans are higly competitive people. However, I think Koreans in general are just sore losers.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[earthbound14]

This can be a problem. One that is not easy to deal with. I had a kid attempt to destroy the game I had made and them pick up a chair and throw it at another student.

What I found is that you need to be really strict....really strict. If you are very strict they will not let go like that.


So what I tried to do was instil group work and team work into games. I would punish teams that did not work together and reward those that did. I would tell students that the best way to win was to work with their slower team mates and help them rather than yell at them.

I would split teams up in what ever way I saw fit. Students had no choice in the matter. I would draw numbers as Bum-suk mentioned, or simply take winning teams from the previous class and break them up evenly the next class. Sometime though you need to let friends be together, but over all I told students that this was 'our' class, so they should all be able to work together.

A third thing I would do was give extra help to students who were falling behind and having a hard time with the educational games.

Basically, if done right, you can take a bad class and turn them into friends who are more willing to work together because they see merit in helping each other. Those who are falling behind often find that rather than being stuck at the bottom are able to move up and improve because of you and other students. They often learn the value of working harder to catch up, that others don't hate them (as they sometimes suspect...which is part of their lack of motivation), that you care about their success rather than are interested in seeing them fail (kids do think this) and finally that they themselves can in turn help other kids who are having a hard time. Top students start to see them selves as being able to help others (which is in it self a sort of power, one that is less self centered than simply getting the top grades). The smart kids get a kick out of being leaders and will try hard to remain in this position....but as always, good leaders lead by example and by helping others, they don't take. Students who beat down other students are punished pretty strictly in my class.

If I have one kid who simply does not wish to play by those rules (a rogue kid who doesn't care about grades and is not a low student)...I punish the whole class. Since that one student is disrupting my whole class, I make them aware that their actions effect everyone. I try to show them that I am not angry at them, or that I dislike them, only that they will gain more by working together with all of us (including me).

Games are not played in classes that cannot meet these expectations. They work. They are always given chances to be in my good books though. I sometimes record behaviour on sticker sheets on the wall. Students with less stickers, have more work to do and less chances to play games. Set a clear goal. 5 stickers for each student earns a game. The rules of the game are followed or the game is ended and they must earn 5 more stickers before they can try again.

[Koveras]

First, I play games once a week and I don't see anything wrong with that.

[Goku]

[Koveras]

[Tobias]

[lifeinkorea]

I have classes of 25-35. We usually divide them into groups of 5 or 6. You can start off being competitive, but as the same students give the answers, make sure another student who hasn't spoken yet repeats the answer. You can also modify the question to make sure that student understands the nature of the question.

If I want to have 2 larger teams, then I divide the class into 6 teams. They think they are playing against 5 other teams, but actually they are playing with 2 other teams. Collectively, their points would go against the other three.

We have 2 white boards, so I score 3 on one side and 3 on the other.

I haven't tried this, but I guess if the students figure they are losing so much that they don't want to continue, you could randomly select 3 teams to be together. That way, they have no idea who is in the lead.

To randomly select groups, you could use dice. I also use cards instead. With a deck of 52, remove all the Jacks, Queens, and Kings, leaving 40 cards.

From there you can give each student a card. This could make 4 teams. All the diamonds, spades, hearts, clubs are on their own team but scattered in the classroom. I suggest getting the plastic cards, cause kids will just ruin the heavy paper ones. There are many other ways to use a deck of cards in the classroom.

[yingwenlaoshi]

[Straphanger]

I layer the games... usually questions and answers, practicing... First round is for one sticker. Usually only one or two of twelve can't do that. So they sit out. Then two stickers for the next one. Then three, then four.

I think...in over a year, I've refereed team games maybe twice. All of mine are survivors. If you survive to the next round, you get more stickers. The longer you survive, the more you get.

The trick is to make them compete against themselves, not each other.