Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Senior]

I have a six day English camp in the summer, where I will be teaching two classes of middle school teachers. I'm looking forward to it, but Am not that enthusiastic about all the prep I'm going to have to put in.

The organiser has given us a novel (Lip Stick Jungle) and said "Make a 40 page booklet for it." There are two of us working on it, and we get payed per page.

I'm pretty stumped as to where to start. Any tips?

[Moldy Rutabaga]

I'll only give ideas. I haven't read it.

You might want to find out whether the booklet is meant as a text for the teachers, or if you are writing it for the kids and are meant to tutor the teachers on using it in their classrooms. That will help you determine the level of difficulty and style.

Forty pages seems excessive, but if they're paying for it... you might have a plot synopsis, a glossary of hard words or expressions, some history and background about the story and the author, and perhaps even some very limited criticism or opinions about the novel and its social issues. Then, for each chapter of the novel, have discussion questions about the story.

Again, you need to know, if you don't already, whether the booklet is for the teachers or for their students, which will help you adjust the difficulty level up or down.

[Hardy Boy]

Simply do a plot summary (20-30 points), character sketches (the main 3) and use excerpts of apt description and dialogue straight from the book. Include about five pages of reading comprehension questions. Include background paragraphs to stretch it longer or make them multiple choice to really bulk it up, having fun making up the whacky wrong options. Pad it with a comparisons to The Sex & The City section in which you cut and paste online stuff about the other tv series that's similar to the tv series based on that book. Forget about copyright as you ain't publishing a book here. Think volume and speed.

[Senior]

[Senior]

[Kaypea]

Ah, Lipstick Jungle... for a second I got that confused with Rubyfruit Jungle, which I think is about being a black lesbian in the 1950s or something...

[ThingsComeAround]

I hope these are only female middle school teachers

Sex and the City isn't that popular among the men's demographic

[Senior]

[Whistleblower]

Get a story from a newspaper or the back of the book (which provides a summary) and select a total of twelve important adjectives, verbs, nouns etc. Write these words on the board and get students memorise them for a minute. Rub off the words and pair students together so they can try to remember them.

When ready, rewrite the words back on the board and this time get students to think about what the story is about. Allow them to create a story/plot. In the end provide students the blurb at the back of the book or the newspaper article.

You can use the following synopsis from Harry Potter in class. Words that are bold can be those used initially for student brainstorming, plot summarisation, etc.

[Senior]

Thanks. That will help a lot. I doubt that the majority of the "students' will actually read the book.

I should be able to construct something out of these ideas.

Apparently there was a TV show of this book, starring Brooke Shields, so hopefully some of the dialog in the show was pulled directly from the book.

[Senior]

Bump.

Putting my head down to crack it out now.

The chapter summaries take forever, but are pretty much essential, as maybe one in five of the students will actually read the book.

Any ideas for group activities? It's a five day camp, so discussion questions aren't really going to cut it for all of that time.