Korean Job Discussion Forums

[rrrbka]

My school just had a huge meeting yesterday about choosing new textbooks for next school year. There are 14 different English textbook sets that I'm supposed to review and make a decision by TUESDAY (Sept. 7).

Needless to say, I don't have enough open periods before then to make a really informed decision. I looked at the Si-sa (the publisher) books and CD-ROMs since they came a week ago, but they really seemed lacking to me.

Is anyone else in this situation and if so, can you give me your opinion on which books seem best? (Personally, I'd like to keep the current 3rd and 4th grade books, but that's not actually an option.)

Since I'm most likely going to renew my contract when it's up at the end of February, this is actually important to me. (If I was definitely leaving, I'd just blow it off and let the Korean English teachers decide without me.)

Any help deciding would be greatly appreciated!

[Kurtz]

I would go for a set at least for the early grades that has phonics in the first semester rather than second, it seems a little strange getting them to say sentences without doing the phonics first.

[fugitive chicken]

Oh man, I would love to be in your position! I despise the national curriculum!

Something that moves at a faster pace than what they currently have, going back and reviewing the previous 2 lessons when it was "My name is..." and "What's this?" feels so useless! Something that actually teaches grammar and WHY the sentences are structured the way they are. Less focus on rote memorization and more on producing the sentences on their own.

Most of the kids already know the words that are constantly repeated throughout the entire curriculum 3-6th grade, they would have to live under a rock to not know them. Maybe a larger variety of different words and how to use them in regards to the grammatical structure of the lesson.

I'll stop here....I could go on about how much the curriculum frustrates me...

[whiteshoes]

This is how I ranked them, these are for only the 4th grade books. I gave each of them a score as well. I scored based on things like organization, easy of use, and authenticity of the language used.

1. 금성출만사 (blue) *88*
2. 천재 (green) *84*
3. 금성출만사 (green) *82*
4. Chung-Ang *80*
5. 천재 (yellow) *76*
6. Doosan Dong-A *74*
7. 교학사 *74*
8. Happy House (Puttlack) *72*
9. The Text *72*
10. Happy House (Craig) *70*
11. 현대 *70*
12. 미래엔 컬처그룹 *66*
13. YMB *66*

I know I'm missing one, but oh well. I really liked 금성출만사 (blue), but I guess they didn't get approved for 3rd grade so my school won't be going with it.

For what it's worth, I chose the chapter in each book that dealt with introductions. I gave more points to books that offered something other than, "I'm fine thanks, and you." I also looked to see how well it allowed a student to create language. Did it offer more than just rote memorization? Also, I strongly considered how well a fresh off the boat newbie could use it without any guidance. 금성출만사 (blue) was clearly ahead of the rest in this area.

In no way should this be taken as scientific, but just one person's opinion. I suggest you take a look for yourself, and maybe see if you agree with me, or not. I'd be interested to hear what you think.

[whiteshoes]

[AsiaESLbound]

Please refer to this thread. http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/viewtopic.php?p=2462086#2462086

I too was asked 2 days ago to pick out new books to develop a new curriculum for splitting classes into high and low levels where I teach half and she teaches the other half in 2 separate rooms and we switch rooms in the middle of each class. Being that I'll only be spending 20 minutes a week with each of those students, an academic textbook focus is inappropriate as it's not enough contact time. It's too little, because there are many classes of each grade and it's split where each of the 2 levels in each class get 20 minutes of me and 20 minutes of my co-teacher. A conversational approach with games would benefit the students in such limited contact.

Like the OP, I don't have the time nor a book publisher such as Scholastics to consult with so it's time to improvise and tell her to wait for the new national curriculum to come out next year. If my new co-teacher making this request doesn't like the results I produce, then so be it. She can piss, moan, and groan all she wants. I already have a full schedule as of 2 weeks ago and was only told about this 2 days ago just like OP was. I think it's unreasonable to fling this on you at the last minute as you need more time to study it, review books, make the purchase, wait for delivery, and implement it. A month to implement would be more realistic. Request more time. Tell her no if she refuses to allow adequate time. Let her get mad at you in a power struggle as uncomfortable working situation that creates. I feel this way, because my new co-teacher is being confrontational and demanding in her attitude towards me. Some people like to rock the boat due to feeling insecure and competing for a good recommendation. Even if yours if warm and friendly, politely ask for more time and explain why.

[randall020105]

i'm in the same boat... guess i'll have to paddle my way through those books really fast since they need an answer by Tuesday also.
i noticed that most books had 12 chapters as apposed to the normal 16 chapters in the current book. not sure how that'll affect the grand scheme of things.
let us know what you guys decided... i got waaayy too much to do to tend to that right now, although i know this directly touches my whole life next year.

cheers.

R.

[kitekid]

[da_moler]

Why aren't there any international publishers on this list? That would be a good question to ask your supervisors.

[Troglodyte]

[whiteshoes]

[winterfall]

[AsiaESLbound]

I was told today that all public schools are going to pick their own new curriculum of choice by December. I wonder how consistent testing will be done to compare schools since the material is going to be inconsistent? For the past 6 months, I understood that a new national curriculum was in the process of being written, but now we know nothing is in the works.

[rrrbka]

Thanks everyone for your helpful comments!

For those of you that haven't seen the new books yet, here's some background info. The new "national curriculum" is really just a set of guidelines for the private publishers. That means each company's textbooks are basically just nuanced variations on the same thing. For example, the first lesson/unit in Grade 3 is usually called "Hello, I'm ___" or just "Hello" or "I'm ___."

Unfortunately, only 4 of the publishers bothered to include CD-ROM's of any kind with the books that they sent to my school. Since most of the classwork involves using the CD, it makes it really hard to choose based only on what the books look like. I focused on those books that did have a CD, and let my co-teachers decide about the others.

My 3 co-teachers and I had to decide on a top 3 list of the books we think seem the best, and then the principal will settle on one of those three. Only 2 of the CD-included books seemed good after watching/listening to the sample lesson.

TOP 3 LIST:
1) 대교 (Dae-kyo)- The CD was well organized and the voices were clear and easy to understand. There are 12 main lessons, with 6 story times after every 2 lessons, and 2 review lessons at the end of each semester.
2) 천재 (Cheon-jae) - 함 (Ham [first author]) - Although the CD they included showed a demo class, there was enough of the actual CD played to see that it's also well organized with clear speakers. There are 15 lessons and one story time.
3) 현대 (Hyeon-dae) - This publisher didn't include a sample CD, but the book looks well organized. One of my co-teachers really liked that there are action cues included in the songs and chants. (I let them decide on the 3rd book, since I don't think it's possible to really know how good the book is without the CD.)

[da_moler]